ISBN 0-595-31527-5
xii + 143

Introduction; photos; tables; OBs; Bibliography; Notes; Index

Appendices: Specifications of USN patrol aircraft; U-Boat and Italian submarine specifications; German and Italian submarines sunk by FAW-16; USN squadron deployment dates; FAW-16 squadron commanding officers; FAW-16 personnel killed or missing in action; Military rank and rating

   In the same way that Danny Parker specializes in books about the Battle of the Bulge, Alan Carey has over the last few years made himself the king of books about US Navy and US Marine Corps operations involving B-24 and PBY aircraft on naval air missions. His earlier books provided vast amounts of detail about units flying those operations while based in the Pacific and Great Britain. On a personal note, upon hearing that an elderly acquaintance was a USN PBY veteran, we were able to surprise him with a copy of Carey's Above an Angry Sea which included the complete story of the vet being shot down in the Pacific, his wounds, and his subsequent rescue. The old sailor was impressed by Carey's work, and so were we.
   Now the author turns his attention to US naval air operations in the South Atlantic. This is a considerably less familiar aspect of the war, but in this theater USN air units sank more than a dozen enemy submarines. Carey devotes his book mostly to the American perspective, but he also includes information about operations of the Brazilian Air Force as well as German U-boats in the South Atlantic.
   The first chapter in particular begins with a broad view of the early stages of the Battle of the Atlantic, America's increasing involvement in the war although officially still at peace, "establishment of United States Navy Patrol Wings and Sea Frontiers," initial U-boat incursions into the South Atlantic, and some very interesting background on the Brazilian Air Force and relations between the US and Brazil. In November 1940 an agreement was signed allowing US construction of airbases in Brazil, and in April of the following year US Navy aircraft were authorized to use those bases for patrols above the Atlantic (although patrols did not begin until later). The Navy was also allowed to use the ports of Recife and Bahia, so that by January 1942 American operations covered the entire coast of Brazil and extended far into the Atlantic toward Africa.
   Here's part of what Carey has to say about the Brazilian Air Force:

   Before Brazil's entry into the war and the arrival of U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) and Navy, the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) was ill equipped to deal with a potential European adversary. In 1941, most of its 200 aircraft were obsolete, consisting mostly of German manufactured Focke Wulf 58Bs (FW-58B) Weihe and American-built Vultee V-11GB2s, based in Rio de Janeiro (Galeao), Florianopolis and Canoas. To insure successful bilateral cooperation with the United States, the Brazilian Air Force sought modern aircraft and training.
   In May 1941, General George C. Marshall attempted to have twenty A-20 Boston light bombers released to Brazil from British allocations but London refused to relinquish them. As substitutes, the Brazilians received a few Douglas B-18 Bolo medium bombers until suitable aircraft and trained pilots became available. During the interim, USAAF personnel began a training program to qualify Brazilian pilots and crews in modern military aircraft. Although lacking modern military aircraft, Brazil didn't lack in the quality of its aviators. A majority of its pilots were veterans or the National AirMail Service and didn't require flight training or a considerable amount of practice in navigation; what they lacked was training in modern aircraft and antisubmarine warfare.
   Agrupamento de Avioes de Adaptacao (Operational Conversion Aircraft Grouping) became the first Brazilian unit equipped with what could be loosely considered modern aircraft at the time, yet were obsolete by American military standards. Established at Fortaleza Air Force Base on 4 February 1942, the unit was equipped with 10 Curtis P-36A fighters, six North American B-25B Mitchell bombers, and two Douglas B-18B Bolos. The group recorded its first attack against a submarine when one of the B-25Bs operated by a mixed crew of Brazilian and USAAF personnel depth-charged a submarine on 22 May 1942. By late 1942, the U.S. Navy began delivering newer types of aircraft such as the Lockheed A-28A Hudson and Consolidated PBY Catalina.
   In terms of providing air coverage of merchant shipping operating in South American waters, an agreement, issued on 23 May 1942, made a number of recommendations concerning the use of both countries' armed forces in the defense of the Americas. Recommendation Number 11, issued on 12 September 1942, would have given Admiral Ingram complete operational control of all Brazilian Naval and Air units but all administrative and disciplinary control of Brazilian units would remain under Brazilian command. However, Brigadeiro-do-Ar Eduardo Gomes, Brazilian Air Force Commander of the First and Second Air Zones (North and Northeast of Brazil), strongly objected to the operational control of Brazilian air bases and units by the United States. Instead, he and Admiral Ingram worked very closely to formulate an alternative approach, in which Brazilian and U.S. air units in the South Atlantic were divided into two groups named Orange and Blue....

