ISBN 1-85367-615-2
287 pages

Preface; Acknowledgements; Glossary; Table of Ranks; photos; Endnotes; Sources; Index

Appendices: U-Boats for the Indian Ocean; U-Boat Transport of Men and Materiel

   Knowing the author has been building a solid track record of U-boat books while he continues to hone the craftsmanship of his prose, we approached Lawrence Paterson's new work with high hopes, and we weren't disappointed. This is an informative, engaging book about an inherently interesting topic which Paterson has also filled with many entertaining flourishes and intriguing sidelights. Some of that peripheral material is not perfectly handled—the account of the Allied invasion of Madagascar seems a little off kilter, Paterson writes some puzzling sentences about Subhas Chandra Bose's affect on Allied offensive operations—but the vast majority of the book, including the author's ventures into side alleys, makes great reading.
   Paterson sets the scene in his first chapter with some preliminary background concerning plans for German-Japanese naval cooperation, Japanese entry into the war, establishment of the IJN submarine base at Penang, Japanese sub ops in the Indian Ocean and off the coast of Africa, and the voyage of I-30 around the Cape of Good Hope to the German base at Bordeaux.
   Chapter Two covers Axis blockade runners and the first forays by U-boats into the Indian Ocean. Paterson examines the planning and orders issued for the operations, and he also follows each submarine on its patrol into the Atlantic, around the Cape, and into the Indian Ocean. Not only does he chart their courses and tally all their attacks and victories, the author also examines each skipper and points out how conditions varied on the boats in part because of the personality of each commander. Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat of U-196, for example, "...resorted to harsh discipline and rigid control. Harking back to the bygone days of sailing navies, constant weapons drills and threats of temporary imprisonment or loss of pay were used to keep the boat's crew in line...."
   In addition to information about the subs and their operations against Allied shipping, in Chapter Two Paterson explores some tangential aspects of the war in the Indian Ocean. He relates the story of how German agent Robby Leibbrandt was inserted into South Africa on a mission to assassinate Jan Smuts, and he mentions there has been speculation that the sunken U-179, because it carried the same navigator who had safely taken Leibbrandt to South Africa, might have been carrying agents tasked with a similar mission. Paterson also quotes debriefings of survivors of vessels sunk by U-boats. It seems that in many cases U-boat officers conversed with survivors, and recollections of those conversations—along with the patterns of sinkings—led US Naval Intelligence to conclude that the U-boats had been tipped off about merchant sailings. This part of the chapter goes on to describe the workings of the intelligence network which allowed the German vessel Ehrenfels, confined in port in the neutral Portuguese colony of Goa on the Indian sub-continent, to receive information about Allied shipping and transmit encoded reports to U-boats operating in the Indian Ocean. Paterson also retells the story of Subhas Chandra Bose's voyage aboard U-180 from France to the Indian Ocean where with his adjutant he was transferred to the Japanese submarine I-29 for the onward voyage to Penang. Although Bose's incredible journey has been recounted elsewhere—notably in Hitler's U-Boat War by Clay Blair (in which Blair mistakenly wrote Bose reached Germany after being jailed in Britain) and in the Bose biography by Marshall J. Getz—Paterson adds some telling details about the Indian nationalist's peregrinations. The author also touches on Italian submarine operations east of the Atlantic.
   Chapter Three shifts the focus toward Axis cooperation in the Indian Ocean and the agreement to base U-boats at Japanese facilities in Asia. In particular, Paterson looks at Penang. He then follows U-511—Marco Polo I—on its voyage from France to Penang and onward to Japan where the submarine was transferred to the Imperial Japanese Navy as RO-500. The German skipper and crew headed for Penang to serve as replacements for U-boats arriving at the new base there.
   Chapter Four discusses the efforts of the "Monsoon" U-boats—sailing from France in June and July 1943—to wreak havoc in the Indian Ocean in the same manner that Operation Paukenschlag had surprised and decimated shipping on the American East Coast upon US entry into the war. The Monsoon boats, however, suffered serious difficulties just getting to the Indian Ocean, with losses along the way as well as constantly improvised refueling arrangements due to loss of the submarine "milk cows" in the Atlantic. Once in the Indian Ocean, results were completely unspectacular, due in large measure to signals intelligence which allowed the Allies to route their shipping away from the prowling U-boats. Paterson continues to personalize each sub with information about the skipper, crew, and adventures along the way. The author also devotes a fair amount of ink to related subjects, including use of the Bachstelze "rotor kite," disposition of Italian submarines en route to Asia at the time of Italy's surrender to the Allies, and the story of seaman Gunther Schmidt, only survivor of U-533 who swam for over 24 hours before washing ashore in Somaliland.
   With four of the surviving Monsoon boats ordered to Malaya, Paterson returns to his descriptions of German naval bases in Asia, including Penang, Shoan (Singapore), Jakarta (Batavia), and Surabaya. This includes investigation of the bases themselves as well as command arrangements, relations between the Germans and their Japanese hosts, and living arrangements for the U-boat men between patrols, not excluding "what might euphemistically be described as their more basic needs." This chapter points out that much of the food for the crews came from the fully loaded refrigerated steamer SS Nanking, originally destined for Burma from Australia, which had been captured by the German raider Thor in May 1942 and spent the remainder of the war at Penang. Paterson also quotes a very interesting page by a Japanese pilot who analyzes the difference in Japanese and German technology on the basis of something as simple as changing floats on a seaplane.
