U-Boat 977
U-Boat 977

Author: Heinz Schaeffer

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2017-11-30

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 1784382523

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When it was first published in 1953, opinions were sharply divided between those who deplored the apparent extolling of a vicious form of warfare, and this who found in Heinz Schaeffer’s account a revealing picture of the German Navy’s training and methods. U-Boat 977 was the German submarine that escaped to Argentina at the end of World War Two. This epic journey started from Bergen in Norway, where in April 1945 it was temporarily based, and took three and a half months to complete. Because of the continuing Allied naval activity the commander decided to make the first part of the journey underwater. Before surfacing near the west coast of Africa U-977 had spent a remarkable sixty-six days submerged. Heinz Schaeffer, the commander of U-977 wrote a full account of his career that culminated in this last command. It depicts the grueling aspects of a submariner’s life aboard a vessel that was subjected to harsh conditions of the sea and oceans. As an experienced commander Schaeffer took part in many of the decisive U-boat operations in the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean. In the final months of the war, and in common with most surviving U-boat commanders, Schaeffer and his crew came under constant attacks from Allied aircraft and surface ships. The final part of U-Boat 977 is Schaeffer’s account of the journey to Argentina and lays to rest some of the more fanciful sorties that followed its arrival.

U-Boat 977
U-Boat 977

Author: Heinz Schaeffer

Publisher: Greenhill Books

Published: 2017-11

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9781784382490

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This is the story of U-977, the German submarine that escaped to Argentina at the end of World War II. Before surfacing near the west coast of Africa, the vessel had spent a remarkable sixty-six days submerged. When it was first published in 1953, opinions were sharply divided between those who deplored the apparent extolling of a vicious form of warfare, and those who found Heinz Schaeffer's account a revealing picture of the German navy's training and methods. The author depicts the grueling aspects of a submariner's life. In the final months of the war, Schaeffer and his crew came under constant attacks from Allied aircraft and surface ships.

U-boat 977
U-boat 977

Author: Heinz Schäffer

Publisher:

Published: 2020-05-18

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13:

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U-boat 977 is a terrible, heroic record from the other side of the Battle of the Atlantic. It is a tale of Allied ships sunk, of attack, of counterattack, and finally of defeat of the U-boats. It was written by one of the few desperate men who survived that defeat. Completely authentic, intensely dramatic, it is a personal record of Hitler's most insidious and effective military arm. It begins when the author was a young man starting his training for U-boat service, and carries through the sinkings of Allied ships and the miraculous escapes that brought him his fame. It tells of our growing anti-U-boat war and the horror of the coming of "the worst enemy"-radar. And finally he recounts his last incredible dash across the Atlantic, with its stretch of sixty-six days under the sea, to surrender in the Argentine and face the charge that U-977 had been Hitler's escape ship.Here, also, both in the words and between the lines is a view of the Nazi military machine as seen by one of its human cogs-a moving, terrible, and valuable picture presented in terms of dramatic action.

Black Flag
Black Flag

Author: Lawrence Paterson

Publisher: Seaforth Publishing

Published: 2009-08-21

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 184832037X

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On the eve of Germany's surrender in May 1945, Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz commanded thousands of loyal and active men of the U-boat service. Still fully armed and unbroken in morale, enclaves of these men occupied bases stretching from Norway to France, where cadres of U-boat men fought on in ports that defied besieging Allied troops to the last. At sea U-boats still operated on a war footing around Britain, the coasts of the United States and as far as Malaya. Following the agreement to surrender, these large formations needed to be disarmed - often by markedly inferior forces - and the boats at sea located and escorted into the harbours of their erstwhile enemies. Neither side knew entirely what to expect, and many of the encounters were tense; in some cases there were unsavoury incidents, and stories of worse. For many Allied personnel it was their first glimpse of the dreaded U-boat menace and both sides were forced to exercise considerable restraint to avoid compromising the terms of Germany's surrender. One of the last but most dramatic acts of the naval war, the story of how the surrender was handled has never been treated at length before. This book uncovers much new material about the process itself and the ruthless aftermath for both the crews and their boats.

German U-boat Commanders of World War II
German U-boat Commanders of World War II

Author: Rainer Busch

Publisher: US Naval Institute Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13:

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Details the service records of some 1,400 officers of the German Kriegsmarine known to have commanded a U-boat between the commissioning of U-1 in June 1935, and the final surrender of U-977 to Argentina in August 1945.

Steel Boat, Iron Hearts
Steel Boat, Iron Hearts

Author: Hans Goebeler

Publisher: Savas Beatie

Published: 2005-01-19

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1611210070

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The story of the German submarine U-505 and its dramatic capture by the US Navy during WWII—told by one of its crewmen. Hans Goebeler is known as the man who “pulled the plug” on U-505 in 1944 to keep his beloved U-boat out of Allied hands. Steel Boat, Iron Hearts is his no-holds-barred account of service aboard a combat U-boat. It is the only full-length memoir of its kind, and Goebeler was aboard for every one of U-505’s war patrols. Using his own experiences, log books, and correspondence with other U-boat crewmen, Goebeler offers rich and very personal details about what life was like in the German Navy under Hitler. Because his first and last posting was to U-505, Goebeler’s perspective of the crew, commanders, and war patrols paints a vivid and complete portrait unlike any other to come out of the Kriegsmarine. He witnessed it all: from deadly sabotage efforts that almost sunk the boat to the tragic suicide of the only U-boat commander who took his life during WWII; from the terror and exhilaration of hunting the enemy to the seedy brothels of France. The vivid, honest, and smooth-flowing prose calls it like it was and pulls no punches. U-505 was captured by Captain Dan Gallery’s Guadalcanal Task Group 22.3 on June 4, 1944. Trapped by this “Hunter-Killer” group, U-505 was depth-charged to the surface, strafed by machine gun fire, and boarded. It was the first enemy ship captured at sea since the War of 1812. Today, hundreds of thousands of visitors tour U-505 each year at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Includes photos and a special Introduction by Keith Gill, Curator of U-505, Museum of Science and Industry