The Story
From 1939 until 1943, Hitler’s U-Boats threatened to accomplish what his air force failed to achieve: to starve Britain into submission. The struggle for control of the Atlantic was to become the longest, and one of the most bitterly fought campaigns of World War II.
Battles might be won or lost, Winston Churchill wrote, but Britain’s power to fight on – to keep itself alive – depended, above all, on the outcome of the war fought in the North Atlantic. During the course of five bloody and uncertain years, Britain and her allies lost more than fifty thousand seamen and fifteen million tons of shipping.
The Battle of the Atlantic vividly captures this intense and strategically vital campaign in the fight for an Allied victory. Through exclusive interviews and first-hand accounts a compelling picture is painted of the claustrophobic and dangerous life on board the ‘Iron Coffins’.
Reviews
“This book deserves its place on the shelf occupied by Nicholas Monsarrat’s classic, The Cruel Sea.”
Booklist
“The conflict was both a nerve-wracking battle of wits and an epic of self-sacrifice, and Williams’s thorough research and skillful storytelling does it full justice.’
US Publishers Weekly