The book, Operation Alacrity: The Azores and the War in the Atlantic, written by Norman Herz, professor of emeritus of geology, was named 2005 Book of the Year by the Portuguese Tribune, the oldest Portuguese bilingual newspaper on the West Coast.
The book tells the story-for the first time-of a clandestine operation that led to the construction of a secret Allied airfield in the Azores Islands and may well have changed the course of World War II. The Tribune, which operates out of Modesto, Calif., prides itself on promoting Portuguese-American success stories.
The paper selected Herz’s book “for its contributions toward a better and wider understanding of the 20th-century history of the Azores.”
