Ed Offley

As I review this, I need to separate the format from the content. As you know, I normally LOVE audio books, and was delighted to receive the audio from the Early Review program.

BUT...................this is a book that has to be read in hard copy to be fully appreciated. The narrator, James Adams does a yeoman job of getting through this tome but it simply is not a book well suited to audio. There are hundreds of alpha-numeric designations and numerical descriptors that do not lend show more themselves to oral recitation. For example, at the beginning of chapter 6, pg. 107 of the print copy, we see

"Three weeks earlier, U-653 had damaged the 9,382-ton Dutch Madoera, a straggler from westbound Convoy ON166, and just four days before it had dispatched the drifting 7,176-ton American freighter Thomas Hooker, which had been abandoned by its crew after suffering major structural failures during the previous week."

Try reading this aloud (Pay close attention to every syllable and you'll get an idea of how cumbersome this is to the ear):

"Three weeks earlier, U -six-five-three had just damaged the nine thousand three hundred eighty two ton .....a straggler from westbound Convoy O- N-one-six-six, and just fours days .....the drifting seven thousand one hundred seventy six ton......yada yada yada."

There are literally three to ten such sentences on every one of the 392 pages of the print edition. Trying to follow the story from the audio was painful....there was simply no way one could track who was doing what to whom without resorting to pencil and paper. After the first of 13 discs, I gave up and went hunting for the book. I finally located the one copy in the State and had it sent from a community college library to mine.

I then was able to listen to the audio, but had the book at hand to supplement the story with all the enlightening illustrations, maps, charts, glossaries, Convoy lists, etc. It's a wonderful wonderful history of one of the most important battles of World War II, and the audio simply does not do it justice. Our ears and brains just don't register that kind of data without having to stop and make mental notes. Audio books should tell a story in a continuous flow so that the listener/ear-reader can follow along seamlessly. Listening to this was like driving along a turnpike that had speed bumps every 1/2 mile. You never get up to speed, and you're constantly off on the shoulder to check the map and make sure you know where you are.

Enough about the audio. The book itself, as I mentioned above, is incredibly well-researched, coherently written, elegantly edited (I didn't see a misspelled word or dangling participle anyplace!), has ample supplemental material enhancing the text, and should stand as one of the best naval history books of World War II. While the author has a limited scope (the time frame is quite short: the first six months of 1943), he gives us both the Allied and German perspectives on what was happening, who was involved, what lessons were learned, and how it impacted the rest of the war. It was fascinating, and surprisingly easy to follow in print. Our eyes and brains seem to have been conditioned to grasp "Convoy ON166" as a single reading bullet vice the seven syllables we had to absorb in the audio. The charts, maps and pictures added so much- giving us faces to go with names, outlines to go with ship shapes, and places to imagine. It's a tremendous reference book if you have any interest in this battle at all. Offley certainly has given us the definitive work on the subject. I just wish that James Adams' wonderful narrating voice hadn't been so wasted.

I'm giving this one 4 1/2 stars as a print book, 1 1/2 as an audio. show less

First of all, I have to admit that my knowledge of this aspect of World War II was completely non-existent. As a history buff I thought I knew just about everything in general but I find that I was completely in error. That said, I found the information in this book very disturbing because I was totally unaware that the Atlantic seaboard had ever been breeched by the Nazis or the Pacific coast ever been attacked (Santa Barbara was shelled by a Japanese sub)

In January 1942, after the US show more entered the war, Hitler had the German Navy begin attacks on the merchant fleet in the Atlantic to try to starve the British of needed supplies - food, fuel, ammunition. During the first 6 months of 1942, the German U-boat fleet sunk 226 merchant ships including ships outside New York Harbor and in the Gulf of Mexico.

The book centered around two men - a Army Air Force pilot and a German U-boat captain. The AAF pilot had been training others when the attack at Pearl Harbor occurred and he was sent to the Sacramento area to assist at other training facilities. He was apparently not too happy with the assignment because he wanted to go off and fight but he realized that getting more pilots trained was essential. When the attacks off the Atlantic coast started he was reassigned to Cherry Point NC where he flew reconnaissance missions trying to protect the merchant fleet.

The German U-boat commander besides trying to sink merchant ships, was also part of a force that laid mines at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, New York Harbor and Boston Bay as well as landing a force of saboteurs in New England. On a day in July 1942, the two men "met" when the pilot dropped a depth charge and sank the U-boat. There were 7 survivors. Many years after the war, the men met and actually became friends.

What bothered me the most about this book was that it made me realize the danger that my father had been in during this time as an officer of a merchant ship. My father never talked about his time during the war, now I wished I'd asked.

I also wonder how many other people of my generation or younger knew how close we came to being overcome in the war here on our own land. I keep remembering being told that the only time the US was attacked at home was when the British came in 1814. I wonder why this didn't count? show less

A riveting description of the Battle of the Atlantic told from both sides - the brave but doomed U-boat crews, the often helpless merchant mariners, and the over-worked and exhausted British, Canadian, and American Sailors. This was exceptionally read (I am reviewing the audiobook), and while it was a lengthy listen, I am glad it was not abridged. This book kept me transfixed to my car radio as I made several long-distance drives. That should not keep people from purchasing this version - it show more also does well in small chunks. show less

Conspiracy theories are interesting, and this book is no different. It's the authors belief, and he makes an impressive case in supporting this belief, that the loss of the USN Scorpion in 1968 was a result of a torpedo attack by a Soviet submarine. The "official" Government position is that the loss of the sub was a result of an unknown accident, and as might be expected, many if not most of the official records remain classified. While lack of government candor isn't anything new (think show more about the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, Nixon's Watergate coverup, the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan years, and a likelihood of yet to be released Bush era disclosures) it's still difficult to believe that the U.S. would knowingly tolerate the loss of a nuclear submarine, along with the 99 officers and sailors, due to an unprovoked attack by another naval force, and not react. And if it did truly occur as the author states, it's hard to believe that no leak from U.S. or Soviet individuals or documents have ever surfaced. Nonetheless, the author makes many interesting points, although he does wander off course on occasion with additional and seemingly unrelated information. show less