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4.0 von 5 Sternen
Concise, accurate, readable, 30. September 2006
"Type VII U-boats" by Robert Stern describes the Type VII as a weapon system with all its components in a concise and accurate way. The author somehow manages to present a lot of useful information not only in readable form but on surprisingly little space. The contents is clearly broken down into chapters like "Weapons", "Sensors", or "Crew", with useful appendices on things like the exterior of boats and even a few pages on Dönitz, the mastermind behind German submarine warfare.
I have a lot of books on German submarines, and many in German (my mother language). Much has been written on the subject already, so I tend to leaf through any new book, picking out what I consider new information. This book, however, I read from the first to the last page, and learned a lot in the process. Although the book sets out to give technical information only, readers will learn a lot about how submarine warfare developed in WW2, and I had quite a few "aha!" moments despite my familiarity with the subject.
What makes the book especially agreeable to read is the lack of bias. There are too many books out there telling readers "how we beat the bloody Germans" or "why we should have beat the Brits, and how we suffered trying". Nothing of that in here.
Most of the photographs offered are of good quality, and many I had never seen before. There are, however, a few occurrences of a technical item being located in some corner of a foggy photograph; the thought arises that originality of material sometimes prevailed over clarity of illustration.
Sadly, what this book shares with many English books on the subject is spelling errors in German. Can it really be so difficult to look things up in a dictionary? Or ask a native speaker? It is "Rudeltaktik", not "Rüdeltaktik". The author must be commended, however, for providing the German designations of technical items and tactics in many places, obviously not just to add local colour.
The drawings supplied are clear and informative. The profiles and deck plans of submarines, however, were either from a medium-quality source or printed at the limits of the printing process. Things are not always easy to find there, with lots of very thin lines being broken in places.
Strong points:
+ concise, accurate and readable information
+ bias-free presentation of developments
+ previously unpublished photographs
+ good insight into the details of submarine warfare
Weak points:
- unclear illustration of technical details in some photographs (although most are good!)
- some line drawings at the limits of the printing process
- some spelling errors in German
My verdict? Whenever I want to look up something about Type VII U-boats, this is the book that I take in hand first. And believe me, I have a lot.
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