Books: The Suicide Spirit

HITLER AND His ADMIRALS (275 pp.)—Anthony K. Martienssen—Dutton ($4).

At 10 p.m. on Oct. 12, 1939, the submarine U-47, commanded by Lieut. Gunther Prien, surfaced off the Orkneys. Prien noted in the log: "The English are kind enough to switch on all the coastal lights, so I can obtain the most exact fix . . ." At dawn the next morning the submarine lay submerged at a depth of 270 feet outside Scapa Flow. At 7:15 that night it surfaced and the crew ate a warm supper.

On land "everything is dark, high in the sky are the flickering Northern Lights, so that...

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