A measureless peril

by Richard F. Snow

Of all the threats that faced his country in World War II, Winston Churchill said, just one really scared him -- what he called the "measureless peril" of the German U-boat campaign. In that global conflagration, only one battle -- the struggle for the Atlantic -- lasted from the very first hours of the conflict to its final day. Hitler knew that victory depended on controlling the sea lanes where American food and fuel and weapons flowed to the Allies. At the start, U-boats patrolled a few miles off the eastern seaboard, savagely attacking scores of defenseless passenger ships and merchant...