A review of Austria
Jun. 11th, 2009 09:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
So I just finished reading A Sailor of Austria: In Which, Without Really Intending to, Otto Prohaska Becomes Official War Hero No. 27 of the Habsburg Empire by John biggins. The title pretty much explains the general gist of things. Otto Prohaska, an naval officer of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is assigned to U-boat duty during WWI and this is an account of his adventures.
It was a really fun read. Submarine warfare was still a new and very risky business in WWI and the Austro-Hungarian Empire only had about 300 miles of coastline to defend so its navy was pretty small. Biggins does a great job in vividly describing the dangers and difficulties faced by Prohaska and other u-boat commanders at the time. And because German is the Imperial language, everyone has these wonderfully baroque German titles. He also does a good job at paring comical misadventure with the grim realities that marked WWI.
If you're into military fiction and history, this makes for some good reading.
later
Tom
So I just finished reading A Sailor of Austria: In Which, Without Really Intending to, Otto Prohaska Becomes Official War Hero No. 27 of the Habsburg Empire by John biggins. The title pretty much explains the general gist of things. Otto Prohaska, an naval officer of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is assigned to U-boat duty during WWI and this is an account of his adventures.
It was a really fun read. Submarine warfare was still a new and very risky business in WWI and the Austro-Hungarian Empire only had about 300 miles of coastline to defend so its navy was pretty small. Biggins does a great job in vividly describing the dangers and difficulties faced by Prohaska and other u-boat commanders at the time. And because German is the Imperial language, everyone has these wonderfully baroque German titles. He also does a good job at paring comical misadventure with the grim realities that marked WWI.
If you're into military fiction and history, this makes for some good reading.
later
Tom
