Published on October 22, 2025 (Episode 429)
Introduction
During the Second World War, German submarines sank more than three thousand Allied ships—nearly three-quarters of all Allied shipping losses across every theater. This “war within a war” began almost immediately after September 1, 1939, and quickly became one of the most consequential and bitterly fought campaigns of the conflict. The contest known as the Battle of the Atlantic has been examined from every conceivable angle: through convoys and codebreakers, admirals and admirers, strategy and tonnage. Yet surprisingly little has been written from the perspective of the men who fought beneath the waves.
Roger Moorhouse has now corrected that imbalance with Wolfpack: Inside Hitler’s U-Boat War. His book is not merely a history of the undersea campaign, but of the submariners themselves—men who endured claustrophobic misery, faced a 25 percent chance of survival, and, if they lived, often carried the psychological scars of that experience for life. Moorhouse brings their world vividly to the surface, combining operational history with the human story of courage, endurance, and complicity.
About the Guest
Roger Moorhouse is a British historian specializing in the Second World War and modern Central Europe. He is the author of numerous books, the most recent of which was The Forgers: The Forgotten Story of the Holocaust’s Most Audacious Rescue Operation, which we discussed on this podcast in November 2023. His work combines rigorous archival research with a focus on personal experience and moral complexity.
For Further Investigation
Roger Moorhouse, Wolfpack: Inside Hitler’s U-Boat War (Basic Books, 2024)
—, The Forgers: The Forgotten Story of the Holocaust’s Most Audacious Rescue Operation (Bodley Head, 2023)
Clay Blair, Hitler’s U-Boat War, vol. I: The Hunters, 1939-1942 & vol. II: The Hunted, 1942-1945 (Random House, 1996–1998)
Stephen Roskill, The War at Sea, 1939–1945, vol. I (HMSO, 1954–1961)
Jürgen Rohwer, Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939–1945 (Naval Institute Press, 2005)
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Reflection Questions
Why has the story of the German U-Boat service so often been told through strategy rather than the lived experience of its crews?
What did Al mean when he suggested that Donitz’s ambitions for U-Boats at the beginning of the war exceeded the technological capacity of existing U-Boats? What do you think of the argument that technological innovation during the war didn’t and couldn’t have made much difference?
What does a one-in-four survival rate suggest about the tactics and strategy of Germany’s undersea war, and its regime?
Tags: Roger Moorhouse; Wolfpack; Battle of the Atlantic; U-Boats; World War II; Naval Warfare; Historically Thinking
