AN absolutely excellent book. Right up there with Guy Sajer's "Forgotten Soldier" except of course this is how it was at (or Under?) sea during WWII. Easy reading and fast moving one becomes acquainted with life on a u-boat. The terrible food and living conditions - can you imagine how those poor people stank when they returned to port? Also of great interest is what they did ashore, the drinking (who can blame them?), the girls and the crayfish followed by the terror of depth charges, bombs, failing equipment and the threat of imminent death. Although there is a short epilogue of how Werner escaped and returned to Germany after the war one is left wondering what happened in his life thereafter. the kindle edition gives no reference to the original publication date (Something for future inclusion?). I recommend this book to anyone interested in WWII, u-boats, psychology or even as an adventure story.

Being a former Submariner I am fascinated at how the men in WWII were able to live and fight in such adverse conditions. Werner makes you feel as if you were there and could smell the stench of rotting food stores and feel the terror of the depth charges. One thing that I found particularly interesting, was the German political machine that kept the hopes up of the U-boat captains with new weapons and new U-boats that never really materialized. At the end you really get a feel for Werner's contempt of his superiors that kept ordering the unesecarry deaths of his friends by sending them out on suicide missions.

Paints are very vivid picture of what life was like as a German Naval officer through the good years and the not so good years. Since reading this book I have visited the U-505 display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, IL (highly recommended, make sure to get tickets for the behind the scenes tour). Back to the book...if you want to know what is was like to be crammed in one those coffins then read this book. If you have any interest at all in military history I can't imagine that you will not thoroughly enjoy this book.

What a unique and exciting story Herbert Werner has, and against all odds, he lived to tell about it. Iron Coffins is the story of Herbert Werner, beginning as an ensign aboard German u-boats (German submarines during World War II), chronicling his move up the ranks to finally captain a number of u-boats during the most deadly time of the war during which only about 15% of boats sent out on a mission even came back. He is probably the only one that could have told such a story because everybody else died. Time after time, against all odds, Herbert somehow survives when nobody else does. I won't spoil the ending for you, but the epilogue is just as exciting as the story, telling of Herbert's internment and many escape attempts in Allied camps after the German surrender.

His story parallels the success and then defeat of the German military during WWII. I have read a number of WWII books, but never from solely the German perspective. The book was an excellent read simply for the perspective.

The story is amazing, and it is very well-told. I could not put it down and finished the 388 pages in about a week and a half.

KINDLE NOTE: I read this on my kindle and was very disappointed in the quality of the image scans. There are apparently a number of helpful images and maps in the paper-and-ink version of the book that did not come through well at all in the Kindle version. For this reason, you might want to consider getting a physical version instead of the kindle version of Iron Coffins.

If you are finding yourself getting a little tired of the "band of brothers" and "combat" type Hollywood betrayal of WWII villains and war logistics then you really need to check out this book. Iron Coffins is not about war strategies and war technologies or politics it's about how men respond to war and what motivates men toward war, and it's quite amazing.

I did some research on German U-Boats prior to ordering this book and have a hardback in excellant condition. It is wonderful, without going into great detail all I can say is this is very well written, keeps the attention of the reader and you keep turning page after page wanting to find out what is going to happen. If you enjoy submarine warfare from the German side, please read, it is well worth it.

Any history buff will enjoy this book, well written . The old U boats had a certain mystique; even though they were dangerous and often unsafe to serve in they had prestige, sailors were eager to serve in the u boat service. Iron coffins tells about the danger, glory and horror of warfare in the North Sea and elsewhere.

Intruiging, amazing, and really catching. I couldn't set this book down until I finished it. A great book for any ww2 buff, or simply a submarine fan. Amazing writing.

This book really should be made available as a hardback edition. The book is printed unfortunately in paperback. The author's work, pictures, and his story must be better preserved than in this book version. You will get beyond this situation though, in the telling of the story, which is so extremely well done that this book is a must read for those who did not have this experience. The story of the U-boats and the crews that manned them should be remembered by those who enjoy the freedoms that so many in so many contries take for granted today.

