Volume Three (of a four-volume series) reveals the fate of the ninety-two German U-boats that passed through Lorient from August 1942 to August 1943. From October 1942, Type IX U-boats left Lorient for distant seas beyond the South African Cape and succeeded in sinking three times as many ships as those that attacked the North Atlantic convoys! This book also details the terrible effects of the massive Allied bombardments on both the base and town during the following months and discusses Allied progress in anti-U-boat techniques and armaments that forced the U-boats to abandon the North Atlantic at the end of May 1943 and the Allied offensive seeking to destroy German U-boats in transit in the Gulf of Gascony. This work is illustrated with over 600 exceptional war-era photographs as well as maps and plans. A unique colour section presents the remains, documents, and memories relating to the presence of the U-boats in Lorient.

Luc Braeuer, born in Paris in 1970, is an information engineer and officer in the reserve. He has published twenty-six books on the ports of Brest, Lorient, and Saint-Nazaire. Specializing in German submarines in France, he is the French correspondent for the U-Boat Archive, Cuxhaven.