A leading British naval authority looks at the declining fortunes of the once invincible U-boat arm of the German Navy that had seriously threatened the Allies with defeat in the early years of World War II. To tell the story he focuses on U-223, commanded by Karl-Jurgen Waether and commissioned in Kiel in January 1943. The submarine's murderous fourteen-month career, which ended dramatically in the Mediterranean in March 1944 is fully examined, and its exploits viewed in the wider context of the time.