• The Battle of the Atlantic

  • How the Allies Won the War
  • By: Jonathan Dimbleby
  • Narrated by: Jonathan Dimbleby
  • Length: 20 hrs and 43 mins
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Release date: 11-05-15
  • Language: English
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.7 (3 ratings)

Regular price: $31.97

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Publisher's Summary

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Battle of the Atlantic, written and read by Jonathan Dimbleby.
The Battle of the Atlantic was - though often overlooked - crucial to victory in the Second World War. If the German U-boats had prevailed, the maritime artery across the Atlantic would have been severed. Mass hunger would have consumed Britain, and the Allied armies would have been prevented from joining in the invasion of Europe. There would have been no D-Day.
Through fascinating contemporary diaries and letters from the leaders and from the sailors on all sides, Jonathan Dimbleby creates a thrilling narrative that uniquely places the campaign in the context of the entire Second World War.
Challenging conventional wisdom on the use of intelligence and on Churchill's bombing campaign, The Battle of the Atlantic tells the epic story of the decisions that led to victory and the horror and humanity of life on those perilous seas.
©2015 Jonathan Dimbleby (P)2015 Penguin Books Limited
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful
4 out of 5 stars
By Andrew on 01-08-18

Strategic Overview

This book provides a very good insight to the grand strategic factors impacting the Battle of the Atlantic. For comparable insight to the operational and tactical factors, Black May by Michael Gammon is hard to beat. This provides the best available overview (in my opinion) of perhaps the single most important allied initiative to winning the Battle of the Atlantic - operational research and its intelligent application. It also illustrates the critical importance of coherent doctrine, training, and tactical level leadership. Mr Dimbleby only touches lightly on these topics. This may be nit picking but I think the Battle of the Barents Sea in which Capt Sherbrooke won the VC deserves a more comprehensive treatment than it receives in this book. This does not detract from an excellent overall study, however.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful
4 out of 5 stars
By Paul J Day on 01-29-16

Brilliant but faulty editing

Really interesting book and very well read. Especially interesting were the personal stories.

However, the recording has at least 2 sections where sections were left in where Jonathan makes a mistake, apologised then restarts the reading.

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3 of 3 people found this review helpful

3 out of 5 stars
By grant on 06-02-16

Good but runs out of steam

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The book is great although terribly edited with regular mistakes and repeated phrases not removed. There are 18 hours of coverage of 1939-1942 and then two hours for the rest. The period where the allies were losing is brilliantly described in significant detail but it feels that he realised he had to cram the rest of the war into two hours and rushed it. The sinking of 5 submarines in 24 hours is given 60 seconds.

What other book might you compare The Battle of the Atlantic to, and why?

Max Hastings does this better

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

His narration is brilliant as you would expect of one of our best ever broadcasters but some basic editing would have also helped.

Do you think The Battle of the Atlantic needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No

Any additional comments?

Could have been great but seems very unbalanced.

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2 of 2 people found this review helpful

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful
3 out of 5 stars
By Peter Gray on 06-16-16

A great account ruined by some bad editing

Jonathan Dimbleby is an accomplished historian who has researched the subject well. The audio book is spoiled by misreadings and corrections which have been left in instead of being edited out. There are also several references to other pages which are entirely inappropriate to an audio book.

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2 of 2 people found this review helpful

4 out of 5 stars
By Amazon Customer on 08-12-17

The Battle of the Atlantic

This book is a tribute to the bravery of the men, on both sides, who fort and died in largely horrific circumstances during the second world war on the Atlantic. It also touches on the stories of the civilians who became caught up in it. Written and read by Jonathan Dimbelby the presentation is in line with the standards of the writing and broadcasting traditions of the Dimbleby family.
It was disappointing to note that the audio was not edited thoroughly. Many reading errors were left uncorrected.

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