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Book Review - Shadow Divers Exposed: The Real Saga of the U-869 by Gary Gentile
Shadow Divers Exposed is a revealing and thought provoking book that challenges much of the story in the book Shadow Divers , by Robert Kurson. Shadow Divers tells the story of tje discovery and eventual identification of a German U-boat, U-869, in New Jersey waters. Shadow Divers Exposed rebukes much of that book as being just that - a story, with exaggeration, hyperbole, literary license and allegedly, fabrication.
Shadow Divers is in fact an engaging and well told story, with a major motion picture in the pipeline, that will account the story of the divers involved - John Chatterton and Richie Kohler.
I first heard of Shadow Divers Exposed by Gary Gentile when my co-host on The Surface Interval Show podcast, Bear, mentioned it during one of our shows. I must admit that my early thoughts were that there were probably some sour grapes by Gentile, a man who is a noted and accomplished writer, researcher, diver and adventurer. Perhaps, I thought, Gentile may have thought that after his many years of cutting edge diving, exploration and writing, it should have been his turn to get his 15 minutes of fame.
These thoughts were fortified when I read the introduction to Shadow Divers Exposed, which had some provocative paragraphs like:
But then as I read the book (Shadow Divers Exposed), I became rivted. Gentile has methodically dealt with "fact" after "fact" in Shadow Divers, countering the stories told with evidence. In some cases, this evidence related to discrepancies in Shadow Divers itself. In other cases, the evidence was from Gentile's first hand experiences, in some cases it was from documentary evidence available in the public domain, in some cases from witness accounts of the same events, and in some cases video or audio recordings. Compelling stuff."With all due respect to the author of Shadow Divers, I have written thirty books shipwrecks and wreck-diving. I believe that this lifetime endeavor gives me more of a professional background in the field than Robert Kurson, whose only previously published titles were The Unofficial Three Stooges Encyclopedia: the Ultimate Knucklehead's Guide to Stoogedom, and The Official Three Stooges Cookbook." (page 17)
In fact, it is clear that Gentile is a successful diver, researcher, explorer and writer, and all of these things point to a man who clearly has a great attention to detail, and who seems to have kept detailed notes on just about everything that has ever happened to him!
On the surface it would appear likely that the story told in Shadow Divers has some facts that are questionable. It also appears that the (true) story told by Gentile is compelling - at least for a diver.
I went back and re-read the Shadow Divers book after reading Exposed, and I must admit that I still enjoyed the original story. Perhaps there were some literary liberties taken, I don't know, but the story is gripping. If Gentile's accusations are true, I would agree that the author of Shadow Divers (Robert Kurson) should not have portrayed the book as being a literal account, as he clearly did in the introduction.
What is clear to me is that the characters involved - John Chatterton, Richie Kohler and Gary Gentile - are each successful technical divers and explorers. They each appear to have done the hard yards in doing extreme cutting edge diving, historical research and exploration. Chatterton and Kohler are engaging personalities, evidenced by their TV show, Deep Sea Detectives, whilst Gentile is a talented author and wordsmith.
So I am not going to take sides in this debate. I really can't - I wasn't there and I have no first hand knowledge of the facts.
What I can say is that enjoyed both of these books, and would recommend them both to a diver who is interested in learning more about cutting edge wreck diving and research, and to anyone who enjoys a good story. In between the 2 books, you'll get a clear picture of the difficulties that face historical researchers.
Buy Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II
Buy Shadow Divers Exposed: the Real Saga of the U-869