S.O.S.

This is a fine World War 2-era historical novel (based on Allan Cole's family experiences) set in Florida, on the "Home Front". Nazi submarine attacks off the coast are but the start of the problems for local residents. But human will to overcome obstacles in the face of adversity will surely save the day...won't it? The author writes: "Between February and May of 1942, German U-boats operated with impunity off the Florida coast, sinking nearly two dozen freighters from Cape Canaveral to Key West and killing five thousand people. Residents were horrified witnesses of the attacks—the night skies were aflame and in the morning the beaches were covered with oil and tar, ship parts and charred corpses. The Germans even landed teams of saboteurs charged with disrupting war efforts in the factories of the North. This novel is based on those events. For my own purposes, I set the tale in the fictitious town of Juno Beach on the banks of the equally fictitious Seminole River—all in the very real Palm Beach County, a veritable wilderness in those long ago days. Among the witnesses were my grandfather and grandmother, who operated an orchard and ranch in the area."