Selected for the USCG Commandant's 2018 Reading List Never to Return is
the harrowing tale of the torpedoing and sinking of a Coast Guard ship
and the loss of 171 Coast Guardsmen off the coast of Iceland during
WWII. The USS Leopold was a U.S. Coast Guard destroyer escort in a
convoy of merchant ships carrying war materiel to England, on the
lookout for the deadly U-boat wolf packs lurking in the North Atlantic.
The Leopold was largely unarmored, lightly armed, and no match for the
U-255's torpedoes. Never to Return is the story of gunner Sparky
Nersasian and his shipmates' struggles to survive the Leopold's sinking.