Book review of Suppliers of the Grey Wolves (Axel Urbanke)

[dougie47]

 

Hello folks,

I received a new U-boat book recently and would like to tell you my thoughts on it.

Many of you will be familiar with U-Boot im Focus, a series of eight magazines focussing on U-boat types, operations and personnel. The photographic content within these magazines is always of the highest quality, featuring previously unpublished photos of particular interest to the serious U-boat enthusiast. The captions, in German and English, provide a wealth of useful information. Whether a serious student of the Kriegsmarine U-boat, or a novitiate, the reader can learn a great deal from these eight magazines.

A few months ago I learned that the team (Lufftfahrtverlag Start) behind the U-Boot im Focus series were working on a book covering the German U-boat Tankers. Given their past work (and the Luftwaffe im Focus series as well) this book had the potential to be a serious study of these tankers. The book has now been released as Suppliers of the Grey Wolves: The Story of the German Submarine Tankers 1941-1944 by Axel Urbanke. It can be ordered at

[Helmut]

Dougie:


My copy of this book are on the ways from Germany....after I read your review of the book....I can waiting more !....thanks for take the time to share with us....kind regards....


PS: Thanks to for the decals too...! 

[SG]

A must-have! will order a copy asap. Thanks so much Dougie, excellent review!!

[DerXL]

Hi all

This book is definately a must-have for anyone even remotely interested in the subject.
I received my copy about 2 weeks ago.

As Dougie mentioned, at first it is almost too must to cope with, so much information and great pictures.
I'm now past the halfway mark reading the book and it is so thorough and so detailed. Sometimes even so exciting that I simply cannot put it down (like story about the sinking of U-461, U-462 and U-504).

I too have all the UiF magazines and this book is an XL-version of the magazine. Same quality to detail. It sets a very high standard.

What I really admire about this book (as with the UiF series) is the occasional glimpse into the day-to-day life and routines of the U-boot crews.
The small details like crewmembers swimming from boat to boat because of the great weather, like they're on a cruise (read in the U-462 chapter). Just fantastic.

I must say that Axel Urbanke and his team have delivered something special. It was well worth the wait and I'd recommend this book to everyone interested in U-boote!

Just my 2 cts...

Axel (not Urbanke, that is... )

[Rokket]

DerXL,

I've not read the book but those are exactly the types of detail I love too. It's the everyday stuff. Imagine if we wrote about our everyday jobs and future generations found the details interesting! (of course, a navy career in a war is much more exciting, but you get the idea...)