Ed Offley has been a military reporting specialist for newspapers and online publications since 1981, including the Ledger-Star in Norfolk, Virginia, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Stripes.com, and DefenseWatch magazine. He is currently Military Reporter for the News Herald in Panama City, Florida. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Offley served in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam. He lives in Panama City Beach, Florida.
Sherry Sontag, co-author "Blind Man's Bluff
""Through the eyes of their prey, Ed Offley tells the constant
terror of German hunter-killer wolf packs going after ships and
their military escorts. To win, the allies needed just to survive,
to carry desperately needed supplies to Europe. The miracle is
these ships do far more. They turn the tide and pummel their
tormentors in a moment of history that makes one hell of a
story."David Poyer, author of "Ghosting" and "The Crisis
""What's left to add to the oft-told tale of the Battle of the
Atlantic? Ed Offley manages to invest the story of the convoys with
renewed drama. Buttressed with statistics and details of tactics
and ordnance, "Turning the Tide" is worth a place on the shelf with
the best maritime nonfiction." Michael Gannon, author of "Operation
Drumbeat" and "Black May
""In this volume the author has selected a series of stories that
both explicate and dramatize the most fateful months of the
Allied-German battle for control of the North Atlantic in World War
II. I am confident that the reader will find, as I did, his stories
to be both engagingly written and compelling in effect." Carl LaVO,
author of "Back from the Deep," "Slade Cutter," and "The Galloping
Ghost""Long before there was D-Day, there was D-Day in the North
Atlantic Ocean for England. In "Turning the Tide," Ed Offley
delivers the definitive bible of how the Allies in March and May of
1943 turned defeat into victory against an armada of German U-boats
determined to strangle resupply lines to England. The book delivers
high suspense on the storm-tossed North Atlantic by taking readers
inside the U-boats and the Allied convoys as well as American,
English and German high commands racing for technological advantage
at sea. In the end, Offley's masterful account not only probes what
gave each side an edge but reveals the bravado it took for a rather
small group of Allied and German sailors to fight to the death in
one of history's great naval struggles." Marc Milner, University of
New Brunswick, author of "North Atlantic Run" and "The Battle of
the Atlantic
""Offley tackles a complex and difficult campaign spanning months
across a vast ocean and involving a myriad of actors, and turns it
into a compelling piece of writing. In a field where the outcomes
of battles are often treated as mere statistics--of tonnages sunk
or shipping safely escorted--or as evidence of the impact of
technology, Offley's Atlantic tale is full of people wrestling with
the sea, the enemy and their fate. In the end, "Turning the Tide"
captures the human dimension of the crisis of the Atlantic War in
the spring of 1943 in a way no one has for nearly forty years. And
it is a welcome reminder that the Atlantic war lay at the heart of
Allied victory in World War II." "Kirkus""
""Offley meticulously re-creates the terrifying U-boat assaults
during this pivotal spring...and explains how the Allies turned the
tide of the years-long battle.... An intensely focused account that
cuts through the battle's sprawl and duration, supplying the
general reader with an appreciation of its character and
importance." "Publishers Weekly
""The author focuses on individual combatants, from the lowest
ranks to the highest, emphasizing the human elements and making for
an extremely readable text that should appeal to neophytes as well
as professionals."
