BOOKS INTENDED TO BE CONSULTED

, over competition for resources, unmet demands for support from the Luftwaffe, and the
diversion of his submarines from the critical convoy routes are fully explored. While on
the Allied side, an in-depth assessment addresses their struggle to achieve a
satisfactory balance among the requirements for escort ships, patrol aircraft, weapons,
sensors, crew proficiency, and the desperate need for merchant shipping. The blending
of these strategic factors with the grim individual experiences of civilians and the battle’s
participants on, under, and above the Atlantic is one of this book’s many strengths.

BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC

by Marc Milner

A major reinterpretation of the most important military campaign of the Second World
War A new and up-to-date history of the Battle of the Atlantic - from all sides: the British,
Germans, Americans, Italians, Canadians and Russians. World War II was only a few
hours old when the Battle of the Atlantic - the longest campaign of the Second World
War and the longest, most complex submarine war in history - began with the sinking of
an armed merchant cruiser by the German submarine U30. This book charts the
fascinating development of U-boat capacities and the techniques used by the Allies to
try to arrest the power of this secretive force.
THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC: HITLER'S GRAY WOLVES OF THE SEA AND
THE ALLIES' DESPERATE STRUGGLE TO DEFEAT THEM

by Andrew Williams

What history calls the "Battle of the Atlantic" was really a full-scale war-within-a-war,
fought from the beginning of hostilities in 1939 to the moment of cease-fire in 1945.
Andrew Williams focuses on the first four years of this bitter conflict, during which time
German submarines sank an astounding twelve million tons of Allied shipping. The story
reaches its climax in May 1943, when the introduction of new weapons and tactics
turned the tide of the battle and enabled the Allies to contain and finally defeat the
dreaded German "wolf packs." Interweaving scores of first-person accounts from
survivors of both sides, The Battle of the Atlantic follows the exploits of the charismatic
U-boat commanders who led their crews to the hunt-and often to their deaths. It goes
aboard the merchantmen and escort ships that were both victim and nemesis to the
"gray wolves" of the sea. And it enters the war rooms of the German, British, and
American navies, where code-breakers and strategists angled for any advantage in a
race that spelled doom to its loser. This dramatic chronicle sheds new light on one of
the most dangerous conflicts of the Second World War.
 BITTER OCEAN THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC 1939-1945

by David Fairban White

Bitter Ocean is a masterful, authoritative account of perhaps the least-known major

battle of World War II, the Battle of the Atlantic. British, Canadian, and American air and
sea forces fought the German U-boats in this desperate battle, and prevailed -- at a
terrible cost.

Between 1939 and 1945, over 36,000 Allied sailors and navy airmen and 36,000
merchant seamen lost their lives in the Atlantic Ocean. They were attempting to deliver
the weapons, food, and supplies essential to keeping Britain alive, as well as the
supplies vital to the armies fighting in Europe. In addition to the troops themselves,
every tank, plane, and bomb crossed the Atlantic aboard ship. As dreadful as the loss of
life was for the Allies, the Germans fared even worse. More than 80 percent of German
U-boat crewmen never made it home, the highest casualty rate of any branch of the
military on either side. Bitterly contested and nearly lost, the Allies' battle for control of
the Atlantic shipping lanes remains perhaps the least understood chapter of World War
II -- until now.
Drawing on a wealth of archival research as well as interviews with veterans on both
sides of the ocean campaign, author and maritime journalist David Fairbank White takes
us aboard ship and beneath the waves as he reconstructs this epic clash from both
sides. With captivating immediacy, Bitter Ocean evokes the grim years 1940-42 when
Admiral Karl Donitz's U-boats -- "tough wolves, stubby, 761 tons of driven, overcharged
Nazi attack power" -- succeeded in sinking more tonnage than Allied shipyards could
replace. He shows us the technological breakthroughs that reversed the course of the
battle in 1943, including improved radar, machines that cracked the German naval
code, and very long-range bombers. As the hunters became the hunted, the tide turned,
but the German fleet continued to fight despite the increasingly terrible odds.
As he tells the powerful, wrenching stories of individual convoys that suffered from the
German submarine attacks, White displays a novelist's flair. Vividly written, Bitter Ocean
is scrupulously factual, a triumph of scholarship that will enthrall every student of
history.