TORPEDO LOS! U-Boats in the Battle of the Atlantic Volume 1: 1939–1941

By late 1941, as all signs pointed to the United States' imminent entry into the war, the British were only beginning to recover after suffering catastrophic losses against the "Grey Wolves" that Admiral Dönitz continued to send in wolf packs against their convoys.

Xavier Tracol, managing editor of the magazine LOS!, revisits this extraordinary confrontation by examining its various political, economic, technological, strategic and tactical dimensions. He offers a comprehensive overview of the longest naval campaign of the Second World War: the Battle of the Atlantic.

This volume focuses on the evolution of the German submarine arm between 1939 and 1941, a period during which it accumulated successes while the seeds of its future failures were already being sown. The author begins by tracing its participation in the Great War, then its clandestine rebirth during the 1920s and 1930s. He also takes care to explain in detail, through dedicated sections, how crews were trained, how submarines were fitted out, what life on board was like, and what role the famous Enigma machine played in the Battle of the Atlantic.
A second volume covering the period 1942–1945 is already in preparation.

Maps, profiles (U-Boote and aircraft), period photographs and technical diagrams illustrate this richly detailed text, complemented by 3D infographics of the principal submarine types in service during this phase of the conflict.