About the Book:

Includes a section of b&w photos and one section of color plates. In the fall of 1991, two deep wreck divers discovered a World War II German U-boat sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey. No identifying marks were visible on the submarine or the few artifacts that John Chatterton and Richie Kohler brought to the surface. No historian, expert, or government had a clue as to which U-boat the men had found. In fact, the official records all agreed that there simply could be a sunken U-boat and crew at that location. Over the next six years, an elite team of divers embarked a quest to solve the mystery.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This was an absolute, could not put down story that was fun to read!  I picked it up because the premise of the book sounded so unreal that it qualified as absurd.  A German U-boat located 60 miles off the New Jersey coastline.  And I am still asking the question what an enemy, German U-boat was doing there, particularly during a time of war.

This story covers many topics of interest. Originally it was the story about World War II that drew me in. But the story itself has a lot to offer about World War II research, World War II U-boat history, and the development of diving.  I have never been a diver, and I never realized how technical a sport it is — especially when it comes to extreme depths.  So not only did it provide an interesting insight into the rise of extreme depth wreck diving — it also presents one of the greatest mysteries that came out of World War II.

The story itself, though now shown to have a conclusion that is somewhat different than the original conclusion the divers first thought, is engrossing in its entirety. And while I am not sure there was ever a truly satisfactory conclusion of what this U-boat was doing where it was located, the book does offer at least a preliminary look into the history of when it went missing, and a premise for why it would have been so close to the American shore.  I would hope that one day someone would do a little more research into this submarine, its history, and see if records didn’t survive that may have explained more conclusively the entire history.  But for now — this was an interesting combination of a modern day mystery, adventure story, and history all rolled into one.  It would have been nice to see some of the pictures from the diving explorations, with the book. However, those are available online, and this does not detract from the book at all.

This is a great book for wreck lovers, and those that have a passion for diving.  However, if you are a lover of World War II history, you may come away from this book a little disappointed with the lack of concrete answers.

Tags: America, Biography, History, Mystery, Naval History, Nazi, Non-Fiction, Submarine, U-boat, World War II

Category: Biography/Autobiography, History, Mystery, Non-Fiction, World War II