Terror in the North Atlantic: Nazi U-boats Attacking American Ships.

Most Americans do not realize just how close the Germans were to winning the war in Europe. 

In 1941, and just before the U.S. entered the fight, most of Europe had already surrendered to Hitler’s aggression, and England was hanging on by her fingernails. It was losing the battle in the Atlantic, suffering as many as 100 warships lost between June and September 1941. In addition to attacking British shipping, both military and non-military vessels, the U-boats even targeted ships containing innocent children, such as the SS City of Benares and the SS Voldendam, both passenger liners. The Voldenham was attacked 2 weeks before the Benares, and had carried 320 children; luckily, it was close to shore and all survived. Both ships were torpedoed at night during a tumultuous storm. On September 18, 1940, the SS City of Benares went down with a loss of 260 people, including 77 children. It was hit by one torpedo directly in the stern and went down in less than 30 minutes.

Bombardment in England

Because of the heavy German air bombardment in England, the country had set up a program to transport children to safer places during the war. The children in the City of Benares had been on their way to Canada when they were attacked. Some families, such as the Grimmonds from Brixton, South London, faced an almost unimaginable loss: five of their children — Violet, Connie, Lennie, Eddie, and Gussie — had perished. Despite the horrific losses, the British refused to give up.

The level of fear, however, continued to grow as Hitler’s own words began to resonate and haunt an entire nation: “Since foreign seamen cannot be taken prisoner …the U-boats are to surface after torpedoing and shoot up the lifeboats.” The gruesome stories of German ruthlessness stirred the emotions of Americans. They anxiously read and carefully listened to the daily news reports of the war, and particularly the war in the Atlantic. An entire nation wondered what would happen next.

British Children

England was all that stood in Hitler’s way of conquering Europe. Defeating her, however, required more than the German air bombardment of English cities. Adolph Hitler realized that England’s surrender would occur only when her resources to fight back were shut off. Stopping the flow of merchant ships carrying supplies, especially oil, and military equipment to English harbors was the only answer.

The commander of Germany’s U-boat fleet proclaimed that if he had 300 more U-boats, “he could strangle England and win the war.” Many historians agree with that assessment. To defeat Germany, however, required the Allies to destroy their wolf pack, those submersibles which quietly operated in groups, surfaced at night and torpedoed unsuspecting ships, sometimes full of innocent passengers.

Nazi U-boats

By early December 1941, Americans were acutely aware of the almost daily sinking of ships by Nazi U-boats. The war, however, was in Europe, and Americans could read and hear about the terrible atrocities from the comfort of their homes, far from the danger. That changed, however, after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the United States declared war against Japan. This triggered the Axis Treaty, which was between Japan and Germany, and in return, Germany then declared war on the United States. Within two weeks, Hitler’s high command had sent three U-boats to the shores of the United States.

Attacking at night

Striking in the dark of night, and especially during stormy weather, U-boats had proven to be the nightmare of the Atlantic. The U.S. did not anticipate German U-boats coming into U.S. ports. It was also unimaginable that a German vessel would operate in daylight, above the surface, and in clear view of an American coastline. It was felt that because of the design of the U-boat, it was unlikely that the vessel could even cross the ocean to the American coastlines.

With a crew of 44 men, a U-boat was not a pure submarine, but it was considered a submersible watercraft. When surfaced, it was powered by large diesel engines, and when submerged, the engines would shut down, and the vessel would operate off 100 tons of lead-acid batteries. Operating the boat underwater required that the ship had to surface every few hours for air, and the recharging of the batteries from the diesel engines. If spotted, the hull of the ship was easily penetrated by Allied gunfire, and once punctured it would be nearly impossible for it to re-submerge.

It would be a death sentence for a U-boat to be spotted on the surface by Allied forces. America was confident that its shores were safe. The Germans, however, were also confident that America was not prepared for a coastal invasion, and they were right.

British Navy

In January 1942, the British Navy officially notified the U.S. Navy that German U-boats had indeed crossed the Atlantic towards the east coast of America. The United States ignored the warnings and left the coastline unprotected. In England, most seaside towns and cities had been shutting off all lights (blackout) at night, but on the east coast of America, everything, including ships in port, New York skyscrapers, and street lights, all remained lit up, silhouetted and huge targets.

Fleet of Submarines

Within three months, U-boats had sunk so many ships in U.S. waters that Americans thought that the Germans had sent an entire fleet of submarines, instead of only a few. On the bottom of the ocean during the day and rising to the surface at night, by the end of March 1942 bodies began to wash up on the shores from the New York harbor to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

 The Dallas Morning News offered a running account of U-boat activities along the coast of the United States:

January 14 and 15, 1942. In New York Harbor, two large tanker ships carrying crude oil were torpedoed. The engine room of the SS. Coimbra was quickly engulfed in flames, killing 36 crewmen. It was reported in the German papers, “ twas a fantastic sight for us, and no doubt a terrifying sight for the Yankees.” The same U-boat sank the huge tanker SS Norness with three torpedoes.  Luckily, with no loss of life. From the bridge, the captain of the U-boat, Reinhardt Hardegen, could see the lights of skyscrapers in Manhattan.  He wrote, “I cannot describe the feeling in words,” he said, “but it was unbelievable and beautiful and great. . . We were the first to be here, and for the first time in this war, a German soldier looked out on the coast of the USA.”

