Military History Club Podcast · Saul David

Saul David and Roger Moorhouse on Wolfpack and Tunisgrad

·35 min·2 clips

The German U-boat arm had a roughly 75% death rate, with about 30,000 submariners killed.

1. Military History Club Podcast covers Saul David and Roger Moorhouse on Wolfpack and Tunisgrad, two forthcoming 2025 books. 2. Saul David hosts the conversation, and Roger Moorhouse is the historian writing Wolfpack on the German U-boat war. 3. The episode asks whether the U-boat campaign and the Tunisian campaign were both bigger strategic turning points than they are often treated. 4. Moorhouse says Wolfpack grew out of his memory of Das Boot and its German perspective on submarine warfare. 5. He argues that the submarine war was unusually clean compared with the Eastern Front and that only one documented case of machine-gunning survivors exists. 6. Moorhouse says German U-boat crews more often rescued sailors they had sunk than committed atrocities. 7. He describes using German archival material, memoirs, and diaries because Battle of the Atlantic histories usually focus on merchantmen and destroyers. 8. Saul David points out that submarines combine claustrophobia and jeopardy, and Moorhouse agrees that the subject carries built-in drama. 9. Moorhouse says the U-boat arm had about 30,000 deaths out of roughly 40,000 men, a 75% death rate. 10. He says average U-boat patrol life fell from three or four missions early in the war to less than one patrol by 1944-45. 11. Moorhouse describes the recruitment process: single men, men under five foot eight, and conscripts with mechanical or electrical skills. 12. He says recruiters also favored inland Germans from places like the Ruhr, Thuringia, and Saxony because they knew less about sea life. 13. Moorhouse says political officers were kept off U-boats, even though Dönitz was a convinced Nazi. 14. He argues that this helped make the U-boat war less ideologized than the fighting on other fronts. 15. Moorhouse says the Battle of the Atlantic never quite threatened to cut Britain's supply line from the United States, despite Churchill's famous fear. 16. He gives a statistical estimate that U-boats sank only about 3 to 4 percent of ships crossing the Atlantic. 17. Saul and Roger then switch to Tunisgrad, and Saul credits James Holland with suggesting the Tunisian campaign after a talk for the Military History Club. 18. Moorhouse says Tunisgrad matters because it involved Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Casablanca, Rommel, Montgomery, Eisenhower, Patton, and Alexander, and because it helped destroy the Axis. 19. Listeners interested in U-boats, Churchill, and North Africa will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a quick general chat without wartime detail may skip it. 1. Military History Club Podcast covers Saul David and Roger Moorhouse on Wolfpack and Tunisgrad, two forthcoming 2025 books. 2. Saul David hosts the conversation, and Roger Moorhouse is the historian writing Wolfpack on the German U-boat war. 3. The episode asks whether the U-boat campaign and the Tunisian campaign were both bigger strategic turning points than they are often treated. 4. Moorhouse says Wolfpack grew out of his memory of Das Boot and its German perspective on submarine warfare. 5. He argues that the submarine war was unusually clean compared with the Eastern Front and that only one documented case of machine-gunning survivors exists. 6. Moorhouse says German U-boat crews more often rescued sailors they had sunk than committed atrocities. 7. He describes using German archival material, memoirs, and diaries because Battle of the Atlantic histories usually focus on merchantmen and destroyers. 8. Saul David points out that submarines combine claustrophobia and jeopardy, and Moorhouse agrees that the subject carries built-in drama. 9. Moorhouse says the U-boat arm had about 30,000 deaths out of roughly 40,000 men, a 75% death rate. 10. He says average U-boat patrol life fell from three or four missions early in the war to less than one patrol by 1944-45. 11. Moorhouse describes the recruitment process: single men, men under five foot eight, and conscripts with mechanical or electrical skills. 12. He says recruiters also favored inland Germans from places like the Ruhr, Thuringia, and Saxony because they knew less about sea life. 13. Moorhouse says political officers were kept off U-boats, even though Dönitz was a convinced Nazi. 14. He argues that this helped make the U-boat war less ideologized than the fighting on other fronts. 15. Moorhouse says the Battle of the Atlantic never quite threatened to cut Britain's supply line from the United States, despite Churchill's famous fear. 16. He gives a statistical estimate that U-boats sank only about 3 to 4 percent of ships crossing the Atlantic. 17. Saul and Roger then switch to Tunisgrad, and Saul credits James Holland with suggesting the Tunisian campaign after a talk for the Military History Club. 18. Moorhouse says Tunisgrad matters because it involved Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Casablanca, Rommel, Montgomery, Eisenhower, Patton, and Alexander, and because it helped destroy the Axis. 19. Listeners interested in U-boats, Churchill, and North Africa will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a quick general chat without wartime detail may skip it.

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