{"id":268460,"date":"2025-06-02T10:50:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T10:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/aerospace\/the-hidden-history-of-the-nazi-u-boats-that-prowled-the-gulf-coast-bringing-world-war-ii-to-americas-shores\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T10:50:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T10:50:22","slug":"the-hidden-history-of-the-nazi-u-boats-that-prowled-the-gulf-coast-bringing-world-war-ii-to-americas-shores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=268460","title":{"rendered":"The Hidden History of the Nazi U-Boats That Prowled the Gulf Coast, Bringing World War II to America’s Shores"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Between 1942 and 1943, German submarines sank 56 Allied ships in the region and damaged another 14, losing just one of their own in the process<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\n \"Asia\n <\/div>\n
\n

\n

Asia London Palomba<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"Pennsylvania
\n <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>
\n

A German submarine torpedoed the S.S.\u00a0Pennsylvania Sun\u00a0<\/em>on\u00a0July 15, 1942, destroying 107,500 barrels of U.S. Navy fuel oil.
\n Public domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Early on June 29, 1942, the 8,032-ton British steam tanker HMS Empire Mica<\/em><\/a> cruised east through calm waters<\/a> toward Key West, Florida, where it planned to join a convoy bound for the United Kingdom. The ship carried 47 men and 11,200 tons of kerosene (then known as vaporizing oil). Little did its crew know that just half a mile away, the nearly 252-foot-long German submarine<\/a> U-67<\/em><\/a> was preparing to strike.<\/p>\n

Around 1 a.m., U-67<\/em> fired two torpedoes toward the tanker in quick succession. The Empire Mica<\/em> caught on fire, sending giant plumes of black smoke into the air and a massive puddle of flaming oil into the surrounding water. The tanker listed on the surface for a while, enabling its crew to evacuate into lifeboats. \u201cThe next thing I remember, we were rowing away as fast as we could,\u201d engineer Alex Green<\/a> recalled to the Tallahassee Democrat<\/em><\/a> <\/em>in 1986. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t see the ship for the smoke and flames.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only one lifeboat made it to safety, with the survivors eventually getting picked up<\/a> by two civilian vessels and brought ashore for emergency treatment around 25 miles northeast, in Apalachicola. Seven of the most severely injured were moved to Panama City<\/a>, Florida, for further treatment. Of the 47-person crew, only 14 survivors remained.<\/p>\n

\n

\"German

\n

German soldiers watch the sinking of the HMS\u00a0Empire Mica <\/em>from the bridge of their U-boat, U-67<\/em>, on\u00a0June 29, 1942.<\/p>\n

Collection of Martin K.A. Morgan<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the Empire Mica<\/em> burned, U-67<\/em> surfaced, and some of its crew spilled onto the bridge to watch the Allied ship slowly break in two and sink beneath the waves. (The wreck settled at 110 feet<\/a> below the surface and is now a popular diving spot<\/a>.) A German sailor immortalized the moment in a photograph<\/a>, capturing a rare reminder of one of World War II\u2019s least-known histories: when Nazi U-boats stalked the waters<\/a> just off the United States\u2019 Southern coast.<\/p>\n\n

The Empire Mica<\/em> was neither the first nor the last casualty of U-boat attacks in the Gulf of Mexico (now the Gulf of America) during the summer of 1942. The body of water<\/a>, which stretches from the shores of Florida to Texas to the Yucat\u00e1n Peninsula, was a target of Operation Drumbeat<\/a>, a broad initiative undertaken by the Germans during the Battle of the Atlantic<\/a>, a six-year fight for control<\/a> of the eponymous ocean. Beginning in January 1942, just a few weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor<\/a> in December 1941, the Nazis set out to sink any Allied commercial shipping vessels in American coastal waters. By May, the campaign had expanded into the Gulf, where 24 German U-boats<\/a> hunted, with great success, into 1943.<\/p>\n

Over the course of that brief, concentrated period, U-boats sank 56 Allied ships and damaged another 14, losing just one<\/a> of their own submarines in the process. (The Allies also sank two<\/a> U-boats<\/a> in the Straits of Florida<\/a>, which connect the Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean.) In these first months of the Gulf campaign, the Germans \u201cthoroughly dominated [the U.S., which was] completely unprepared,\u201d says military historian and author Martin K.A. Morgan<\/a>. \u201cI struggle to sometimes make people fully appreciate the extent to which the Germans brought the [Americans] to their knees quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n