| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Books |
| Genre: | Literature & Fiction |
| Author: | Lothar-Gunther Buchheim |
Cassell Military Paperbacks Edition 2002
563 pages
I first encountered the German phrase Das Boot way back when I was probably still in grade school as I was perusing through some of dad's books and magazines on military history. Dad told me that it was a movie about life aboard a German U-Boat during World War II.Since I never got around to watching that movie and thought little of since since then.
However, as my luck would have it, I stumbled upon a copy amongst the "on-sale" shelves in Bridges Bookstore at VMall. It wasn't really in bad shape, and at 100Php, I felt that it was a bargain!
The title literally mans "The Boat" in German. It tells the story from the point of view of a naval war corespondent assigned aboard a German submarine as it goes underway on patrol, responding to orders from U-boat HQ to intercept and attack Allied shipping convoys.
Buchheim served as a lieutenant on minesweepwers, destroyers, and submarines during the war, and offers vivid descriptions of the claustrophobic underwater madhouse that is home to a crew of 50.
Although the story itself is a work of fiction, the level of realism gives one a good picture of what went on in the belly of the ship, and more interestinly, what raced through the minds of the crew as they lived out their lives underneath the waves, being away from shore for months at a time.
The story opens at a bar in France near a port where the U-boats are docked. After their last night of merrymaking before going out to sea, the U-boat and her crew are finally underway. The narrator tells it like it is; the long boring trek out to open sea, the dangers of the Atlantic storms, the cat-and-mouse games played by submarines and surface ships, and the grim realities confronted by the crew when disasters strike within an enclosed metal tube travelling deep beneath the waves.
The book's cover proudly proclaims "one of the best novels written about war", and it dosen't disappoint. I've read my fair share of war books thanks to my dad's rather extensive collection. I've read a biography on the great Manfred von Richtoffen, the dreaded "Red Baron" German flying ace of World War 1, an autobiography of the "Blond Knight of Germany" Erich Hartmann, who I believe was the most sucessful German ace during World War II, having been credited with around 250+ aerial victories, another autobiographty entitled "Stuka Pilot" written by the ace dive-bomber during the time (forgot his name), plus a host of other war stories, most of which are as aunthentic as they come because dad shied away from buying fictional accounts as much as posible.
This book is definitely a must-read for any military enthusiast, especially those that enjoy reading about the World Wars. Not a book for kids, it contains a sprinkling of cuss words, graphic descriptions of disfiguring injuries, and tall-tales about sailors' visits to the local whorehouses at their ports of call. =P
No comments:
Post a Comment