U-boats vs Destroyer Escorts

U-boats vs Destroyer Escorts
Author: Gordon Williamson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 81
Release: 2013-08-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472805437

Winston Churchill claimed the 'U-boat peril' was the only thing that frightened him during World War II. The U-boat was developed from a small coastal vessel into a state-of-the-art killer, stalking the high seas picking off merchant convoys, until the introduction of the destroyer escort, and the development of dedicated anti-submarine tactics provided a means of defence and attack against the U-boats. Gordon Williamson describes the design and development of these two deadly opponents, their tactics, strengths and weaknesses, weaponry and training. He provides an insight into the lives of the Royal Navy and Wolf Pack crews as they played their deadly games of cat and mouse on the high seas, gambling with their lives and the fate of the nations.

Atlantic Escorts

Atlantic Escorts
Author: David Brown
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2007-11-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1844157024

Winston Churchill famously claimed that the submarine war in the Atlantic was the only campaign of the Second World War that really frightened him. If the lifeline to north America had been cut, Britain would never have survived; there could have been no build-up of US and Commonwealth forces, no D-Day landings, and no victory in western Europe. Furthermore, the battle raged from the first day of the war until the final German surrender, making it the longest and arguably hardest-fought campaign of the whole war. The ships, technology and tactics employed by the Allies form the subject of this book. Beginning with the lessons apparently learned from the First World War, the author outlines inter-war developments in technology and training, and describes the later preparations for the second global conflict. When the war came the balance of advantage was to see-saw between U-boats and escorts, with new weapons and sensors introduced at a rapid rate. For the defending navies, the prime requirement was numbers, and the most pressing problem was to improve capability without sacrificing simplicity and speed of construction. The author analyses the resulting designs of sloops, frigates, corvettes and destroyer escorts and attempts to determine their relative effectiveness.

US Navy Destroyer Escorts of World War II

US Navy Destroyer Escorts of World War II
Author: Mark Lardas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 49
Release: 2020-11-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472839757

The Destroyer Escort was the smallest ocean-­going escort built for the United States Navy – a downsized destroyer with less speed, fewer guns, and fewer torpedoes than its big brother, the fleet destroyer. Destroyer escorts first went into production because the Royal Navy needed an escort warship which was larger than a corvette, but which could be built faster than a destroyer. Lacking the shipyards to build these types of ships in Britain, they ordered them in the US. Once the US unexpectedly entered World War II, its navy suddenly also needed more escort warships, even warships less capable than destroyers, and the destroyer escort was reluctantly picked to fill the gap. Despite the Navy's initial reservations, these ships did yeoman service during World War II, fighting in both the Atlantic and Pacific, taking on both U-boat and Japanese submarines and serving as the early warning pickets against kamikazes later in the war. They also participated in such dramatic actions as the Battle of Samar (where a group of destroyers and destroyer escorts fought Japanese battleships and cruisers to protect the escort carriers they were shielding) and the capture of the U-505 (the only major naval vessel captured at sea by the US Navy). The destroyer escorts soldiered on after World War II in both the United States Navy and a large number of navies throughout the world, with several serving into the twenty-first century. This book tells the full story of these plucky ships, from their design and development to their service around the world, complete with stunning illustrations and contemporary photographs.

When Tides Turn (Waves of Freedom Book #3)

When Tides Turn (Waves of Freedom Book #3)
Author: Sarah Sundin
Publisher: Revell
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2017-03-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1441246126

When fun-loving glamour girl Quintessa Beaumont learns the Navy has established the WAVES program for women, she enlists, determined to throw off her frivolous ways and contribute to the war effort. No-nonsense and hoping to make admiral, Lt. Dan Avery has been using his skills to fight German U-boats. The last thing he wants to see on his radar is a girl like Tess. For her part, Tess works hard to prove her worth in the Anti-Submarine Warfare Unit in Boston--both to her commanding officers and to the man with whom she is smitten. When Dan is assigned to a new escort carrier at the peak of the Battle of the Atlantic, he's torn between his lifelong career goals and his desire to help Tess root out a possible spy on shore. The Germans put up quite a fight, but he wages a deeper battle within his heart. Could Tess be the one for him? With precision and pizazz, fan favorite Sarah Sundin carries readers through the rough waters of love in a time when every action might have unforeseen world-changing consequences.

