First SEALs: The Untold Story of the Forging of America’s Most Elite Unit

When elite Italian frogmen managed to sink two British battleships in the WWII Mediterranean, the British and American militaries panicked. At the time, neither country had a comparable unit; the terrified President Roosevelt immediately created a new agency, the Coordinator of Information (later the Office of Strategic Services). Making use of the most sophisticated technology and training available, the new Maritime Unit regularly achieved missions never before thought possible. So successful was this unit, in fact, that it has survived to this day in the form of the US Navy SEAL + SWCC Scout Team.

Although the text presents most of the relevant information, it does so in a strikingly haphazard manner. The narrative seems shockingly unevenly paced, with a few minutes of ennui described in excruciating detail and then a major operation that the text seemed to be leading up to would be completely skipped. The focus hops from minor character to minor character, making it quite difficult to discern what is happening to whom. The only thing that keeps the reader from becoming totally lost is the fairly chronological presentation. I would recommend it only to those who are already quite familiar with American special operations during WWII.