THis is the first U-Boat memoir written in English and the first to reach a mass audience. It was originally published in 1972. Herbert Werner immigrated to America after the war and became an American citizen. As of this writing, he is still alive. While researching my novel, AN HONORABLE GERMAN, which is available for presale on Amazon and is being released in May, I read almost every U-Boat memoir ever written. THis is one of the best because of the detailed way in whih the author recounts both his life in the UBoatwaffe and life in the Third Reich during WW II. I first read this book in 1972, when I was high school and was fascinated with it. Werner says in his memoirs that he was ordered by his Flotilla Commander, who had received the order from Doenitz, to ram any Allied ship in the English Channel on D-Day thus sending the men on a suicide mission. The men of the U-Boatwaffe who survived the war, quickly divided into pro-Doenitz and anti-Doenitz factions. Many claimed this order was never given but Werner was in the room and received the order and those who said he never could have received such an order weren't there. So Werner became persona non gratia among the veterans of the UBoat fleet for both that accusation and for his condemnation of how Doenitz had sent all of his friends and himself to die, knowing full well that their UBoats were obsolete. It is hard not to agree with Werner's conclusion. In spite of the image created by so many that Doenitz was a good guy he was actually a vicious anti-Semite, an ardent Nazi and, according to Professor Peter Padfield's biography of him, Doernitz was present at the conference in Poland in 1943 where Himmler briefed the highest ehechelons of the party and the government and the armed forces about the murder of European Jewry. Doenitz should have been hanged at Nuremberg. This memoir has a bitter edge to it because the author's family and almost all of his classmates and friends died in the war. After learning about the death camps, the idea that he and others had fought for such a criminal regieme made him ill. The edge of bitterness gives this memoir a much stronger and more forceful tone than any other of the memoirs and I think Werner is one of the most credible sources of life in the UBoatwaffe. Given that he was so bitterly critisized by many of his fellows when the book was published, one can only think that he was right in what he said. If you are going to read one U-Boat memoir, this is the one to read. I would add the caveat which is useful when reading all memoirs: this is a book about what the author remembers as true and not exactly what was true.

Revolutions of religious faith excepted, no set of events ever resulted in greater changes to human civilization than did those of the Second World War. Within the context of the war, the Battle of the Atlantic was among the most important of those events. Had the allies lost that campaign, the very outcome of the war might have been different.

That battle was waged primarily by the German U-boat (submarine) fleet against Allied freighters, carrying men and materiel to Britain, and their protective escort ships and planes.

Mr. Werner, a mid-level German field officer for most of the events described in the book, offers an historical perspective of that conflict that no academic could hope to match or even approximate. The most remarkable part of the book to me was not the numerous descriptions of sea battles, (although these certainly were riveting) but of the social dynamics between Werner and those around him as he does what he can to prevail in the War. Some of his activities described strike a 21st century person such as myself as mildly ignoble and inappropriate. Later in the story, however, insights are discovered as to how the impossible pressures of combat danger make these proclivities understandable, even admirable. I was initially critical of Mr. Werner because I had no conception of the life he faced during the years chronicled here. Coming to even a limited understanding of this man via his book was a remarkable epiphany, and I was well rebuked in hindsight.

Most of the WWII veterans have passed on now. My own father, who fought in the Pacific theater, is now 87. We often see surveys that show younger Americans cannot identify the USA's allies and enemies during the conflict, nor when it was fought. For any parents concerned about this trend, put this book in your children's hands. Once they start, they'll want to finish, and maybe a generation's grasp of a vital history will endure at least a little longer.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

And there are alot out there. This is superb, I could not put it down. I will read it again someday. Sledge's "With the Old Breed" is slightly better, but that is splitting hairs. If you have to buy 2 books on WW2, get these 2.

This is a very well written account or Commander Werner's life durring WWII from an ensign in the German Navy to Commander of his own UBOAT. From the best times of the war for Germany to the fall of Germany. Werner's entire journey through the war as told from the perspective of a navy man serving on a German Uboat. It also gets into his personal life a bit, family etc. He even has a run in with the Gestapo, I would highly recomend this book to anyone who appreciates history and a perspective from the German side of the war. The uboat tactics are very intresting as well.

I was a bit biased about the view from the other side. I was told that the Germans considered anything on this side of the Atlantic to be American, such as Newfoundland,Nova Scotia,Canadian destroyers & Corvettes,etc...all American apparently. Despite most of the warships in the North Atlantic (after 1942) being Canadian, the Germans rebadged them as American. I guess they found some common ground with America after all. I just couldn't identify with the story. The books about the Tang, Wahoo, etc were far more entertaining. Anyway, still not a bad book.

