# On this day in 1942, the Civil Air Patrol began anti-submarine patrols

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-this-day-in-1942-the-civil-air-patrol-began-anti-submarine-patrols/748004>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 5, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-this-day-in-1942-the-civil-air-patrol-began-anti-submarine-patrols/748004 "2016-03-05T15:52:43Z")\
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**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-this-day-in-1942-the-civil-air-patrol-began-anti-submarine-patrols/748004/1 "2016-03-05T15:52:43Z")

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I’m a bit of a history nut, and this seemed like the appropriate forum for this sort of thing:

On this day in 1942, the Civil Air Patrol began anti-submarine patrols at Coastal Patrol No. 2’s base in Rehoboth, Delaware. This mission was flown by Major Hugh R. Sharp, Jr., Coastal Patrol No. 2’s Operations Officer and later squadron commander. On their first mission, they were only able to spot cold choppy Atlantic waters and oil slicks from previously sunk tankers.

The Civil Air Patrol was a civilian organization of pilots and support personnel who volunteered their time and resources to assist the US in the war effort during WWII (and continue to operate as a civilian auxiliary to the US Air Force to this day, although they’ve been out of the sub-hunting business for many decades now).

Between March 1942 and August of 1943, CAP’s Coastal Patrol squadrons spotted 91 ships in distress, assisted in the rescue of 363 sailors, spotted 173 U-Boats, and were credited with the sinking of two of them (Coastal Patrol aircraft were authorized by the Army to carry bombs and depth charges starting from May of 1942). All this was at the cost of 26 CAP airmen

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**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-this-day-in-1942-the-civil-air-patrol-began-anti-submarine-patrols/748004/2 "2016-03-05T16:56:24Z")

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> [@](#):
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> After the German surrender, one of Hitler’s high-ranking naval officers was asked why the Nazi U-boats had been withdrawn from U.S. coastal waters early in 1943. The answer was exploded in a curt guttural: “It was because of those damned little red and yellow planes!”

—From Robert E. Neprud’s _The Flying Minute Men_