   USN Patrol Squadron 52 arrived in Natal on 11 December 1941 with its PBY-5As to begin anti-submarine warfare ops, but was replaced in April 1942 by VP-83. VP-52—due to lack of enemy activity—scored no successes, but Patrol Squadron 83, on the other hand, "would become the most successful patrol squadron in the South Atlantic...." Carey begins to describe the living conditions of the Yanks in Brazil, the opening of U-boat operations in that part of the South Atlantic, and the arrival of additional American patrol squadrons to reinforce the effort. On 6 January 1943 VP-83 scored the USN's first ASW victory from a Brazilian base with the sinking of U-164. Carey provides full details, including part of the after action report filed by the pilot. The squadron's second victory quickly followed with the sinking of U-507 on 12 January, and Carey provides even more detail along with first-person accounts from the air. The author continues to alternate information about the expansion, organization, and deployment of American and Brazilian ASW assets with stories of air attacks on U-boats.
   However, the Germans were not the only ones with submarines preying in the South Atlantic.

   Vice Admiral Ingram expected Grossadmiral Donitz to move additional U-boats into the South Atlantic once the Allies won the Battle of the North Atlantic; he wasn't disappointed when two U-boats appeared off Brazil in May. At the same time, enemy submarines were operating 1,200 miles off Brazil near Ascension Island, which was well beyond the range of patrol planes based in South America. During the month four merchant ships were torpedoed in the waters off Ascension, three were sunk. U-182 sank a Greek freighter off Ascension on 1 May; five days later, U-192 sent a Liberty ship down while U-195 damaged the SS Cape Neddick and a Dutch tanker fell victim to U-197 on the 20th. Meanwhile, the two PBY Catalina squadrons, VP-83 and 94, sent out five-plane barrier sweeps in hopes of intercepting German blockade-runners that were attempting to transport war materials between Japan and Germany. It was during one of those sweeps on 15 April that VP-83's Ensign Thurmond Robertson encountered the Archimede, a 237-foot long (72m), 1,016-ton, Brin Class submarine of the Italian Navy, some 350 miles east of Natal.
   At 1500 hours, after being in the air for some ten hours. Ensign Robertson and his crew were proceeding back to base on what had been a routine patrol. The navigator Ensign Eugene Morrison was making his way forward to the bow to take a drift sight when Seaman Second Class Earl J. Kloss sighted a vessel below. Morrison immediately identified the object as a submarine and scrambled back to inform Robertson. By this time, the plane had already passed directly over the target, so Robertson began a turn to port in order to see the object himself. As he made the turn, the enemy began sending up antiaircraft fire, so an attempt was made to make a horizontal run at altitude, drop one bomb, and clear the submarine's decks. However, in the course of the bombing run, the Archimede started to submerge, forcing Robertson to start a dive from 7,300 feet.
   The Catalina, which incidentally had badly frayed control cables, nosed over sixty degrees, and obtained an indicated airspeed of 245 knots. When the plane dropped down to 2,000 feet, the target submerged, forcing Robertson to release all four depth charges. Immediately after the explosions, the submarine surfaced and began making erratic circles to port for about 20 minutes at a speed of four to five knots, apparently out of control. From the vantage point of the attacking PBY, the submarine was unable to steer to starboard and it was trailing heavy brown oil with heavy, grayish black smoke pouring from the conning tower. As it continued making erratic circles, some of Archimede's crew kept up a valiant fight by firing rounds from the deck gun in an attempt to shoot down Robertson's Catalina.
   Immediately after the attack, Robertson sent a contact report and messages to four other patrol planes in the area. Lieutenant Bradford's plane received the messages and immediately proceeded to the position arriving on the scene an hour later. Bradford dropped four depth bombs from fifty feet on his first run and then conducted four strafing runs through intense antiaircraft fire coming from the Archimede. During one of the runs, Bradford turned and faced the co-pilot with a look of complete amazement and remarked, "Gee, Brad, they're shooting at us!"
   The submarine sank six minutes later; members of Robertson's crew dropped life rafts to some thirty survivors in the water but only two men managed to survive after spending several weeks adrift. VP-83's tour of duty concluded soon after Robertson sank the Archimede and the squadron returned to the United States. Three of VP-83's planes were already in Norfolk for engine changes, so they were handed over to VP-94 while the last five planes and their crews left Natal for Norfolk on 10 May. Three months later, after reforming as VB-107 and equipped with the Consolidated PB4Y-1 Liberator, the squadron returned for a second tour of duty in Brazil.

