AMP - Accurate Model Parts
1MC - Shipwide Announcements => AMP NEWS => Topic started by: dougie47 on 15 Oct , 2018, 15:57
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Hello folks,
I would like to announce that my book "Guenther Prien And U-47: The Bull Of Scapa Flow" will be released in Europe on Wednesday 17th October by Frontline Books -
(http://u.cubeupload.com/dougie47/JacketMasterSmall.jpg)
This will be available in various places including Amazon -
https://www.amazon.co.uk/G%C3%BCnther-Prien-U-47-Bull-Scapa/dp/1526737752/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539636794&sr=8-1&keywords=dougie+martindale
It will be available in North America and Australia on 1st November via the publisher US Naval Institute Press. This is the same book, just different publishers for different regions of the world.
Some of you will know that I have been working on this book since the dawn of time. I finally finished it, though working on other book projects, AMP business and of course making models somewhat slowed the process down. A few of you are in the acknowledgements list.
Amazon lists it as 360 pages but it has 450 pages.
For those of you who don't already know, U 47 was commanded by Guenther Prien, who is one of the most important of all U-boat commanders. Doenitz even referred to him as "our best commander". His boat was U 47, which he commanded for ten patrols until he and his boat were lost in March 1941. Both Prien and his boat were referred to as The Bull Of Scapa Flow after the daring sinking of HMS Royal Oak at Scapa Flow in October 1939.
Part I has an introduction on the Battle of the Atlantic.
Part II is the patrol and refit history and is essentially a book in itself. It charts in chronological order all ten patrols and all the modifications in the refits. This took years to complete as the section was written with multiple sources including reference to all of U 47's original war diaries. Since it follows what Prien wrote in his diaries I hope it gives a feel for his view of their actions in the Atlantic. There are plenty of passages about frustration at missing convoys in heavy seas, encountering British warships in the North Sea, being attacked by RAF aircraft, moving stealthily around Norwegian fjords, frustration at torpedo failures, and of course the night surface attacks inside the convoy along with other aces. Jerry Mason was particularly helpful to me in kindly translating several war patrols for me. It ends with a discussion of the possible reasons for the loss of the boat.
Part III begins the second half of the book and covers the Scapa Flow raid in detail. Part IV is an entire section dealing with the various controversies surrounding the raid. Several books have been written on this subject but I have tried to go beyond these and answer all the remaining questions. I have chosen 41 controversial aspects; for each of these I have asked the question, had a discussion and then formed a conclusion. At the end I have listed over 20 new findings not covered in other works.
Part V ends the book and covers Prien and the crewmen of U 47.
My sincere thanks to everyone who assisted me over the years in writing the book. I got there...finally!
Cheers,
Dougie Martindale
Accurate Model Parts
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Hi Dougie,
godspeed for your book. By the way: In 1958 the "Arca-Filmproduktion" made a film version of Gunther Prien. You can watch it in full length on Youtube (afaik no engl. dubbing available).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axpqXxWaMsQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axpqXxWaMsQ)
Best regards
falo
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Hi Falo,
Thanks for your comments. I wrote a couple of pages covering that movie in my book. It is quite watchable but historical accuracy takes second place on more than a few pages, sometimes being unintentionally funny.
Just for the record, Prien did not get a head injury by a piece of the Royal Oak in Scapa Flow (see blood on his temple at 41:49). Nor was U 47 a Type II (9:29), or a Type IX (9:33) or U 99 (9:54). Nor was Prien killed by his former First Watch Officer (sorry to spoil the ending!).
Cheers,
Dougie
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Hi Dougie,
thanks for the detailed information, afaik the film got no good critics at all here in Germany. I have watched this movie a few years ago on DVD and the whole subplot which stylized G. Prien to a resistance fighter against the nazi regime was pure fiction.
I wish your book a high sales numbers.
Best regards
falo
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Hello Dougie!
Congratulations for your book! :D
Maybe one day will be published in Spanish? Think it's a great market.
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Hello gents,
Thanks for your kind comments. A Spanish translation would be just fine by me.
I've got a bit more time now the book is done so time to get to the modelling table tonight. I'll finish my other big project - a 35th scale U-boat diorama - in a week or so. No prizes for guessing which boat I went with.
Cheers,
Dougie
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We want pictures of diorama! :D
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Way to go!
Later Tim
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Dougie I had missed this! Congratulations!! I am gonna ask Santa one for Christmas!
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A must have! Ordered from Amazon. Really hard to wait couple of weeks for the arrival... Congrats Dougie!
Regards,
Anakin
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Hope that you have been having good sales with your book. I hope to add one to my collection in 2019.
Later Tim
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I finally got it. A book beyond excellence. The definitive book about U47, every detail fully covered. A new classic and definitely a milestone.
Top marks
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wow I got mine yesterday(was on sale) started to read it, what a ton of information Dougie. Great now you'll have time to write a book on the TYPE IX?
Thanks for the great book
Bill
Athens GA.
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Hi Bill,
Thank you for your kind message, much appreciated. I'm taking a break from writing for a bit as I fancy getting back to the modelling table for my next project.
I have now finished a write up of the U 47 diorama I mentioned earlier in the thread. "The Final Return: A U-Boat Diorama" can be downloaded from -
https://amp.rokket.biz/lib_uboats.shtml
The dockside is by Julian Hoyes, with some additions such as the U-boat (U 47 obviously), water, extra figures, a railway section and pavement section by myself. The original intention is that this diorama would be part of an appendix section in the U 47 / Prien book. But due to space restrictions I dropped this from the book and decided to go with this write up instead.
Cheers,
Dougie
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Marvellous diorama.....
My respect to the modellers...
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Amazing work and article Dougie! I really liked your idea to represent U47 with the lateral air trunks on her turret sides, same choice of mine for my U-48 project. Also, i can gather precious information about the turret deck arrangements and many small details of U48 sister ship, quite a treasure for my eyes.
Congrats for the project, which sums up an amazing amount of fine research, craftsmanship and excellent modelling techniques.
Bravissimo!
SG
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Hello everyone,
I did a radio interview recently for Ireland's RTE Radio 1 to promote the U 47 book. If you want to hear me talk a bit about U-boats it can be listened to or downloaded from here -
https://www.rte.ie/radio1/seascapes/podcasts/
It is the Friday 3rd July podcast from 11:19 until the end.
There was nothing in depth, just general questions. Thankfully I wasn't asked about the new Das Boot miniseries which is rather different to the original Das Boot.
Cheers,
Dougie
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GOOD on you, Dougie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Hi Dougie
I just pick up your book in New Zealand, looks amazing can not wait to read it this winter!
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Hi Simon,
Many thanks for your kind words, hope you are doing well and keep up the good work with your research and drawing.
Cheers,
Dougie
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I will be posting a big update sometime in early May. Just had my biggest research summer ever! Spend the last 8 months researching one whole systems that I finish around 2 weeks ago. I been working on this system for 7 years. I will posted a few teaser renders for you to tie you over to then :)