The story of the German submarine fleet can be recognized as the history of World War II, and the Battle of the Atlantic as one of the fiercest and most significant campaigns ever conducted from a strategic point of view. At the center stood a young captain named Herbert Werner.

The book "Iron Coffins" is the candid story of a former submarine captain, a narrative that swiftly and skillfully sails from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, from the English Channel to the North Sea. A personal account of the sights, sounds, and atmosphere inside a submarine, "Iron Coffins" is a rare and skillful recording from the perspective of the Germans.

Werner's memoirs begin with the triumphant years of 1941 and 1942, when German submarines nearly strangled England—sinking 495 ships off the coast of the U.S. in just six months. With blistering honesty, Werner continues, recounting daily life at sea and on land, up to the revealing final years of the destruction of the German fleet.

When the war ended, 28,000 out of the 39,000 men of the German submarine force had vanished beneath the waves, and Werner was one of the few captains who survived.