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    At All Costs: How a Crippled Ship and Two American Merchant Marines Turned the Tide of World War II
    At All Costs: How a Crippled Ship and Two American Merchant Marines Turned the Tide of World War II
    At All Costs: How a Crippled Ship and Two American Merchant Marines Turned the Tide of World War II
    Audiobook11 hours

    At All Costs: How a Crippled Ship and Two American Merchant Marines Turned the Tide of World War II

    Written by Sam Moses

    Narrated by Michael Prichard

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In this astonishing untold account of heroism and history, two American Merchant Mariners board a burning and sinking ship in the Mediterranean and change the course of World War II.

    In 1942, the small Mediterranean island of Malta was the most heavily bombed place on earth. Its submarine and air attacks on Axis supply convoys were all that kept Rommel from marching across North Africa to take the oil in Iran and Iraq for Hitler. But Malta was out of fuel, down to its final days. Operation Pedestal was Malta's last hope, a giant convoy with more that 50 warships escorting thirteen freighters and one life-or-death tanker, the SS Ohio, carrying 103,000 barrels of oil from Texas. It was bombed, torpedoed, and abandoned. Two American Merchant Mariners, Frederick Larsen and Francis Dales-their own freighters sunk in towering flames along with eight others-boarded the Ohio, repaired the guns, and fought the Axis dive-bombers for two days as the sinking tanker was towed by destroyers. Malta was saved, Rommel was turned back, and the Allies started to turn the tide of war.

    At All Costs is a gripping story reported in grand historic fashion. It is a tale of unimaginable personal courage and indomitable determination.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateDec 1, 2006
    ISBN9781400173044
    At All Costs: How a Crippled Ship and Two American Merchant Marines Turned the Tide of World War II
    Author

    Sam Moses

    Sam Moses is the author of the acclaimed race-driving memoir, Fast Guys, Rich Guys and Idiots, as well as At All Costs: How a Crippled Ship and Two Merchant Mariners Turned the Tide of World War II, a gripping account of a naval battle in the Straits of Gibraltar, and a heartfelt parenting memoir, It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This. A former senior writer for Sports Illustrated, he began writing as a U.S. Navy Seaman on a cruiser engaged in shore bombardment of Vietnam, long letters home. He lives in an eco village on the Indonesian island of Lombok.

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    Reviews for At All Costs

    3.5/5

    20 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is a story of a crippled ship and two American merchant mariners who through their heroic efforts turned the tide of World War II. It is an account of the convoy to Malta in August 1942 that sustained fearsome losses. A good World War II read!
    • 3/5
      While it's clear that a lot of work went into this account of Operation "Pedestal," the desperate effort to get a relief convoy to Malta in 1942, there are enough little glitches, mistakes and leaden efforts at heroic rhetoric that it kind of puts me off. This is a shame in that the author went to the trouble to hunt down the families of Frederick Larsen & Francis Dales, two American sailors who displayed conspicuous courage in the effort to get the tanker "Ohio" to its destination and whose stories are downright inspirational.
    • 4/5
      Malta is an archipelago of seven small islands between Sicily, the boot of Italy, and Africa. As such it held a strategic place during WW II, and despite heavy pressure from the Italians and Germans, withstood nearly incessant bombing. But to do so required food and fuel necessitating many convoys which had to run the gauntlet of German bombers based in Italy.Getting the required tankers and other freighters often involved extensive and complicated negotiations between Roosevelt and Churchill. Their efforts were often hindered by Admiral King, who insisted on certain American prerogatives regarding crewing the loaned ships, the profit-oriented motives of people like the CEO of Texaco who sold oil to anyone, including surreptitiously to the Germans, and the idiocy of the American ambassador to Egypt whose lackadaisical efforts at secrecy made his information about British operations almost immediately available to the Germans.Conditions on Malta were frightful, often bordering on starvation. AvGas was in terribly short supply for the fighters which were often decimated by German bombs even before they could get off the ground. Churchill, rightly, was adamant the islands be held at all costs so the convoys continued escorted by fleets of naval vessels, but at frightful cost.A massive operation, called “Pedestal”, comprised of more than 50 ships including several aircraft carriers and battleships, was sent in an attempt to relieve the island and deliver airplanes, fuel and food. The AvGas was shipped in five gallon containers that had cork seals that leaked making the holds floating bombs. The idea was to make loading the gas into the planes much faster. Everything was a bit jury-rigged. Spitfires on the ancient carrier “Furious” could just barely make it off the deck, so to save weight their guns were load with cigarettes, intended also as a morale booster for the islanders should the planes make it through. Multiple security leaks meant the Germans and Italians knew all about the convoy. The Italians had several opportunities to finish off the convoy, an event that might have altered the course of the war. The Germans had refused to deliver as much oil as they had promised so the Italian Navy was always trying to conserve what they had. They were also exceedingly cautious and Mussolini overruled one of his admirals who wanted to send their cruisers after the British and American ships. They fell for a Maltese trap, however, that broadcast, in the open, that British Liberator bombers were on the way and Mussolini ordered them back home missing an opportunity to perhaps change the course of the war.A couple of weird Italian contraptions bear mention. They had invented a bizarre form of mine. Dubbed the “Moto-Bombay” (sp? - audiobook) it was dropped by parachute. When it hit the water, a motor would engage sending the mine in successively large circles for a diameter of about 15 kilometers. They were easily avoided since the parachutes were quite visible from afar. Another gizmo was to take a Flying Buffalo aircraft, load it to the wingtips with fuel and bombs and then after take-off, the pilot would jump out into the sea and the plane would be guided by remote control, hopefully into an aircraft carrier. Didn’t work, the prototype exploding against an North African mountain.The author has interviewed numerous survivors of the bombing raids and some of their stories are truly heart-rending. Even after sixty years, their eyes fill with tears as they recall comrades who could not be saved or the horrible trauma of watching people, badly burned, struggle in the water after being torpedoed. Excellently read audiobook by Michael Pritchard, one of my favorites.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of "Operation Pedesetal". Which was the name of the convoy to resupply the Island of Malta after two years of constant bombing by German and Italian forces. This convoy was the most well armed and protected convoy and the most attacked convoy in history. After a six day running battle (being bombed in the day time and attacked by E-Boats at night) Only 5 merchant ships out of 15 made to Malta. These 5 ships carried enough cargo and fuel to keep Malta going for another three months and allowed the British 10th submarine force to sink enough axis ships that forced Rommel to retreat and allowed America time to join forces with the Britsh Army and retake northern Africa, Sicily and force the Italians to surrender.It's also the story of two Merchant Seaman, Fred Larson a vertern Merchant Marine Officer and a Merchant Seaman Cadet Lonnie Dale. These two men reboarded (this action made other reboard to help) the oiler SS Ohio after in had been abanded to repair it's guns to fight off German dive bombers and Italian "E" boats for two days.