Novel for teens focuses on WWII Nazi U-boat attacks along East Coast

Bestselling author L.M. Elliott signed books and chatted with young readers about her 12th and latest young-adult novel, “Louisa June and the Nazis in the Waves,” at the Sussex Children’s Book Festival held May 14 at the Bridgeville library.

Elliott’s carefully researched historical fiction features an infrequently explored aspect of World War II and illuminates the frightening need for the concrete watchtowers raised in Delaware during the war.

A few days after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler also declared war on the United States and unleashed a “wolfpack” of U-boat submarines to the East Coast. Their mission was to torpedo as many U.S. cargo ships carrying fuel, supplies and food as possible. They typically attacked in the dark of night, without warning. America was totally unprepared.

The first two sinkings occurred in January 1942, just off Cape Cod, Mass., and then Long Island. N.Y.  By March, five Nazi U-boats were sinking on average a ship a day along the U.S. coastline, sending tons of precious supplies to the sea’s bottom, leaving miles of spilled oil and burning waves, throwing crewmen into the ocean, the survivors often drifting for days before being found.

The novel's historic events are inspired by a particularly brutal and tragic sinking of a tugboat just off Virginia's Eastern Shore on its way to the Delaware Bay.  Louisa June loses her 17-year-old brother and must embark on a perilous sail of her own, looking to help her grieving parents and find a way to combat Nazis herself.

Rehoboth’s Browseabout Books has signed copies available for purchase.

Elliott was a Washington, D.C. magazine journalist for 20 years before becoming an author of historical and biographical fiction. Her novels explore a variety of eras and are written for a variety of ages. She has been coming to Rehoboth Beach every summer, staying in her family’s cottage, since she was a young teen.