US Destroyers vs German U-Boats

US Destroyers vs German U-Boats
Author: Mark Lardas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 81
Release: 2023-04-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472854098

An absorbing study of the duels fought between the US Navy's escort warships and Hitler's U-boats between December 1941 and May 1945. Although the Battle of the Atlantic lasted several years, its most critical phase began once the United States entered World War II. By December 1941, the British had mastered the U-boat threat in the Eastern Atlantic, only to see the front abruptly expand to regions the US Navy would patrol, chiefly the Atlantic Seaboard. Unless the US Navy overcame the U-boat threat, the Allies would struggle to win. The Battle of the Atlantic was made up of thousands of individual duels: aircraft against U-boats, aircraft against aircraft, aircraft against ships-but most crucially, ships against U-boats. The individual clashes between Germany's U-boats and the Allied warships escorting the vital convoys often comprised one-on-one actions. These stories provide the focus of this detailed work. The technical details of the U-boats, destroyers, and destroyer escorts involved are explored in stunning illustrations, including ship and submarine profiles and weaponry artworks, and key clashes are brought to life in dramatic battlescenes. Among the clashes covered are including USS Kearny vs. U-568, USS Roper (DD-147) vs U-85, USS Eugene E. Elmore (DE-686) vs U-549, and USS Atherton (DE-169) vs U-853.

Bloodstained Sea

Bloodstained Sea
Author: Michael G. Walling
Publisher: Cutter Publishing
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2009-04-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0578012901

Through eyewitness accounts based on hundreds of interviews with crew members; personal diaries, notes, and letters; and each cutter's logbooks and patrol reports Walling plunges you into the thick of the battle, re-creating some of the most desperate encounters, heroic rescues, and harrowing missions of the Second World War. Told largely in the voices of the men who lived it, this unforgettable tale is peppered with humorous and ironic anecdotes about life aboard ship during wartime. You'll meet the liberty-craving crew members who painted their entire ship in less than an hour; the ship's mascot who became canine-non-grata in Greenland; and the crew whose vessel was mistaken for the German battleship Bismarck and attacked by the Royal Navy. Complete with dramatic photographs of the Coast Guard in action, Bloodstained Sea brings this epic drama to vibrant and pulsing life.

Sighted Sub, Sank Same

Sighted Sub, Sank Same
Author: Alan C. Carey
Publisher: Casemate
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2019-11-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1612007848

A historian examines the U.S. Navy’s efforts to stop Axis forces from attacking Allied merchant ships providing supplies during World War II. During the Second World War, a battle was waged to cut the lifeline of food and armaments sailing across the Atlantic from North America. It evolved into a far-ranging conflict beyond the North Atlantic and the eastern seaboard of the United States. It covered the frigid waters off Iceland down to the warm waters of Florida, through the Caribbean Sea, across the ocean to the Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean Sea, down to Africa, and across the South Atlantic to Brazil’s southern tip. Nazi Germany’s efforts to deny supplies from reaching Europe came at a high price, losing 783 U-boats and approximately 30,000 men between 1939 and 1945, with land and carrier-based naval air units sinking 83 German submarines of the 159 sunk by American aircraft. Axis forces saw their submarines targeted as well in the Atlantic, with Imperial Japanese submarine I-52 and the Italian Archimede falling victim to American naval aircraft armed with depth bombs or acoustic homing torpedoes. All the dramatic action is captured in Sighted Sub, Sank Same. This book contains over 200 color and black and white photographs, as well as personal interviews, interrogation reports, personal correspondence, and after-action reports, weaving a fascinating history about the naval air campaign in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean Theaters during World War II. Praise for Sighted Sub, Sank Same “Richly illustrates the navy’s battle for the Atlantic from the air.” —The National WWII Museum “Gives the reader a real feeling of that relentless hunt.” —Baird Maritime

The Buckley-class Destroyer Escorts

The Buckley-class Destroyer Escorts
Author: Bruce Hampton Franklin
Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN:

The text describes the development of the class, armament, major conversion programs, differences between the American and British ships, and the operational history of Buckleys in the U.S. and Royal Navies. Throughout the book, recollections and contemporary observations from the men who served aboard these ships are used to provide a personal touch to the history of these "Little Wolves."

U-boat Commander

U-boat Commander
Author: Peter Erich Cremer
Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 1984
Genre: History
ISBN:

A true-life war thriller by the famed U-boat ace who presents an authentic view of the notorious wolf packs and their encounters with the Allies.