The Battle of the Atlantic

Accompanying the the BBC television series of the the same name, this work tells the story of Hitler's attempt to sever Britain's lifeline across the Atlantic.

For Winston Churchill it was "the only thing that ever frightened me during the war".

The book recounts the tale of the longest, most bitterly fought campaign of World War II.

From 1939 until 1942, Hitler's U-Boats - his "grey wolves" - threatened to do what his air force couldn't - starve Britain into submission.

The Allies lost a total of 15-million tons of shipping, and 40,000 sailors lost their lives during the five-year Battle of the Atlantic.

Britain's imports - upon which it heavily relied - were halved during the war by the U-Boat threat, leading to enforced rationing and the introduction of the victory gardens.

Gradually, the Allied losses began to decline largely due to the use of Radar - a system that could detect U-Boats on the surface of the oceans - and to the inaccuracy of the U-Boats torpedoes. Pulling on exclusive interviews with U-Boat crews, Andrew Williams draws a picture of the uncomfortable, claustrophobic and dangerous life on board the U-Boats - the "Iron Coffins" - and looks at the making of this elite "brotherhood" - 85 per cent of whom were killed.

He also gathers interviews from the British and American navy to illustrate the story with numerous untold tales of enormous personal courage and horrific losses.