Brings dramatically to life the nature of the combat between the hunter and hunted at sea, roles that could switch at the drop of a depth charge or the flick of a button to launch a torpedo.Includes the history of the unique four-rota Enigma machine used for communication on board German submarines.U-boat crews considered themselves an elite and they preferred to scuttle their boats at the end of the war rather than surrender. They also suffered the heaviest losses of any branch of the German armed forces: out of 40,000 men, more than 30,000 were killed. By 1945, the average age was 19 and the survival rate was three missions.The fascinating story of the realities behind naval strategy in World War II. During World War I, German U-boats had been the most effective naval weapon against the Allies and without America's entry into the war in 1917 Britain could have been starved into surrender. Hitler's accession to power led to the rapid development of numerous military projects, including provision for submarines. Interestingly, the German navy was the branch of the German armed forces with the highest proportion of Nazis and Nazi sympathizers. And this is the story of their part in the war, focusing in particular on the role of the wolf pack of U-boats in the Atlantic, whose stealthy presence beneath the waves ensured that British merchant ships were dicing with death every time they put out to sea. Read Less