Steel Boat Iron Hearts, Hans Goebeler
Steel Boat Iron Hearts, Hans Goebeler
List: $16.99 | Sale: $11.89
Club: $8.49

Steel Boat Iron Hearts
A U-boat Crewman's Life Aboard U-505

Author: Hans Goebeler, John Vanzo

Narrator: Norman Dietz

Unabridged: 11 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/31/2016

Synopsis

Using his own experiences, log books, and correspondence with other U-boat crewmen, Hans Goebeler offers rich and personal details about what life was like in the German Navy under Hitler. Since his first and last posting was to U-505, Goebeler's perspective of the crew, commanders, and war patrols paints a vivid and complete portrait unlike any other to come out of the Kriegsmarine. He witnessed it all, from deadly sabotage efforts that almost sunk the boat to the tragic suicide of the only U-boat commander who took his life during World War II. The vivid, honest, and smooth-flowing prose calls it like it was and pulls no punches.

U-505 was captured by Captain Dan Gallery's Guadalcanal Task Group 22.3 on June 4, 1944. Trapped by this "hunter-killer" group, U-505 was depth-charged to the surface, strafed by machine gun fire, and boarded. It was the first ship captured at sea since the War of 1812. Today, hundreds of thousands of visitors tour U-505 each year at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

This edition includes a special foreword by Keith Gill, curator of U-505 at the Museum of Science and Industry.

About Hans Goebeler

Hans Goebeler was born in Bottendorf, Germany, on November 9, 1923. At the age of seventeen, he joined the Navy and served as control room mate aboard U-505. Years later, he moved his family to the United States to be close to his beloved boat and began penning his wartime memoir. Hans passed away in 1999.

Reviews

Goodreads review by A.L.

As the subtitle says, this was a memoir of a German U-boat crewman who served during WWII. U-boat service was dangerous. During WWII, about 37,000 Germans served on U-boats. Only 6,000 of them survived the war. Despite the danger, the U-boat service attracted some of the German Navy’s best recruits.......more

Goodreads review by Michael

This book delivers an excellent insight into what it was like to serve on one of Germany's U-boats during World War II. The author has written this book in the twilight of his life and as such has a great perspective tempered by time on this part of history. What really stood out for me was the humil......more

Goodreads review by heidi

Unlike my last WWII-from-the-German-side book, this one was pretty awesome and engaging. It's the story of the U-boat that now rests in the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, as told by a diesel mechanic who loved it. That particular U-boat, U-505, is well-documented, as Daniel Gallery wrote a b......more

Goodreads review by Ferris

An entertaining and mostly honest retelling of Goebeler's experiences in WWII. I'd have given more stars, except for the author's parting words discussing the genocide of the Germans after the end of WWII. Goebeler may have been a patriot and not an antisemite (or he may have been an antisemite), bu......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List