Iron Coffins: A Personal Account of the German U-Boat Battles of World War II

by Herbert A. Werner

Book Overview

The Battle of the Atlantic was one of the most savage and strategically significant campaigns of World War II: 28,000 out of 39,000 men in the German U-boat force disappeared beneath the waves. Herbert A. Werner, one of the few surviving German U-boat commanders, served on five submarines from 1941 to 1945. From the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, from the English Channel to the North Sea, he takes the reader with him through the triumphant years of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 030681160X
• ISBN13: 9780306811609
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 388 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic Read

Unbelieveable record of a German u boat Captain from beginning to the end of the war.It is so well written you feel like you are with him every move he makes. Would love to know about his life after he came to the U.S.!!

One of the best books on the German Submariner's point-of-view

Mr. Werner gives a great book to the reading public of being a submarnier in the German WWII Kreigsmarine. It's an excellent read. Indeed, this book was used as sort of a template for the fair German WWII movie "Das Boot" Mr. Werner covers the highly technical training he first received in the Kreigsmarine as a cadet. He writes about living in pre-war Germany, a very nice place to live. When he gets his commission and becomes an ensign in the Kreigsmarine his luck is with him and he's assigned to one of the best commanders in the Germany Navy. Mr. Werner's tale covers the three distinct periods of German's WWII time line. First, he writes of the early successes and victories where a single U-boat would sink 18K to 30K of shipping in a single sorte. Note, while Pearl Harbor was a military disaster for the USA the German U-boats sank dozens of ships in a single month. Mr. Werner was an intregal member of this highly effective team. The one part of Mr. Werner's book that rings true is the turning of the war in the period of March to May of 1943. In that time frame nearly 100 German U-boats were sunk. In one harrowing patrol their submarine saw no ships and spent all its time being bombed, straffed, or debth charged. The last part of the book deals with the destruction of the U-boat arm and Germany. Basically, everything goes into destruction for Germany. The new generation U-boats are too far and too few to change anything. The new torpedos are too few to really matter. Mr. Werner wrote this book and, at the time, didn't know the allies had captured all the German submarine Enigma coding equipment. The Allies were decoding the submarine messages faster than the Germans themselves in WWII. One reason - discoved by accident - that Mr. Werner's U-boat crew lives is he starts ignoring his orders and does not report in as required by his command. He is not reprimanded. Why? On one German war patrol seven boats are sent out and only one returns. The staff actually has a rare celebration that once submarine actually returned. Mr. Werner only makes one mistake in his book. American B-24 bombers make his life miserable in the Atlantic ocean. It's British Lancaster bombers that attack his U-boat pens at Brest, France. Since both aircraft look very similar it's an easy mistake to make. Anyway, the Lancaster's bombs are ineffective against the pens but the Liberators are very deadly in the open ocean. I highly recommend this book to any student of WWII or just to the average WWII reader. Mr. Werner went forth to do the job that was given to him. He does it well. After the period of May 1943 it's all he can do just to stay alive. This book is a five star book and is one of the better stories of survival in WWII

Superb first hand account of submarine service

First off, it should be noted that Capt. Werner beat the odds. He survived to tell his tale. 80% of his fellow submariners would perish under the waves as in the later years of the war each mission was essentially a suicide mission. One of these "ramming" suicide missions was even ordered of his boat in the weeks after D-Day, and incredibly, some of his fellow sailors on other submarines would die following these orders. Werner's odyssey began when, on his first mission, the U-230 got stuck on the ocean floor and the crew spent 16 hours jettisoning water and weight out the torpedo tubes, and then ran from one end to the other to rock the boat free. So started his career. The number of close calls he and his ship would encounter over the course of the war, and survive, is equivalent to winning a lottery. Werner and crew had lady luck on their side at times, but many other escapes were a direct result of his competence and the crews bravery. It is a fascinating tale. The new radar that submarines employed in 1942 was later discovered to be acting like a homing beacon for allied aircraft, leading to the deaths of many crews from giving away their position before this error was discovered and fixed. By 1943 the Allies had prefected their hunt and destroy tactics so that many of these subs were unable to escape when their positions were verified. Many, many last reports from Werners classmates and fellow submariners were received onboard the U-230 before they went down with the loss of all hands. These haunting messages were continually relayed to Werner and his sub and somehow this man was able to keep from being part of the majority of brave sailors who died an anonymous death in the deep waters of the Atlantic ocean. Simply an unforgettable book to read. One of the finest first person accounts of WWII that I have read to date. Ranks right up there with the works of Guy Sajer and Eugene Sledge.

