About the Author
Ed Offley served in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam and has been a military reporting specialist for newspapers and online publications since 1981. He lives in Panama City Beach, Florida.
Works by Ed Offley
Associated Works
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Winter 2008 (2007) — Author "Buried at Sea" — 8 copies
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In January 1942, after the US 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?… (more)