The WW2 U-Boat war off America's East Coast

[knloregon]

I grew up in the Wash. DC area, and my parents were residents of DC back to the late 30's (separately, they were single, but dating) in the early 1940's.

 

After Pearl Harbor, everything was rationed, particularly gasoline. So couples traveling from DC to the ocean on hot sumer days had to pool gas ration cards, and it was not unusual for 3 couples to travel in one sedan to the Delaware coast for a long weekend, (Dewey Beach, Rehoboth Beach, Henlopen...) and rent a cottage together. Very romantic... one hot August weekend, my parent's couldn't get free, so their usual traveling partners went without them... As early as 1940, but certainly, by 1942, there was a vague understanding that U-Boats were attacking allied ships ---often just over the horizon from the eastern beaches ---- but because of press censorship, no one had a clue to what extent, except that since the outbreak of war-- there seemed to be a lot of oil on the otherwise, pristine beaches. That 'vagueness' ended for those two couples in August '42' as they splashed in the warm ocean off Henlopen, a tangle of oily debris washed up in front of them, containing the badly burned bodies of a half dozen American merchant seamen, still in their burned cork life jackets, and covered with oil. Victims of a U-boat attack, just the night before.

 

So this last Sunday, while pursuing the book stacks at GoodWill here in Portland, I came across a book that fleshed out much that I didn't know about that period: "U-Boats Offshore ---- When Hitler Struck America" --- By Edwin Hoyt. Man, this fills in a lot of details! (much of it quite exciting really ---except for the totally ineptitude of the America to stop U-Boat attacks at the beginning of the war ---but even so, not the full story, lost, I think forever, under the censor's hand.

 

Beginning in 1964, (until 1968) as a sea scout, I sailed on small ships (YP --- Yard Patrol) out of Annapolis (Naval Academy) --- what an opportunity!~ We were trained seamanship by the same Chief Petty Officers that trained the plebes. And they were the best of the best -- still in their late 40's, but decorated veterans of the Pacific war --- and very patient, great instructors. While on the bridge of a pleasant weekend Chesapeake cruise I remember asking my non-com what it was like in WW2 --- he deferred, but pointed to forward deck to old mounting plates on the YP and told me: "there was once mounted a 3 inch gun that saw action against German U-Boats" --- -I thought he was pulling my leg! After reading this book, I now know he wasn't..

 

 

[dnoblett]

Want a good read, Homer Hickham wrote a non-fiction novel called "Torpedo Junction" detailing the U-Boat war off the East Coast.

 

There was quite a lot of issues involving the Admiral in charge of the Atlantic fleet resisting fighting the U-Boats in close to the coast, felt this was a Coast Guard issue, and not one for the Blue-Water Navy, needless to say the Coast Guard was poorly suited to fighting the U-Boats, and a lot of shipping was needlessly lost, other issues involved the merchant ship captains, it took them a while to understand running in tight convoys.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Torpedo-Junction-U-Boat-Americas-Bluejacket/dp/1557503621/

 

Homer Hickham also wrote a series of historical dramas starting with a Coast Guard captain named Josh Thurlow, fighting the U-Boat war. "The Keeper's Son" http://www.amazon.com/The-Keepers-Josh-Thurlow-Series/dp/0312999496

[dnoblett]

A little searching on Amazon, Edwin Hoyt has written all sorts of history books around the war and after.

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Edwin+Hoyt

 

http://www.amazon.com/U-Boats-Offshore-Hitler-Struck-America/dp/B000W3PHH6/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341315286&sr=1-1&keywords=u-boats+offshore+when+hitler+struck+america

[Urkidding]

Growing up as a child our family use to go to Galveston Island quite often on the weekends and we would pass an old battery box used during world war II. It was used to defend the island during the war days since the port was used to bring in goods from all over the world and that it was used as a vacation spot for a lot of the returning soldiers.

http://fortwiki.com/Battery_AMTB_-_Galveston_Seawall

During the war a German U-boat had traveled up the Mississippi river and sunk several freight boats, so it was know but not published that U-boats stalked our southern coasts during the war. The reason it was not published was that the government did not want to cause any panics during that period.

Some good books were written afterwards to solidify those accounts.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0890966486/qid=1122167259/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-5836993-1855931?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

[knloregon]

Good point.

