Anton Staller was a U-boat lookout, rising no higher than Leading Seaman and his account of the war from the lower ranks is unique. He served on the Type IXc/40 boat, U-188 under Kapitanleutnant Ludden on three patrols witnessing the stark reality of convoy warfare from his lookout position on the conning tower of his submarine. His U-boat sank the British destroyer HMS Beverley and eight merchant ships exceeding 100,000 gross tons but the submarine also spent many hours submerged under depth-charge attacks. More so than many of his contemporaries, Staller was prepared to reveal his thoughts and feelings of his experiences of the war at sea, and of his time on the conning tower, at the hydrophons, and cleaning weapons as a messboy. His journal demonstrates how political thinking rarely entered the minds of the U-boat men, even though many of them, such as Ludden, did not choose to serve in submarines. Staller was not a Nazi and came from a Socialist Party background, yet he never questioned the cause he was fighting for. To Staller it was simply ‘Us or Them to the death’. AUTHOR: Anton Stallen, a trained organ builder, came from a family with strong pacifist, socialist and anti-Hitler sentiments, but in September 1941 at age 17 he surprised everybody by volunteering for the German Navy. He wanted to serve aboard a surface ship but was sent to the U-boat Arm. His principal duties aboard U-188 were as bridge lookout and hydroplane operator. He served aboard U-188 from the initial familiarization with the boat on the stocks until she was scuttled at the war’s end. Klaus Willmann (b.1934) agreed that he would write Staller’s memoirs and, after long hours of collaboration and reflection, Das Boot U-188 emerged in its first edition in 2008. This English translation, by Geoffrey Brooks, is of the second edition which appeared the same year. SELLING POINTS: . Unique first-account from a member of a German submarine crew . He fought in the Atlantic and in the Far East . A rare view of the war under the sea . Published in English for the first time . Based on Staller’s journal which fell into the hands of the French Resistance and was passed onto the British for careful examination 16 pp b/w plates
