Duel in the Deep. The Hunters, the Hunted, and a High Seas Fight to the Finish

Книга на английском языке
In Autumn 1943 the Battle of the Atlantic, World War II’s longest seagoing campaign, reached a new crescendo. Anti-submarine aircraft and ships using new tactics, technologies, and weaponry dominated a seascape where German U-boats once ruled supreme. But then unexpectedly, in eerie, mid-ocean darkness, an elemental hull-to-deck, sailor-to-submariner duel erupted. On Halloween Eve, U.S. Navy destroyer Borie, an outmoded, thin-skinned “tin can” of World War I vintage, set out alone to track down an elusive U-boat. Borie had thus far toiled in the war’s backwaters, her crew of young reservists anxious to prove its mettle. When Borie trapped U-405 on the surface, that chance arrived. As Borie’s deck guns unleashed withering fire and U-405’s skipper angled his submarine to launch torpedoes, Borie’s young skipper—a salesman in civilian life--resorted to the original (and once the only) means of sinking a submarine: ramming, full speed ahead, consequences be damned. Borie’s slashing collision with U-405 ignited a swashbuckling, no-holds-barred brawl of cannons, machine guns, small arms, and even knives and spent shell casings. In the wreckage-strewn aftermath, desperate sailors on both sides fought for survival in a heaving, frigid, unforgiving sea. Duel in the Deep weaves together high-stakes strategy and lethal gamesmanship with poignant human backstories, pounding air/surface/subsurface action, epic heroism, and wrenching sacrifice. A former U.S. Navy officer and “tin can” veteran—now a seasoned, widely published and highly acclaimed military historian—portrays a rousing high-seas showdown reminiscent of fighting in the age of sail.

Contents
Acknowledgments and Sources
Maps
Introduction Hard, Widespread, and Bitter
1 Shove Off
2 Four-Stackers
3 Wizard War
4 Rites of Passage
5 Shot from the Bushes
6 Brownie and Gully
7 The Shooting Has Started
8 House, Tomb, and School
9 What Were Their Names?
10 We Knew about You
11 Target America
12 Roots of Evil
13 Safe Duty Area
14 Out of Focus
15 Stuck in Limbo
16 Carte Blanche
17 Grim Imbalance
18 Land of Improvisation
19 Season of Joy and Peril
20 He Who Sees First
21 Tumult to Avoid
22 Consequential Forces
23 Between the Moon and Ourselves
24 Ain’t This the Nuts?
25 The Sea War Is All One
26 Something Approaching Horror
27 Gray Elephants
28 Pattern of the Action
29 Hard and Unexpected
30 A Good Team
31 Unfortunate Rogues
32 One Gung-Ho Guy
33 Won’t Be Long Now
34 Scratch One Pigboat
35 Stand by for a Rami
ЗБ At Close Quarters
37 Vicious Circle
38 On Borrowed Time
39 Still Out There
Epilogue True Heroes
Glossary of Terms and Acronyms
Notes
Index