Remembrance Sunday is a day for the nation to honour those who sacrificed their lives in order to protect the freedom of our country.

Crowds gather every year, on the second Sunday of November, to commemorate the fallen servicemen and women from the two World Wars and after. A thought, however, should also be spared for the Merchant Navy, more than 36,000 of whose civilian personnel died in the Second World War.

Most of the fatalities were caused by the German U-boats, which were dubbed "Wolf Packs" due to their travelling in predatory groups that stalked the cold waters of the world's oceans.

Not so much is known or written about the losses suffered by the German losses in the U-boat war; in fact, some 28,000 out of the 40,000 German submariners perished at sea.

Author Lawrence Paterson has recently reprinted his fourth book, Hitler's Grey Wolves: U-Boats In The Indian Ocean, which originally came out in 2004 and explores the forty German submarines that operated from the Malayan (now known as Malaysian) port of Georgetown in 1943 and served alongside troops of the occupying Imperial Japanese forces.

The New Zealand born writer, who moved over to Palmers Green, in Enfield, to pursue a second career as a heavy metal drummer in 1988, has written 14 books about the German forces in the Second World War.

He explains why he chooses to focus on the German perspective…

Lawrence says: "I developed an interest in war while I was growing up in New Zealand and listened to the stories of both of my grandfathers, who had served in both the first and second world war. One was in the Scandinavian army in the First World War and my other grandfather was in the Royal Navy in the second.

"I always heard how it was the Germans who were the bad guys, I believe it was never quite as simple as that, as there are no good guys or bad guys, they are all fighting for a bad cause. From then, I developed an interest in the German military.

"This book originally came out more than a decade ago and so this is just a reprinted version, as there were a few spelling mistakes due to referring to Malaya as Malaysia and of course, it didn't become that until the 60s. However, I still stand by all the information in the book."

Lawrence, who left school at 16-years-old and gleaned all his knowledge about the U-boats from independent research, admits he is already writing his next book, which should be out in 2018.

He is often inspired by the architecture of London, as it holds so much history.

He says: "London was heavily involved in World War II and a lot of the buildings around the city show this in their modern, particularly in the east, after being rebuilt due to the bomb damage, so the legacy still lives on.

"I've also met some of the most incredible people through writing these books and I personally think that although the two world wars kicked off due to bad politics and bad decisions, ultimately they are filled with so many interesting human stories of individual people who were involved.

"I find it really humbling to meet those that fought and have given me information for my books, as they are so heroic in their own way. They have been through things I can't imagine and a lot of these people, particularly some of the U-boat commanders and crews I met in Germany, for example, went through it all when they were only aged between 17 and 25-years-old. They kept sailing even though they knew the odds were against them and it is amazing."

Hitler's Grey Wolves: U-Boats In The Indian Ocean is available to buy on Amazon.