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Torpedo Junction : U-Boat War Off America's East Coast, 1942 PDF

395 Pages·2014·8.04 MB·English
by  Homer
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Torpedo Junction TORPEDO JUNCTION U-Boat War Off America’s East Coast, 1942 Homer H. Hickam, Jr. Naval Institute Press Annapolis, Maryland BLUEJACKET BOOKS The latest edition of this work has been brought to publication with the generous assistance of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest. Naval Institute Press 291 Wood Road Annapolis, MD 21402 © 1989 by the United States Naval Institute Annapolis, Maryland All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. First Bluejacket Books printing, 1996 ISBN 978-1-61251-578-6 (eBook) The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Hickam, Homer H., 1943– Torpedo junction: U-Boat war off America’s East coast, 1942 / by Homer H. Hickam, Jr. p. cm. Bibliography: p. Include index. 1. World War, 1939–1945—Naval operations—Submarine. 2. World War, 1939–1945—Naval operations, German. 3. World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—North Atlantic Ocean. 4. Atlantic Coast (U.S.)— History. 5. Gulf Coast (U.S.)—History. I. Title. D591.H53 1989 940.54'51—dc19 89-3005 CIP Print editions meet the requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). 15 14 13 18 17 16 To the United States Coast Guard Cutter Dione (WPC 107). Wherever she is, may she be happy in the knowledge that she served her country well. The massacre which the U-boats were able to “enjoy” along the Atlantic coast in 1942 was as great a national disaster as if saboteurs had blown up half a dozen of our biggest munitions factories. SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON I will show that the U-boat alone can win the war . . . nothing is impossible to us! ADMIRAL KARL DOENITZ The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U- boat peril . . . the U-boat attack was our worst evil. It would have been wise for the Germans to stake all upon it. WINSTON CHURCHILL CONTENTS Foreword Preface Introduction 1 Paukenschlag 2 Hatteras 3 The Dione 4 The American Shooting Gallery 5 The Battle Expands 6 The Jacob Jones 7 The Friday the 13th Patrol 8 The USS Dickerson 9 On the Sea of Death 10 The Q-Ships 11 The Hambleton and Emmons Cruise 12 The Night of the Roper 13 The Bucket Brigades 14 The Tankers Are Stopped 15 Proud Day, Bitter Day 16 The Bravest Little Ships 17 Torpedo Junction Moves South 18 Into the Gulf 19 The First Convoys 20 The Tactics Change 21 The Saboteurs 22 Hopes Unfulfilled 23 The YP 389 and the U-701 24 More Lessons Learned 25 Harry Kane and the U-701 26 Victory Appendix Notes Bibliography Index FOREWORD T his thoroughly documented and detailed account of the 1942 slaughter of ships by U-boats off the East and Gulf Coasts of the United States is by far the best that I have read covering that black episode in our naval history. During the first six months of 1942, foreign invaders dominated our coastal waters for the first time since the War of 1812. While the navy’s attention was riveted on the far Pacific and the Japanese Combined Fleet, arguably the best navy in the world at that time, the Allied merchant marine was being decimated on our Atlantic doorstep. When midyear arrived, more tonnage had been sunk by a handful of U-boats than had been put down in the Pacific by the entire Japanese Navy from Pearl Harbor to Midway! Painful though the losses were, they might have proven terminal except for the intervention of Hitler, who refused to release more U-boats from his own intuitive projects. As a result, there were never more than a dozen U-boats manned by 500 or so men on the American station at any time, and the first did not arrive until weeks after war was declared. That such a small force could inflict such damage was a damning indictment of both our readiness and our priorities. As we read this fascinating account, it seems incredible that we were so unprepared after having observed for two years the U-boats and their performance against the British. The often amateurish efforts of our forces in the early months is not remarkable; such is usual at the onset of war. These were the same men who two years later as seasoned combat veterans were sweeping the seas. But the absence of ASW ships, doctrine, and training; the refusal to set up convoys; the employment of the few available warships in solo sweeping and patrol operations twenty-five years after it had been proven to be a useless tactic against submarines; and the refusal to employ fleet destroyers against an enemy running amuck only a few miles away defies logic. One answer seems to lie in the orientation and dogmatic personality of Admiral Ernest J. King, COMINCH,

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Slaughter at sea?just miles from U.S. soil!In 1942 German U-boats turned the shipping lanes off Cape Hatteras into a sea of death. Cruising up and down the U.S. eastern seaboard, they sank 259 ships, littering the waters with cargo and bodies. As astonished civilians witnessed explosions from Americ
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