this book at times stretches credibility,it almost seems like a work of fiction because of the numerous hairline escapes of Werner.When he was interviewed at the end of the war even the British post war interviewers couldn't believe his miraculous escapes of the subhunters.With the British domination in the field of electronic warfare,the Germans might as well have pumped embalming fluid in with the fuel oil of their,"Iron Coffins".then as if the tale isn't already stretched beyond believability, he has even more narrow escapes from numerous prisoner of war camps at the end of the book.The detail of the tales however make the book credible and entertaining,maybe a higher power allowed Werner's escapes in order for him to write this book.Unknown to Werner when he wrote the book and unknown to WW2 Uboat commanders,the confidential command communications between German U-boats was compromised in 1943,by the British cracking the Germans'Enigma code.U-boat operation locations were known to British subhunters simultaneously with the German command. There almost couldn't be another reason behind Werner's phenominal luck(although he was undoubtedly a skilled professional).So get ready for a tale of shattering nerves and physical pain(as one of the captains'crew chiefs can't keep the submarine trimmed and the vacuum from the snorkel send the submariners popped eyes and shattered eardrums.Still some of the accounts of Werner's survival of the depth charges and aircraft attacks stretch credibility.

this book at times stretches credibility,it almost seems like a work of fiction because of the numerous hairline escapes of Werner.When he was interviewed at the end of the war even the British post war interviewers couldn't believe his miraculous escapes of the subhunters.then as if the tale isn't already stretched beyond believability, he has even more narrow escapes from numerous prisoner of war camps at the end of the book.The detail of the tales however make the book credible and entertaining,maybe a higher power allowed Werner's escapes in order for him to write this book.Unknown to Werner when he wrote the book and unknown to WW2 Uboat commanders,the confidential command communications between German U-boats was compromised in 1943,by the British cracking the Germans'Enigma code.U-boat operation locations were known to British subhunters simultaneously with the German command. There almost couldn't be another reason behind Werner's phenominal luck(although he was undoubtedly a skilled professional).So get ready for a tale of shattering nerves and physical pain(as one of the captains'crew chiefs can't keep the submarine trimmed and the vacuum from the snorkel send the submariners popped eyes and shattered eardrums.

this book at times stretches credibility,it almost seems like a work of fiction because of the numerous hairline escapes of Werner.When he was interviewed at the end of the war even the British post war interviewers couldn't believe his miraculous escapes of the subhunters.then as if the tale isn't already stretched beyond believability, he has even more narrow escapes from numerous prisoner of war camps at the end of the book.The detail of the tales however make the book credible and entertaining,maybe a higher power allowed Werner's escapes in order for him to write this book.There almost couldn't be another reason behind Werner's phenominal luck(although he was undoubtedly a skilled professional).So get ready for a tale of shattering nerves and physical pain(as one of the captains'crew chiefs can't keep the submarine trimmed and the vacuum from the snorkel send the submariners popped eyes and shattered eardrums.

An exciting memoir by a submariner of WW II, spanning the time from the hayday to the demise of the formidable U-boats. An engrossing read that you simply can not put down.

Mr. Werner gives a great book to the reading public of being a submarnier in the German WWII Kreigsmarine. It's an excellent read. Indeed, this book was used as sort of a template for the fair German WWII movie "Das Boot"

Mr. Werner covers the highly technical training he first received in the Kreigsmarine as a cadet. He writes about living in pre-war Germany, a very nice place to live. When he gets his commission and becomes an ensign in the Kreigsmarine his luck is with him and he's assigned to one of the best commanders in the Germany Navy.

Mr. Werner's tale covers the three distinct periods of German's WWII time line. First, he writes of the early successes and victories where a single U-boat would sink 18K to 30K of shipping in a single sorte. Note, while Pearl Harbor was a military disaster for the USA the German U-boats sank dozens of ships in a single month. Mr. Werner was an intregal member of this highly effective team.

The one part of Mr. Werner's book that rings true is the turning of the war in the period of March to May of 1943. In that time frame nearly 100 German U-boats were sunk. In one harrowing patrol their submarine saw no ships and spent all its time being bombed, straffed, or debth charged.

The last part of the book deals with the destruction of the U-boat arm and Germany. Basically, everything goes into destruction for Germany. The new generation U-boats are too far and too few to change anything. The new torpedos are too few to really matter.

Mr. Weiner wrote this book and, at the time, didn't know the allies had captured all the German submarine Enigma coding equipment. The Allies were decoding the submarine messages faster than the Germans themselves in WWII. One reason - discoved by accident - that Mr. Weirner's U-boat crew lives is he starts ignoring his orders and does not report in as required by his command. He is not repremanded. Why? On one German war patrol seven boats are sent out and only one returns. The staff actually has a rare celebration that once submarine actually returned.

