The Battle of the Atlantic

How the Allies Won the War

De: Jonathan Dimbleby

Narrado por: Jonathan Dimbleby

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of The Battle of the Atlantic, written and read by Jonathan Dimbleby.

The Battle of the Atlantic was - though often overlooked - crucial to victory in the Second World War. If the German U-boats had prevailed, the maritime artery across the Atlantic would have been severed. Mass hunger would have consumed Britain, and the Allied armies would have been prevented from joining in the invasion of Europe. There would have been no D-Day.

Through fascinating contemporary diaries and letters, from the leaders and from the sailors on all sides, Jonathan Dimbleby creates a thrilling narrative that uniquely places the campaign in the context of the entire Second World War. Challenging conventional wisdom on the use of intelligence and on Churchill's bombing campaign, The Battle of the Atlantic tells the epic story of the decisions that led to victory, and the horror and humanity of life on those perilous seas.

Reseñas de la Crítica

Winston Churchill famously described the Battle of the Atlantic as 'a war of groping and drowning, a war of ambuscade and stratagem, a war of science and seamanship' and no book depicts all of those myriad aspects better than Jonathan Dimbleby's majestic overview. His judgments can sometimes be harsh and are bound to be controversial, but they are backed up with wide reading, diligent scholarship and cogent argument. This is a truly gripping account of a campaign that the author rightly puts epicentral to the Allied victory in the Second World War.

Fascinating, thought-provoking and entertaining. Explodes a number of self-serving myths

Fresh and provocative

A wonderfully incisive, superbly written history. What Dimbleby has nailed so brilliantly is what so many war historians miss: the big picture

The epic Battle of the Atlantic can only really be understood when set against the strategic context of the time. This highly engaging history does this by combining gripping accounts of the tactics and operational fortunes of the Germans and the Allies in this bitterest of battles with an authoritative review of the strategic thinking that helps explain their motives and their responses at the highest national level, and that shows why victory was so important for both sides.

In this refreshing book Jonathan Dimbleby skilfully weaves together front line accounts and high policy discussions to provide a gripping and accessible new account of the most important campaign of the Second World War against Germany.

A gripping read and a great contribution to the history of the Second World War. The author realizes his immense ambition of bringing out the human aspects of the drama at every level, from the heads of state to the crews in the Atlantic, while also bringing important nuances to received views on the struggle against the U-boats, and, indeed, on Churchill's war leadership. An epic account.

A Pleasure

engaging and informative, keeps track of the conflict at sea and the human and military technical aspect, but remembers to place it against the political and strategic background. some production issues ( noises that could have easily been cut out), but solid narration otherwise.

Strategic Overview

This book provides a very good insight to the grand strategic factors impacting the Battle of the Atlantic. For comparable insight to the operational and tactical factors, Black May by Michael Gammon is hard to beat. This provides the best available overview (in my opinion) of perhaps the single most important allied initiative to winning the Battle of the Atlantic - operational research and its intelligent application. It also illustrates the critical importance of coherent doctrine, training, and tactical level leadership. Mr Dimbleby only touches lightly on these topics. This may be nit picking but I think the Battle of the Barents Sea in which Capt Sherbrooke won the VC deserves a more comprehensive treatment than it receives in this book. This does not detract from an excellent overall study, however.

Informative and engaging with some shortcommings

On a whole I found it good. The first-hand accounts from both sides are especially nice,
But I was rather disappointed that there was no mention of the Western Approaches Tactical Unit and the war games they played.

Superb!

For non-fiction subject matter, this is as close to an enthralling page-turner as you can get. For someone who approached the book with what I thought was a fair amount of knowledge about WW2, I was staggered by how little I knew about this dreadful theatre of battle. Dimbleby’s delivery was superb, made all the more convincing by the occasional slips in narration that added an element of humanity to a very tragic human subject.

The way he approaches both sides of the story with respect and compassion is powerful and important. There were no real winners and no real losers - just terrible losses on both sides - the outcome of which teetered on a knife’s edge until technology and common sense came to the rescue of the allies.

A magnificent book dealing with a great but terrible conflict. Thank you Mr Dimbleby.

Excellent book on the hard fought Battle of the Atlantic.

Very well written, read and detailed book on the Battle of the Atlantic, a story to which I have a very profound and personal connection as my father served as midshipman in HMS Suffolk during the Battle of the Denmark Strait amongst other actions.

I can fully recommend this title to anyone who has even just the slightest curiosity for naval warfare.