We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,584,881.79 | Books Available: 792,279 | Members Online: 52

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-boats

The Mathews Men Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's Uboats
Author: William Geroux

?Vividly drawn and emotionally gripping." — ?Daniel James Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat — One of the last unheralded heroic stories of World War II: the U-boat assault off the American coast against the men of the U.S. Merchant Marine who were supplying the European war, and one community?s monumental contribu...  more »tion to that effort

Mathews County, Virginia, is a remote outpost on the Chesapeake Bay with little to offer except unspoiled scenery?but it sent an unusually large concentration of sea captains to fight in World War II. The Mathews Men tells that heroic story through the experiences of one extraordinary family whose seven sons (and their neighbors), U.S. merchant mariners all, suddenly found themselves squarely in the cross-hairs of the U-boats bearing down on the coastal United States in 1942.

            From the late 1930s to 1945, virtually all the fuel, food and munitions that sustained the Allies in Europe traveled not via the Navy but in merchant ships. After Pearl Harbor, those unprotected ships instantly became the U-boats? prime targets. And they were easy targets?the Navy lacked the inclination or resources to defend them until the beginning of 1943. Hitler was determined that his U-boats should sink every American ship they could find, sometimes within sight of tourist beaches, and to kill as many mariners as possible, in order to frighten their shipmates into staying ashore.

            As the war progressed, men from Mathews sailed the North and South Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, and even the icy Barents Sea in the Arctic Circle, where they braved the dreaded Murmansk Run. Through their experiences we have eyewitnesses to every danger zone, in every kind of ship. Some died horrific deaths. Others fought to survive torpedo explosions, flaming oil slicks, storms, shark attacks, mine blasts, and harrowing lifeboat odysseys?only to ship out again on the next boat as soon as they'd returned to safety.

            The Mathews Men shows us the war far beyond traditional battlefields?often the U.S. merchant mariners? life-and-death struggles took place just off the U.S. coast?but also takes us to the landing beaches at D-Day and to the Pacific. ?When final victory is ours,? General Dwight D. Eisenhower had predicted, ?there is no organization that will share its credit more deservedly than the Merchant Marine.? Here, finally, is the heroic story of those merchant seamen, recast as the human story of the men from Mathews.

From the Hardcover edition.

ISBN-13: 9780143109266
ISBN-10: 014310926X
Publication Date: 3/21/2017
Pages: 400
Rating:

Currently 4/5 Stars.

4 stars, based on 1 rating

Publisher: Penguin Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

History >> Americas >> United States >> State & Local
History >> Military >> Naval
History >> Military >> United States
History >> Military >> World War II

Back to the Top ↑

Search - The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-boats

Loading...