   The American and Brazilian forces continued to score successes, but not without losses. For example, the skipper of VB-107, Lt Commander Bertram Prueher, and the entire crew of The Spirit of 83 were lost when they were shot down while attacking U-172, U-185, and U-604 which had rendezvoused so that the first two could take survivors off the heavily damaged 604. With no word from their missing skipper, other aircraft of the squadron searched the sea for two weeks until they learned that U-185 had been sunk by carrier-based aircraft and the submarine's survivors reported they had seen Prueher's Liberator crash into the sea.
   The author goes on to describe operations from Ascension Island and carrier-based ops in the region through November 1944, including attacks on German blockade-runners. By that time, though, the tide of German U-boats had receded, and the last aerial ASW victory in the South Atlantic occurred on 29 September 1944.
   Carey summarizes operations this way:

   American and Brazilian combat aircrews provided an invaluable service in winning the war by providing effective aerial coverage, which reduced the number of merchant shipping losses in the waters between South America and Africa. Offensively, ASW efforts by the U.S. Navy and the Brazilian military resulted in the loss of 17 enemy submarines between January 1943 and September 1944. Conversely, the U.S. Navy lost only six aircraft to enemy action—five to German U-boats, one due to damage sustained by antiaircraft fire from a blockade-runner. In terms of human loss, over 700 German and Italian crewmembers were lost when their submarines were sunk compared to 48 U.S. Naval airmen killed in action. VB-107 sustained the highest number casualty rate among FAW-16 squadrons losing three PB4Y-1 Liberators and 31 crewmembers to enemy fire.

   The book concludes with a series of informative appendices covering aircraft, Axis submarines, ASW victories, USN squadrons in theater, commanding officers, and casualty rolls.
   Carey has done another good job of bringing together a great deal of information and interesting detail, especially given the relatively unheralded nature of the long, monotonous patrols in a relatively unknown theater of war. Unfortunately, where most of Carey's earlier works were published in high quality, glossy formats by professional houses like Schiffer and Osprey, Galloping Ghosts of the Brazilian Coast has been released in an uninspiring paperback edition with poor layout, fuzzy photographic reproduction, and generally sub-standard production values. Regrettably, it also seems like the responsible bodies skipped the proofreading stage of the process.
   For anyone willing to overlook the weak physical package, we can recommend Galloping Ghosts. Not perfect, but it's clearly a labor of love by someone who holds the topic near to his heart and shows the greatest respect for all the fighting men who faced each other in the South Atlantic. Carey also deserves thanks for tackling a subject that probably is not proving to be the most marketable niche imaginable.
   Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from the author.
   Thanks to Alan Carey for providing this review copy.