Operation Drumbeat

June 5, 1990
In 1942 German U-boats sank nearly 400 Allied ships off the East coast of the U.S., threatening to sever Britain's lifeline and cripple U.S. war industry. Gannon, a University of Florida history professor, reveals the appalling degree of unpreparedness and opposition to military intervention on the American side, despite accurate warnings from British intelligence, and traces much of it to the Anglophobia of the chief of naval operations, Admiral Ernest J. King. In an impressive research coup, Gannon located the former skipper and several crew members of one of the U-boats involved in the campaign. Using interviews with these men and former U.S. and British military personnel, and a war diary of the U-123 , Gannon recreates two action-packed patrols and the sinking of 18 Allied ships by that submarine. The book will be of enormous interest to sub warfare buffs. Photos not seen by PW.

May 15, 1990
A vivid history of the World War II German submarine war on Allied shipping off the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts in 1942. Two perspectives are used, that of the skipper and crew of one sub, U-123, and that of strategic analysis of the U.S. response to the attacks. The first is well researched, but perhaps too much of the research has been included. The strategic analysis is not as well documented and, in comparison, seems judgmental: Admiral King is held largely responsible for a response so slow that it posed a grave threat to the Allied war effort. The charge may have merit, but is too hastily arrived at here. Many books have examined the Battle of the Atlantic, including Edwin Hoyt's fine U-Boats Offshore (LJ 11/1/78). This one is for specialists or informed laypersons.-- George H. Siehl, Library of Congress

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