Fort Tilden History - Nazi U-Boats Attack New York Shipping!
Nazi U-Boats Attack New York Shipping!
Updated: November 14, 1999
Introduction
Although one would think that the New York Harbor was always safe from a
foreign military
invasion, there have been times in recent history when enemy forces
operated just outside of the
harbor.� In World War 2, the Battle of the Atlantic came to the shores of
America.
Background
The Germans had planned an invasion of the New York Harbor as early as
1899 when the idea
of a joint Army-Navy assault of New York Harbor involving the landing of
two to three battalions
of infantry and one battalions of engineers on Long Island was
envisioned.� After seizing New
York, the troops would then split and proceed north to Boston and south
to Norfolk.� This plan
never materialized for Germany and the Kaiser.
U-boats actually conducted operations in American waters during World War
1.� During this
time, the German submarine U-156 sunk a vessel 10 miles offshore of Fire
Island, Long Island.
Patrol aircraft and blimps from the Rockaway and Montauk Naval Air
Stations conducted routine
patrols in these waters, but only during daylight hours.� It is rumored
that the twin 6-inch gun
battery named West Battery (later renamed Battery
Kessler )
opened fire on what was believed to be a German submarine.� No
corroborating information has
been discovered yet to support this rumor, but German submarines were in
fact in the area
during that time period.
A steel net was sunk across the Verrazano Narrows between Brooklyn and
Staten Island to
keep German submarines out of the inner harbor.� German submarines did
plant mines around
Sandy Hook, and 16 tug boats based at Staten Island were turned into
minesweepers.
"Working in pairs, they swept the ocean every day for 100 miles out from
Sandy Hook, finding
and exploding a large number of floating mines". (See Ref 3)
On December 16, 1917, the pilot boat named "Pilot", tangled with the
submarine net and was
rammed and sunk by the Steamer "Berkshire" of the Merchants and Miners
Line.
An aircraft bomber offensive against the United States was envisioned by
Hitler in 1940.� This
plan involved the use of the long-range Messerschmitt Me-264 "America
Bombers" based out of
the Azores.� This plan also failed to materialize, as the Nazis never
captured the Azores and only
built one Me-264 aircraft.
The U-boats Attack
In 1941, Admiral Doenitz, Commander-in-Chief of U-boats, believed that "a
U-boat could steam
directly into the throat of New York Harbor, on the surface , at night,
without being challenged.
As for the nets and shore batteries, he doubted their effectiveness, if
they even existed" (Ref 1,
page 71).� This statement was partly true in 1941.� The effectiveness of
the harbor defenses at
this time was limited by the lack of radar, hydrophones, and the magnetic
detection loops that
would be added in mid-1942.� These overdue improvements in coastal
defense were
implemented in a rush after German submarines had already begun their
attacks in American
coastal waters.� After America entered World War 2 on December 7, 1941,
Doenitz
implemented his plan named "Operation Drumbeat", by launching submarines
to attack the
United States on December 12, 1941.
On December 10, 1941, a notice to mariners was issued stating that "A
mined area covering the
approaches to New York Harbor has been established.� Incoming vessels
will secure directions
for safe navigation from patrol vessels stationed off Ambrose Channel
Entrance".� Mayor Fiorello
La Guardia wondered "if the Republic could even guarantee the defense of
Coney Island".� Just
as in WWI, a submarine net was again erected at the Narrows from Norton's
Point in Coney
Island to Hoffman Island.� The nets and booms were laid by the US Navy
Net Depot, Bayonne,
NJ.�
The vessels YNG-3 and YNG-39 were stationed at the nets and had no
propulsion of their own,
so they were moved by tugs.�� Each had a power generator for electricity
and steam.� The YNG-
39 was equipped with hydrophones for underwater listening, ASDIC gear,
and one magneto
telephone to Hoffman Island.� This was connected in turn to the Harbor
Entrance Command
Post (HECP) at Fort Wadsworth and to Swinburne Island, the site of the
Degaussing Section.
The YNG-39 was also equipped with one 50 caliber and two 30 caliber
machine guns, as well
as a 1-pounder, or "heave to" gun.� The YNG-3 was equipped only with
visual signaling
equipment and armed with Thompson machine guns.
After crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the German U-boats began their assault
on American
shipping on� Jan 12, 1942, when Captain Hardegan and his crew of the
U-123 sunk the
"Cyclops" off Nova Scotia,� and the war entered New York waters on Jan
14, 1942, when the U-
123 sunk the"Norness" 60 miles off Montauk Point, Long Island.
On the next evening, the U-123 was following a parallel course westward
along the south shore
of Long Island, towards New York City.� The submarine almost itself
beached on the Rockaway
shore, as the crew did not have detailed charts of the area and did not
anticipate the southward
curve of the Rockaways.� From the reports of the area including the
description of " a hotel,
shore lights, and sand dunes backed by low, dark woods",� the U-123
probably came close to
beaching on the shores of Fort Tilden or Jacob Riis Beach.� Fort Tilden
is the only part of
Rockaway with dunes backed by woods and the Bathhouse building a Riis
Park does look like a
hotel.� Later that night at 10 p.m., Captain Hardegan was viewing the
lights of the city of New
York at 330 degrees, and the Parachute jump and Wonder Wheel of Coney
Island from the U-
123.� The men of Fort Tilden posted as lookouts in the 100 foot tall
towers at� Fort Tilden and
Arverne did not spot this target and no action was taken by the shore
defenses or patrol
aircraft.
