Sea Wolves in Warm Waters: The U-boat Battle in the Caribbean

Between 1940 and 1943, the Caribbean Sea became one of the most strategically vital — and most dangerous — theatres of the Second World War. While the great land battles of Europe dominated the headlines, German U-boats prowled the warm waters of the Caribbean, targeting the oil tankers and cargo ships that kept the Allied war effort alive.Sea Wolves in Warm Waters is the definitive account of this overlooked campaign. Drawing on declassified war logs, naval archives, and survivor testimony, Clement Richards reconstructs the U-boat war from three perspectives: the German commanders who executed it, the Allied forces who fought to stop it, and the Caribbean communities who lived and died in its path.From the night of fire off Aruba in February 1942 to the Allied counteroffensive that finally drove the U-boats from Caribbean waters, this book tells the full story of a campaign that cost thousands of lives, reshaped Caribbean history, and changed the course of the war.Gaylord T. M. Kelshall’s “The U-boat War in the Caribbean” (1988; reprinted 1994) remains the definitive study of wartime submarine operations in the region. Sea Wolves in Warm Waters builds upon that foundation, restoring the human and regional perspectives to their rightful place: at the intersection of Caribbean development and global conflict.Rich in detail, scrupulous in its research, and written with narrative drive, Sea Wolves in Warm Waters is essential reading for anyone interested in World War II naval history, Caribbean history, or the untold stories of the people who served and suffered far from the famous battle fronts. Read more