The Mathews Men

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“Vividly drawn and emotionally gripping." —Daniel James Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat From the author of The Ghost Ships of Archangel, 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 contribution 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.

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Genre : History
Author : William Geroux
Publisher : Penguin
Release : 2016-04-19
File : 476 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9780698184725


Islington Proprietary School Examination 1861

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Author : Islington Proprietary School (London, England)
Publisher :
Release : 1861
File : 24 Pages
ISBN-13 : BL:A0021687911


Killing Shore

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The shocking story of Nazi Germany’s naval assault in American waters, told through the eyes of seafarers who experienced it off the Jersey Shore. It is January 1942. Six weeks after the United States entered World War II, Imperial Japan is annihilating American forces across the Far East while the Nazis stand triumphant over much of Europe. Adolf Hitler’s forces are about to commence an assault along the East Coast of the United States, but this “Atlantic Pearl Harbor” would prove far more devastating than Japan’s attack on Hawaii. The wolves are closing in, and few Americans realize their beaches and coastal cities are about to witness the worst naval defeat in American history. The Western Hemisphere holds the key to victory for the beleaguered Allies, but only if the vast economic and military resources of North and South America can be carried across the Atlantic by Allied merchant ships. These civilian-manned cargo vessels are the backbone of the American war economy and the lifeline enabling Britain and the Soviet Union to survive—but Hitler’s favorite admiral also knows this, and he has set in motion a plan of unprecedented boldness. Germany’s dreaded submarines, or “U-boats,” are going to the United States. The fiery months that followed would pit American servicemen against German U-boat sailors in a desperate struggle that stained East Coast waters with oil and blood. In the crosshairs of this deadly cat-and-mouse game was a stalwart contingent of civilian mariners who crewed the tankers and freighters supplying the war against the Axis Powers. Thousands of them would perish as hundreds of merchant ships were sunk. Every American coastal state became a battlefront in 1942, and the events that transpired off New Jersey illustrate the perils and brutality of this forgotten campaign. The seafloor along the Garden State is today strewn with shipwrecks that bear witness to the innumerable ways to die faced by friend and foe alike only miles from the boardwalk. Though these seafarers’ lives were forfeit, the battle they fought would decide the fates of millions.

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Genre : History
Author : K. A. Nelson
Publisher : Brookline Books
Release : 2024-04-04
File : 454 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9781955041300


Earnings And Employment Data For Wage And Salary Workers Covered Under Social Security By State And County

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Genre : Labor supply
Author :
Publisher :
Release :
File : 306 Pages
ISBN-13 : UCR:31210012863708


A General Catalogue Of The Books In The South Africa Public Library With A List Of Donors Office Bearers And The Regulations Of The Institution Compiled By The Librarian Frederick Maskew

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Author : South African Public Library (CAPETOWN)
Publisher :
Release : 1862
File : 408 Pages
ISBN-13 : BL:A0018266752


The Biblical World

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"Books for New Testament study ... [By] Clyde Weber Votaw" v. 26, p. 271-320; v. 37, p. 289-352.

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Genre : Bible
Author : William Rainey Harper
Publisher :
Release : 1898
File : 604 Pages
ISBN-13 : CORNELL:31924064680980


Journals Of The House Of Commons

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Author : Great Britain House of Commons
Publisher :
Release : 1803
File : 772 Pages
ISBN-13 : BSB:BSB10213020


British Masculinity In The Gentleman S Magazine 1731 To 1815

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The Gentleman's Magazine was the leading eighteenth-century periodical. By integrating the magazine's history, readers and contents this study shows how 'gentlemanliness' was reshaped to accommodate their social and political ambitions.

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Genre : History
Author : Gillian Williamson
Publisher : Springer
Release : 2016-01-27
File : 399 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9781137542335


Travels In North America 1832 1834

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The journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied rank among the most important firsthand sources documenting the early-nineteenth-century American West. Published in their entirety as an annotated three-volume set, the journals present a complete narrative of Maximilian’s expedition across the United States, from Boston almost to the headwaters of the Missouri in the Rocky Mountains, and back. This new concise edition, the only modern condensed version of Maximilian’s full account, highlights the expedition’s most significant encounters and dramatic events. The German prince and his party arrived in Boston on July 4, 1832. He intended to explore “the natural face of North America,” observing and recording firsthand the flora, fauna, and especially the Native peoples of the interior. Accompanying him was the young Swiss artist Karl Bodmer, who would document the journey with sketches and watercolors. Together, the group traveled across the eastern United States and up the Missouri River into present-day Montana, spending the winter of 1833–34 at Fort Clark, an important fur-trading post near the Mandan and Hidatsa villages in what is now North Dakota. The expedition returned downriver to St. Louis the following spring, having spent more than a year in the Upper Missouri frontier wilderness. The two explorers experienced the American frontier just before its transformation by settlers, miners, and industry. Featuring nearly fifty color and black-and-white illustrations—including several of Karl Bodmer’s best landscapes and portraits—this succinct record of their expedition invites new audiences to experience an enthralling journey across the early American West.

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Genre : Biography & Autobiography
Author : Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian of Wied
Publisher : University of Oklahoma Press
Release : 2017-02-08
File : 573 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9780806158563


Report Of The Adjutant General Of The State Of New Jersey For The Year Ending

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Describes the organization and activities of the militia and the National Guard of New Jersey and includes the report of the Inspector General of Rifle Practice as submitted by State of New Jersey, Dept. of Rifle Practice.

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Author : New Jersey. Adjutant-General's Office
Publisher :
Release : 1864
File : 974 Pages
ISBN-13 : UOM:39015074183727