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 enlarge | Author: Michael G. Walling
Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
Category: Book
Buy New: $50.18
New (2) Used (9) from $9.19
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 567871
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0071424016
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.54293
UPC: 639785803171
EAN: 9780071424011
ASIN: 0071424016
Publication Date: May 12, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Book is brand new, and has never been opened. Thousands of satisfied customers!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Like you are there June 17, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is an absolutely excellent tale of the Coast Guardsmen who manned the cutters in the battle of the Atlantic. Focuses primarily on the 7 Secretary Class cutters but tell some on all that served in the Atlantic. His narrative is sprinkled with input of many survivors. Those words make it real. You feel the wet, tired and cold that they do and the fear and numbness of war in the convoys. A great read. As a Coast Guardsman who has sailed those waters and still can only imagine what they went through, I highly recommend this book.
 six years not four years April 29, 2005
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
For some of us allies the battle of the Atlantic was six years of struggle and bloodshed not four as the description of this book suggests.The Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy were in this from the start and remained the most important elements in the Allied victory.
Muddy Water Sailors at War October 27, 2004
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
When the courageous warriors of WWII are named, those of the Coast Guard who protected the vital life line convoys across the North Atlantic stand among the foremost, and this wonderful book gives them their long overdue tribute. Author Walling spent 17 years of exhaustive and productive research to interview those who fought both the Germans and mother nature in a no-holds-barred struggle of gigantic proportions, a contest in which the losers faced death in a number of horrible ways. The Coast Guard and its seven 327 foot Secretary Class cutters took on the toughest of sea and combat conditions alongside the navies of our allies against the toughest and most determined of Hitler's many weapons, the submarine. The author has given a very human face to the horrors these antagonists faced as oil tankers blew up, vessels broke apart in heavy seas, sometimes without the slightest warning, and brave young men risked their lives to rescue the mariners from flimsy boats and rafts while dodging enemy torpedoes. The grim realities of this kind of warfare, never glamorous, but absolutely essential in the grand scheme of the Allied effort to defeat a determined enemy, come alive though the stories of those who were there and survived. The ships themselves become central figures in this drama and their toughness and efficiency are matched only by that of their valiant crews as they face uncertainty and danger. Six appendixes provide excellent background on Coast Guard vessels and history to help the reader understand the infrastructure prior to and in support of the war effort. This book stands as the definitive work on what the Coast Guard achieved when called to serve and is an absolute "must read" for all those interested in the Battle of the Atlantic.
A Book for Everyone August 3, 2004
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
The Bloodstained Sea is a book for three kinds of people: those who know (or think they know) about the Battle of the North Atlantic, those who don't, and those who were there. The readers in the first two categories (I fall into the first) are in for an eye-opening ride on rough seas. I thought I knew. I was mistaken. Those unfamiliar with this part of our history will find a fast-paced story of heroic actions that could be fiction. But it isn't. I do remember tar and oil on the beaches but I never knew how bloody it was. Now I do.
These men battled U-boat wolf packs hunting through the convoys. They also endured bone-chilling cold and mind-numbing fatigue and this went on day after day and week after week with little respite. Only the brave and the selfless can do this.
Mr. Walling has done a superb job of telling their story. Extensive research using original sources such as ships' logs, interviews with veterans of the action, and his Coast Guard experience add to the authenticity of this book.
For the third group, those who were there, Bloodstained Sea is a well-deserved, long-overdue tribute to their gallantry. While we can only marvel at such dedication to duty, they can read it and say, "Yes, that's how it was."
This is a five-star book.
Who says history is dull? June 21, 2004
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is an exciting, entertaining and informative book. The story of the U.S. Coast Guard in World War II deserves to be remembered and Mr. Walling tells it in a historically accurate, but vivid and enthralling manner. Thoroughly documented and backed with extensive primary source research and interviews, "Bloodstained Sea" demonstrates that the WW2 veterans of the Coast Guard should be ranked high in America's pantheon of heroes. Everyone interested in military or maritime history should own this book.
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