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"Slaughter in the Gulf": The second Pearl Harbor
Posted on 10/28/19 at 9:10 pm
Posted on 10/28/19 at 9:10 pm
Known by names as "Opeartion Drumbeat"/ "The 2nd Happy Time" and "American Shooting Season"...
The first U-boat operation took place in the North East USA to Ireland shipping lanes where "from July 1940 to the end of October, 282 Allied ships were sunk... for a loss of 1,489,795 tons of merchant shipping". -Wiki
The second "happy time" operation took place "During this period, Axis submarines sank 609 ships totaling 3.1 million tons. This led to the loss of thousands of lives, mainly those of merchant mariners, against a loss of only 22 U-boats. Although fewer than the losses during the 1917 campaign of the First World War,[4] those of this period equaled roughly one quarter of all ships sunk by U-boats during the entire Second World War."
LINK
During a five-month period in the late spring and summer of 1942, the German U-boat Force mounted a deadly offensive in the Gulf of Mexico as part of its worldwide campaign to destroy Allied merchant shipping. U-boats hunted with scant opposition from Key West to the Yucatan Strait, and from Florida’s Big Bend to the mouth of the Houston Ship Channel.
"Citing the inadequate defenses in the Gulf of Mexico and the seasoned U-boat crews who came to wage war along the Gulf coast, American naval historian Clay Blair years later described the outcome in one blunt word: a “slaughter.”
-----------
One particular incident:
It was 11:13 a.m. on Wednesday, May 6, 1942. Krantz and his shipmates did not know it, but their journey was about to come to an abrupt and disastrous end. Nine nautical miles to the north, lookouts on a German U-boat had sighted the freighter’s masts peeking up over the southern horizon.
Informed of the fast-approaching target, Korvettenkapitän (Commander) Harro Schacht, 34, instantly ordered a crash dive and the 251-foot-long U-507 quickly slipped beneath the placid Gulf waters. His 53-man crew manned their battle stations as the 1,032-ton submersible closed in on its prey.
When Alcoa Puritan was less than a half-mile away, Schacht fired a single G7a torpedo at the ship. Expelled by compressed air from one of the boat’s four forward tubes, the 23-foot-long torpedo with its 617-pound hexanite warhead raced out on what seemed a collision course.
It missed.
The Alcoa Puritan
An incorrect input of the target’s speed entered into the U-boat’s electro-mechanical fire control computer threw the torpedo off-course by about 15 feet.
Lookouts on the Alcoa Puritan saw the foaming wake of Schacht’s torpedo as it raced past. Krantz ordered the ship to full speed. As the 6,759-ton merchantman turned hard to put the U-boat in its wake while racing for the Mississippi River mouth just fifteen miles away, his radio operator flashed an emergency message: “SOS SSS. Alcoa Puritan, U-boat on the surface position 28:40N 088:22W at 1700 hours GMT [Greenwich Mean Time].” The freighter began moving faster through the water, but its reprieve would not last long.
On the U-boat, Schacht turned to Plan B. He ordered U-507 to the surface, and at 12 noon, his gunners opened fire with the boat’s 105-mm main deck gun. Although by now Alcoa Puritan was a mile off and making its maximum speed of 16.5 knots, or just under 19 mph, the surfaced U-boat could make 20 knots, and it began closing in. Schacht’s gunners pumped 50 rounds of high explosive shells into the merchantman, disabling its steering gear and causing other serious damage.
On Alcoa Puritan, Krantz called it quits, and ordered everyone to abandon ship in a lifeboat and two life rafts. Although several crewmen had sustained minor shrapnel injuries from the shelling, all 54 souls on board survived. For the seven passengers aboard, it was déjà vu. They were all survivors of the Esso tanker T.C. McCobb, which had been sunk by an Italian submarine off the coast of French Guiana five weeks earlier, and who had just endured seven days in a lifeboat before being rescued.
