Following the success of the excellent U-Boat War Patrol, published by Greenhill earlier in the year, Lawrence Paterson has, for his new book, delved into the little-known story of U-boat war in the Indian Ocean. This is the story of a forgotten campaign that reveals for the first time German–Japanese cooper-ation on an unprecedented scale. The battle began in August 1943, when a German submarine arrived in the Malaysian harbour of Georgetown. In total, nearly forty U-boats were assigned to penetrate the Indian Ocean, serving alongside troops of the occupying Imperial Japanese forces. The Japanese allowed U-boats to use Malaysia as an operational station. From that base, they mixed with Japanese forces on a hitherto unseen scale: a move that spread the U-boat war throughout the vast Indian Ocean and into the Pacific. This theatre of war held a real chance to swing the tide of battle in North Africa in favour of Rommel, but the Germans essentially did too little too late. The joint action also gave U-boats the opportunity to penetrate the Pacific Ocean for the first time, attacking shipping off the Australian coast and hunting off New Zealand. Plans were even afoot for an assault on American supply lines. The ‘cooperation’ also brought into stark relief the fundamental differences between German and Japanese war aims. The relations between the fighting men of the three main Axis powers, the Japanese and Germans having been joined by the crews of Italian supply submarines, were often brutal and almost constantly turbulent. Lawrence Paterson is the author of First U-Boat Flotilla and Second U-Boat Flotilla, both published by the Naval Institute Press, and U-Boat War Patrol, published by Greenhill. Hitler’s Grey Wolves: U-Boats in the Indian Ocean will be published by Greenhill later in the year. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 129 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com