![]() Yet, they continued to operate with little fear of retaliation, for despite the path of destruction being forged just offshore, the US Navy's response was a sluggish one. The Germans themselves were astonished at the ease of their dominance. Off the North Carolina coast, where, as the U-boat commanders realized, Cape Hatteras served as a navigational focal point, so many merchant ships were sunk that captains referred to the area as "Torpedo Junction." Flaming tankers burned so brightly off the Outer Banks that on shore, it was said, one could read a newspaper by the glow at night, while the grim flotsam of war-oil, wreckage, and corpses-was strewn across local beaches. From January to June, 1942, a total of 397 ships were sunk in American-protected waters! ![]() As a result, Allied merchant ships went down in staggering numbers. ![]() The U-boats-their crews seasoned by two years of war and with no American defenses to concern them-roved at will and struck with predatory precision. No blackout restrictions were enforced, which meant that coastal lights provided a bright backdrop for passing ships and eased enemy targeting, lighthouses and navigational buoys remained lit, proper patrol aircraft were unavailable, and, despite warnings from their concerned subordinates as well as their adamant British allies (who had broken the German naval code), the American naval command seemed oblivious to the potential for impending disaster. Meanwhile, merchant ships came and went along the coast as they pleased, one at a time, with their running lights ablaze and often without a zig-zagging course-a defensive maneuver which made torpedo attacks more difficult.Ĭonditions ashore were just as bad.
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