   Between September and November 1943 five more U-boats sailed for the Indian Ocean, all to continue to Penang, and Paterson covers them in Chapter Six. Four of them, however, were sunk in the Atlantic Ocean, never even reaching the Cape of Good Hope. Only U-510 succeeded in entering the Indian Ocean, rounding the Cape in January and sailing north to patrol in the Gulf of Aden. The patrol of 510 produced five sinkings before the boat reached Penang in April 1944. Meanwhile, in November U-178 had departed Penang—carrying a cargo of 139 tons of tin, tungsten, and crude rubber—as the first U-boat ordered to return from the Far East to Europe. December 1943 saw the beginning of ongoing attempts to run individual U-boats from Europe to Asia (carrying supplies for sister vessels at Penang and elsewhere) and from Asia to Europe (carrying cargoes of raw materials). Unfortunately for the Axis powers, Allied ASW efforts made such voyages increasingly perilous. The voyages were also dealt a serious blow by loss of the supply ships Charlotte Schliemann and Brake in the Indian Ocean, events duly recounted by the author.
   Chapters Seven and Eight pursue the story of faltering Axis submarine operations and the continued U-boat sailings to and from Penang, including oversized transport boats and former Italian submarines under German command. Unfortunately—from the Axis point of view—there was very little in the way of good news, as few boats completed successful voyages to or from the Orient. Among the successes, the Japanese I-8 departed Penang in June 1943 and arrived safely in France, leaving extra IJN sailors to crew a U-boat and then making the return voyage to Singapore where I-8 arrived in December and afterwards continued to Japan as the only Japanese submarine to make a successful round-trip between Japan and Europe during the war. The spare Japanese crew, however, was lost to air attack when attempting to sail U-1224 homeward from Germany. I-29 departed Penang in November 1943 and arrived safely in France, then made the journey back, arriving at Singapore in July 1944. However, I-29 was sunk by USS Sawfish as the I-boat continued toward Japan. To make matters worse, the Allied landings in France meant the important U-boat bases there were soon out of action, consequently making voyages between Europe and Asia even longer and more perilous.
   By Chapter Nine, the scene has shifted to the Netherlands East Indies, Australia, and New Zealand. Paterson covers the German attempt to turn Australian and New Zealand waters into profitable hunting grounds, but of course the time was far too late and the number of U-boats remaining available for operations in that part of the world far too small. Even so, this is fascinating territory. U-168 was sunk off Java while preparing to sail for Australia. U-537 was sunk off Bali as it headed for Australia. U-196 simply vanished shortly after passing through the Sunda Strait. Only U-862 managed to conduct its patrol in Australian waters after departing Jakarta, but its voyage, although highly adventurous—including the only sinking by U-boat of an Allied vessel in the Pacific, a loop around New Zealand, and the last sinking by U-boat of an Allied vessel in the Indian Ocean—could not be counted as especially fruitful. While the author does a good job of compressing the story into about four pages, no one interested in U-boats should miss the epic tale of U-862 in U-Boat Far from Home by David Stevens.
   Similarly, Paterson also covers U-234's abortive patrol to Asia (but readers interested in more detail should read Germany's Last Mission to Japan by Joseph Scalia) and the final sailings that ended only in more lost U-boats as the Allies tightened their choke hold on the Atlantic. While the situation in Europe deteriorated rapidly, likewise the Allies continued to exert more and more pressure against the Axis in Asia. Penang was becoming untenable, and Chapter Ten provides information about bombing attacks there and at Singapore, and the transfer of the main German U-boat base in southeast Asia to Jakarta in November. The author devotes several pages to U-219's long adventure from France to Jakarta. Also arriving at Jakarta in December 1944, U-195 represented the final successful U-boat mission to Asia. Looking at return trips, although U-843 docked safely in Norway on 3 April 1945, the boat was sunk by RAF attack a few days later en route to Kiel. U-861 arrived in Norway on 19 April, and U-510, diverted due to lack of fuel, arrived in the besieged port of St Nazaire in France on 23 April 1945. One final boat returned safely from Asia: U-532 reached waters north of the British Isles just in time to surrender and accept escort into Liverpool.
   In Asia, however, the war continued. Although the six remaining German submarines (two of them previously Italian) in the East were required to surrender themselves to the Allies, by prearrangement they were "seized" by Japanese troops and transferred to the IJN. Paterson goes on to describe the conditions of German sailors in Japanese custody between May and September 1945, and then their transfer into Allied captivity.
   The final few pages of Chapter Eleven offer the author's analysis and conclusions concerning the strategy of moving U-boats into the Indian Ocean as well as the value of their operations there. In the first place, German-Japanese naval cooperation was always limited at best, as Paterson shows through a number of instances, such as Doenitz ordering U-boats to surreptitiously dispose of unused Zaunkoenig torpedoes rather than allowing the Japanese to examine them. Furthermore, the combination of relatively limited sea endurance, lack of refueling opportunities, slow speeds, long distances, and increasingly strong Allied ASW forces meant that U-boats were not really effective at sailing between Europe and Asia. Once in Asia, U-boats suffered constantly from lack of torpedoes, lack of spare parts, lack of facilities, and lack of skilled base personnel. In an offensive role, because both German and Japanese codes had been compromised, the Allies were also usually aware ahead of time of U-boat locations and intentions, thus making most patrols ineffective if not suicidal. Finally, in the transport role, despite the lack of alternatives, the extremely low cargo capacity of even the most commodious U-boats guaranteed that even with huge exertions only miniscule amounts of material could be hauled from Asia to Europe. For example, all the successful westbound U-boat cargoes combined amounted to less than a single blockade runner could carry, and that total of 611 tons equaled only "...0.58 per cent of the 104,552 tons shipped by the surface blockade-breakers."

