Basing his study on some two-hundred-and-fifty German novels, memoirs, fictionalized histories, and films (including Das Boot), Michael Hadley examines the popular image of the German submarine and weighs the values, purposes, and perceptions of German writers and film makers. He considers the idea of the submarine as a war-winning weapon and the exploits of the "band of brothers" who made up the U-boat crews. He also describes the perceptions of the German public about the role of the U-boat in the war effort and the hopes that it carried for victory in two world wars against the Allied forces. Analysed in context, the U-boat emerges as a central factor and metaphor in Germany's ongoing struggle with its political and military past. In Count Not the Dead Hadley explores the complex relationships between political reality and cultural myth, and draws important conclusions about the way in which Germans have interpreted their past and how present concerns change these views.

Michael L. Hadley is an award-winning writer, scholar, yachtsman, retired naval officer, international traveller, and lecturer. He is the author and editor of several books on naval and maritime history, including Spindrift: A Canadian Book of the Sea (co-edited with Anita Hadley) and Citizen Sailors: Chronicles of Canada’s Naval Reserve, 1910–2010 (co-edited with Richard H. Gimlett), and his work has won such prestigious awards as the John Lyman Prize of the North American Society for Oceanic History and the Keith Matthews Award of the Canadian Nautical Research Society. He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

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"A fascinating and carefully crafted look at the image of the German submarine and the U-boat crews. The book draws some very important conclusions about changing ideas about 'duty' and 'service,' obedience to orders, the 'nur-soldat' question, U-boat crews as victims, the place of tradition in the armed forces of the German Republic, perhaps all armed forces, and the way in which we interpret our history." Robert Vogel, Department of History, McGill University.