Reviewed by Glen Porter

U-Boot Im Focus will be available online from Squadron.com

I have seen Start Verlag’s “Luftwaffe Im Focus” series, but as I already have too many Luftwaffe books I've never actually looked inside. However, I am reliably informed that they are very good.

Start Verlag has now released the first of a new series called “U-Boot Im Focus”. Typical books on U-Boats will identity the types and then describe the exploits of the Aces.

This series is different. The series specializes in unpublished photos, facts and stories that have not been heard before. Where appropriate, the book includes have colour artwork to help illustrate the point. Published in Germany, with easy access to records and the U-Boat Museum, accuracy can be expected to be good.

The text is bilingual with German on the left and English on the right.

Starting with an Editorial by Axel Urbanke, the publisher, explaining the goals for the series, unpubished photos of the highest quality with as much information packed into the captions as possible and colour artwork to empahsise special features. In later editions, there will be a special readers’ forum for comments and additions from the public.

The first third of the book is taken up with photos and captions of the various Types of U-boat, not to explain their differences but to show examples of each. There is even a very clear shot of a Type XB Minelayer/Supply U-boat, one of the very rarest of them all. The only one missing is the Type IA but then there were only two, U-25 and 26, and they were not very successful submarines. Perhaps they will get a mention in the next edition.

The final two thirds is filled with many short articles detailing exploits involving U-boats such as the rescue of the crews of the sunken raider Atlantis and the supply ship Python by U-68, U-129, U-124 and UA, a U-boat built for Turkey but taken over by the German Navy when the war started. Between these four boats, they managed to get the two crews safely back to occupied France after nealy two years at sea. Another interesting piece is a profile (portrait) of Kapitanleutnant Gunther Krech, the Commander of U-558, one of the few high scorers to survive the war. These and many others are what make this series so interesting and a very good read.

My only hope next issue is for more profile artwork to show off some of the more interesting camouflage schemes.

Highly Recommended.

Thanks to Start-Verlag for the review sample.

U-Boot Im Focus Edition No. 1 is available online from the Start website

Review Copyright © 2007 by Glen Porter
This Page Created on 07 March, 2007
Last updated 24 December, 2007

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