German E-boats 1939–45 (New Vanguard, 59)

This small book on German fast torpedo boats during World War II (E boats) makes the interesting claim that they were among the most cost-effective weapons systems of the German Navy. Although they needed to operate near the coast and were very vulnerable to air attack, the author notes that they sank a number of merchant ships, some destroyers, and even a handful of LSTs. Under these conditions, it is easy to see the value of arming merchant ships. The author also points out successes that the E boats had in laying mines in places where allies ships were expected to sail. As usual with the Osprey Vanguard series, the artwork and photographs are superb.

Having read accounts of American PT-Boats in the ETO that had to contend with what they called "E-boats", I purchased Osprey New Vanguard #59 - German E-boats 1939-45 by Gordon Williamson. Really, I just wanted a good overview of these fast, lethal craft the Germans launched during WWII and I got a very good treatise on the subject.I was impressed with this book for packing a lot of data into such a small package. the author does a very good job of introducing the reader to the E-boat beginning with the impetus for such craft. He covers the development of this class of vessel as well as the construction, powerplants (they had a lot of trouble with suitable diesel engines - something you wouldn't expect for Germans), armament and internal layout. I must admit these craft seem more substantial than the American PT-Boat.I thought it interesting the Germans decided on internal torpedo tubes rather than being mounted on the deck as in the American equivalent. That these fine boats were never fitted with radar is very surprising. The different types of armament was interesting and certainly as heavily armed as their opponents.The author does give a brief operational history of the craft but not in the kind of detail one would like. It only briefly mentions their successes such as the disaster at Slapton Sands. Also, and unfortunately, there are no first-hand accounts from commanders or crew of these ships - something I consider a flaw in too many Osprey books.On the whole, this is a good title from Osprey and I give it four stars.

To say I was disappointed would be something of an understatement, given the price paid for this very thin book!This volume was typical size from the publisher, but not much in the way of anecdotal information, and thin on the number of photographs included. It seemed to be a "minimalist" approach for a subject that has a lot more to offer.The German W.W. II "S-Boote" were an impressive weapon system in the German Kriegsmarine, and achieved results far beyond those expected before the conflict began. They sank an impressive tonnage of merchant ships, as well as accounting themselves well against Allied destroyers.Maybe I expected too much?My three stars are generous. I'm still looking for a more definitive reference.

Easy to read and follow. Good photos and illustrations. Good reference material.

If you've ever purchased a New Vanguard book, you can anticipate what this is like. 48 pages, concise history of the subject, a few color drawings to show the paint schemes used and some B&W photos to show the subject in action. The cutaway in the middle of the book is good, but the binding makes some of it hard to see.E-Boats are a very interesting topic - most similar to American PT Boats, the Schnell boats were 30% larger, with a crew of 24 vs. 13 on US PT Boats. Pound for pound, I think PT Boats would be a better buy - they packed more of a punch than the E-Boats, but were smaller. Both were made of wood (the Germans did later develop an armored bridge) and therefore vulnerable. E-Boats used diesel engines, had a slightly longer range. PT Boats and E Boats both have a mixed history of success, although in later WW2, PT boats were devastating to Japanese barges and small supply ships. Factoid - E Boats sank more Allied shipping during the Normandy invasion than any other weapon in the German arsenal.If you do not want to spend a lot of money on this subject, this is a good intro to the E Boats. For modelers, the photos are very small as are the color drawings. Very small. Many photos were taken on the sea, so they are grainy and hard to see.

An interesting overview of a lesser known aspect of the naval actions of WWII. Well worth a read for students of the naval battles of the war.

Great buy, loved it.

Good reference on the model I was building

While definitely lacking in glamour, compared to the more impressive battleships and cruisers, the diminutive and relatively cheap S-Boote (E-Boats) came second in effectiveness overall, eclipsed only by the success of the U-Boots. Fast but flimsy, they managed some notable successes in sinking both lots of merchant shipping, as well as a good number of larger military vessels, including many destroyers.The book follows the standard Osprey format and is - at 48 pages - fairly condensed. Nevertheless, you get a solid introduction into the topic, covering the naval thinking that led to their design and deployment, to the various types in use (with descriptions and some basic technical data - the latter sadly not in a table format), the operational deployments and successes in the Channel, North Sea, Baltics, Arctic, Mediterranean and Black Sea theatres of operation and finally a summary on their use and effectiveness.As also common, the book comes with lots of pictorial material, as well as the usual colour plates, which should be helpful to modellers, as well as readers with a more general interest in the topic. While more comprehensive sources definitely exist, you will not go far wrong with starting here. There are also two books on the main adversaries of the E-Boats in the series, namely the  British Motor Gun Boat 1939-45 (New Vanguard 166)  and  British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939-45 (New Vanguard) . British Motor Gun Boat 1939-45 (New Vanguard 166)British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939-45 (New Vanguard)

