"Iron coffins," "grey wolves," and "steel sharks" - cast in images such as these, submarines are icons of Germany's maritime tradition. In books and films, submarines have been used to promote political goals and to justify and explain an intriguing and sometimes ambiguous past. A fascinating look at nearly one hundred years of propaganda and literature, Count Not the Dead explores the cult and culture surrounding one of the most mythologized weapons of war.

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.