Before resuming his patrol in the Gulf of Mexico, the U-boat’s commander, Schacht, committed an act of kindness toward the Alcoa Puritan survivors. Maneuvering his U-boat through the debris field toward Krantz’s lifeboat, Schacht ordered his crewmen to pass cigarettes, bread and drinking water to the Americans, calling out — in clear English — “Sorry we can’t help you, hope you get ashore!” He then headed U-507 on a “deceptive” course of 090 degrees, waiting until the survivors were out of sight before turning to the east-southeast.
SLAUGTHER IN THE GULF article Interesting read
The first U-boat operation took place in the North East USA to Ireland shipping lanes where "from July 1940 to the end of October, 282 Allied ships were sunk... for a loss of 1,489,795 tons of merchant shipping". -Wiki
The second "happy time" operation took place "During this period, Axis submarines sank 609 ships totaling 3.1 million tons. This led to the loss of thousands of lives, mainly those of merchant mariners, against a loss of only 22 U-boats. Although fewer than the losses during the 1917 campaign of the First World War,[4] those of this period equaled roughly one quarter of all ships sunk by U-boats during the entire Second World War."
LINK
During a five-month period in the late spring and summer of 1942, the German U-boat Force mounted a deadly offensive in the Gulf of Mexico as part of its worldwide campaign to destroy Allied merchant shipping. U-boats hunted with scant opposition from Key West to the Yucatan Strait, and from Florida’s Big Bend to the mouth of the Houston Ship Channel.
"Citing the inadequate defenses in the Gulf of Mexico and the seasoned U-boat crews who came to wage war along the Gulf coast, American naval historian Clay Blair years later described the outcome in one blunt word: a “slaughter.”
-----------
One particular incident:
It was 11:13 a.m. on Wednesday, May 6, 1942. Krantz and his shipmates did not know it, but their journey was about to come to an abrupt and disastrous end. Nine nautical miles to the north, lookouts on a German U-boat had sighted the freighter’s masts peeking up over the southern horizon.
Informed of the fast-approaching target, Korvettenkapitän (Commander) Harro Schacht, 34, instantly ordered a crash dive and the 251-foot-long U-507 quickly slipped beneath the placid Gulf waters. His 53-man crew manned their battle stations as the 1,032-ton submersible closed in on its prey.
When Alcoa Puritan was less than a half-mile away, Schacht fired a single G7a torpedo at the ship. Expelled by compressed air from one of the boat’s four forward tubes, the 23-foot-long torpedo with its 617-pound hexanite warhead raced out on what seemed a collision course.
It missed.
The Alcoa Puritan
An incorrect input of the target’s speed entered into the U-boat’s electro-mechanical fire control computer threw the torpedo off-course by about 15 feet.
Lookouts on the Alcoa Puritan saw the foaming wake of Schacht’s torpedo as it raced past. Krantz ordered the ship to full speed. As the 6,759-ton merchantman turned hard to put the U-boat in its wake while racing for the Mississippi River mouth just fifteen miles away, his radio operator flashed an emergency message: “SOS SSS. Alcoa Puritan, U-boat on the surface position 28:40N 088:22W at 1700 hours GMT [Greenwich Mean Time].” The freighter began moving faster through the water, but its reprieve would not last long.
On the U-boat, Schacht turned to Plan B. He ordered U-507 to the surface, and at 12 noon, his gunners opened fire with the boat’s 105-mm main deck gun. Although by now Alcoa Puritan was a mile off and making its maximum speed of 16.5 knots, or just under 19 mph, the surfaced U-boat could make 20 knots, and it began closing in. Schacht’s gunners pumped 50 rounds of high explosive shells into the merchantman, disabling its steering gear and causing other serious damage.
