Knight of the North Atlantic: Baron Siegfried von Forstner and the War Patrols of U-402 1941-1943

Born of an aristocratic military family, with a tradition of U-boat service, Baron Siegfried von Forstner, the U-boat's captain, served without the pretentiousness of title, even after winning the Ritterkreuz (Knight's Cross). He fought the war like a knight of old, with a defined code of chivalry, as he dueled with escorts, went to the aid of fellow U-boats, and rescued his enemy from the sea. As the North Atlantic battlefield grew deadlier with each successive patrol, von Forstner remained focused on his duty to sink Allied tonnage while keeping his crew alive. His daring and conduct at sea captured the respect of Captain, US Coast Guard (Ret) John M Waters, who was a Watch Officer onboard the escort USCGC Ingham that fought U-402 in several convoy battles. After the war, Waters became the unexpected chronicler of his former enemy, and established an enduring friendship with von Forstner's family. The story of von Forstner and U-402 parallels the rise and fall of the Wolfpack, and reflects the ebb and flow of the Battle of the Atlantic from the early operations in European waters, to Operation Paukenschlag (Drumbeat) off the US East Coast, to the climatic convoy battles of the North Atlantic in 1943. This is a truly gripping account of the Atlantic conflict, and the large selection of photographs adds realism and authenticity found in very few accounts of the U-boat war.

About the Author :
Aaron Stephan Hamilton is an academically trained historian. He holds both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in History, as well as the Field Historian designator awarded by the U.S. Army's Combat Studies Institute. He is an amateur maritime archeologist with a focus on submarine history. For more than twenty-five years he has researched and published ground-breaking studies about the final year of World War II in Europe. His recent book, Total Undersea War, has been critically acclaimed for its depth of research and original subject matter.

Review :
"Hamilton's book is copiously illustrated with photographs which show life aboard U-402 and some of the vessels she sank or damaged: many of them were made by his grandfather's shipmate, Walter Friebolin, and others are drawn from private and official collections. The accompanying sidebars clearly explain the photographs and, like the charts at the end of the book, elucidate the narrative. Hamilton succeeds in making von Forstner and the crew of U-402 real people with whom we can empathise, and the final section of the book - a dive onto the now peaceful and overgrown remains of one of U-402's victims - is a fitting conclusion to the story and reminder, if one were needed, of the price of war." --Australian Naval Institute "One of the most notable features [of this book] is the humanizing of the U-boat crewmen, a group normally demonized, and the perhaps obvious but never mentioned importance of individual competence as well as teamwork. We learn of clever improvisations by engineers changing and refitting engine parts, of signalmen misreading or mis-transcribing signals which then put the boat out of position, of newly trained sonar operators failing to recognize sounds, of sunbathing on deck in quiet periods of the patrol, of meetings with other boats to exchange spare parts and a host of fascinating day to day trivia which offers a wholly different perspective on the lives of U-boat crew. This then is a quite excellent book, with good maps, an extensive bibliography and unusual images and it is very well produced. But above all it explores the day-to-day experience of life for the U-boat crewmen and as a result is much more than a dry account of patrols, attacks and sinkings." --The Mariner's Mirror