The history of the German submarine fleet can be read as the history of World War II and the Battle of the Atlantic as one of the most fierce and significant campaigns ever conducted from a strategic perspective. At its center stood a young Captain named Herbert Werner.

The book "Iron Coffins" is the honest story of a former submarine captain, a narrative that sails swiftly and skillfully from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, from the English Channel to the North Sea. A personal account of the sights, sounds, and atmosphere inside a submarine, "Iron Coffins" is a rare and skillful recording from the perspective of the Germans.

Werner's memoirs begin with the triumphant years of 1941 and 1942, when German submarines nearly strangled England - sinking 495 ships off the coast of the United States in just six months. With caustic honesty, Werner continues, recounting the daily life at sea and on land, until the revealing final years of the destruction of the German fleet. When the war ended, 28,000 out of the 39,000 men in the German submarine force had disappeared beneath the waves, and Werner was one of the few captains who remained alive.