WHEN WORLD WAR !! WAS FOUGHU
CAROLINA'S BEACHES
Kevin P. Duff us’
t a littl
mornin
1942,
tossed
an
fit
after two o'clock in the
on Monday, January 19,
arthquake-like rumble
,een-year-old Gibb Gray
ifrom his bed. Furniture shook,
glass and knickknacksVrattled, and books fell
from shelves as a thundering roar vibrated
through the walls of thelhouses in Gibb's
Outer Banks village of Avon. Surprised and
concerned, Gibb's father rushed to the win¬
dows on the house's east side and looked
toward the ocean. "There's a fire out there!"
he shouted to his family. Clearly visible on the
horizon, a great orange fireball had erupted. A
towering column of black smoke blotted out
the stars and further darkened the night sky.
Only seven miles away, a German U-boat
had just torpedoed the 337-foot-long U.S.
freighter, City of
*4
crmin U
it LI-123 attacked three ships-
1 1 Tighter Cih/ of' Atlanta— off I lattoras
югч
ll>. W42. Image coni tesu of Kevin
Atlanta, sinking the
ship and killing all
but three of the 47
men aboard. The
same U-boat
attacked two more
ships just hours
later. Less than six
weeks after the
Japanese bombing
of Pearl Harbor, the
hostilities of the
Second World War
had arrived on
America's East
Coast and North
Carolina's beaches.
This was not the
first time that
German U-boats
had come to United
States waters.
During World War I, three U-boats sank ten
ships off the Tar Heel coast in what primarily
was considered a demonstration of German
naval power. But by 1942, U-boats had
become bigger, faster, and more deadly Their
presence in American waters was not intend¬
ed for "show" but to help win World War II
for Germany.
The abbreviated name "U-boat" comes
from the German word unterseeboot, meaning
submarine or undersea boat. However, U-
boats were not true submarines. They were
warships that spent most of their time on the
surface. They could submerge only for limited
periods — mostly to attack or evade detection
by enemy ships, and to avoid bad weather. U-
boats could only travel about sixty miles
underwater before having to surface for fresh
air. They often attacked ships while on the
surface using deck-mounted guns. Typically,
about 50 men operated a U-boat. The boats
carried fifteen torpedoes, or self-propelled
"bombs," which ranged up to twenty-two feet
long and could travel thirty miles per hour.
Experts have described German U-boats as
among the most effective and seaworthy war¬
ships ever designed.
Within hours of the U-boat attack near
Avon, debris and oil began washing up on the
beaches. This scene seemed to be repeated
constantly. For the next six months, along the
East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, at least
sixty-five different German U-boats attacked
American and British merchant ships carrying
vital supplies to the Allies in Europe — cargos
of oil, gasoline, raw vegetables and citrus
products, lumber and steel, aluminum for air¬
craft construction, rubber for tires, and cotton
for clothing. By July of 1942, 397 ships had
been sunk or damaged. More than 5,000 peo¬
ple had been killed.
22
mill. Spring 21 Mh
'Кач
1 1 1’. Puffus is mi author and doeuinenlari/ filmmaker who specializes in North
Carolina maritime liiston/. He lectures for the North Carolina Humanities Council on
topics including World War II along the state's coast.
