Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I usually love Haynes' "workshop manuals" on historical vehicles, but they seriously dropped the ball on this one. As someone fascinated by submarine design and naval history, when I heard they were doing a book on the iconic Type VII U-boat, I was thrilled. My excitement turned to disappointment after quickly leafing through the book, and discovering that it contained very little of the in-depth technical details found in other Haynes titles. The book largely focuses on the history of German submarine design after World War I, a basic history of the Battle of the Atlantic, and what it was like to live and work aboard a U-boat. There is a single section, optimistically titled "Anatomy of the Type VII class," which consists mainly of a photographic walk-through of U-995 complemented by some very basic tech specs. The only diagrams in this section consist of a couple of basic overview plans which are freely available online. My disappointment turned to irritation and ultimately frustration as I read through the book, noticing how many basic errors of fact, contradictory statements, humorous typos, and bizarre historical errors managed to find their way into the finished text. In this book, pictures of virtually every other type of World War II U-boat design are identified as Type VIIs, Donitz becomes Chancellor of Germany six months after it surrenders to the Allies, the Type IX boasts a 182-knot surface speed, and the Type VII is referred to as both a single-hull and double-hull design. "Vaterland" is translated as "Waterland," the Germans are said to have had a "Target Motion Analysis" mine at the beginning of the war, the red goggles worn by U-boat crew to help them adapt to nighttime conditions become "infrared night-vision goggles," the Type VIIA is described as having a single propeller, and reference is made to an "1812 Anglo-American War of Independence." The US Navy is depicted as being in a "fortunate position" after Pearl Harbor, the Type XIV supply boat is called a variant of the Type IXD, and a watertight door inside the boat is described as being more than 17 meters tall! I'm giving this book two stars, simply because it seems well-intentioned, and there are some interesting wartime photographs contained within. If you're seriously interested in this type of submarine, try Robert C Stern's "Type VII U-boats," the Anatomy of the Ship book, or check out the wartime blueprints and technical data freely available on the U-boat Archive website (http://uboatarchive.net/). If you're looking for a Haynes submarine manual, Royal Navy Submarine: 1945 to 1973 ('A' class - HMS Alliance) (Owners' Workshop Manual) is vastly superior. This book should never have been published in this state.