I responded to the msg below posted on SubWar. Maybe some of you would be
interested.

>To: The Submarine Warfare Network Mailing List

>From: rickt@cris.com (Eric Bergerud)
>Subject: Re: Searching for a book
>
>>I search for an English written book, published in the
>>sixties, which covers the incident of U-852 and the ‘Peleus’
>>(Kaptlt. Eck).
>>The title was: ‘An Operational Necessity’
>>
>>Know everyone the author or the publishing house?
>>Year of printing?
>>
>>
>>I wish Ray good luck for running the list.
>>
>>Juergen from Germany
>>
>_Operational Necessity_ was written by Gwyn Griffin a brilliant British
novelist who died relatively young in the late 60’s. (Fortunately, his
career was short but extremely prolific.) It is not about the U852
specifically but was inspired by the incident. Griffin writes in the mold of
Joseph Conrad or VS Naipaul: not at all happy stuff. Yet his characters are
complex, his dialogue amazing and plots sophisticated. I consider him one of
the greatest postwar writers in the English language. The portion of
_Operational Necessity_ that is set upon the U-Boat shows a remarkable feel
for detail and the psychology of combat. Griffin also wrote another great
novel of the sea _Master of this Vessel_ which includes a description of a
ship fighting for life during a great storm that helped me decide to do all
of my fishing from the shore.
>
>_Operational Necessity_ would be easily available from any interlibrary
loan. There is an unabridged audio version of all of Griffin’s work from
Books on Tape ( www.booksontape.com ). They rent for about $10 but take
about 15 hours to listen to – well worth it. (I have a long commute and
listen to a lot of these things.) The narrator for Griffin’s books is
Wolfram Kandinsky who used to be the best in the business.
>
Eric Bergerud, 531 Kains Ave, Albany CA 94706, 510-525-0930