As Roger Moorhouse suggests in the introduction to Wolfpack, it was natural that post-war English language books about the Battle of the Atlantic would largely ignore the German perspective on the conflict. After the horrors of war, a kind of patriotic Anglo-centricity was an understandable response. The acclaimed 1981 film Das Boot was unusual in seeing the struggle from the viewpoint of the U-boat crews. Since then, a number of studies have started to open up this once-neglected field.
Wolfpack integrates a narrative of the whole undersea campaign with a close look at the lives of the U-boat men. The author takes the reader through the various phases of the U-boat war: from initial successes and the ‘happy time’ of 1940-1941, through the tipping point in the Atlantic in May 1943, to the surrender of the submarine fleet two years later. Familiar episodes are covered, such as the sinking of HMS Royal Oak soon after the outbreak of war, the controversial loss of the passenger vessel SS City of Benares in September 1940, and the devastating attack on the Arctic convoy PQ-17 in July 1942.
With a loss rate of 75%, the U-boat service was the most dangerous of all combat arms to serve in. To recreate the experience of those who manned the submarines, Moorhouse draws on an impressive range of materials, including German- and English-language memoirs, records of POW interrogations, and standard secondary works.
