Foto do autor

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.

Includes the name: Edward Offley

Obras de Ed Offley

Associated Works

MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Winter 2008 (2007) — Author "Buried at Sea" — 8 cópias

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome de batismo
Ed Offley
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
USA
Educação
University of Virginia
Ocupação
reporter
editor
author

Membros

Resenhas

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 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?
… (mais)
 
Marcado
cyderry | 1 outra resenha | Nov 22, 2021 |
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 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.
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Marcado
rsutto22 | Jul 15, 2021 |
Esta resenha foi escrita no âmbito dos Primeiros Resenhistas do LibraryThing.
Lots of information packed into this not often told part of WW2. Sinkings and casualties were high but they literally, often at a little over 10 knots, to keep Britain and Russia in the fight against Germany.
½
 
Marcado
jamespurcell | outras 13 resenhas | Aug 12, 2020 |
In the first half of 1942, Nazi Germany sent U-boats to the shores of America to savage the merchantmen and tankers plying the coastal waterways. At this stage of war, America was ill-prepared to deal with such an incursion, having too few ships, two few airplanes and ineffective naval leadership. For many months, Germany's 'grey wolves' sank ship after ship as America tried to build an effective counter force. Author Edward Offley chronicles those long, brutal months and America's eventual triumph over the U-boats in this gripping, comprehensive book published in 2014.


Mike O. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

… (mais)
 
Marcado
mcpl.wausau | 1 outra resenha | Sep 25, 2017 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
4
Also by
1
Membros
328
Popularidade
#72,311
Avaliação
½ 3.7
Resenhas
17
ISBNs
22

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