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  • Turning the Tide

  • How a Small Band of Allied Sailors Defeated the U-Boats and Won the Battle of the Atlantic
  • By: Ed Offley
  • Narrated by: James Adams
  • Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (44 ratings)

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Turning the Tide

By: Ed Offley
Narrated by: James Adams
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Summary

The United States experienced its most harrowing military disaster of World War II not in 1941 at Pearl Harbor, but rather in the period from 1942 to 1943, in the frigid North Atlantic and American coastal waters from Newfoundland to the Caribbean. Nearly seven decades after the event, the Battle of the Atlantic still stands as the longest-running and most lethal clash of arms in naval history. During the entire duration of the conflict, more than 30,264 Allied merchant seamen and hundreds of navy personnel lost their lives.

The strategic stakes in the Battle of the Atlantic were immense. If the Axis won, Great Britain could have been starved into submission, the Allies would have been unable to marshal their forces to liberate the Continent, and the Germans likely would have at least engineered a stalemate with the Soviets on the Eastern Front that would have allowed the Nazi regime to remain in power.

In Turning the Tide, military reporter and author Ed Offley tells the story of how, during a 12-week period during the spring of 1943, a handful of battle-hardened British, Canadian and American sailors turned the tide in the Atlantic. Using extensive documents from archives in Germany, Great Britain and the United States, and interviews with key survivors on both sides, Offley puts the reader into the heart of the battle - from the navigation bridges of British and American escort warships, to the main decks and engine rooms of Allied merchant ships in convoy, to the claustrophobic control rooms and wave-swept bridges of the U-boats stalking their prey. He also portrays the vicious bureaucratic struggles that raged behind closed doors at the headquarters of both the Allied and German military services, and the above-Top Secret Allied intelligence campaign to crack the German Naval Enigma codes.

A thrilling tale of the decisive naval battle of World War II, Turning the Tide is also a harrowing story of how the Allies nearly lost - and ultimately regained - victory in both the Atlantic and in Europe itself.

©2011 Original material by Ed Offley. Recorded by arrangement with Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group. (P)2011 HighBridge Company
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
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What listeners say about Turning the Tide

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

really interesting and well read,.

this book was amazing the details from both sides are incredible, you won't regret it.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting story, poor narration

I found the story fascinating, the whole scale of the war of the atlantic is beyond belief.

I thought the narration hilarious, I laughed out loud at the narrator's attempts to pronounce German names, surely somebody could have helped him out with this.

He also sounded slightly strange with his English accent using American pronounciation.

Overall though I learned a lot about this less talked about aspect of WW2.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Enthralling story of near forgotten battles

Brilliantly told story of a series of forgotten but pivotal battles. A fitting tribute to the courage and fortitude of all who took part on both sides.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great story.

Loved this book...full of facts and figures...maybe too many. As a result the narrative is clumsy from fact to personal story's. Not really conveying the real suffering. That's just my take on this book. For as far as the story and history goes it's a great listen. Enjoy.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good history

The historical account was good. Well-researched and thorough. The narrator was well-spoken, but bizarrely used American English whilst speaking very standard English. More gravely, he did not even have an elementary grasp of German pronunciation. This was rather jarring at times, as the account was peppered with German names. Apart from these blemishes, I would recommend this audio book to anyone interested in the subject.

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5 people found this helpful