Rohwer, Jurgen. (with special assistance from Miss J.S. Kay and I.N. Venkov) Allied Submarine Attacks of World War Two: European Theatre of Operations, 1939-1945. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1997.

ISBN 1-55750-038-X
252 pages

Preface; Introduction and Acknowledgments; Explanatory Notes; Index of Submarines; Index of Commanding Officers; Index of Ships Attacked.

Jurgen Rohwer is a veteran of Kriegsmarine destroyers and minesweepers and an internationally renowned naval historian with several critically acclaimed books to his credit, including his magnificent and indispensable Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939-1945 (with Gerhard Hummelchen). Also among his accomplishments is Axis Submarine Successes, 1939-1945, covering all the successful attacks (not necessarily sinkings) by German, Finnish, Vichy French, Italian, Japanese, and Rumanian boats. John Alden's U.S. Submarine Attacks during World War II -- additionally covering attacks by other Allied submarines (British and Dutch) in the Pacific (but not elsewhere) -- comprises the second installment of this set. This latest book completes the trilogy.

In the new book, Professor Dr. Rohwer unveils the complete record of every attack by Allied submarines (American, British, French, Greek, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, and Soviet) in the European Theatre of Operations as well as Soviet attacks against Japanese shipping in the final days of the Pacific war (as these were not available for Alden's volume). The tale of how he came into possession of such detailed records is interesting in its own right, and told in the Introduction.

   Since the end of the Second World War I have been trying to collect data about the fates, and especially the losses, of German warships, U-boats, auxiliaries and merchant ships. The data was first compiled using information from the Hamburg 'Navy House', the Headquarters of the German Minesweeping Administration, and the Allied office responsible for notifying relatives of the deaths of personnel who had died in combat....
   While it was possible, with the documentary material they provided, to compare in most cases the attack reports made by German ships and U-boats with the Allied losses, a similar comparison of the German losses with Allied attack reports initially proved more difficult. Moreover, because on the Axis side not only German but also Italian and many former enemy and neutral ships were lost or damaged, it was necessary to obtain the published lists of the losses from these countries which appeared from the late 1940s to the mid 1950s....
   Thus I began in the mid-1950s to collect data about Allied submarine attacks to compare them with the losses and damage reports on the Axis side....
   I originally intended to include details of the submarine war against Japanese shipping in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.... However, when I learned about the work of John D. Alden on US Submarine Attacks during World War II, a companion volume to my Axis Submarine Successes, I was glad to abandon this part of my project-- which in any case had been put to one side from the mid-1960s because of pressure of work and also because it remained difficult to obtain the necessary British and Soviet data....
   ...In 1993 Colonel Venkov provided me with copies of the three volumes of the History of Soviet Submarine Operations, prepared by a team under Vice-Admiral G.I. Shchedrin in 1969-1970 and containing a complete list of all torpedo attacks with very detailed information.... Work on Allied Submarine Attacks could resume.
   Now it was necessary to obtain details of British submarine activities, which up to this time were also inaccessible to the private individual. ...I was asked to get in touch with Miss J.S. Kay in London, who had for many years worked on British submarine operations. Such was her generosity that it was at last possible to complete the listings for British submarines; details in this book are to a great extent based on her findings.
   ...
   I know that a book such as this is never without error or omission, and I therefore ask all readers who find discrepancies to send me a note so that changes can be made.

The author's findings are presented in tabular format, divided into five main geographical sections (Arctic; Norway, North Sea and Biscay; Baltic; Black Sea; Mediterranean) and a brief section on Soviet actions in the Pacific. Each section commences with a delineation of its geographical boundaries and a review of research sources. Each attack, as in the previous two books, is then presented in chronological sequence on a single line of carefully coded and condensed data. The key to this presentation is explained in the front of the book.

Column 1: Date and time at start of attack, according to submarine.

Column 2: Nationality of submarine.

Column 3: Number or name of sub.

Column 4: Name of sub's skipper.

Column 5: Type of target as reported by sub. Dozens of these, ranging from battleship to yacht.

Column 6: Tonnage of target as reported by sub.

Column 7: Reported result. Codes ranging from "sunk" to "taken as prize". For example, + means sunk and = means damaged.

Column 8: Weapon used. Torpedoes, deck gun, ramming, etc.

Column 9: Position of attack as reported by submarine.

Column 10: Date and time at start of attack, according to attacked vessel.

Column 11: Nationality of target. Over 20 listed.

Column 12: Type of ship attacked.

Column 13: Name of ship attacked.

Column 14: Tonnage of ship attacked.

Column 15: Actual result of attack

Column 16: Position of attack as reported by the target.

Column 17: Reference number for further notes given below.

Here are a couple of entries as examples. (The lines may run off your browser's window, but you should be able to scroll to the right.)

MEDITERRANEAN: DECEMBER 1941
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
14/0859	br	URGE	Tomkinson	BB	23600	=	-T	37 53N/ 15 29E	14/1000	it	BB	Vittorio Veneto	41167	=	Capo dell'Arm	11
14/1952	br	TALISMAN	Willmott	SS		=	A	34 05N/25 39E	14/	dt	SS	U561	769	=		12
11 Urge claimed a Cavour class battleship. 12 Talisman attacked U561 with her 4in gun, causing slight damage.

Rohwer's new book is a strict and unadorned but fascinating database; more than that, it's a wonderful addition to the body of precisely quantified knowledge required to make informed judgments about submarine operations, the larger naval war, and the course of the war as a whole.

Available from mail order booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from NIP.

Thanks to Naval Institute Press for providing this review copy.