Rvery now and again something unusual happens in military publishing. A rare memoir is unearthed or a superb collection of photos is discovered in the most unlikely place. U-Boat War Patrol, a major forthcoming book from Greenhill, is based on the latter phenomenon. A few years ago a collection of German black and white photographs were discovered in a shoe box secreted under a Yorkshire bed. The photos featured Teddy Suhren and the crew of U-564 as they prowled the high seas looking for Allied shipping. Apparently the collection had been ‘liberated’ by a souvenir hunter combing through an abandoned U-Boat pen in Brest in 1945. After their discovery they ended up in the Submarine Museum where researcher Lawrence Paterson chanced upon them and immediately understood their historical value. Using the pictures as the basis of his book, Paterson has created a superb record of a U-Boat patrol deep into the Atlantic and the Caribbean. His text describes the significant events onboard the submarine and he also provides detailed accompa-nying captions explaining many of the photos and a history of the boat, her crew and their illustrious and much-loved commander. U-Boat War Patrol is unique in that it charts a complete history of a single patrol and provides a new insight into life aboard through the successes and trials of U-564. Photographed during the summer of 1942 by an onboard war correspondent they show a U-Boat in action in the Atlantic and Caribbean, as the Kriegsmarine teetered on the verge of what turned out to be its ultimate downfall. The crew are shown in virtually every station and several other U-Boats and their commanders feature as they gather to resupply or to attack. The Three Black Cat motif of Reinhard ‘Teddy’ Suhren’s U-564 is among the most famous in the illustrious history of Germany’s U-Boats of World War II. Suhren himself ranks in the top tier of U-Boat commanders along with the likes of Prien and Kretschmer and his name still raises a smile among veterans of the service for his infamously anti-establishment attitude. But it was his skill as an officer which saw his meteoric rise to U-Boat command and it was his personal bravery amidst the dangers of the ocean, which meant that he was quickly awarded the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves. Lawrence Paterson is a respected author on U-Boat warfare. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 126 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com