Das Boot

The thrilling wartime novel that inspired Wolfgang Petersen's Academy Award-nominated, blockbuster film Written by an actual survivor of Germany's U-boat fleet, " Das Boot" is one of the most exciting stories of naval warfare ever published, a tale filled with almost unbearable tension and suspense. In autumn 1941, a German U-boat commander and his crew set out on yet another hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. Over the coming weeks they brave the ocean's stormy waters and seek out British supply ships to destroy. But their targets travel in well-guarded convoys. When contact finally occurs, the hunter quickly becomes the hunted, and a cat-and-mouse game begins as the U-boat hides deep beneath the surface of the sea. Soon, claustrophobia becomes an enemy almost as frightening as the depth charges exploding around them. The release of this supremely gripping, merciless intense story commemorates the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II.

Breathless, terrifying U-boat drama ... a masterclass in economical, tight-space storytelling, piling the pressure on both characters and audience TIME OUT

Lothar-Gunther Bucheim was born in 1918 and grew up in Saxony. When the war broke out he joined the navy and served on mine-sweepers, destroyers and submarines on the last as an official navy correspondent.

Four detonations in quick succession, then the mad gurgle and roar of the black flood . . . a cold hand creeps under my collar and runs down my back. I shudder. This is the story of a German U-boat, her commander and her crew, as they embark upon yet another hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. Weeks in a small metal tube twenty feet by two hundred feet with fifty other men. Weeks of unbearable tension and terror. Weeks of crushing boredom, as the condensation drips down the walls and mould slowly blooms on the food. Written by a survivor of the U-boat fleet, this is a novel but not a work of fiction. Das Boot is one of the best and most truthful stories ever written about men in combat; a withering condemnation of the insanity of war.

Das Boot is the thrilling story of a U-boat commander and his crew during World War II. It is autumn 1941 and a German U-boat commander and his crew set out on yet another hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. Over the coming weeks they must brave the stormy waters of the Atlantic in their mission to seek out and destroy British supply ships. But the tide is beginning to turn against the Germans in the war for the North Atlantic - their targets now travel in convoys, fiercely guarded by Royal Navy destroyers, and when contact is finally made the hunters rapidly become the hunted. As the U-boat is forced to hide beneath the surface of the sea a cat-and-mouse game begins, where the increasing claustrophobia of the submarine becomes an enemy just as frightening as the depth charges that explode around it. Written by a survivor of the U-boat fleet - of the 40,000 men who served on German submarines, 30,000 never returned - Das Boot is a psychological drama merciless in its intensity, and a classic novel of World War II.

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