U-Boat Ace: The Story of Wolfgang Lüth

By Jordan Vause

Book Overview

Luth's paradoxical career reveals a ruthless ace who mingled mercy with brutality in war at sea.

Wolfgang Luth was one of only seven men to win Germany's highest combat decoration. He operated in almost every theater of the undersea war from Norway to the Indian Ocean and he was the second most successful German U-boat ace in World War II. Luth is credited with sinking 47 Allied ships and a submarine - a record topped only by Otto Kretschmer. In 1944, after 16 war patrols, including one that lasted a record 203 days at sea, he was named the youngest Commandant of the German Naval Academy at age 30.

Until the publication of this comprehensive study his accomplishments were overshadowed by other aces, to correct the neglect, Jordan Vause provides an entertaining, authoritative biography. Vause was intrigued after seeing a portrait of Luth as a midshipman on display and set out to learn all he could, tracking down some of Luth's crewmen and fellow U-boat commanders. He draws on their firsthand information and a variety of written documents to provide a fascinating character analysis. In doing so, he encapsulates the paradoxes inherent in so many German submarine commanders, men spawned by the Nazi regime yet not entirely of it. Vause portrays Luth as a man of contradictions: an agent Nazi ideologue who could bend the rules for a slack sailor, a U-boat ace who could treat survivors of his attacks with clemency but then impetuously gun down other victims in cold blood. Even his best friend admitted that Luth had no remorse for the misery he inflicted on the crews of sunken ships. On the night of May 13th 1945 he was accidentally shot and killed by a German sentry. On May 16th 1945 he was given the Third Reich's last state funeral.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1784382744
• ISBN13: 9781784382742
• Release Date: March 2021
• Publisher: Greenhill Books
• Length: 233 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Great book

Wonderful book. Like am history buff and writing a book on the WWII navies and this book helped alot.

Not what I expected

This is not the typical memoir of a U-boat commander. The ending was the most surprising of all. It was an interesting study of leadership and motivation.

fast mooving and smooth.

another u-boat captain book,Luth's u-boat survival of the war depended a great deal on his skill,but there are instances here where you realize there was some luck involved as well. An even better source of luck was that he was assigned a section of the south Atlantic,and African waters where his prey was not often as heavily protected as was were convoys in the North Atlantic.Luth's patrols were mainly "lone wolf" type guerilla attacks on isolated cargo ships,not the suicidal wolfpack attacks that were sure to bring on lots of task force boats.You can't help but draw from the book that the thirty year Luth was a by-product of the post WW1 Versailles Treaty outrage against Germany.His resentment as well as his crew run deep,methodically shinking ships like shooting mechanical ducks at a carnival.Not deliberately cruel but with a firm belief that it's either "us or them".When reading this book it would help to have a little knowledge of the "War Reparations"clause in the Versailles treaty,it would make for boring reading but,it will make the Luth story more enriching.

This is a worthwhile read

This book is a great read. The writing style is concise, and it makes it easy to get involved with a facinating (and true) story. Wolfgang Luth went on long range patrols to Southern Africa, notched up many sinkings, and was popular with his men. What comes across with this book is the personality of Wolfgang Luth himself. He didn't have a large ego, and is not as well known as other U-boat aces, but through this book seems far more interesting than the others U Boat Captains, and was more successful. He could be laid back with his men, other times encouraging them to get married, or poke fun at himself, was utterly fearless, and other times shot hundreds of shells into ships without reason. The book makes one consider the morality of his actions, and yet also gives a front row seat to an interesting U Boat career, and tragic end. This is a good book.

Friends of mine who served with Kapitan Luth on U 181.

I have read this book and it is an excellently done story on Kapitan zur See, Wolfgang Luth. This man Took charge of the Uboat U 181 and had an excellent crew serving with him. This book is almost as good as "Shooting The War" by Otto Giese. It held my attention which was fully rivited to the pages as I read them, as Otto Giese's book did to me. This book is THAT well done, and I will buy several extra copies of it to send to all 8 of the surviving U 181 vets. Its a shame that Otto Giese, U 181's 2nd Watch officer under Luth, recently passed away as well as three other U 181 comrades. The living members of U 181 will absolutely love this book and will think of it as a work of art. As I do have the priviledge of knowing all the surviving vets, I know they will enjoy adding a copy of this book to their libraries as they have done so with Otto Giese's book. Soon to be another book on U 181 by vet/friend, Bernhard Trenn.