Hitler's U-boats fired some of the first shots of the Second World War, going on to threaten the Allies' maritime life lines until the very end of the fighting in Europe. Indeed, the Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign of the war. Not for nothing did Winston Churchill once state that, The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril. I was even more anxious about this battle than I had been about the glorious air fight called the Battle of Britain.'

The Allies, however, fought back ferociously against the U-boats - as the losses recorded here by the renowned German naval historian Dr Axel Niestl testify. No other publication on this subject comes even close to including the amount of detail provided in this book. An introduction both summarizes previous works on the subject and describes the difficulties of obtaining and verifying information from either the Germans or the Allies on U-boat losses.

The main part of the book lists by hull number each U-boat's date of commissioning, its commanding officer, and the date and port of departure for its last patrol. It also gives the date, position, and cause of loss of each submarine, with complete details on Allied units involved in the sinking, the names and ranks of their commanding officers and pilots, and the number of crew killed or rescued.