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Near Fine in Very Good jacket. Nice copy; dust jacket chipped; the story of a top secret U-Boat cruise to Tokyo on the eve of the collapse of Nazi Germany.
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Good in Fair jacket. 264 pages. Frontis illustration. Occasional Footnotes. Some wear and small pieces missing to dust jacket. DJ is price clipped. In recording the story of Hein Fehler, the author has tried to adhere as far as is possible to the manner of the man himself. Where his views are controversial, the author has refrained from the temptation to make them less so. Here is the adventure story of a man who has lived dangerously, though not without humor, in many quarters of the globe. Dramatic exploits of a U-Boat ace in the battle of the Atlantic "Lieutenant-Commander Hein Fehler's war ended when an American lieutenant boarded his submarine U234 in the North Atlantic. Fehler's natural instinct to fight on had been crushed by the last Order of the Day issued by Grand Admiral Doenitz-to 'surrender to the Western Powers'. For 'Dynamite Fehler, holder of the Gold Cross and the Iron Cross, it was the end of an era of excitement and adventure marked by his courage and leadership in many engagements with Germany's enemies. Fehler had fought throughout World War II in a variety of ships, including the famous surface raider Atlantis, the scourge of Allied shipping, and the unique giant submarine U234. This account, told in his own words, is as exciting as only truth can be. It stands out as an epic story of a very human, very professional and very brave man. Arthur Victor Sellwood (16 April 1920-31 October 1987) was a British journalist and author who specialized in twentieth century naval history, adapting the recollections of Second World War naval officers into popular history books. He co-authored the story of the German merchant raider Atlantis with that ship's adjutant Ulrich Mohr as well as "Hein" Fehler's account of the voyage of German submarine U-234 and T. J. Cain's story of service on H.M.S. Electra. He wrote a number of other non-fiction works, some with his wife Mary, as well as the novelization of the MGM film Children of the Damned. His last book, with Mary, was The Victorian Railway Murders for which the Sellwoods got the idea while Mary was working as a journalist soon after the end of the Second World War but which was not published until 1979. In addition to working as a journalist, Sellwood produced a number of popular non-fiction books, specializing in adapting the recollections of twentieth century naval officers. His first book, published in 1955, was the story of captain Bernhard Rogge's "raider" Atlantis, based on the recollections of that ship's adjutant Ulrich Mohr. Sellwood's interest in the story of the German "raiders" was kindled after he was asked to review a volume of memoirs of British merchant seamen of the Second World War that included the story of Captain A. Hill of Mandasor, one of the ships sunk by Atlantis. He began to research the history of Atlantis, but by late 1953 was on the point of giving up as the many aliases she used and the patchy nature of the sources made the task too time consuming for a working journalist. He realized, however, that he could try to write the story from the German side if he could contact anyone who had served on the ship. Just weeks later he happened to meet Captain J. Armstrong White who had been a captive on Atlantis after she sank his ship City of Bagdad and who Sellwood discovered was in contact with Mohr and Rogge. He was thus able to meet Mohr and co-authored the book on Atlantis with him while Rogge published his memoirs separately. In 1956 he continued the theme with Dynamite for Hire, the story of "Hein" Fehler who also served on Atlantis and as commander of the German submarine U-234, and in 1959 he produced Lt. Commander T. J. Cain's memoir of his service on HMS Electra. In 1973 he published The Damned Don't Drown, an account of the sinking by a Soviet submarine in 1945 of the MV Wilhelm Gustloff. Other military titles were Stand by to Die! (1961) about HMS Li Wo and The Saturday Night Soldiers (1966), a history of the Territorial Army...
This is the boigraphy of Johann Heinrich Fehler from his birth in 1910 to about his 40th year. "Hein" Fehler was the explosives officer on the Q-Ship Atlantis and the commander of U-234. His story is told in Hein's characteristic blunt, unapologetic, yet humourous style as it covers his delinquent childhood, work as a deckhand on small boats in the baltic, his misadventures as a merchant seaman, membership of the Nazi Party (His reason for joining the SS is hilarious) , naval career, and finally as a "businessman" in post-war Germany.
Without spoiling the tales in the book, I can only say that this is the man who, while on the German Raider Atlantis, stole the political officer's budgerigar and crammed the ships cat into its cage!
My sole regret about this book is that it stops around 1950 and there wasn't a sequel covering Hein's equally colourful later life.
