Another Place, Another
Time:
U-Boat Officer's Wartime Album
by Werner Hirschmann
with Donald E. Graves
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ANOTHER PLACE, ANOTHER TIME: A U-BOAT OFFICER'S WARTIME ALBUM Robin Brass Studio, Toronto, 2004 ISBN: 1-896941-38-9 Details: Hardcover, 9" x 8", 255 pages, more than 200 photographs,
illustrations and maps, bibliography and index. Suggested retail price in Canada (may vary): $44.95 Note: American and British readers should obtain this book from the co-publishers, Naval Institute Press in the USA and Chatham Publishing in Europe |
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Growing up in pre-war Germany, Werner Hirschmann was always fascinated with ships and the sea and dreamed of becoming a naval officer. In 1940, he was accepted as a cadet in the Kriegsmarine and after years of rigorous training, became an engineer officer in the elite U-Boot Waffe or submarine service. With the assistance of the Canadian historian, Donald E. Graves, Werner Hirschmann uses his wartime diaries and his remarkable photograph albums, as well as historical documents, to recount the many interesting episodes in his naval career, including serving on a destroyer that escorted the Bismarck on her last voyage, patrols in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic, and being besieged by the U.S. Army in Lorient, France, before escaping to Norway. In 1945, Hirschmann's boat, U-190, sank the last Canadian warship to be lost during the war and he later ended up in a Canadian prison camp. In Another Place, Another Time, Werner Hirschmann describes the training and daily life of a U-boat officer, life and love in wartime Germany, his experiences as a prisoner of war in Canada and his postwar life in Canada. An additional feature of this book is the technical section that provides a detailed pictorial tour of the Type IXC/40 U-boat, based on previously unpublished photographs recently discovered in the Canadian archives.
Some sample extracts
from Another Place, Another Time
Titlepage
What Reviewers say about Another Place, Another Time
Amazon 5-star Review . . . It is a book that is hard to put down
and really makes you feel like you are in his [Werner Hirschmann's]
shoes. ...... It has parts that may be too technical for some, but
that doesn't take away from the story and it will be enjoyed by anyone
who liked the book, Iron Coffins, or the movie, "Das Boot."
Amazon 5-star Review . . . "For the U-boat buffs this is a very good
read. I own over 60 books on U-boats and would rank this in the top
10. Its very different from other books since its a focus on a person
...... I found myself living the author's life. I would say it is
a must read and again different from many U-boat books."
Commissioned by the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust, which maintains HMCS Sackville, a wartime corvette berthed in Halifax, the book is meant to sensitize a broad readership to Canada's pivotal role during the campaign; it is also a tribute to the sailors' endurance and sacrifices. Graves reviews Canada's naval history to 1939 and then takes readers through the different periods of the Atlantic war, including the difficult days of 1941-42, the RCN's mid-war training and equipment crises, and the Allies' technological breakthroughs and intelligence successes that cemented the U-boats' doom. Each chapter properly places the RCN's operations in a broader context and is supplemented by excerpts from the Salty Dips series of oral history testimony from Canadian naval veterans. With drama and immediacy, they describe a deadly and determined enemy, atrocious weather, exhaustion, fear, survival, and, ultimately, victory. The book's excellent layout allows for many user-friendly sidebar explanations and graphics of such complex subjects as anti-submarine warfare tactics, the convoy system, and the technical workings of weapons and communications systems. There are 200 rarely or never before seen photos complemented by fine drawings by L.B. Jenson. Taken together, these provide an evocative visual review of shipboard life and routine. Robin Brass Studio has again produced an impressive publication. ... this highly recommended book blends first-class scholarship with
an accessible form. ……
In his superb book Hirschmann is constantly aware of how close he
was to not making it through. The accompanying fresh and previously
unpublished wartime photographs are free of the too-often gritty quality
of official U-boat photos. His book is unique in the now vast panoply
of books about submarines, often put together long after the events
by a galaxy of authors who were not there at the time. Hence Hirschmann's
book current book, written in conjunction with Canadian Naval Historian
Donald E. Graves, is not only for naval veterans, nor the expanding
community of naval "buffs". It will also fascinate the general reader
who is both curious and ever more fascinated about an elite naval
service.
Many high-quality production standards are found in this book - well-reproduced
photographs with informative captions, clear maps and attractive page
lay-out and sturdy binding. Hirschmann's collection of photographs
is extensive and many of his pictures are several cuts above ordinary
snapshots.... U-boat books obviously feed a thriving niche market.
Given the ongoing torrent of such works it's worth considering whether
Another Place, Another Time offers new insights. In fact, this
account is unique because it tells how a young German experienced
wartime officer and submarine training......The value of Another
Place, Another Time is its first-hand descriptions of all aspects
of wartime service in U-boats.
[Hirschmann's] book, on the text alone - ignoring the splendid photos,
maps, and documentation - may become a classic personal memoir of
one sailor's war. …… This memoir is not overladen with the dangers
and their anguish and dread for those who manned the U-boats, particularly
after the battle of the Atlantic turned against the Germans by late
1943.
Amazon 5-star review ... a splendid book, especially for the technically
minded.
...... this is not "another book about U boats." This is a unique book, bullied from Hirschmann some 55 years after the times described, about a German submariner and it is a delight to read. It includes a veritable feast of previously unseen photographs and many of these are gathered into a 3D page pictorial tour of both the exterior and interior of a Type IXC/40 long range U boat a most informative and welcome descriptive essay. Not a book about the wider war or the Uboot Waffe, a book about the author. In their turn, the training of young officer recruits, aspiring engineers, then submarine engineers are all described as undergone and remembered by the author. At all stages his own enthusiasms and confidence, along with occasional misgivings, are clearly recorded. ...... It is all very personal, never sickly and, as the author admits,
at such a remove, it is mostly the "good" bits that get remembered.
Nevertheless, his honest accounting of life in a submarine even in
wartime, largely boring! and his unembellished descriptions of people
with whom he served, both those liked and the others, ring a very
true peal throughout this book. No axes are ground and his 50 years
living in Canada have not dulled his interests in matters naval. I
am quite confident that all who have served in submarines at any time
will really enjoy this book and probably so, too, will anyone with
an interest in what it is that makes people want to follow their career
choice through both good times and bad. Thoroughly recommended.
U-boat books obviously feed a thriving niche market. Given the ongoing
torrent of such works, it's worth considering whether Another Place,
Another Time offers new insights. In fact, this account is unique
...... The value ... is its first-hand description of all aspects
of wartime service in U-boats. The Canadian aspects -- the glimpses
of how members of the Kriegsmarine saw their Canadian captors and
of how POWs experienced Ontario -- are a bonus.
This beautifully-produced book offers the compelling memoir of a
German naval officer who, while serving aboard U-190, surrendered
to Canadian forces in May 1945. This crisply written, evocative text
is expertly blended with solid historical research and a very large
number of superb, mostly unknown, photographs and other illustrations.
Another Place, Another Time adds to our knowledge of the U-boat service,
and in particular of operations of direct importance to Canada. Hirrschmann's
fascinating, fast-paced story is sensitively told and difficult to
put down. The book is typical of the excellent work being produced
by Robin Brass Studio. |
