Heinz Schaeffer

Heinz Schäffer joined the German Navy at the very beginning of World War II after a boyhood spent mostly in small sailing boats. France had just fallen when, with other naval cadets, he was sent to the 16th Advanced Flotilla operating in the Bay of Biscay.

A newly commissioned midshipman in 1941, he was posted to a U-boat in the Baltic, later in the Atlantic. By then the Allies were making full use of radar and before long the U-boat fleets were coming under heavy attack and suffering great losses. In 1944, Heinz Schäffer took command of a new submarine, U-977. It was to be his last command.

This edition contains an introduction by naval historian Marcus Faulkner and a foreword by the author’s granddaughter Nadine Poulain.