Friday, December 02, 2011

Book Recommendation:

If, like me, you enjoyed the tales of Otto Prohaska, fictional heroic Austro-Hungarian sub skipper, perhaps you would enjoy To The Last Salute, the wartime memoirs of Georg von Trapp, the real-life heroic Austro-Hungarian sub skipper on which numerous of Prohaska's adventures were based. (Yes, that von Trapp.)

13 comments:

1911Man said...

Thanks for the recommendation. I enjoyed "A Sailor of Austria" very much. I had never heard of John Biggins before. He's a pretty dang good writer.

During the entire book, I kept wondering, "how much of this is accurate history?" Your thoughts on that?

mikeeeeeeee said...

Is there a sing-along audio book available yet?

Tam said...

From what I can gather, Prohaska's adventures are cobbled together from the exploits of... well, pretty much the entire Austro-Hungarian and German U-boat force in the Mediterranean. In other words, it looks like pretty much all of it happened, just not to one sub.

Tam said...

mikeeeeeeee,

My favorite tracks are "The Sea Is Alive (With The Sound Of Depth Charges)" and "How Do We Solve A Problem Like The Q-Ship?"

NotClauswitz said...

Forwarded to my buddy who vacations at the Trapp Family Lodge in VT every year - or as he calls it, "Ben&Jerry Hell."

Tirno said...

Tam,

I'm somewhat partial to "I've sunk 16, going on 17" and the joyful song:

Bow, the front, the front of my boat
Ray, a vector on my map
Me, I look, look through my scope
Fa, the distance to the ship
So, I lead a little more
Los! I cry to Fire One
Teak, deck planks caught afire
and so I bring about the
[Repeat]

Tam said...

Oh, bravo! :)

Justthisguy said...

Toldya.

WV: emeti. Yes, "The Sound of Music" was a bit emetic.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

I'm just before finishing "The Emperor's Coloured Coat". Thanks for recommending these, Tam, I don't think I would ever have found them otherwise.

NotClauswitz said...

Tirno is my Hero.

Jac said...

Just because I'm reminded of it every time I hear a reference to The Sound of Music, have you seen this?

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-regret-to-inform-you-that-my-wedding-to-captain-von-trapp-has-been-canceled

Anonymous said...

Kudos to Tam and especially Tirno for the delightful musical, "The Sound of U-boat"!

As for books on undersea warfare of the "OMG! You DID that???" variety, may I recommend RADM Gene Fluckey's Thunder Below?

Justthisguy said...

Oh, yeah, doc, Fluckey's proudest boast was that none of his men ever got a Purple Heart!