We get a sneak peek the brand new issue
12 of “U-boat Im Focus” and it left us wanting to see more so we
were anxious to see how this latest book in the luftfahrtverlag-start catalogue
would fare. Let’s have a look in our review…
By Axel Urbanke
Published by: luftfahrtverlag-start
Softcover 54 pages
A4 Portrait Format
Dual English/German text
available from the luftfahrtverlag-start webpage or from their re-sellers worldwide in subscription or as single issues
It’s that time for U-boat lovers to feel happy again. We have the new U-boat Im Focus in our hands and this one – No #12 looks to be a great issue from what we have seen included – let’s have a look in our review at what lies beneath…
For those well used
to the format they need no description, but for those who aren’t sure the luftfahrtverlag-start
team bring out a new “U-Boot Im Focus” about every three months or so. They are
about fifty pages (54 in this case) and a softcover portrait format in an A4
size. A coloured glossy cover opens to thick pages with mostly black and white
pictures but a few coloured pages and profile illustrations are inside.
Writing in these
books are both in German and English captions that describe both the action and
any precedence’s including several calls to previous issues and events already
covered in the series. There are also maps (sometimes only in German) that
describe voyages and areas of patrol. There are some good stories in this book
in the regular block text style of course. Some of these stories are just great
to read and really make you understand the harsh consequences of sometimes
quite a savage time.
The timing of this book
incidentally is very important. Issue twelve covers the last year of WWII. 1945
is the subject of this issue and the late war submarine missions are often
strange and not like the usual convoy duty we all know about so I was very
interested to read about those times. I think several others will feel the same
way.
We thought now would be a good time to do a
visible walkthrough of the contents of U.I.F.#12..
The first page in the book reveals some interior
shots of U-18 in 1943 then we look
at the usual feature Editorial / Reader Forum. This is a great section and the
readers, who seem to me to be a really tight community, are invited to ask
questions and submit corrections and sometimes pictures. This is a great way
for the authors to get the right information out and to also keep their
readership engaged. This book and the others I have read feels like a collected
effort by not only the publishing house but the veterans and their relative who
continue to provide the stories published inside.
We do get to see some early war boats in this
book as well as later war stuff. Captured is the type VII C boat U-382 in 1943/44 and the Lucky number
13 emblem as well as the type VII B boat U-52 in 1941/42, with it’s conning
tower penguin illustration on it’s conning tower in the frigid northern polar
operational sorties. We also look at the U-68 in 1941 with special focus on her
commander in several pictures.
We then go to the later war stuff – with the “Electric
Boats” U-2524, U-3514 & U-2502 in 1945. Their futuristic looking and well-armed
conning towers are shown to good effect here. We learn in the text of the
scuttling of a boat and the selfless sacrifice of one of her soldiers and the surrender
of several of these boats in Ireland at war’s end. Next we look at the training
boat (Type IX C) U-10. The
"Buffalo head" emblem of this sub is seen in a clear pictures and
further illustrated by not only the text but also the lovely colour profile by
Juanita Franzi which is a great inclusion.
We turn the page to see a dramatic scene.. The
bombing raid on Kiel in 1943 was the start of a lot more to come. The subs in
the port were camouflaged but here in several pages of photos, block text, a
map of the port and captions we see not only the aftermath but also the repairs
to the scene and gradual sinking of the dock these subs were being repaired on.
Little details like the repair of buildings and the planks used to cross from
sunken sub to sub are really interesting here.
Previously unseen period colour shots are like
gold this long after the war. But two very good colour photos and text are next
in the book. I did not add them as these pictures are the real gold of this
book and as the authors comment on in the letters section, several of them like
these have been bandied about for profit as originals on Ebay. The photos in
this book are ALL original and unpublished and they are filled with information
on painting, weathering and creating your own U-boat diorama.
The largest story in this book is next. We learn all about the journey and fate of U
249 in the “Boat in Focus” section. This boat, with the FuMB 35 Athos radar in
the “Stovepipe” installation on the conning tower is discussed including the
German’s dabbling in radar during the late part of the war. Two illustrated maps,
several pictures and an illustration of the ship’s emblem with comparison
pictures and coloured profile illustration of the conning tower fill this
story. To further illustrate this epic journey of the boat there are some great
pictures of the ship’s crew and it’s end journey in the captured port in Portland
in the south of England. This is an engrossing story and full of insight from
the author and pictures.
We look at the correction to everyone’s thought
of the emblem on the conning tower of U-387 which until now all thought was a
Moor but because of photo evidence we now know he was a boy! The story of the “fair-skinned
Moor” and the propaganda leaflet dropped by the RAF and kept by an unknown
sailor upon punishment of death by firing squad. Artefacts like this and the
story that goes along with them are a great personal touch in these books.
We next look at a section “Photos with a Story: U-1406 and U-1407 - sunk or they
surrendered when the war ended?” which details the story of the futuristic
looking Type XVII B boats that were to be handed over to the Allied forces at
the end of the war. Two boats and their commanders were placed in an unusual
situation of having to hand over their very advanced U-Boats and the decision whether
or not to scuttle their boats or hand them over weighted heavy on their shoulders.
The last ten pages offer smaller stories along
with several good shots to accompany them. The "Ordnungsaufruf" of
the Hauswirts or “Order of the landlord” sign on the bulwark of U-148 is interesting
to not exactly what the “landlord” or Captain had to write down were excluded
from coming aboard (a surprising list.) There is also the story of U-622 which
was sunk its home port in Trondheim in 1943. This is a great story over a few
pages with a diagram of the port and the position of the boats and buildings.
The rescue of the trapped sailors inside is great to see covered from the war
diary of a survivor of the bombing.
Lastly there is a single page and rear cover
with three pictures and text showing a torpedo reload during the 3rd patrol of
U-221 at sea.
That is it for this issue. The smattering of 1941-44
articles ad to the theme of mostly late war stories from the U-boat crews. The
colour profiles are excellent and the letters section is always good to weed
through. The stars of this book are the two large stories that are true “U-boat
Im Focus” gold, and play out like “boys own” adventures and the other smaller
stories add colour and a lot of different aspects of the boats, their sailors
and lives to this edition.
We were looking forward to this and now I feel
all the more informed by reading it. Urbanke really has a great knack of
bringing these stories to life and yet again he has shown us an insight into
the U-boat sailor’s lives I do not see anywhere else in print.
Adam
Norenberg
Thanks
to the team for sending this - You can get this from the luftfahrtverlag-start
webpage or their
re-sellers worldwide
