Book: The Sinking of the SS Montebello

"As the oil tanker began to emerge from another hard right turn, Matsumura ordered the tube's muzzle door opened and waited. The I-21 slowly reached a ninety-degree angle to the target's path. The commander gave the order. Fire!"

One of the great unknown stories of World War II - just two weeks after Pearl Harbor, an attack on a U.S. commercial vessel off the Central Coast of California on December 23, 1941. That it happened was stunning enough. That so few even know it happened is all the more so. Now, the untold story.

Stuart McDowell, who's had a life-long interest in American history, researched the sinking of the SS Montebello off and on for more than three decades. A retired educational psychologist, he completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Oregon and San Diego State University and earned a post-graduate degree at California State University Long Beach. He lives in Pacific Grove, California, with his wife, Caren. The Sinking of the SS Montebello is his first book.