EXCELLENT 'INSIDE-THE-U-BOAT" WARTIME COVERAGE

This is the very best book I have read actually describing the conditions inside a German u-boat during World War II Atlantic Ocean war patrols. It is well written with both action and information in mind. The action standpoint is superb and makes the reader wonder how Capt Werner and his crew ever survived the punishment they took in their little fragile "egg" as aircraft and ships constantly dropped bombs and depth charges on them. From the information standpoint, Werner gives us a very comprehensive and interesting description of what it is like inside the early u-boats. It is hard to imagine how the crew lived like they did in their constantly rocking boat: without bathing for months, eating moldy food, suffering from constant humidity, freezing or roasting as the season might be (no airconditioning or heaters), and not having proper sanitary conditions (using a bucket in rough seas, etc.) Very good detail on u-boat life both aboard ship and in port. From another information standpoint, Werner gives us a good description of what average Germans were thinking as the war progressed, what sort of damage ordinary citizens were taking as the war proceeded in depth over Germany both from the heavy air bombardment plus the advancement of Allied armies from the south, east, and north. Werner is also a "ladies man" so we do hear a lot about the girlfriends in every port, so to speak, plus German submariners' night life in different occupied locations. (They seemed to like France a lot.) It is good that Werner provides you this gamut of information: living inside the boat, dealing with the difficult navy bureaucracy, joys of in-port liberty, his nice but unfortunte family, the Nazi party bother, and so on since it furnishes the reader with a rounded out picture of life during these unusual times. Werner is lucky to have come back alive, and we are fortunate he wrote this book. His family and many of his friends were not so fortunate as the reader will see.

A magnificent story that leaves you in awe that he survived!

Reading World War II epics is a hobby of mine, and I can easily say that Iron Coffins is my all-time favorite book. I first read it in 1984 and couldn't put it down. I have read it about 15 times, and each time, it never ceases to captivate me at how Werner survived time and time again while the majority of his comrades met their fate at the bottom of the Atlantic. It is as if it was his destiny to preserve in writing this critical campaign of World War II. It tells you in vivid detail, the other side of the story-all Nazis were Germans, but not all Germans were Nazis. They had men, just like us, who would rather be somewhere else than in the heat of combat, wondering when they were going to get theirs. The vivid descriptions, going from Years of Glory to Disaster and Defeat made me feel like I was right there next to Werner, riding out the brutal storms in the North Atlantic, the ceaseless depth chargings, gasping for air, limping back into port, mauled and beaten, yet still alive. They went to war for their country. Nearly all of them perished. Now, read this tragic true story of one of the few U-boat commanders who lived to tell the tale. The Iron Coffin would not claim Herbert Werner's life. His book preserves the saga of Germany's undersea struggle. A masterpiece!

The Best WWII Book About the Other Side!

The first time I read 'Iron Coffins', it was for a term paper in high school. At that point, all Germans in WWII were evil Nazi stooges with the mental capacity of a slug in salt. Once I started reading Mr. Werner's excellent book, I actually found myself sharing in the excitement as a U-Boat sank Allied ships. I also found myself feeling the dread as Allied escort ships dropped thier deadly depth charges. Iron Coffins is a fast paced book that is hard to put down. One is able to truely experience what the war was like through Mr. Werner's eyes. Once you've finished, your understand something...that just because you are at war with an evil nation doesn't make it's people all evil. Mr. Werner may not have been a celebrated U-Boat commander, but if it weren't for him, we would never truely understand the meaning of the term 'Iron Coffin.'