The German submarine campaign had by last week made the Atlantic seaboard one of the most critical combat areas in the world. Navy men, scouring the waters with surface and aircraft, knew it well. So did the National Maritime Union, which numbers its losses at sea in the hundreds. So did men on the production front, officials like Shipping Tsar Rear Admiral "Jerry" Land, and shipbuilders who had suddenly had a strange goal set before them: produce ships faster than the Jerries can sink 'em.
The Navy needed more destroyers, more sub chasers, more blimps, more of other craft that could...