# WW2 fighting on US east coast **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 30, 2014, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-fighting-on-us-east-coast/705928 "2014-11-30T01:17:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-fighting-on-us-east-coast/705928/1 "2014-11-30T01:17:51Z")
> **[USS Eagle 56](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Eagle_Boat_56_%28PE-56%29)** > > USS Eagle 56 (PE-56) was a United States Navy World War I-era patrol boat that remained in service through World War II. On 23 April 1945, while towing targets for U.S. Navy bomber exercises off the coast of Maine, Eagle 56 was sunk by the German submarine U-853. Only 13 of the 62 crew survived. > The loss was classified as a boiler explosion until 2001, when historical evidence convinced the U.S. Navy to reclassify the sinking as a combat loss due to enemy action. Eagle 56 was the second to la... I am aware that U-boats sunk at least one ship in Casco Bay, Maine. I don’t know if it is true, but legend has it that a sunken U-boat also lies at the bottom of the bay. Was there any fighting either on land or sea near the US east coast? ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-fighting-on-us-east-coast/705928/2 "2014-11-30T03:07:36Z")
As long as wikipedia is OK, there’s [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Theater_%28World_War_II%29#East_Coast). ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-fighting-on-us-east-coast/705928/3 "2014-11-30T04:16:07Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > As long as wikipedia is OK, there’s [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Theater_%28World_War_II%29#East_Coast). In the early part of the war there was no convoy system up or down the East coast. And the city lights along the coast were not dimmed outlining merchants against the coast for U boats. It was the return of the Happy Time for the U boat captains. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-fighting-on-us-east-coast/705928/4 "2014-11-30T04:19:24Z")
[The Civil Air Patrol attacked U-boats](http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2014/May/20/CAP-launches-Congressional-Gold-Medal-story-website.aspx). > [@](#): > > “Over 18 months, CAP anti-submarine coastal patrols flew more than 24 million miles, spotting 173 U-boats and attacking 57. They also escorted more than 5,600 convoys and reported 17 floating mines, 91 ships in distress and 363 survivors in the water,” a press release announcing the website said. Additionally, the results of many U-boat attacks on shipping could be seen from the U.S. coast. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-fighting-on-us-east-coast/705928/5 "2014-11-30T04:29:03Z")
There was also [Operation Pastorius](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pastorius), a rather slapstick German attempt to sabotage American war efforts using agents dropped off in New York and Florida. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-fighting-on-us-east-coast/705928/6 "2014-11-30T09:37:36Z")
> [@Snnipe\_70E](#): > > In the early part of the war there was no convoy system up or down the East coast. And the city lights along the coast were not dimmed outlining merchants against the coast for U boats. It was the return of the Happy Time for the U boat captains. And an absolute disaster for the Allies, bolding mine: [Operations Drumbeat and Neuland](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Happy_Time) > [@](#): > > The Second Happy Time, also known among German submarine commanders as the American shooting season,[1] was the informal name for a phase in the Second Battle of the Atlantic during which Axis submarines attacked merchant shipping along the east coast of North America. The first “Happy time” was in 1940–41 in the North Atlantic and North Sea. > > \*\*The Second Happy Time lasted from January 1942 to about August of that year \*\*and involved several German naval operations including Operation Paukenschlag (or Operation Drumbeat) and Operation Neuland. German submariners named it the happy time or the golden time as defense measures were weak and disorganized,[2]: p292 and the U-boats were able to inflict massive damage with little risk. During this period, Axis submarines sank 609 ships totaling 3.1 million tons and the loss of thousands of lives, mainly those of merchant mariners, against a loss of only 22 U-boats. **This was roughly one quarter of all shipping sunk by U-boats during the entire Second World War**. Hitler’s declaration of war upon the US is often looked upon with bewilderment as he was under no obligation to and it removed the onus of doing so from Roosevelt. Hitler actually had no reason not to; the US and Germany had been in an undeclared naval war in the Atlantic since late summer '41 and full scale war with the US was clearly coming. By taking the gloves off the U-boats were able to sink 1/4 of all of the shipping sunk by U-boats during the entire war in the span of 8 months at a negligable cost to themselves. Add to that Hitler grossly underestimated the US.