U-boat War off the U. S. Coast, 1942-45, Volume 2

After experiencing a runaway success against American and Allied shipping off the U.S. East Coast, the German U-boat offensive against the United States begins to wane by May 1942. The resulting drop in success forces the Germans to begin a new phase of operations by opening a second front—the shipping in the untouched waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the northern Caribbean. The heavy ship losses begin again until the Navy is inevitably able to inaugurate a comprehensive interlocking system of coastal convoys embracing the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and the East Coast by the end of the summer of 1942. This volume of the two-volume set begins with the opening of the Germans' second front in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean in May 1942 and follows its progress until the end of the formal U-boat offensive after the summer of 1942. Thereafter, the German strategy becomes one of containment to tie up Allied resources with nuisance raids and mining operations in U.S. waters in a downhill struggle until the bitter denouement of the U-boat war, which concludes in May 1945.

The U-boat War off the U.S. Coast, 1942–45 is a narrative history of the naval oper- ations and warfare fought off the East and Gulf Coasts of the United States during World War II. German U-boat submarines initially achieved great success in destroying Allied shipping off the East Coast in early 1942. However, this success began to wane by May 1942 as the U.S. Navy began to gain control of the situation through increased forces and the inauguration of coastal convoys. The resulting drop in success forced the Germans open a second front—the untouched shipping in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the northern Caribbean. The heavy ship losses began again until the Navy was finally able to inaugurate a comprehensive interlocking system of coastal convoys embracing the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and the East Coast by the end of the summer of 1942. This brought an end to the formal U-boat offensive in U.S. waters, although individual U-boats continued to keep pressure on American defenses throughout the rest of the war. Until now, the Battle of the Atlantic as fought in American waters has received only limited coverage despite the intense fighting and naval operations that characterized it. The U-boat War provides a comprehensive detailed account from the perspective of individual merchant and navy ships and U-boats to chronicle their operations in American waters during three years of war, highlighting the links that bind them together using source materials and original documents from both sides. This second volume of the two-volume set begins with the Germans opening a sec- ond front in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean in May 1942 and follows its progress until the end of the formal U-boat offensive after the summer of 1942. Thereafter, the narrative follows the German strategy of containment to tie up Allied resources with nuisance raids and mining operations in U.S. waters in a downhill struggle until the final bitter denouement of the U-boat war in May 1945.

Paul Branch is a lifelong resident of Morehead City, North Carolina, where a considerable amount of the U-boat fighting took place just offshore. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in history. His interests lie mostly with the War Between the States, World War II, and shipwrecks of North Carolina's "Graveyard of the Atlantic." He has worked for the North Carolina Park Service for 42 years as the historian of Fort Macon State Park and curator of the Fort Macon museum. His other writings include three books: The Siege of Fort Macon, Fort Macon: A History, and Images of America: Fort Macon. He was also a contributor to The North Carolina Handbook and The Dictionary of North Carolina Biography.