E-BOAT ALERT - Defending The Normandy Invasion Fleet by Tent, James Foster

Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1996. first US edition, hard bound in dust jacket, FINE/FINE CONDITION, xvi, 286 pages, illus., maps, notes, glossary, bibliog., index.------------------------------------- Combining newly released top-secret Admiralty reports, rare photographic materials, and extensive interviews with eyewitnesses from three nations, James Tent has produced a comprehensive study of a little-known episode of World War II—the campaign to defend the Normandy invasion fleet from Germany's high-performance motor torpedo boats or Schnellboote, known to the Allies as "E-boats:' This true story offers a tale of mounting suspense as the German navy, emboldened by the E-boats' successful torpedoing of three American tank landing ships off Slapton Sands in April 1944, fed reinforcements into the invasion area in hopes of disrupting the Allied buildup.----------------------------------------------- Simultaneously, the Allies searched for innovative ways to defend their vulnerable landing ships from this all too familiar danger. Besides presenting a detailed account of naval operations at a crucial stage of the war in Europe, this history integrates many facets of modern warfare: the development of fast coastal craft; the creation of precision bombing units; the interaction of naval, air, and ground forces among both the Allies and the Germans; the harnessing of science and technology to meet changing military needs; and the use of various forms of intelligence—cryptanalysis, prisoner interrogation, photo reconnaissance, and photo-interpretation. While tracing these important technical considerations, the study also examines the human dimension of the forces arrayed against each other. In addition, it offers historical precedents for weapons and warships in which there is now renewed interest, namely, deep-penetration bombs and high-speed coastal combatants.