U-Boats: The Illustrated History of the Raiders of the Deep

As its inside cover states, this oversized book is full of maps, technical drawings, tables, rare photos, and stories. So you see its more than just an informative factual textbook, it is also an easy to enjoy coffee table book, nicely bound on good paper (Brasseys Hardback ISBN: 1574882465). One large table over many pages lists very nearly every U-Boat number and its type, builder, commisioned date, and its ultimate eding: fate, date, final captain, place, means, dead, and saved, e.g. U-1229; Type IXC/40; built by Duetche; commisioned January 13,1944; Sunk; on August 20, 1944; Captained by Zinke, A; at SE of Newfoundland; by USN aircfaft: VC-42 (Bogue); 18 dead; ? # Saved. More text than anything else, but also there's always some sort of graphics on every page, well maybe not at the index :) If you need only one volume on U-Boats this might be the very best choice.