Overview

Due to Enemy Action tells for the first time a World War II story that spans generations and straddles two centuries, a story that begins with the dramatic Battle of the Atlantic in the 1940s and doesn't conclude until an emotional Purple Heart ceremony in 2002. Based on previously classified government documents, military records, personal interviews, and letters between crew members and their families, this is the saga of the courageous survival of ordinary sailors when their ship was torpedoed and their shipmates were killed on April 23, 1945-the last American warship sunk by a German U-boat-and the memories that haunted them after the U.S. Navy buried the truth at war's end. It is the story of a small subchaser, the Eagle 56, caught in the crosshairs of a German U-boat, the U-853, whose brazen commander made a desperate, last-ditch attempt to record final kills before his country's imminent defeat. And it is the account of how one man, Paul M. Lawton, embarked on an unrelenting quest for the truth and changed naval history.

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9781949135442

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Reviews

"""Puleo does a remarkable job chronicling Lawton's research and exactly what happened before, during and after the fatal day. . . . By weaving the lives of sailors and families, German submariners and U.S. intelligence operatives together, Puleo gives the reader an intimate understanding of the event."" --Portland Press Herald ""I never had a son, but if I did, I would want him to have the same integrity and dedication to the truth as Paul Lawton.""--Bernard Cavalcante, Senior Archivist, U.S. Naval Historical Center"

Author Information

Stephen Puleo is a historian, teacher, public speaker, and the author of seven books, including Voyage of Mercy: The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America's First Humanitarian Mission; American Treasures: The Secret Efforts to Save the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address; and Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. A former award-winning newspaper reporter and contributor to American History magazine, the Boston Globe, and other publications, he holds a master's degree in history and has taught at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and Suffolk University. He and his wife, Kate, reside in the Boston area.

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