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Bloodstained Sea : The U.S. Coast Guard in the Battle of the Atlantic, 1941-1944 | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael G. Walling
Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $9.19
You Save: $15.76 (63%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 287426
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0071424016
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.54293
UPC: 639785803171
EAN: 9780071424011
ASIN: 0071424016
Publication Date: May 12, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Fast, reliable delivery. Exceptional customer service. May contain some highlighting. Original supplements not guaranteed. Standard shipping is USPS. Expedited shipping is UPS Ground. Expedited shipping will NOT deliver to HI, AK, PR, PO Boxes, APO/FPO.
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Product Description
Historic battles, daring rescues, and covert missions—the untold story of the U.S. Coast Guard in World War II Americans called it “Torpedo Junction,” Germans “Devil’s Gorge,” but historians know it as the Battle of the Atlantic—the four-year Allied struggle to move desperately needed supplies from America to Europe through devastating assaults by German U-boats, ships, and aircraft. Now for the first time, Bloodstained Sea describes in vivid detail the heroic actions of the Coast Guard ships that defended Allied convoys en route through the North Atlantic to England and Russia. Eyewitness accounts assembled from hundreds of interviews propel this breathtaking, meticulously researched plunge into the thick of a battle fought mostly in the frozen seas east of Greenland. There, courageous but overmatched Coast Guard escorts braved the torpedo attacks of U-boat wolf packs to rescue thousands of men while thousands of others perished. Told in the voices of the men who lived it, this epic drama reveals the indomitable fighting spirit of the World War II Coast Guard.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 lagging March 9, 2008
Really excited to start this, as my dad was in the Coast Guard and his vessel is frequently mentioned - but halfway through feels like it isn't going anywhere. Maybe it'll pick up if I stick with it.
 Horror in the Atlantic June 29, 2007
Mike Walling backs up for a running start: he describes the sudden attention paid to the Coast Guard by the Navy before WWII was even declared. I wonder if the record of 1 hour and 45 minutes still stands for painting a white ship battleship gray.
In chapter after chapter he delineates the torpedoing of merchant ships by the dozen and the storms never seemed to let up. The rescues of a pitifully few men are nothing short of amazing. It reads like a whodunnit even though we know how it comes out.
Mike takes some statistics and breathes life into them making the reader really care what happens to the ships doomed or not. I'm guessing that surviving U-boat commanders are reading it and learning how it all came out.
The judges of the Samuel Eliot Morison award for Navy literature are to be commended for tearing themselves away from the book and awarding it the prize.
Bloodstained Sea March 26, 2007
Bloodstained Sea was a pleasure to read, my Dad served on the USCGC Campbell during WWII so this book was special to me. Unfortunately, he passed away at an early age allowing him and me no time to discuss his Coast Guard service. This book has given me the opportunity to understand some of the hardships those men endured.
If history interests you at all this is a must read. The rescues, tragedies and determination of these men are brought to life with the author's detail.
 Interesting view on the Battle of the Atlantic July 20, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Every author that attempts to undertake a project to write a portion of the history of the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II has to pick a specific area to focus on - some focus on the U-Boats, some on the merchant ships, other on the tactics. Michael Walling has chosen to explore a different area than any others I've seen - the US Coast Guard involvement in the battle, with a particular focus on the Secretary Class of the Coast Guard Cutters.
The Secretary class boats were 327 foot long cutters that could run at high speeds and handle the terrible weather prevalent in the North Atlantic, thus making them ideal for escort & sub-hunting duty. Walling focuses on just a handful of ships in his tale, but does so quite nicely.
Naturally, when covering a topic such as an entire theatre of war, many other players partake in the story, and Walling most assuredly has not ignored any of the critical players, including the merchant vessels that the Cutters were escorting, the U-Boats that they were hunting, or (most importantly) the people that they were rescuing.
In my opinion, Walling spends perhaps a little too much time on the weather aspects of the battle, though this certainly made for fascinating reading, since many authors almost completely ignore this facet of this theater of war. Overall, however, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would say that it is an exciting, well researched, engaging tome covering the topic. I would recommend this book, in conjunction with some others, to any reader looking for a comprehensive story - this is a nice piece, it needed to be told, and is a solid addition to the literature on the topic.
All Coasties: Battle Stations! January 25, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the fascinating and not well known tale of the US Coast Guard in the Battle of the Atlantic during WWII. My father served as a gunner on convoy escort duty in Spring 1945 and I never really understood the dangers of this type of work until I read this book. They were sinking U-boats off the East Coast right up until the surrender in May 1945!
The best parts of this book were the actual stories of the coastguardsmen themselves. The most difficult part was reading through the course of the many battles as described in the skippers' after action reports.
All in all, I have now a greater respect for what the the USCG did in WWII and what it continues to do today in the Global War on Terror.
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