Sound of Hunger by Chris Heal

[chrisheal]

Hello Everyone

My book, Sound of Hunger, discussed on this site before, has now been published. It deals with the lives of WWI u-boat commanders and brothers Erich and Georg Gerth. It seeks to place their development as boys and young men in Berlin and cadets in the Imperial Navy in the context of their political times and war careers (which included spying and setting-up u-boat supply centres in South America before the war start, and also attempted escape by u-boat from an Atlantic coast POW camp). They both had remarkable lives and, after their WWI experiences, went separate ways: one into right-wing politics, including involvement through family and Wilhelm Canaris in the murder of communist leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht and his own eventual murder in Rome by the Gestapo; the other becoming a businessman, philosopher and recluse. For u-boat devotees, the stranding of Georg's UC 61 and its considerable, but hidden, intelligence haul is covered in detail and there is also much information, some new, on the early development and funding of the WW2 u-boat fleet from 1918. Among other chapters are the British blockade, the resulting famine in Germany, the propaganda war around u-boats, u-boat men in French prisoner of war camps, and u-boat officers in the Freikorps.

You can pick up more of the story through the publisher's website, Uniform, or through Amazon. There are over 750 pages (6 cm thick!), more than 100 photographs and twelve full-page colour maps. If you buy and enjoy, a friendly review on Amazon would, I'm told, help sales along.

Best wishes
Chris