Mr. Weiner only makes one mistake in his book. American B-24 bombers make his life miserable in the Atlantic ocean. It's British Lancaster bombers that attack his U-boat pens at Brest, France. Since both aircraft look very similar it's an easy mistake to make. Anyway, the Lancaster's bombs are ineffective against the pens but the Liberators are very deadly in the opean ocean.

I highly recommend this book to any student of WWII or just to the average WWII reader. Mr. Weiner went forth to do the job that was given to him. He does it well. After the period of May 1943 it's all he can do just to stay alive.

This book is a five star book and is one of the better stories of survival in WWII

This book blew me away. I started my adventure into submarine warfare by reading about the USS Tang, Wahoo, etc., and the US Pacific Submarine Campaign. I decided to buy this book to see how the "other side" conducted their U-Boat war in the Atlantic. From start to finish, this book was well worth the money.

There are many things compelling about this book - and I am sure other reviewers will talk about them - but the biggest single thing to me was that the author actually wrote about his feelings and experiences inside and outside of the submarine. Claiming to not be a Nazi (he enlisted in the navy because he loved to sail and loved his country), his experiences are heartwrenching and paint a picture of what it was like to be a soldier (and citizen) of a nation that was losing a war when the leaders cared more about protecting thier myth than the lives of their soliders.

To me, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", the "Fall of Berlin" and this book are three of the must reads of WWII. That way you can get a very educational and factual glimpse inside the mindset of the country that allowed Hitler to take over; the battle that effectively ended the Reich and resulted in Germany being torn apart for 40 years; and a very personal account of how a soldier watched everything he knew disappear.

Buy it. You won't be disappointed.

El libro captura tu atención desde las primeras lineas; cualquier persona, entendida en materia de unidades sumergibles o no, encontrará una perfecta combinación en referencias técnicas (claramente explicadas), historia y una increíblemente detallada y fascinante descripción de los eventos, tanto a bordo del submarino como en tierra. El Capitán Werner, en su prólogo, refiere que su intención es compartir su experiencia personal y poner en buen lugar algunas cosas que fueron dichas por gente que debió estar mejor informada: Sencillamente logra con creces su objetivo.

Great book, you really feel like you are right there down
in the submarine with the cramped quarters, sweat and
depth charges raining down on you. You come away with
a new found respect for the u-boat submariners and
a betterunderstanding of how the u-boat warefare
progressed and then collapsed.

Anyone who has read more than one first-person account of submarine warfare in WWII will find this book interesting. It was written by one of three U-Boat captains who survived the war. It confirms that the German High Command never realized the Allies were reading their Ultra signals. It demonstrates that Germany's failure to introduce new types of submarines caused Germany's demise. It reveals Donitz's relation to his men, superb, aloof, aristocratic. It includes many hair-raising exploits, such as the mining of Chesapeake Bay. It establishes that the crash depth of U-Boats was at least 270 meters. And it's written in very good English, since the author emigrated to the U. S. after the war. Of particular interest is the author's treatment as a P.O.W. The French were as vicious and vindictive as Germans, coercing men to serve in the Foreign Legion under threat of starvation.

This book portrays a resourceful man overcoming challenges where failure brought death. What Robert J. Casey (the first correspondent to go on patrol with a U. S. submarine) said about American boats applies to U-Boats as well, "The most impressive thing about these submarines was the men in them, and the most impressive man on board was the Captain." As this book shows, the same was true for U-Boats.

This is a wonderful book. It really connects you with what it was like to be on a WWII U-Boat (pretty harrowing). It also shows how much the home port changes each time the author returns. Gala celebrations early on changing to little to no reception later and bombed out facilities.

First off, it should be noted that Capt. Werner beat the odds. He survived to tell his tale. 80% of his fellow submariners would perish under the waves as in the later years of the war each mission was essentially a suicide mission. One of these "ramming" suicide missions was even ordered of his boat in the weeks after D-Day, and incredibly, some of his fellow sailors on other submarines would die following these orders.

