Edwyn Gray

Edwyn Gray's history of British submarine warfare in the First World War is less an examination of the employment of submarines in the war than it is a collection of stories of their deployments. Drawing upon their reports and postwar memoirs, Gray recounts their experiences in dramatic fashion, interspersed with the sort of humorous anecdotes that give a sense of how the sailors coped with the unique stresses they faced. While it makes for entertaining reading, there is little effort to show more connect it to the larger context of the war at sea, let alone the larger conflict taking place around them. Readers seeking entertaining accounts of combat will find Gray's book well worth reading, but those seeking an analysis of their role in the war or any comparison with the similar campaign mounted by Germany will likely be disappointed by its limitations. show less

This is the story of the British submarine service in the first World War, something which barely gets mentioned in general histories of that war. The reason for this, according the Edwyn Gray, is the misuse of the service by the Admiralty. In the North Sea, at least, the submarines were used primarily for fleet service and shore defense, unlike their German counterparts, who were unleashed to create havoc on virtually anything afloat. There were exceptions during the war in which the show more British submarines were allowed a more predatory role: in the Baltic and in the Sea of Marmora during the Gallipoli campaign. Those brief, harrowing episodes form the most interesting part of this book. Gray was writing for a British audience 50 years after the war, but he did a good job of telling the story in a breezy, journalistic style. His tendency on occasion to glorify war or depict it as some kind of game is a little off-putting to the modern reader, but I did learn a lot about the role played by what must have been some of the most courageous sailors ever to put to sea. show less

I read this book to try and gain insight into the mentality of submariners; men who would willingly enter steel tubes which might flood, implode, or fill with poison gas, even without enemy intervention. Or barring that, at least some insight into tactics, strategy, and technology. Ultimately, I was disappointed. Not that this is a bad book, but it's a series of after-action reports liberally sprinkled with exclamation points. I can't tell you anything more about submariners except that they show more require luck, courage, and nerves. The submarine sequences in Cyptonomicon were far more interesting.

Well, not every book can be amazing. show less

Captain Konrad Bergman was assigned to take a U-Boat to Japan to get information on a new torpedo the Japanese had recently developed. The Gestapo attempted to assassinate him part way through the trip as he was not a party member and they were suspicious of his actions on an earlier voyage. A second attempt in Japan failed as well but he got to see the torpedo which was too long for any submarine in the world but he learned the Japanese had a backup plan this new weapon. Could he steal it show more and get it back to Germany?

One of series of novels about Bergman and the German Navy.

There is a lot of information about living and fighting on a German U- Boat. show less