re: Does anyone remember the old sunken German U boat(s) at chandeleur islands

quote:

---

...Mobile Paper wouldn’t run it because they didn’t want to let people know German U boats were on the Coast and in Mobile Bay.

---

Did any U-Boats actually come into Mobile Bay?

Given how shallow it is, that just seems very unlikely.

Mobile Bay wasn’t always so shallow. It used to be filled with oysters. Now it only has a handful of wild oysters. Naval ships in WW1 and WW2 parked near Navy Cove to seek refuge from the Southern Winds and enemy. It’s about 3 miles east of the Ferry.

Great thread, worth the read! Hope it continues with more info!

During the war, my great grandfather was a Greyhound driver. He was tasked with driving down to the coast and picking up survivers of U-Boat attacks. He told us he was sworn to secrecy and threatened by the DOD if he ever told anyone what he did. They really didn't want word getting out to the general population.

quote:

---

Tickle that’s what I remember. They used to say that they would pull up in the chandeleur islands recharge the batteries and get fresh water, catch fish and rumors that someone from New Orleans helped resupply them etc early on the war. One got stuck and they scuttled it and one sunk is what I always heard.

---

No submarine captain would ever under any circumstances willing get anywhere close to there, submarines have one unique ability that lets them escape danger and a shallow water island chain that had inhabitants at the time and lies within 50 miles two major air bases flying sub hunters around the clock kinda kills that off.

My father-in-law's dad was involved with the Port of New Orleans during WWII. The strategic importance of the Port could not be overstated. He knew Baron Spiegel as well as the other consuls. There was a suspicion he was using an Enigma machine from the Elms to pass info to the U-boats in the Gulf. Nothing was ever proven and he went back to Germany following Dec. 7th 1941.

There was some speculation the Baron went back into submarine service due to a crews on at least one or two of the ships sunk in the Gulf recognized him in the U-boat conning tower. (He would have been in his late 50's by then). In any event, IIRC, he wrote a successful and very-studied book on submarine warfare tactics as well as a script for a movie.

Mobile bay today is nothing like it was in the 40s neither is chandeleur islands. This idea everyone has about it being 10 feet deep is not true all over the place and largely a result of them cutting channels and dropping dredge material there. Even now there are rigs in 50 foot of water right off the chain.

Mobile Bay was incredible pre 1940s and you had like 20 foot or better constant water clarity due to the massive oyster reefs which are gone.

The Gulf of Mexico is nothing like it was even in my lifetime, it is significantly worse. I remember catching coolers of specks one after the other on certain tides every time, and seeing and catching tarpon, kings and Spanish right off the beaches. Before massive habitat destruction, the COE dredging with no rhyme or reason, decades of pollution and sewage , heavy commercial fishing with gill nets and the GD Mfering Pogy industry the Gulf was completely different. I remember schools of Mullet that caused the water to look like it was smoking that covered the entire bay between Biloxi and OS as far as you can see like it was yesterday, and schools of redfish that were hundreds of acres, and so big the whole area was red, and you caught one every cast. I actually hooked 3 on one cast and caught none as they bent the hook. We would release all but 2 or 3 but catch them until you were completely exhausted. I actually had a huge blood bruise from it once. Accidentally, hooking 100 pound tarpon inside the barrier islands. You will likely never see that again in your lifetimes.

We are doing our best to duck everything up we can and my experience with government marine scientists, NOAA and the rest of it, tells me to never ever trust them for anything. I grew with them as a major marine lab is in OS, and I was president of states largest Marine Fisheries Organization and I will always remember several of them telling me as the BP disaster was ongoing. “ I remember one of the chief scientists telling me, “We have no way to model this it’s off the scales. It will take 10 to 20 years to determine the real impact of all this , no matter what you hear me say. Do you understand what I am telling you. “

It’s all political bs, we couldn’t even get them to a study on gill nets even though they privately all agreed with us that were wiping out entire species in some areas, and needed to be stopped.

So I have learned to listen to the locals often over the damn experts

quote:

---

One of my neighbors coworkers uncle’s friend said that when the U-Boats would come close to the islands for “ movie” night not all of them were able to come ashore.

---

quote:

---

One of my neighbors coworkers uncle’s friend

---

You sure it wasn’t your best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend that you heard it from?

Truth about the oysters in Mobile Bay. One of the long time families of the area in the Oyster Bay Area said you could walk across the Bay in that area on the oyster reefs. They dredged and decimated the population and it’s almost non existent now except for a couple reefs that are being rebuilt through the oyster gardening project. Also the turbidity of the Bay has changed greatly. It was dredged a couple years ago to accommodate larger ship into the Port or Mobile and the Carnival Cruise ship. They have a wake zone coming in but leaving they dgaf. Waves large enough to surf on the Bay side in Fort Morgan. They have knocked me over working out there.