Killing Shore: The True Story of Hitler's U-boats Off the New Jersey Coast

Summary

Six weeks after the United States entered World War II, Imperial Japan is annihilating American forces across the Far East while the Nazis stand triumphant over much of Europe. Adolf Hitler's forces are about to commence an assault along the East Coast of the United States, but this "Atlantic Pearl Harbor" would prove far more devastating than Japan's attack on Hawaii.

The Western Hemisphere holds the key to victory, but only if the vast economic and military resources of North and South America can be carried across the Atlantic by Allied merchant ships. Germany's dreaded submarines are going to the United States.

The fiery months that followed would pit American servicemen against German U-boat sailors in a desperate struggle that stained East Coast waters with oil and blood. In the crosshairs was a stalwart contingent of civilian mariners who crewed the tankers and freighters supplying the war against the Axis Powers.

Every American coastal state became a battlefront in 1942, and the events that transpired off New Jersey illustrate the perils and brutality of this forgotten campaign. Though these seafarers' lives were forfeit, the battle they fought would decide the fates of millions.