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Phantom Fleet
- Author
- Alexander Rose
- Narrator
- Jonathan Todd Ross
- Publisher
- Hachette Audio
- Publish Date
- 20 May 2025
- Run Time
- 9 hours 40 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Shortly before noon on June 4, 1944, the sonar operator on a destroyer prowling off the coast of West Africa heard a sharp, metallic ping. The sound could mean only one thing: The German submarine that their hunter-killer group had been tracking, U-505, was lurking somewhere below. The ensuing struggle between exhausted hunter and venomous prey would make history when American sailors boarded an enemy warship at sea for the first time since the War of 1812.
That day’s victory was the culmination of an unrelenting campaign against the Nazi submarine threat by the U.S. Navy’s “Tenth Fleet”—a mysterious unit that could predict the locations and movement of Hitler’s U-boats. Run by Commander Kenneth Knowles, Tenth Fleet had guided Captain Dan Gallery to U-505; to repay the favor, Gallery was going to steal an Enigma machine for him.
Now all they had to do was to make an entire U-boat, its crew, and its secrets vanish into thin air . . .
In this swashbuckling adventure story, bestselling historian Alexander Rose draws on long-classified encrypted documents and intercepted German transmissions to reveal in full, for the first time, how an owlish egghead and a glory-seeking buccaneer teamed up to score the richest prize on the high seas.
Critics Review
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“Phantom Fleet has as much propulsion and panache as the daring mission it recounts. Alexander Rose tells this cat-and-mouse story with the confidence of a writer in total command of his material. Strap in for an incredible wartime adventure tale.”—Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times bestselling author of Lost in Shangri-La and Frozen in Time
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“A heart-pounding narrative of the U.S. Navy’s clandestine hunt for and ultimate capture of a Nazi U-boat. Using a kaleidoscope of voices and sources, Alexander Rose drops readers into one of the most dramatic stories of World War II. More than just an excellent history, Phantom Fleet is a page-turning thriller.”—James M. Scott, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Black Snow, Rampage, and Target Tokyo
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“Alexander Rose tells the fascinating story of a submarine heist that never should have worked, with outstanding detail and a style that draws you into his vivid portraits of both frontline sailors and naval leaders. Phantom Fleet is a book you’ll be glad you picked up.”—Gregory A. Freeman, author of The Forgotten 500 and Sailors to the End
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“Phantom Fleet is a thrilling account of one of the most improbable success stories of World War II. The courage, resourcefulness, brilliance, and determination of the men who defeated the Nazis’ submarine threat and captured U-505 is breathtaking. In Rose's able hands, the enthralling story gets the telling it so richly deserves.”—Eric Jay Dolin, author of Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution
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“Alexander Rose deftly uses a single extraordinary incident—the U.S. Navy’s capture of a German U-boat at sea in 1944—to tell the broader story of the U-boat war in World War II. Rose writes in a lively and at times even conversational style, which makes for fast and easy reading, but his intricate knowledge of the strategies, weaponry, and personalities on both sides of the U-boat war shines through on every page. Phantom Fleet is a rare book that will satisfy both casual readers and hardcore military history buffs.”—William Geroux, author of The Ghost Ships of Archangel and The Fifteen
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Details
- Author
- Alexander Rose
- Narrator
- Jonathan Todd Ross
- Duration
- 9 hours 40 minutes
- Release Date
- 20 May 2025
- ISBN
- 9781668648674
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Hachette Audio
- Genre
- Second World War, Naval forces and warfare, Military history, True crime, Espionage and secret services
Synopsis
From the New York Times bestselling author of Washington's Spies, "a page-turning thriller" (James M. Scott) about ​one of the greatest heists in history: the U.S. Navy’s clandestine capture of a Nazi U-boat at the climax of World War II. Shortly before noon on June 4, 1944, the sonar operator on a destroyer prowling off the coast of West Africa heard a sharp, metallic ping. The sound could mean only one thing: The German submarine that their hunter-killer group had been tracking, U-505, was lurking somewhere below. The ensuing struggle between exhausted hunter and venomous prey would make history when American sailors boarded an enemy warship at sea for the first time since the War of 1812. That day’s victory was the culmination of an unrelenting campaign against the Nazi submarine threat by the U.S. Navy’s “Tenth Fleet”—a mysterious unit that could predict the locations and movement of Hitler’s U-boats. Run by Commander Kenneth Knowles, Tenth Fleet had guided Captain Dan Gallery to U-505; to repay the favor, Gallery was going to steal an Enigma machine for him.   Now all they had to do was to make an entire U-boat, its crew, and its secrets vanish into thin air . . .   In this swashbuckling adventure story, bestselling historian Alexander Rose draws on long-classified encrypted documents and intercepted German transmissions to reveal in full, for the first time, how an owlish egghead and a glory-seeking buccaneer teamed up to score the richest prize on the high seas.
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