It was April 1943 and a young US Navy Armed Guard seaman left the safety of New York harbor on an oil tanker as part of a large convoy heading to the U-boat-infested waters of the North Atlantic. Below the waves a novice German Navy U-boat commander was on the prowl, stalking Allied merchant ships on their journey across the ocean. Neither of these two warriors could know then that their paths would soon cross. Above and Below is the true story of a close encounter between an American and a German across the frigid tumult of the Atlantic Ocean. This historic account pulls from ship logs, war reports and journals to piece together firsthand account of deadly combat faced by both men. When they encounter each other in the Mediterranean Sea, their lives are forever changed.