In 1943, the navy destroyer, USS Borie, and a German U-boat, were engaged in a fierce battle north of the Azores Islands. This personal account from a crew member of the Borie follows the action, as well as illustrating the determination and courage shown by servicemen during the war as a whole.

William Grannetino served in the US navy during World War II. From the day he landed on Omaha Beach to the morning he sailed out of the Pacific theatre for the last time, he was surrounded by violence, trauma, death, and a comradery unparalleled in civilian life. Through the pen of Grannetino’s son, readers are provided a glimpse of a sailor’s gut-wrenching realities of war as he relates details about little-known landings that happened ahead of the initial D-Day assault and unique facts somehow lost in history. Compelling descriptions of street to street fighting in the city of Caen, the urgency of rushing military support to the Battle of the Bulge, and the terror of Kamikaze attacks in the Pacific, transport readers right to the battle zone. From the jubilation over the end of hostilities to the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Tom Grannetino has captured his father’s stories and crafted an historical and deeply personal account of one man’s experiences in the Second World War.

My manuscript is a historical fiction novel. The story line follows a young Minnesota farm boy into the army after the outbreak of the war. It follows him through basic training, jump school, and then on into the war. The book covers the Normandy Invasionthe battle known as The Bridgeto far up into Holland and finally, the Battle of the Bulge. Throughout the book, I take the reader back to Minnesota so they may see how war affects family and friends on the home front. All the characters are fictional. However, all the military bases in the US and Europe are factual. Each battle my characters are involved in are accurate by timeline and locations. Anyone who is a student of the war or readers who love this genre should appreciate those facts. However, as the novel is a fictional work, I have taken literary license to add drama and hold-your-breath scenes throughout the story.

The true narratives in this book are told in an informative and often light-hearted style. This storyteller shares reminiscences that are often filled with excitement. The reader is offered an opportunity to relive the romance of a time gone from today's world. You are invited to enjoy this young man's unfettered life before joining the U.S. Navy. You can experience some amazing encounters with nature, war, and men at work in Ship Repair AD 40 on an island in the South Pacific. In the end, share in the fulfillment of one of the writer's lifelong dreams. This trip through time is not so much about the war, but World War II is part of the fabric of the story. Travel through this world that was--a world of humor, pathos, amazement, and adventure.

SAILOR MAN is an examination of the combat service of James Preston Nunnally, an underage enlistee aboard the USS Fuller in the Pacific Theater during WWII. Popularly known as the "Queen of Attack Transports," the Fuller received a wartime high nine battle stars for participation in that number of invasions. Nunnally was a crew member for seven of those actions (Bougainville, Saipan, Tinian, Peleliu, the Philipinnes-twice, and Okinawa). It is primarily based on letters Nunnally wrote to his son four decades after the events occurred in an attempt to explain why he had abandoned his son and digressed into a life of alcoholism. In addition to Nunnally's letters, other documents are used, such as a semi-official accounts of the Fuller's actions written in 1945, and interviews with Nunnally's son and sister.

In Autumn 1943 the Battle of the Atlantic, World War II’s longest seagoing campaign, reached a new crescendo. Anti-submarine aircraft and ships using new tactics, technologies, and weaponry dominated a seascape where German U-boats once ruled supreme. But then unexpectedly, in eerie, mid-ocean darkness, an elemental hull-to-deck, sailor-to-submariner duel erupted. On Halloween Eve, U.S. Navy destroyer Borie, an outmoded, thin-skinned “tin can” of World War I vintage, set out alone to track down an elusive U-boat. Borie had thus far toiled in the war’s backwaters, her crew of young reservists anxious to prove its mettle. When Borie trapped U-405 on the surface, that chance arrived. As Borie’s deck guns unleashed withering fire and U-405’s skipper angled his submarine to launch torpedoes, Borie’s young skipper—a salesman in civilian life--resorted to the original (and once the only) means of sinking a submarine: ramming, full speed ahead, consequences be damned. Borie’s slashing collision with U-405 ignited a swashbuckling, no-holds-barred brawl of cannons, machine guns, small arms, and even knives and spent shell casings. In the wreckage-strewn aftermath, desperate sailors on both sides fought for survival in a heaving, frigid, unforgiving sea. Duel in the Deep weaves together high-stakes strategy and lethal gamesmanship with poignant human backstories, pounding air/surface/subsurface action, epic heroism, and wrenching sacrifice. A former U.S. Navy officer and “tin can” veteran—now a seasoned, widely published and highly acclaimed military historian—portrays a rousing high-seas showdown reminiscent of fighting in the age of sail.