This book is a good introduction to the passionating story of German E-boats, warships now mostly forgotten but which during WWII were greatly feared and hated by allied sailors... Below, a short introduction to this topic, if you are interested - if not, you can skip directly to the last line.---Such is the nature of evil, that when its tools of war are concerned it is unavoidably attracted to the gigantism and indeed, for the sea warfare, each of the cruellest regimes of the 30s and 40s produced or attempted to produce the most enormous battleships possible: Hitler got the (in)famous "Bismarck" and "Tirpitz", Mussolini had the powerful and beautiful (*) "Littorio", "Vittorio Venetto", "Roma" and "Impero" (albeit this last ship was never finished), Japanese military regime build "Yamato" and "Musashi" super-battleships and Stalin ultimately would have got his "Sovetsky Soyuz", "Sovetskaya Ukraina" and "Sovetskaya Rossiya" monstrous super dreadnoughts, if Hitler's attack didn't stop their construction.However, one of the deadliest and busiest weapons in III Reich sea arsenal was the exact OPPOSITE of the above mentioned steel covered behemoths - they were the "Schnellboote" or "S-boats", which the allies named "E-boats" ("E" meaning "enemy"). The "E-boats" were the smallest warships of the Kriegsmarine - but together with the "U-boots" they were the ones that served their master the best and which hurt the allies the most...Small, fast boats armed with torpedoes demonstrated their full potential for the first time during World War I. In the night of 9-10 December 1917 two Italian MAS fast torpedo boats attacked and sunk an aged Austro-Hungarian pre-dreadnought battleship SMS "Wien". Next year, in the night of 10 June 1918, two other Italian MAS boats torpedoed and sunk the SMS "Szent Istvan" - a very modern and strongly armed Austro-Hungarian dreadnought. The destruction of powerful "Szent Istvan" by those two "sea mosquitoes" shocked all the naval headquarters around the world! In 1919, during British intervention in Russian civil war, fast torpedo boats again scored big, when British crafts sunk Bolshevik cruiser "Oleg" and fatally crippled the pre-dreadnought battleship "Andrei Pervozvanny" (she was never repaired and ultimately scrapped).The potential of fast torpedo boats was duly noticed by German military hierarchy even before Hitler's rise to power. Unable to build a surface fleet which could wrestle the control of the seas from Royal Navy, Germany could however challenge the United Kingdom in the open waters with its submarines and in the coastal areas with a large fleet of "Schnellboots". S-1, the first "S-Boot", was commissioned in 1930. The development of "S-Boots" was first slow, but their construction accelerated after 1936 and even more - obviously - once the war began in 1939. In all, between 1930 and 1945 many hundreds of "Schnellboote" were build (the exact number is a much discussed topic). Most of them served in the Kriegsmarine, but some were also exported to Spain and Italy.The "S-boots" were build fast and on the cheap, so they were vulnerable to the elements, accidents and enemy fire. But still, they served German war effort well, from the very first to the very last day of WWII. They began the war on 1 September 1939 operating against the small Polish Navy and they ended it only on the 8 of May 1945 (and for those based in Norway even a little bit later). They served in all naval fronts where it was for them physically possible to go: North Sea and La Manche, Norway coastal waters, French Atlantic coast, Baltic Sea, Mediterranean, Black Sea and even Arctic waters. The story of their travels through the network of European canals and rivers to get from North Sea to the Mediterranean and Black Sea is a real saga in itself. Some of the smallest ones were even carried by German armed merchant cruisers during their raids and used operationnally as far as the Indian Ocean and Pacific!The first mission of "S-boots" was to launch torpedo attacks and conduct mining operations in enemy controlled coastal waters and in those missions those small warships were quite successful. In torpedo/gun/depth charges attacks they sank 101 merchant ships (displacing more than 500 tons) and also numerous small coastal freighters (displacing less than 500 tons), as well as numerous warships. The largest amongst the latter were twelve destroyers: HMS "Vortigern", HMS "Wakeful", HMS "Hasty", HMS "Lightning", HMS "Exmoor", HMS "Penylan"; USS "Rowan"; HNoMS "Eskdale" (Norvegian), "Jaguar", "Cyclone", "Sirocco" (all three French) and "Quintino Sella" (Italian, sunk after Italy changed sides). Other destroyed allied warships were 2 British