On Alcoa Puritan, Krantz called it quits, and ordered everyone to abandon ship in a lifeboat and two life rafts. Although several crewmen had sustained minor shrapnel injuries from the shelling, all 54 souls on board survived. For the seven passengers aboard, it was déjà vu. They were all survivors of the Esso tanker T.C. McCobb, which had been sunk by an Italian submarine off the coast of French Guiana five weeks earlier, and who had just endured seven days in a lifeboat before being rescued.
Before resuming his patrol in the Gulf of Mexico, the U-boat’s commander, Schacht, committed an act of kindness toward the Alcoa Puritan survivors. Maneuvering his U-boat through the debris field toward Krantz’s lifeboat, Schacht ordered his crewmen to pass cigarettes, bread and drinking water to the Americans, calling out — in clear English — “Sorry we can’t help you, hope you get ashore!” He then headed U-507 on a “deceptive” course of 090 degrees, waiting until the survivors were out of sight before turning to the east-southeast.
SLAUGTHER IN THE GULF article Interesting read
2
Posted on 10/28/19 at 10:59 pm to BlackPawnMartyr
My great grandfather was a merchant marine captain, they actually had the highest casualty rate of any service first few years of the war.
What happened Is the admiral in charge of the convoys hated the British so he ignored all their suggestions about convoys, U boat warnings etc. it was a turkey shoot. They were getting 12-20 ships sunk per sub. It was a complete slaughter. They were sinking ships right out of Houston, New Orleans, Boston, New York, Miami you name it.
The tide changed when a u boat sunk a tanker off Ft Lauderdale. There was big state fair going on the beach and the U boat pasted between the burning tanker and the beach and was clearly visible to 10,000 people at the event and photographed by a reporter. It was front page news every paper. This freaked people out knowing subs right off our shoreline and reporters started digging around and discovered the slaughter which was being covered up by military. ( When some assholes say they cant covered a stupid UFO remind them they covered up slaughter of 10s of thousands here) They fired his arse, started doing convoys, sub hunting etc, and almost all those u boat captains that found it so easy to sink our ships they felt sorry for us were killed or captured. There is a history channel show on this. There used to be two sunken U boats around chandelier island, a few off Houston and Mississippi River, I think there are close to a hundred of them in total
What happened Is the admiral in charge of the convoys hated the British so he ignored all their suggestions about convoys, U boat warnings etc. it was a turkey shoot. They were getting 12-20 ships sunk per sub. It was a complete slaughter. They were sinking ships right out of Houston, New Orleans, Boston, New York, Miami you name it.
The tide changed when a u boat sunk a tanker off Ft Lauderdale. There was big state fair going on the beach and the U boat pasted between the burning tanker and the beach and was clearly visible to 10,000 people at the event and photographed by a reporter. It was front page news every paper. This freaked people out knowing subs right off our shoreline and reporters started digging around and discovered the slaughter which was being covered up by military. ( When some assholes say they cant covered a stupid UFO remind them they covered up slaughter of 10s of thousands here) They fired his arse, started doing convoys, sub hunting etc, and almost all those u boat captains that found it so easy to sink our ships they felt sorry for us were killed or captured. There is a history channel show on this. There used to be two sunken U boats around chandelier island, a few off Houston and Mississippi River, I think there are close to a hundred of them in total
Posted on 10/28/19 at 11:06 pm to BlackPawnMartyr
Crazy to think the Germans were so close to US shores. You would think the Gulf of Mexico is a safe place for ships but early on in the war the Wolfpack was all over. That was cool of the German captain to pass out food water and cigarettes though. Shows how a lot of Germans weren’t evil, but were simply doing their job and serving their country as they saw it.
Posted on 10/28/19 at 11:51 pm to red sox fan 13
quote:
That was cool of the German captain to pass out food water and cigarettes though.
Jerry was trying to kill the Americans in 40 years from cancer. frick him.
Posted on 10/29/19 at 12:27 am to TutHillTiger
Only one U-boat was sunk in the GOM during WW2. Nowhere close to 100. If I recall correctly it was the U-166 captained by Kuhlmann.
