There was no threat more certain to choke off England from the war materials she so desperately needed than the German submarines lurking in the North Atlantic. "These Nazi submarines and raiders are the rattlesnakes of the Atlantic," said President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a radio address to the nation when he announced his plan to attack them wherever they could be found." They are a menace to the free pathways of the high seas. They are a challenge to our sovereignty." The U-boats, said Roosevelt, would be treated like rattlesnakes -killed before they could strike. Unfortunately, the going was slow and the victories elusive until B-24 heavy bombers, specially equipped to battle the German U-Boats at sea, were thrown into the fray. Then, and only then, was there victory. This is the story, written by Army historians mere months after the Battle of the Atlantic, that has been lost in plain sight for more than 60 years.

Fully restored, The Antisubmarine Command contains a hard-edged narrative written while emotions were still high and when the facts were as fresh as the victory at sea. It is an important addition to any World War II library and yet another edition in the Lost Histories of World War II Series. Book jacket.