"Library Journal
""This is an account of the crucial convoy battles of March to May
1943 that saw Allied naval escorts and air power finally subdue the
deadly Kriegsmarine subs. Offley...shows how the battle was very
much a mind game, each side trying to outfox the other. The
author's emphasis is on the harrowing experiences of the men on
both sides." "Booklist""This sound, readable WWII naval history
focuses on a crucial period of the Battle of the Atlantic, one
Offley argues was the turning point in the campaign.... Equally
strong in writing, research, and backgrounding, this is a fine
addition to material on the epic Battle of the Atlantic." "Navy
News" (London)
""Turning the Tide."..is good narrative history which gives the
reader a flavour of what it was like to fight in the Battle of the
Atlantic at its climax. It was a struggle of unremitting strain and
terror for friend and foe alike." "Panama City"" News Herald""Ed
Offley's new book "Turning the Tide" is a story few know in the
history of World War II. The cat-and-mouse tale played out in the
book in dark seas, during treacherous storms has first-hand
accounts told by those [who] saw the battles up close and personal
with real life-and-death consequences." "Virginian-Pilot""[A]s Ed
Offley shows in this detailed and compelling book, a combination of
technology and tactics enabled the Allies to turn the tide in the
longest and most deadly naval battles ever fought.... He brings his
naval expertise to bear in describing each side's actions and
perspectives during those pivotal encounters. Moreover, he does a
masterful job of detailing the horrors of battle as brave men
fought each other with fire and steel and also fought the ferocious
and frigid waves in which many of them drowned." "Virginia
Gazette
""[An] excellent new book.... Offley describes in clear and
wonderful detail how the Allies did it.... [His] writing is superb,
and his research in the text and in the appendices are clear and to
the point." "The American Spectator"""Turning the Tide" is a
dramatic contribution to understanding of a long-running and
geographically huge confrontation that may have mattered more to
the outcome of World War II than more commented-on campaigns.... As
important and engaging as the sweep and generalities of the largest
naval campaign in history are, the bulk of this book, and Offley's
signal contribution, is his first-hand, blow-by-blow descriptions
of some of the deadliest and most game-changing encounters of the
Atlantic war.... Offley skillfully blends history and statistics
and analysis as well as heart-pounding narratives of sea-battles
that have the immediacy of a good novel, only they tell of real
people and real events. "Turning the Tide."..belongs on the
bookshelves of professional historians or of general readers
attempting to understand a central campaign in the most horrific
war in human history." "Proceedings
""[A] thorough and scrupulous operational history.... "Turning the
Tide" ably sketches in the background and then sends the reader out
on board two convoys in March 1943.... Offley recounts the struggle
of ONS5 meticulously. We follow each merchant vessel and each
U-boat and understand what they are up to; but we also get a sense
of what it must have been like for the submariner in his dank
little world and the watchman on his sleet-flailed bridge.... [A]
valuable book." "Philadelphia"" Inquirer""When we think of World
War II, we tend to think of two theaters of war: the European
continent and North Africa, and the Pacific.... Far less attention
has been paid to a third theater, the brutally cold, gale-slashed
North Atlantic, where the British and American navies struggled
against German U-boats to protect the supply lifeline that made the
eventual Allied victory in Europe possible.Ed Offley's well
researched, tautly written account does its part to even the
scales." "Washington"" Times" "Ed Offley presents us with masterly
military writing.... Offley, in careful detail that shows his
knowledge of the subject, tells how Allied strategists and
tacticians devised ways of leveling the playing field." "Florida""
Times-Union
""Offley's story...has all the guts and glory of the best World War
II novels. Here, the heroes are real in this most important
battle.... From the admirals to the ordinary seamen, Offley gives
us the whole story, but he also manages to capture the intimate
danger of pushing a small ship through treacherous seas while
someone is shooting at you.""Open Letters Monthly""[A] great
historical account...[a] disturbing, fantastic new book.... Offley
has sifted through a towering heap of official records, read a
library's worth of histories, even interviewed surviving U-boat
sailors. He's brought all that formidable research together,
crafted it with a very considerable degree of narrative skill, and
produced a volume worthy to stand with Gunter Hessler's "The U-Boat
War in the Atlantic: 1939-1945" or Clay Blair's magnificent
2-volume "Hitler's U-Boat War." In passage after passage, he brings
the submarine experience - Allied and Axis alike - vividly to
life.... Offley is keenly attuned to the give and take of the
Battle of the Atlantic...and he's adept at painting quick portraits
of determination - and bravery - on both sides of that battle....
Readers of serious, well-done history shouldn't miss it."
"Florida"" Times-Union" "Offley's story...has all the guts and
glory of the best World War II novels. Here, the heroes are real in
this most important battle.... From the admirals to the ordinary
seamen, Offley gives us the whole story, but he also manages to
capture the intimate danger of pushing a small ship through
treacherous seas while someone is shooting at you."
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