U-Boats in the Bahamas

[Eric Wiberg] '...builds a character both attractive and intriguing to the reader. I ended genuinely curious about what might come next, and confident that I was in the hands of an expert story-teller.' -William F. Buckley Jr.   'Eric Wiberg’s ability, to unearth obscure historical facts, keeps me in a constant state of surprise. I commend his relentless determination to verify every detail, with local sources in Nassau’s historical community, for corroboration of his findings.'-Capt. Paul C. Aranha, Author, The Island Airman . . . and his Bahama Islands Home. 'Eric Wiberg has made a significant contribution to the bibliography of World War II history.' -J. Revell Carr, Santa Fe, N.M. This book tells one more key part of the big story and is one more piece in the giant puzzle of the history of World War II. Its value for historians cannot be underestimated.  Throughout the stories of the attacks by German and Italian submarines on Allied shipping in the water around the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos, several consistent themes emerge in Wiberg’s thorough accounts. Prime among them is the heroism of the merchant mariners who time and again put themselves in danger as they performed the critical task of moving supplies, military and civilian, which were vital to ultimate victory.  We read of numerous instances of sailors having their ships shot out from under them and then continuously going back to sea and having additional ships torpedoed and sunk. We can also recognize what we know today as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which was seldom recognized 75 years ago. Wiberg pays proper credit to the controversial Duchess of Windsor, whose husband was the wartime governor of the Bahamas. Just as she carried out this official duty, this book relates the heartening tales of everyday Bahamians, often poor and on outlying islands, who generously provided for these desperate castaways.  Wiberg also acknowledges the heroism of the Axis submariners as he recounts not only their victories but also their deaths as many of the subs were eventually tracked down and sunk.  History isn’t great events, it is the continuum of many small events carried out by real people. U-Boats in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos gives us an intimate glimpse of those events and, importantly, those people.  J. Revell Carr Santa Fe, N.M. Eric Wiberg grew up in the Bahamas, the son of the Swedish Consul-General there. A licensed maritime lawyer, his thesis for a Master’s Degree in Marine Affairs was published as Tanker Disasters. For three years he commercially operated tankers in Singapore. Over 25 years he has sailed on 100 vessels, most of them sailboats, for 75,000 miles, including voyages across the Atlantic and Pacific and over 30 ocean passages to or from Bermuda. He has published four books, the latest being Round the World in the Wrong Season. A graduate of Boston College, he studied at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, and in Lisbon. Employed in the shipping industry in New York City, he lives with his wife and son in Westport, Connecticut.