The Battle of the Atlantic began on the first day of World War II in Europe and lasted throughout the six long years of the war. Between 1939 and 1945, several thousand ships, both civilian and military, were involved in the conflict that encompassed thousands of miles of ocean. While Allied merchant vessels brought much-needed materiel from the Americas to Great Britain, they were hounded by U-boats and other warships of the German navy and were defended, at first, by British and Canadian forces. But even before the attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States officially into the war, American forces began taking part in convoy defense in September 1941. The German campaign began in earnest in mid-1940, when the defeat of France gained Germany access to naval bases on the Atlantic coast. Evolving British tactics early in 1941, combined with new short-wave radar, turned the tide for the Allies--for a while. Tactical and technological advances continued to swing the overall advantage between the Allied and Axis powers. The formal entrance of the United States into the war in December 1941 eventually shifted the power back to the Allies, and from late 1942 through early 1943, the Germans were largely driven from the Atlantic.

Battle for the North Atlantic covers the mostly civilian crews of the U.S. Merchant Marine as well as the Allied and German military crews involved in this life-and-death struggle on the high seas. More than three hundred photos, including many rare color photographs, document the cramped and dangerous conditions endured by both sides of the long and often ruthless campaign. This engaging, informative text by John R. Bruning captures all the action of the battles and serves as a tribute to the wartime sacrifices made by civilian mariners. Author bio:   John R. Bruning has been a professional military historian and writer since 1990.

He is the author of Crimson Sky: The Air Battle for Korea , The Battle of the Bulge: The Photographic History of an American Triumph , Ship Strike Pacific , Bombs Away! , and The Devil's Sandbox: With the 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry at War in Iraq . He served as an embedded civilian historian with the 2/162 during Operation Southern Comfort, the post-Hurricane Katrina relief operation in New Orleans. Bruning also has numerous articles, documentaries, multimedia computer programs, flight simulators, and museum displays to his credit. He lives in Independence, Oregon.