To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander

To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander
by Georg von Trapp

To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander
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Book Summary Information

Author: Georg von Trapp
Translator: Elizabeth M. Campbell
Introduction: Elizabeth M. Campbell
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-05-01
ISBN: 0803213506
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Bison Books

Book Reviews of To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander

Book Review: Von Trapp, pioneer of submarine warfare tactics
Summary: 5 Stars

If you are interested in the Trapp Family Singers, this book is of marginal interest. However, if you are interested in the history of early submarine warfare in WWI, then this book is important.

As regards WWI submarine warfare, the British and the Germans like to claim they invented all the successful techniques. Read von Trapp's memoirs to find out otherwise. It is a wonder that von Trapp could sink anything at all, given his wretched boat and marginal torpedoes. It is a wonder he could maintain an efficient crew, given the polyglot composition thereof. But sink he did and lead he did. Von Trapp comes across as a modest man, scarcely even aware of the innovations in submarine warfare he was making. His tactics of lying inshore may have been necessitated by his lack of a movable periscope, and facilitated by the relative small size of his vessel, but they would be found effective by the most daring submarine commanders of WWII, both German and American. But NOBODY had sunk a cruiser by moon light before von Trapp. I won't spoil the rest of the book.

I would recommend this book to all students of naval warfare for two reasons: 1) history of tactics and 2) what a naval officer should be.

PS: For those of you familiar with the Trapp Family beyond "The Sound of Music," this book will explain why his children loved him, how Rodgers and Hammerstein got him wrong, and how trying at times it must have been for him to put up with the "real" Maria.

Summary of To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander

The Sound of Music endeared Georg von Trapp (1880?1947) and his singing family to the world, and it also showed how desperately the Nazis wanted Captain von Trapp for their navy. In To the Last Salute we learn why. Trapp?s own story of his exploits as a submarine commander during the First World War is as exciting as it is instructive, bringing to stirring life a little-known chapter in the naval history of that war.

In his many guises, Trapp describes life as captain of Austro-Hungarian U-boats in the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas, emerging by turn as the Imperial Austrian naval officer, the witty observer of international politics, and the indefatigable and ultimately heartbroken patriot opposing the Allied enemy. He relates deadly duels with submarine sweepers, narrow escapes and excruciatingly close calls, and the spectacular sinking of cargo and war ships?all while maintaining a keen sense of the camaraderie of seamen from every corner of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Trapp?s story, in English for the first time, offers a rare combination of human interest, historical insight, and true life-and-death adventure.

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