Buchheim served in a German U-boat in the
Second World War and while this book is fiction the events portrayed were all witnessed
by him, one of the minority of U-boat crew who survived.
It’s a single voyage, related by a naval war
correspondent on board as an officer, who gives a holistic, fly on the wall, view
of the boat and the crew of fifty-one men. There is the frantic drinking and
whoring prior to departure; the mind-numbing tedium of weeks spent ‘frigging
around’ in search of convoys, mere specks in the enormity of the Atlantic
Ocean; followed by the tense torpedo attacks and the nerve-shredding dodging of
depth-charge retaliation.
The action, or inaction, is interspersed
with thoughts of the lives left behind, and observations on the practicalities
of crowded living in a storm-tossed tin can for months on end. There are interesting
insights into the intricacies of keeping the craft afloat or submerged and,
when submerged, level; a lasting image is the need when crash diving for all
hands to rush to the front of the boat to help its downward trajectory.
It is a long read (500+ pages) and between
the bursts of activity the pages turn slowly; when the action starts they fly.
Thus is the submariners’ experience authentically shared with the reader, right
up to the life and death dash for home at the end.
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