Written by a former German soldier who. Apparently, became a successful political journalist, this account relies too heavily on descriptions of the most intimate thoughts of those sailors who served on the Bismarck during her final voyage.
It is very easy for any journalist to decry the futility of all wars, but there is a certain quality of defeatism throughout this book from one who once served his own country proudly - albeit not in that country's navy. The problem associated with any attempt at trying to portray what this seaman or that officer might have been thinking at any crucial moment on board the Bismarck is the false assumption that all minds are alike and that "he would have said this (or that)" because that is what I would have said.
In a curious work which may have been better received when it first appeared in 1958, this work adds nothing to the overall debate about the Bismarck's final voyage and is a book which becomes easy to discard before it is even finished.
Only 6 photographs and one map are included.
NM