 

After al the information was declassified, we now can pinpoint the sunken wreaks from German U-boats --- and the map of the Gulf, the Caribbean and the east coast ---- is riddled with wreaks --- NEVER REPORTED IN THE PRESS ! --- nearly 300 ships sent to the bottom by U-Boats in US waters! ---thousands of American merchant seamen lost.. ---imagine now, if even one tanker is lost on the US coast? -- we had one (freighter) grounding here in Oregon 10+ years ago named: " The New Carrissa" (everyone wanted to know what happened to the old Carrissa) --- but the environmentalists had a sh-t fit. Eventually, the full weight the Attorney General's office forced the owners to remove the ship ---- at tens of millions of dollars --- even though the locals wanted to keep the wreak as it had---already---proven to be a lucrative tourist attraction.

[knloregon]

You are right Dan, Hoyt was a prolific writer of books about WW 2 ---- 'll have o check out your leads regarding Hickman, but the thing is, there isn't another theatre in WW 2 where ---three hundred ships--- were lost --- along with military engagements on both sides, that was, essentially unreported. --- How many ships were lost in the Channel crossing, and combat for D-Day ? a dozen at most? If that.

[amberjack1234]

Very good find and story Kim. All of it true. In the 70's I had friends that did scuba diving and they went to one of the U-boat sites to dive on it. Most Americans never had a clue as you said because of the news being censored. Here is an article about the U-boats off the coast of NC where most of the action took place.

 

Just as a point of interest. My father was on one of those ships on D-Day. He didn't like talking about it much and did so very very rarely but he said you could almost see the bullets on the beach that day.

 

http://www.ncmuseumo...27s.Beaches.pdf

 

Larry

Edited July 4, 2012 by amberjack1234 (see edit history)

[dnoblett]

I am a big fan of Homer Hicham, he has one colorful life. What got him to write Torpedo Junction is that his mother had retired along the coast of South Carolina, so he got interested in the area, and took up scuba diving, and the started diving several wrecks, that got him to do extensive research into the u-boat war.

 

Homer Hickam tends to write from his life experiences, he grew up in Colewood WV, a mining town and did some mining around his senior year of high school, and during summer breaks from college. He got interested in the space race when Russia orbited Sputnik and applied himself into science, though his aptitude was for writing, he managed to win a science scholarship to go to college. He went on to Vietnam, and eventually to work for NASA.

 

http://www.homerhickam.com/

 

One book about his life in Colewood "Rocket Boys" became a movie "October Skies" a wonderful story.

[amberjack1234]

I am a big fan of Homer Hicham, he has one colorful life. What got him to write Torpedo Junction is that his mother had retired along the coast of South Carolina, so he got interested in the area, and took up scuba diving, and the started diving several wrecks, that got him to do extensive research into the u-boat war.

 

Homer Hickam tends to write from his life experiences, he grew up in Colewood WV, a mining town and did some mining around his senior year of high school, and during summer breaks from college. He got interested in the space race when Russia orbited Sputnik and applied himself into science, though his aptitude was for writing, he managed to win a science scholarship to go to college. He went on to Vietnam, and eventually to work for NASA.

 

http://www.homerhickam.com/

 

One book about his life in Colewood "Rocket Boys" became a movie "October Skies" a wonderful story.

 

Yep I saw the movie and enjoyed it.

 

Larry

[tsap seui]

Great thread, I'm gonna have to read some of those books that were mentioned. I love to read about that sort of stuff.

 

tsap seui

[knloregon]

Yeah, Larry you are absolutely right.

 

Regarding the war off the coast, North Carolina and the Hatteras banks area caught hell.

 

So many US ships were sunk by German U-Boats that its hard to keep track --- but one out matched defender was YP-389, unfortunately sent out without a working 3" gun, and then, on June 18, 1942, encountering a surfaced U-Boat which began a one half hour outmatched engagement between the YP's 30 cal. machine guns, and the U-Boat's 4.1" gun ---the YP might have had a chance with a working 3" --- but was sent to the bottom without it.. (YP-389 is also a popular dive site of the NC coast).

[slw268]

Love history. Started with WWI and now working on Nam. (Good golly Tsap!)

I can not remember any mention, maybe a tiny bit, about this here subject.

Ordered the book, can't wait.

[Argyle]

Hi All,

 

There's an interesting website about the U-Boat war in the Gulf of Mexico, http://www.pastfoundation.org/DeepWrecks/OtherU-boats.htm

It's certainly worth a look.

 

Best Wishes

[slw268]

Just recieved Hoyt's book about the U-Boat offshore.

Can't wait to start it.

Working on a set of books about the Vietnam war first.