ATTACKED AT SEA

The true story of a family caught in a U-boat attack in U.S. waters.

In May 1942, the White American Downs family—8-year-old Sonny, 11-year-old Lucille, and their parents—boarded a nonmilitary freighter for a one-week journey from Costa Rica to New Orleans. However, just hours before reaching Louisiana, their ship was attacked by German U-boat commander Erich Würdemann and his dedicated crew in the Gulf of Mexico. Part of Operation Drumbeat, their goal was to sink as much seafaring tonnage, military or civilian, as possible. When the family was separated during the U-boat attack, it took all of their courage, hope, and luck to survive. A stand-alone book in the True Rescue series, this title is the young reader’s edition of So Close to Home (2016). A prologue establishing characters and settings is followed by three parts: before the attack, during and immediately following the attack, and the aftermath. Filled with details from primary sources, including letters, interviews, newspapers, war diaries, and more, the third-person narrative swiftly switches, highlighting different members of the Downs’ family and two U-boat commanders. The Downs family’s upright wholesomeness and their complete belief in the American dream bypasses many opportunities for authentic emotional exploration. Although the tone feels academic at times, quotes from letters and diaries evoke the historical era.

A well-researched account of one American family during a little-known episode of World War II.