A Measureless Peril: America in the Fight for the Atlantic, the Longest Battle of World War II

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 vessels while hastily converted American cabin cruisers and fishing boats vainly tried to stop them. Before long, though, the United States was ramping up what would be the greatest production of naval vessels the world had ever known.

Then the battle became a thrilling cat-and-mouse game between the quickly built U.S. warships and the ever-more cunning and lethal U-boats. The historian Richard Snow captures all the drama of the merciless contest at every level, from the doomed sailors on an American freighter defying a German cruiser, to the amazing Allied attempts to break the German naval codes, to Winston Churchill pressing Franklin Roosevelt to join the war months before Pearl Harbor (and FDR’s shrewd attempts to fight the battle alongside Britain while still appearing to keep out of it).

Inspired by the collection of letters that his father sent his mother from the destroyer escort he served aboard, Snow brings to life the longest continuous battle in modern times.

 With its vibrant prose and fast-paced action, A Measureless Peril is an immensely satisfying account that belongs on the small shelf of the finest histories ever written about World War II.

“Richard Snow captures the sweep of battle--years long, thousands of square miles in extent--and its life-sized, daily events, from routine tasks to hellish violence, as seen through the eyes of the men who were there. The result is a stereoscopic view of a world-historical struggle, and of the author's father, Lieut. Richard B. Snow, USNR, a representative member of the greatest generation.”

--Richard Brookhiser, author of "Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington"

“By way of a great raft of sea-stories, each impeccably told and perfectly turned, Richard Snow has transformed the faraway and half-forgotten world of the Atlantic convoys into a narrative as touching and exciting as it is melancholy and memorable. This is a valuable book: few better accounts have ever been crafted about this cruelest of wars, fought for year after year on the most imperturbably cruel of the world's great oceans.”

--Simon Winchester

“Richard Snow's "A Measureless Peril" is epic, poignant, and until now the story he tells has been little known. At the same time, Snow's voice is warm, wildly entertaining, and achieves that rare magic effect in writing history: complete intimacy and authority. The book is chock full of engrossing detail and the surprising stories spool out like private movies shot by our fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and brothers and sent back from the war-- but arriving only now in this world of ours. Most of all, Snow's father, a courageous presence, is as literate and humane a voice as one could hope to meet in the darkest hours at sea. Snow smartly and thoroughly honors the men and women-- and their families-- who served in WWII.”

--Doug Stanton, author of "Horse Soldiers" and "In Harm’s Way"

“There is one very annoying and upsetting aspect to "A Measureless Peril": it ends. However, I have to admit that when I am fascinated and excited by a book, and having the time of my life, I'm able to read "really" fast. What a fine writer is Richard Snow, and what a treasure this is.”

--Alan Furst

"Snow writes with verve and a keen eye. He is a kind of John McPhee of combat at sea, finding humanity in the small, telling details of duty." -"New York Times Book Review"

“In this terrific tale, Richard Snow has written a splendid and exciting account of an unjustly overlooked story of World War II: the fight for the Atlantic. With a skillful narrative hand, he moves between scenes of combat and peril at sea (and under the sea) to moments of debate and decision at the highest levels of Washington and London. ‘A Measureless Peril’—the phrase is Churchill’s—is a book to savor, and to remember.”

--Jon Meacham

"""Snow ably uses his father's letters to reconstruct Atlantic duty in the final years of a vital battle for Allied victory." -"Publishers Weekly"

"""A Measureless Peril...will keep you riveted...[Snow's] description of key personalities is flawless." -"Forbes

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"Gripping, jaw-dropping, moving, at times surprisingly funny, and always spellbinding."

-Laura Hillenbrand, author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Unbroken