Werner's odyssey began when, on his first mission, the U-230 got stuck on the ocean floor and the crew spent 16 hours jettisoning water and weight out the torpedo tubes, and then ran from one end to the other to rock the boat free. So started his career. The number of close calls he and his ship would encounter over the course of the war, and survive, is equivalent to winning a lottery. Werner and crew had lady luck on their side at times, but many other escapes were a direct result of his competence and the crews bravery. It is a fascinating tale. The new radar that submarines employed in 1942 was later discovered to be acting like a homing beacon for allied aircraft, leading to the deaths of many crews from giving away their position before this error was discovered and fixed. By 1943 the Allies had prefected their hunt and destroy tactics so that many of these subs were unable to escape when their positions were verified. Many, many last reports from Werners classmates and fellow submariners were received onboard the U-230 before they went down with the loss of all hands. These haunting messages were continually relayed to Werner and his sub and somehow this man was able to keep from being part of the majority of brave sailors who died an anonymous death in the deep waters of the Atlantic ocean.

Simply an unforgettable book to read. One of the finest first person accounts of WWII that I have read to date. Ranks right up there with the works of Guy Sajer and Eugene Sledge.

Definitely one of the best books I have read on naval warfare during the second world war. The author has a great style of writing and his thrilling accounts of U-Boat combat demands the readers interest from beginning to end. The book almost serves as a metaphor for the war itself - recounting the rise and dominance of Nazi Germany and then the tide turning in the allies favour in 1943. Men of this caliber (regardless of nationality) deserve a healthy measure of respect. A gripping story (and sometimes very candid) and by all accounts well reccomended.

I first read this book many years ago and was impressed with the story telling, it was easy to ready and the history pure. What stuck with me most is how you can follow Werner emotions as a human and his growth as a leader of men. He deals not only with tails of war, but of leading of sailors, dealing with issues that arise when leading men under great stress; dicipline, family issues, and love. This is a great and informative read.

The only books which can fit in a category with this book are "Rommel's Letters" and Julio Ceasar's Diaries.

Incredible how this man survived. You could argue that he must have hidden himself or avoid direct combat but the fact is he operated as a Captain only the last few months of the war, which means he was at the mercy of other captains mistakes for most of his career, you can tell how different he was at the end, when after being captured twice he still managed to scape the Prisoners' camp and the French Legion men. He was a born survivor.

I recomend this book to anyone how really wants to learn about U-Boat warfare from a Proffesional point of view not from a fancy writer.

One thing i learned "Time works only for us" these words were told to Werner by an American Pilot who was captured, The pilot was not kidding. Though Germany possesed a tremendus technological capacity it lacked TIME to make it a reality, to that you add the fact as Werner says it in the last chapter, the fact that the high command was full of Pretty boys in Fancy uniforms who produced nothing at all to make those technologies available to the sea wolves.

Again and Again you find this truth which led to final defeat of german forces in Rommel's letters who spend the last days on African fighting the brittish and americans under montgomery without bullets, fuel and new armored tanks. What was incredible is how much Headacke Rommel gave the allies even without supplies, you can imagine if hitler had supplied him properly what the outcome in africa would have been; For Montgomery was not a a great captain like Rommel, only a lucky one.

This is one of the top first person accounts of WWII action-any branch of service-any nationality. Despite the fact that this is an English translation from German,the style is extemely readable and the action extremely gripping. Werner's perspective is also extremely unusual for several reasons. The biggest is his survival. He fought from the very beginning to the bitter end of the war. The chances of any sort of front line fighter surviving more than a couple of battles was minuscule. So Werner's perspective is unusal in the fact that it intimately covers so much time in the thick of action. Second,because Werner was stationed in France and the trains were intact to Germany thru the war, Werner is able to describe French and German civilians and their reaction to the war thru a 6 year period. Particularily interesting is his tales of French prostitution. Because he was able to take frequent leave between missions back to Germany, he has contact with many different fighters from the different branches of service and he describes their reactions to the war.But the defeat comes and Werner is involved in an even more astonishing adventure-his decomission from the Navy and his crazy return trip home.That is a tale on it's own! And when you reach the final page,you still want to know more about Werner's story. What happen to him in post-war Germany? Really,it's a great book.

This author commanded a series of German U-Boats throughout WW2 and this is his own personal story. The photographs are also from his own personal collection and are, therefore, unlikely to have been published elsewhere. The Maps, however, could so easily be improved.

In Part One of this book, Herbert Werner takes the reader through the glorious years of success after success for both Germany and her U-Boat offensive. In Part Two, however, we reach that turning point in the war which he aptly describes as "Above us Hell." Finally, Part 3 is equally effectively described as "Disaster to Defeat."

An interesting and well written account of the U-Boat war of WW2 - not only because the author actually took part, but also because he was fortunate enough to survive that war and relive his experiences so that we might read and learn.

NM.