The U-123 steered a course of 110 degrees, away from the city, until a
ship was sighted at 1:40 a.m., Jan 15, 1999.� The British tanker
"Coimbra" was sunk 61 miles east of Ambrose light, within sight of
residents of the south shore of Long Island.� The U-123 turned south
towards the Delaware bay, along the New Jersey shore.
The "Pearl Harbor" of the Atlantic
A few German U-boats were responsible for the sinking of a total of 397
ships in the first six months of 1942.� There were 171 ships sunk off the
Atlantic Coast from Maine to Florida, 62
sunk in the Gulf of Mexico, and 141 in the Caribbean.� A total of 2,403
persons were killed and
1,178 were wounded.
Explosions could be heard and burning wrecks could be seen from the
shoreline at night.� Dead
bodies, debris and oil washed ashore on east coast beaches.� Despite all
of this, blackouts were
never implemented as they were along the coasts of England and Germany.
This gave the German submarine crews a tremendous advantage in being able
to spot cargo ships running along the coast at night with their lights
extinguished.� A "dim-out" was eventually mandated, but even with the
lights dimmed out, patrol boats were able see the glow of New York from a
distance of 25 miles off shore.
A propaganda campaign utilizing slogans such as, "Loose Lips Sink Ships",
was used to caution both soldiers and civilians to avoid discussing ship
movements.� This was intended to hamper German agents from overhearing
public conversations and passing this information on to U-boat crews.
This popular campaign of posters (click here to
see some) was merely a "feel good" measure as German submarines
neither utilized or needed such intelligence.� The U-boats merely waited
offshore,� intercepted ship radio transmissions to locate potential
targets, and torpedoed any large ship that would come into view.
German Saboteurs Land in New York
As part of "Operation Pastorius" a team of four saboteurs were
infiltrated into the United States
by the submarine U-202 at Amagansett, Long Island on June 13, 1942 and
another four landed
in Ponte Vedra, Florida on June 16, 1942, all armed with explosives and
plans to destroy
factories, bridges, tunnels, powerplants and waterworks.� One member of
the group that landed
eventually turned himself over to the FBI and confessed the entire story.
All eight saboteurs
were arrested and six were executed in Washington D.C. on August 8,
1942.
U-boats lay mines in the NY Harbor
According to Samuel Eliot Morison's book "The Battle of the Atlantic",
The German submarine
U-608 laid 10 mines in the NY Harbor on November 10, 1942.� The first
mine was discovered by
a sweeper and the NY Harbor was closed for a period of two days, the only
time the harbor was
ever closed during the entire war.� This corresponds to data from the War
Diary of the Eastern Sea Frontier dated November 13, 1942.
"At 1117 Hours, Minesweeper YMS-20 witnessed an under water explosion two
miles from Ambrose in 40-25-42N; 73-44-00W, bearing 170 degrees True from
minesweeper, range 300 yards.� YNS-20 considers explosion actuated by
reverse pulse.� Column of water 200 feet high was seen.� EDC reports all
Army mines have been accounted for.� Explosion evaluated as
magnetic mine or old depth charge.� Port entrance closed until 1800/14
while twelve minesweepers operate in area".
The Navy Advances while the Army Clings to the Past
By mid-1942, the Navy eventually used both proven and new, innovative
ways to defeat the U-boat menace.� Convoys, patrol aircraft, HF-DF radio
intercept, and additional patrol craft made it more difficult for the
submarines to attack shipping with the ease they enjoyed in early
1942.
Radio Direction Finding Stations were established at Jones Beach LI, Sea
Isle City NJ, and Montauk LI.� These stations would home in on the
Enigma-coded messages transmitted by the German U-boats.� Additional
technology and resources such as sonobouys, magnetic loops, hydrophones,
surface and B-17 aircraft mounted radar, and sightings by patrol
aircraft, Civil Air Patrol volunteers, blimps, Pan Am Clippers, Eastern
Airliners, and merchant vessels all aided to
the intelligence effort of locating German U-boats.
The Army Coast Artillery Corp was doomed by it's turn of the century
mission of defending the United States against the large naval vessels
that never came.� New advances in radar and casemated gun positions were
merely technological updates similar to the 1905 Taft Board additions of
electrical lighting, communications and searchlights to the 1886 Endicott
system of
guns and concrete batteries.� By the end of the war, the technological
advancements of long range aircraft, missiles, submarines, and atomic
bombs led the Army to eliminate the Coast Artillery Corp and the Army's
role in harbor defense.
Sources:
(1)"Operation Drumbeat, The dramatic true story of Germany's first U-Boat
attacks along the
American coast in World War II", Michael Gannon, Harper Perennial,
1990.
(2) War Diary of the Eastern Sea Frontier, US Navy
(3) "The Perils of the Port of New York", Jeanette Edwards
Rattray.
(4)� History of the Fort Wadsworth HECP. (page 679)