Neither sharks nor wolves
Subtitle: the men of Nazi Germany's U-boat arm, 1939-1945
By: Timothy P. Mulligan.
Publisher: Naval Institute Press; Naval Inst Pr
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Annapolis, Md
Language: eng
Number of pages: 340
Subjects: World War, 1939-1945 -- Naval operations -- Submarine.; World War, 1939-1945 -- Naval operations, German.
Description: Although countless books have been written about the U-boat war in the Atlantic, precious few facts have come to light about the men who served in the submarines that wrought such havoc on Allied ships. Eager to get beyond the stereotypes perpetuated in movies and novels and find out who these elusive sailors really were, historian Timothy Mulligan started searching official records.

Eventually he went straight to the source, conducting a survey of more than a thousand U-boat officers and enlisted men and interviewing a number of them personally. The result is this character study of the German submarine force that challenges traditional and revisionist views of the service.

The roles played by the head of the U-boat arm, Grand Admiral Karl Donitz, and its organizational chief, Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, are thoroughly addressed. Mulligan concludes that the U-boat arm quickly evolved from a handpicked elite to a more representative sample of the German navy at large but continued to be treated as an elite force.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [261]-330) and index.