Being there . . . . for a rare but uniquely comprehensive overview of the U-boat campaign off
the coasts of North America during World War I – – a subject today’s military buffs realize
military historians since late 1918 have either deliberately ignored or simply forgotten about in
order to focus upon the blood and guts of trench warfare. Now, past the mid-mark of 2023,
book reviewers are noticing more and more authors declaring their research and narrative skills
are “filling gaps in the known, even high scholarly, war history literature”, which in most cases
can easily be verified. In the case of Schiffer MILITARY Publishing, Dominic Etzold’s “Reaping the
Whirlwind – – The U-Boat War Off North America During World War I”, not only can we
confident it does indeed fill a frustrating more than a century void, but also sheds stunning light
on the hitherto unrecorded experiences of German U-boat crews, their victims, AND the men
who fought them to defend the North American coastline, separating fact from fiction and
providing us general readers a comprehensive account that up to this very minute has never
been fully attained in a single text. Readers, probably for the first time, will examine the history
of cross-Atlantic travel of submarines to our shores, both friendly and enemy, and note the
gradual change of perception by both sides, from admired friends to deadly bitter friends. At
times the stories that unfold in this brilliant presentation may seem fantastic, enthralling, even
horrific and terrifying, but they are all true, or at least as close to reality as can be ascertained
by available primary sources.
AFTER 106 YEARS OF NEGLECT AND DISREGARD, A RARE, TRUTHFUL, UNBIASED TESTIMONY
WITH VALIDATING EVIDENCE ABOUT BOTH AMERICAN AND GERMAN SAILORS WHO SERVED IN
THE GREAT WAR OF 1914 – 1918 PRIMARILY OFF THE AMERICAN EASTERN SEABOARD;
“REAPING THE WHIRLWIND” FINDS A RIGHTFUL PLACE IN WORLD WAR I LITERATURE
Reviewed and Highly Recommended by Don DeNevi
“REAPING THE WHIRLWIND – – The U-Boat War Off North America During World War I”, by
Dominic Etzold. Schiffer MILITARY Publishing, Ltd, Atglen, Pa. 19310: 2023, 407 pages, 6 ½” x 9
¼”, hardcover, $34.99. Visit, www.schifferbooks.com, or Email, Info@schifferbooks.com.
When America declared war on Germany in 1917, it unleashed a resumption of unrestricted
submarine warfare off the North American coast. Until now German naval records have not
been extensively utilized in English-language histories of this brief but intense period of naval
combat in the Atlantic. By studying and comparing both American and German archival sources,
author Dominic Etzold has constructed an engaging, revelatory account of the operation. As for
Dominic, this reviewer gladly shares his joyful respect and appreciation for a 100% resolute,
dedicated, research historian narrator who devoted almost four years to the creation of this
mini masterpiece. He worked extensively within the archives both in the US and in Germany.
His degree in history and politics are from Drexel University. He lives in New Jersey. Dominic, a
serious open question: what’s next, and when can we read it?
“The North Americans may now feel the fist of the warlord. They need not be surprised. He
who sows the wind reaps the whirlwind, even when he sits on the other side of the great
herring pond, where he is under the delusion that he is safe from the storm.” From an editorial
published in the Kolnische Volkszeitung, June 1918.
