Frogmen - First Battles

They struck at midnight or at dawn. Stealing silently beneath the darkened waters of Allied harbors in the Mediterranean, they moved swiftly, leaving in their wake the sunken hulls and twisted wreckage of dozens of British and American ships. They were the first of their breed, a small band of Italian Navymen who introduced a new concept of undersea warfare. They performed with such skill and ingenuity, claiming victory after victory, that Winston Churchill called an emergency session of Parliament to deal with the crisis.

Using the words of the seagoing warriors themselves, as well as information drawn from the British and Italian Navy Archives, co-authors William Schofield and P.J. Carisella tell the Frogmen story as it has never been told, including their daring plan to attack New York Harbor on Christmas Eve 1943!