January 29, 1942. The passenger liner Lady Hawkins was torpedoed and sank so quickly that it was not able to signal S0S . The ship was located 150 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, having left the port of Boston. There were 250 killed and 71 survivors. The survivors remained on lifeboats for five days until rescued,

More News

February 2, 1942. The W.L. Steed, an American tanker, was torpedoed off the New Jersey coast in broad daylight.   As the ship went down, men were getting in the lifeboats. Not showing any mercy, the U-boat surfaced and began shelling the ship and the lifeboats. Thirty-four were killed. 

February 6, 1942. The cargo ship Major Wheeler was torpedoed and sank off the coast of Cape Cod.   The entire crew of 35 was lost.

May 10, 1942. “U-boat Crew Watches as Torpedo Victims Drown.” Out of a crew of 35, one survivor was rescued after 14 days on a raft. The survivor stated that the U-boat cruised among the “bobbing heads of the sailors until they thought they were all dead.”

June 1, 1942. Off the coast of New Orleans, four merchant ships, three of them American, were sunk by U-boats. This took place over four days and with a loss of 9 sailors.

October 14, 1942. On the St. Lawrence River, near Canada, a U-boat sank the railroad passenger ferry SS Caribou. Upon surfacing the U-boat capsized a large lifeboat, killing 44 in the boat, including a woman who was holding on to her baby. The U-boat then just watched as people drowned. In total, 137 were lost with the sinking of the Caribou.

Gulf-America

Many consider the sinking of the Gulf-America the most outrageous of all U-boat attacks off the coast of the U.S. On April 10, 1942, hundreds of visitors, including a number of military personnel, were enjoying the roller coasters and Ferris wheels at an amusement park located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.  A U-boat slipped in close to the beach and torpedoed the anchored oil tanker. As the ship exploded into massive flames, the U-boat surfaced and idled there in full view of the beach. It was taunting the captive audience of shocked onlookers. 

Many of the ones along the shore jumped into small watercraft, hoping to save some of the ships' crews.  Years later, the U-boat captain John Hardegen said in an interview, "There was no blackout. I could see the big wheel in the amusement park and all the lights and motorcars and the hotel in full light. It was easy for me; I could see the ship silhouetted against the lights."

German U-boats had sunk nearly 25% In less than a year, German U-boats had sunk nearly 25% of the commercial tanker fleet. This fleet provided supplies to the Allies. Additionally, over 5,000 seamen and passengers were killed in these attacks in early 1942. During January, U-boats sank 35 Allied ships and a British destroyer, killing 1219 crew and passengers. In March, 48 ships were attacked by U-boats, and nearly all were sunk. During the first half of 1942, German U-boats sank Allied merchant ships, tankers, and passenger liners.  And, of course, warships with relatively no challenge. 

They were easy prey since they generally offered no resistance to the attacks of the German U-boats. In fact, until spring 1942, American ships continued to lie anchored at night with full lights blazing on their decks. The random coastal towns and cities made no attempt to dim their lights either. As the number of attacks mounted, Americans began voicing their concerns. The military began changing its strategy.

The U.S. began by laying mine fields in harbors.  Additionally, they installed artillery in places that protected significant ports and waterways. Light planes and shore watercraft were ordered to be ready and prepared for battle when U-boats were spotted. The American Navy was criticized for not taking defensive measures sooner. After a number of attempts, the British persuaded the inept U. S. Navy to come up with a new plan. The English had been dealing with U-boat attacks for several years. Because of that, they had found a successful method to deal with the German Wolfpack.

The English began using a system of convoys. Warships would escort groups of merchant ships, with the intention of luring the submarines into a battle. The U-boats would be forced to surface every few hours.  They were then vulnerable for attack from the warships. If the submarines did not surface, they would use their radar technology to locate them. Then they would begin dropping depth charges in those areas.

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Radar System

Off the coast of North Carolina, the destroyer USS Roper used its new radar system to find U-85. After shelling the vessel, it began to submerge, but the Roper finished it off with depth chargers.  U-85 had sunk 3 Allied ships before it was stopped.

Later, the United States developed an anti-submarine warfare plan. It included 65 vessels equipped with the latest radar technology and loaded with depth chargers. Seaplanes were equipped with seaborne radar and high-frequency direction finding, which could enable the detection of U-boats operating on the surface. 

Ceased nighttime sailing

As more patrol planes became equipped with the technology, the tables were finally turned.  U-boats were attacked at night while operating on the surface. Other measures included not allowing oil tankers to sail unless escorted by warships, and merchant ships traveled in escorted mini-convoys known as bucket brigades. These long-overdue measures reduced the effectiveness of the U-boats, and their attacks began to decrease. 

The most decisive blow to U-boat attacks occurred when commercial shipping ceased sailing at night. The decision was made to put into protected harbors by dark.  The success of U-boat attacks on Allied shipping was due to their element of surprise. That surprise was generally because they attacked at night and could easily slip away into the darkness.

In the end, the cost was significant. U-boats sank over 3,500 merchant ships and 175 Allied warships before the Allied Powers destroyed the U-boat fleet. And, ultimately, the Third Reich.

Resources:

The Dallas Morning News (1942)

The Defeat of the German U-boats: The Battle of the Atlantic, by David Syrett

Wolf Pack:The Story of the U-Boat in World War II, by Gordon Williamson

Miracles on the Water: The Heroic Survivors of a World War II U-Boat Attack,by Tom Nagors