Battle beneath the Waves: The U-boat war by Robert C Stern (Cassell Military, 1999) £20.00.
Using many primary sources and first-person accounts, the author presents some of the most dramatic and exciting incidents of U-boat warfare from both world wars.

Blimps and U-Boats: US Navy airships in the Battle of the Atlantic by J Gordon Vaeth (Naval Institute Press, 1992) £29.95.

The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat (Penguin, 1970) £6.99.
An extremely good novel giving a heartrending account of what life was like in the convoys preyed on by the U-boats. As the author says: 'This is the story – the long and true story – of one ocean, two ships and about 150 men. It is a long story because it deals with a long and brutal battle, the worst of any war … It is a true story because that is the only kind worth telling.'

Dark Sky, Deep Water: First-hand reflections on the anti-U-boat war in Europe in World War II by Norman Franks (Grub Street Press, 2000) £9.99.
Unique perspective on how Allied airmen and German submarines fought each other, why the struggle was especially intense in the early days of the war and what attitudes both sides brought to the struggle.

Hitler's U-Boat War: Vol. I: The hunters 1939-42 by Clay Blair (Phoenix Press, 1998) £14.99.
Told chronologically, this is the story of the part played by the U-boats in World War II. The book is divided into two parts: the first concentrates on the war against Britain and its empire; the second on the war against America.

Hitler's U-Boat War: Vol. II: The hunted 1942-45 by Clay Blair (Cassell Military, 2000) £14.99.
This second volume of Clay Blair's account of the German submarine war covers the time when the German navy's fortunes were completely reversed, due in no small part to Allied codebreaking efforts, and their submarine service was almost entirely destroyed.

Iron Coffins: A personal account of the German U-boat battles of World War II by Herbert A Werner (Da Capo Press, 1998) £12.50.
The Battle of the Atlantic was one of the most savage, strategically significant campaigns of World War II: 28,000 out of 39,000 men in the German U-boat force disappeared beneath the waves. Herbert A Werner, one of the few surviving German U-boat commanders, served on five submarines from 1941 to 1945. From the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, from the English Channel to the North Sea, he takes the reader with him through the triumphant years of 1941 and 1942, when German U-boats nearly strangled England, to the final years of destruction, disillusionment and defeat.

The Second World War by John Keegan (Pimlico, 1989, paperback ed. 1997) £15.00.
Keegan offers well-rounded narratives, pausing in between to describe particular battles that made World War II unlike any other armed conflict before. He doesn't bore the casual reader with a litany of dates and places, but offers the serious student enough to grapple with. Above all, this is an excellent starting point for anyone wanting to learn more about the conflict that changed our world. Contains an excellent single-chapter account of the Battle of the Atlantic.

Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days by Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz (Cassell Military, 2000) £6.99.

Torpedo Junction: U-boat war off America's east coast, 1942 by Homer H Hickam, Jr, (Naval Institute Press, 1996) £24.95.
This very readable book is primarily concerned with a little US Coast Guard cutter fighting a lonely battle off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, but it also includes all the major events of this all-but-forgotten battle along the US east coast during World War II. By the author of Rocket Boys (aka October Skies).

The following – which contain an enormous amount of good, often technical detail - are out of print but may be available from libraries or specialist bookshops:

The Atlantic Campaign: World War II's great struggle at sea by Dan Van der Vat (Harper & Row, 1988).

The U-Boat: Evolution and History of German Submarines (Arms & Armour Press, 1981).

Website

The U-boat War 1939-1945
http://www.uboat.net
Within more than 5,500 pages, everything you could possibly want to know about U-boats – the boats, the men, those who fought against them and how. You can even enter a U-boat number into a search engine and find out everything about that particular vessel.

Films

Das Boot: The Director's Cut (Germany, 1997). Directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch
The story (based on Lothar-Günther Buchheim's novel) of a single mission of one U-boat and its crew. It follows U-96 from its departure from La Rochelle in France, through its patrols in the north Atlantic, to its return to harbour. This film portrays the ordinary individuals that made up a U-boat crew, and shows the frequent tedium of their missions as well as the tension and excitement of attack and evasion.

The Cruel Sea (UK, 1953). Directed by Charles Frend. Starring Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, Denholm Elliott, Stanley Baker.
Seen from the viewpoint of the ship's captain, the film (based on the novel by Nicholas Monsarrat, see above) portrays one man's experience of the Atlantic convoy route from the beginning of the war to its end, illustrating how the Atlantic war's changing tempos and shifting balance of power affected the players and turned hunters into hunted.

The Enemy Below (US, 1957). Directed by Dick Powell. Starring Robert Mitchum, Curt Jurgens, Theodore Bikel, Doug McClure.
An American destroyer battles a U-boat in a deadly contest of wits. The film presents a sympathetic treatment of the U-boat captain, one of the first American films to do so following the end of World War II.