Hi Robert,

If you haven't already seen the movie Das Boot, you probably should do so. It is quite technically accurate and will give you a good idea what went on aboard a U-boat during a war patrol. It is also much easier to view a movie than read a book at least to get you started. a picture really is worth a thousand words. Once you have seen he movie the books will make more sense to you. Avoid the movie U-571 - its pure fantasy.

There are a lot of good U-boat books out there and there are a lot of facets of the U-boat War to investigate. On thing to remember is that things changed as the war progressed. It was move and counter move. Every new tactic or piece of equipment required a counter from the other side. The way the war was fought on both sides at the beginning was nothing like the way it was fought at the end.

You might also want to read the book reviews here on uboat.net to get an idea if you want to read a given book. Some of the U-boat books in print are so full of errors they will just end up confusing you. Additionally you might want to review the Myths section of this site as there is a lot of misinformation out there that has found its way into print.

There are also numerous articles here on this site that you might enjoy reading and there is also the search engine on the forums here that you can use to get a lot of information.

Regards,

Ken Dunn