About the Author

Michael Gannon is Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Florida, where he taught the history of World War II. He resides in Gainesville and is the author of seven books. In the l950s he wrote on military subjects from Europe. In 1968 he served as a war correspondent in Vietnam. Also a scholar in the field of Spanish colonial history, he has received numerous awards and honors, including Knight Commander of the Order of Isabel la Catolica from King Juan Carlos I of Spain.

Reviews

"I started reading "Operation Drumbeat" and literally could not stop. I think it's an absolutely stunning book--revelatory. It should startle everyone who thinks there is nothing more to be said about World War II. His expos? of the U.S. Navy's incompetence in the opening months of the war is the stuff of Pulitzer Prizes. His grasp of the German side of the story is equally remarkable. On top of all that it often reads like a novel." -- Thomas Fleming, author, "Time & Tide"""Operation Drumbeat" is a truly wonderful book--the best by far that I have read on U-boats and believe me I have read them all. It combines a great knowledge of U-boats and meticulous scholarship with dramatic narrative. The upshot is an important and riveting story that gives the reader the most reliable and penetrating account of U-boat warfare ever written. Furthermore the Atlantic Pearl Harbor' thesis is well developed and unassailable. On every page the author demonstrates complete mastery of immense primary source material with shocking new revelations--such as the failure to bring the 25 American destroyers into play despite clear warning from Bletchley Park that Drumbeat was afoot." -- Clay Blair, author, "Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan""It is difficult to fault Gannon's assertion that in the face of the U-boat threat [Admiral] King's failure to act decisively was like a sentry asleep at his post.'" -- "Houston Chronicle""Engrossing reading, most especially the part in which the dereliction of our naval leaders along the eastern seaboard is so well described." -- Capt. Edward L. Beach. author, "Run Silent, Run Deep"""Operation Drumbeat" is a splendid book, moving in description,instructive in well supported analysis. Gannon knows how everything worked in a U-Boat, and he gives brilliant descriptions of all the technological conditions that shaped its warfare. He also makes a memorable contribution to our understanding of the nature of the U-Boat war and warriors. He is fully informed and he is full, fair and justifiably critical of some [U.S.] policies, personalities, and performances." -- Elting E. Morison, author, "Men, Machines and Modern Times, " and "Admiral Sims and the Modern American Navy""Gannon's book is a crisply written, vivid and thoroughly researched account of the adventure of U-123 inAmerican waters."-- Michael L. Hadley, author, "U-Boats Against Canada"

A vivid history of the World War II German submarine war on Allied shipping off the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts in 1942. Two perspectives are used, that of the skipper and crew of one sub, U-123, and that of strategic analysis of the U.S. response to the attacks. The first is well researched, but perhaps too much of the research has been included. The strategic analysis is not as well documented and, in comparison, seems judgmental: Admiral King is held largely responsible for a response so slow that it posed a grave threat to the Allied war effort. The charge may have merit, but is too hastily arrived at here. Many books have examined the Battle of the Atlantic, including Edwin Hoyt's fine U-Boats Offshore (LJ 11/1/78). This one is for specialists or informed laypersons.-- George H. Siehl, Library of Congress