The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-boats
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
—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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William Geroux. (2016). The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-boats. Penguin Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)William Geroux. 2016. The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-boats. Penguin Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)William Geroux, The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-boats. Penguin Publishing Group, 2016.
MLA Citation (style guide)William Geroux. The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-boats. Penguin Publishing Group, 2016.
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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. - reviews
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
February 29, 2016
Journalist Geroux combines the skills of a newsman and those of a scholar to tell the story of the vital and heroic role played by the U.S. Merchant Marines during WWII. These civilian sailors delivered hundreds of millions of tons of cargo across the globe during the war, on vulnerable, often-unescorted ships, and their actions are largely overlooked in histories of the war. Communities that made their living from the sea, including Mathews County, Va., and families such as the Hodges—who sent seven sons to war on defenseless merchantmen facing the ace U-boats of Nazi Germany—bore the consequences and received neither recognition nor reward. In the war’s early days, so many merchantmen were sunk off the Atlantic coast that a publisher “hurried into print a 144-page book entitled How to Abandon Ship.” Death was only a torpedo hit away and surviving could still mean dying slowly on a raft. Geroux leaves no doubt that the ocean was as unforgiving as the U-boats—as was a Congress that failed to extend veterans’ benefits to merchant mariners until 1988. Yet the men of Mathews still put to sea; “the torpedoes just got in the way.” Maps. Agent: Farley Chase, Chase Literary.
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March 1, 2016
An intricate look at the outsized role of a group of Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, families in the dangerous work of the Merchant Marines during World War II. As former Richmond Times-Dispatch journalist Geroux delineates in this stringently researched study, the Merchant Marines "was not a branch of the military" but rather "an association of privately owned shipping companies operating under the American flag, employing American crews, and fighting like bull sharks over contracts to haul goods by sea." Thus, they became vitally important in control of the seas when war broke out officially in 1941. Mathews County, Virginia, had a long reputation for producing the most capable mariners, and Geroux spotlights several families whose fathers and sons took the brunt in parrying the German U-boats that hunted in the waters of the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico, disrupting war supplies and oil to Britain and Europe. The author delves into the service of the Hodges family of Gales Neck, whose many sons became merchant mariners, working as independent contractors for the U.S. government who needed to carry the crucial war cargo across the seas. Facing the ramped-up U-boat campaign in the beginning stages, the U.S. did not have the wherewithal to protect the tankers and freighters--until the implementation of the convoy system in mid-summer 1942 after horrible losses at sea such as the sinking of the Onondaga. Geroux offers poignant accounts of these lost men, such as Onondaga's Capt. George Dewey Hodges, whose remains and ring were soon after found in a captured shark. Sadly, however much the Merchant Marines aided in helping shepherd the convoys across the seas during the war effort, they were locked out of the postwar veterans' benefits. A deep, compassionate group biography of these "unsung heroes" of the Merchant Marines.COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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May 1, 2016
The heroics and sacrifices of the U.S. Merchant Marines during the late 1930s through the end of World War II in 1945 are often overlooked by history. Their precious cargo kept the Allied powers from starvation while also providing them with the arsenal to continue fighting. Because of this, American merchant ships were prime targets of Adolf Hitler's U-boats years before an American soldier set foot on European soil. Unprotected by the navy until 1943, Merchant Marines risked torpedo explosions, shark attacks, storms, and weeks aboard lifeboats with minimal supplies. Former journalist Geroux aims to bring their achievements to light in his first book by focusing on one community in Mathews County, VA, near Chesapeake Bay, and one family in particular. The Hodges family sent seven sons to war while the family's matriarch, Henny, ran the farm and experienced the war seaside. Geroux describes the evolution of U-boat and merchant ship technology as both Allied and Axis powers sought to attack and defend. VERDICT A gripping tale of wartime heroics and an emotional family story, this is a must-read addition to World War II literature.--Heidi Uphoff, Sandia National Laboratories, NM
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Starred review from March 1, 2016
The valor and contributions of the U.S. Merchant Marines to victory in WWII has seldom been acknowledged. Often derided as not real soldiers or draft dodgers, they had a reputation in port cities as drunken brawlers whose company should be avoided by respectable citizens. Journalist Geroux acknowledges that some men enlisted for less-than-patriotic reasons, including the desire to avoid the perceived drudgery and discipline of the regular military, and that some let off steam with raucous behavior. But he convincingly asserts that many were true yet unappreciated heroes. They maintained the vital lifeline to Europe, shipping millions of tons of fuel, food, and munitions to Britain and the Soviet Union while facing severe weather conditions and the constant threat of attacks by German submarines. A surprisingly large number of men came from Mathews County, Virginia, including seven men from the Hodges family. Geroux follows these men and their exploits from the Arctic to the Caribbean to the south Atlantic and, surprisingly, the U.S. coast, as German subs found supply vessels to be easy pickings. Geroux presents an unflinching, inspiring, and long-delayed tribute to the sacrifice of these men.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)
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—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.
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