frigates (HMS "Halstead" and HMS "Trollope"), one Soviet submarine, one American minesweeper, one British fast gunboat, 8 American and British landing ships, at least 14 British armed trawlers and many smaller units (fast torpedo boats, patrol boats, rescue tugs, transport barges, etc.).The "S-boots" also heavily damaged significant numbers of allied merchant vessels and war ships - amongst those latter there was one British light-cruiser and at least one Soviet destroyer.Mines laid by the "S-boots" sank at least 37 more merchant ships and also at least three destroyers, one big minelayer, two minesweepers and four landing ships.Royal Navy had to build and deploy a great number of its own small fast warships to counter the threat of the dreaded "E-boats". Numerous bloody and ferocious battles were waged between British and German small warships in the North Sea and the Channel and in some fights both sides resorted to ramming. Sometimes things went up so close and personal that boarding was used, with the fight which began with 37 mm automatic guns ending with pistols, handgrenades, knives and fists! In one such occasion a British fast armed craft was captured and towed in triumph to Germany. In another fight it was German ship "S-111" which was captured - but just minutes later other "Schnellbootes" came to the rescue and re-captured her again.In many other occasions however British fast gunboats, heavily armed Beaufighters and Mosquitoes fighters-bombers or destroyers and frigates escorting the convoys triumphed - and when the menace of mines and all the hazards of nightly coastal navigation at fast speed and in frequently foul weather are added it becomes clear that the service on board of a "S-boot" was a very dangerous one...The "S-boots" were also used for many other missions - they patrolled and scouted, hunted the submarines (loading for those occasions depth charges), escorted friendly coastal convoys and minesweepers, kept British torpedo boats at bay and operated search-and-rescue mission to recover downed aviators (including allied ones). Ocasionnally they also escorted larger German warships, like "Scharnhorst", "Gneisenau" and "Prinz Eugen" during the Channel Dash or the auxilliary cruiser "Komet" during her (ultimately unsuccesful) sortie attempt in October 1942. They even helped to fight Tito partisans in Dalmatia, as this Yugoslav resistance movement was one of the few guerillas in history to have a naval branch...Towards the end of the war the "S-boots" assumed also some less usual tasks, like co-operation with the K-Verbande, German naval special forces which operated midget submarines and explosive boats and also included frogmen-commandos. They also made nightly blocade runs to resupply isolated German strongholds and evacuate the wounded and sick.In the very last weeks of the war they even were used in humanitarian missions, possibly their noblest work during the whole war, by evacuating German civilians from areas threatened by advancing Soviets. Considering the crimes Red Army soldiers committed against German civilians in 1944-45 one can safely say that "S-boot" crews saved in April-May 1945 many thousands men from torture and death and many thousands women from gang rape.Because of heavy war time losses and the great amount of "wear and tear" amongst those "S-boots" which made it until the end of war, there is today only one surviving "Schnellboote", the "S-130" - restored to her original aspect she is exposed in Wilhelmshaven, Germany.With their speed, fire power and menacing predatory design those little ships packed also a serious "cool" factor - when in the film "Guns of Navarone" heroes embarcation is intercepted by a "Schnellboot" the atmosphere of danger and tension is immediately obvious and it takes the combined firepower of Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, David Niven and Anthony Quayle to take care of this threat...)))------If the bloody saga of Hitler's "sea mosquitoes" and their fight between 1939 and 1945 interests you, this short and unexpensive but very well written and densely packed with information book is a very useful thing to begin the research on this topic.(*) Most cars, warships, shoes and churches created in Italy are and always were things of beauty - it seems that local people simply are unable to make them otherwise...

I was very pleased with this great summary as well as the wonderful art work

Badly printed

First impressions are that the 'New Vanguard' series by Osprey Publishing are very much a 'lite' version over their previous publications. Useful, but without being essential reading on the subject concerned - detail and clarity appears to be lacking a little.