   Ultimately it is perhaps fair to say that Doenitz had little interest in the Indian Ocean until the war situation had passed the windows of opportunity which had once been open. The Atlantic struggle had taken precedence until he was forced to admit defeat in 1943. By then it was already too late in the Indian Ocean as well, and, with no cards left to play, the Monsun boats faded into history's footnotes despite the best valiant efforts of dedicated men.

   Paterson rounds out his work with a nice selection of photos and two useful appendices, one listing all U-boat sailings (including failed attempts) to and from the Indian Ocean and Asia, and the other listing all cargo and passengers carried by U-boats between the two continents.
   A number of books have already dealt in part with U-boats in the Indian Ocean, notably L.C.F. Turner's classic War in the Southern Oceans, A Submariners' War: The Indian Ocean, 1939-45 by Michael Wilson, Hans-Joachim Krug's Reluctant Allies, Hitler's U-Boat War by Clay Blair, and even Martin Brice's Axis Blockade Runners, but Lawrence Paterson has produced the most complete account of that topic to date. Despite occasionally writing himself into a corner (such as his awkward speculation about Paulau Jerejak as a U-boat base) and making a few minor errors (such as slightly misplacing the Malacca Strait and consistently referring to the colony of Malaya by the name of the larger post-war nation, Malaysia), the author mostly does a good job of maintaining a high level of interest and excitement while explaining a wide range of events in the Indian Ocean and along its shores. Readers can not only see the broader strategic picture, they can also—thanks to countless vivid details—feel the agony of each freighter and submarine lost at sea. Quite a good story, and Paterson tells it well.
   Recommended.
   Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from Stackpole Books.
   Thanks to Stackpole for providing this review copy.