There was confusion on who got credit for sinking it. A Widgeon aircraft out of the Houma airport originally was given credit. During the same week a patrol boat attacked a sub after it had sunk a liner or freighter,maybe the Robert E.Lee. The patrol boat unknowingly sunk the U 166 almost on top of the liner. I think the captain of the patrol boat was reprimanded for missing his shot. The wrecks were identified during a pipeline survey for BP/Shell.
If I recall correctly the subs sank under 75 ships in the Gulf of Mexico. Although I believe about 40 of those were in May of 1942. I can’t find my glasses,so I can’t properly research.
A friend of mine CJ Christ from Houma searched the GOM for this submarine for about 40 years. His first depth finder/sub locator was a heavy iron gear salvaged from the Southdown sugar mill.Him and his group dragged that gear all around the GOM and found a bunch of wrecks.The sub was thought to be near Ship Shoal (not Ship Shore as many coonasses call it ) He has written a lot about the U-boat war in the GOM. I will fact check in AM.
Please don’t call the Chandeleur Islands the “ chandelier islands “. They aren’t named after a light fixture. That is a bastardzation of the proper name. It makes you sound like a New Orleans city slicker.
You may want to fact check your post. I know your numbers are way off
There was confusion on who got credit for sinking it. A Widgeon aircraft out of the Houma airport originally was given credit. During the same week a patrol boat attacked a sub after it had sunk a liner or freighter,maybe the Robert E.Lee. The patrol boat unknowingly sunk the U 166 almost on top of the liner. I think the captain of the patrol boat was reprimanded for missing his shot. The wrecks were identified during a pipeline survey for BP/Shell.
If I recall correctly the subs sank under 75 ships in the Gulf of Mexico. Although I believe about 40 of those were in May of 1942. I can’t find my glasses,so I can’t properly research.
A friend of mine CJ Christ from Houma searched the GOM for this submarine for about 40 years. His first depth finder/sub locator was a heavy iron gear salvaged from the Southdown sugar mill.Him and his group dragged that gear all around the GOM and found a bunch of wrecks.The sub was thought to be near Ship Shoal (not Ship Shore as many coonasses call it ) He has written a lot about the U-boat war in the GOM. I will fact check in AM.
Please don’t call the Chandeleur Islands the “ chandelier islands “. They aren’t named after a light fixture. That is a bastardzation of the proper name. It makes you sound like a New Orleans city slicker.
You may want to fact check your post. I know your numbers are way off
This post was edited on 10/29/19 at 6:54 am
Posted on 10/29/19 at 12:38 am to Bigfishchoupique
Some sinking victims were brought by automobile from Montegut to the Ellender Clinic the in Houma. I think they were brought from Port Texaco at Cat Island Pass to the Texaco dock in Montegut.
Captain Ira Pitre out of Morgan City picked up survivors during daylight with his shrimp boat.
There is a lot of good reading material available on the subject. Homer Hickham wrote about the East Coast war.
Find some of CJ Christ’s stuff to read.He knows the GOM submarine war history. He went to Germany to sit down and talk with Admiral Donitz,who in my opinion is a good authority on the sub war.
And the coonass’s from Golden Meadow never supplied the subs with fuel, fruit and French Bread. All a myth.
I don’t want to write much because I can’t fact check right now. But everything I’ve written can be checked.
Captain Ira Pitre out of Morgan City picked up survivors during daylight with his shrimp boat.
There is a lot of good reading material available on the subject. Homer Hickham wrote about the East Coast war.
Find some of CJ Christ’s stuff to read.He knows the GOM submarine war history. He went to Germany to sit down and talk with Admiral Donitz,who in my opinion is a good authority on the sub war.
And the coonass’s from Golden Meadow never supplied the subs with fuel, fruit and French Bread. All a myth.
I don’t want to write much because I can’t fact check right now. But everything I’ve written can be checked.
This post was edited on 10/29/19 at 4:27 am
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