As World Warfare II drew to a detailed, U.S. Navy intelligence suspected German U-boats geared up to launch V-1 rockets have been getting ready to hit New York Metropolis. The Warfare Division dismissed the menace. The Navy disagreed and launched Operation Teardrop.
Within the ultimate weeks of the warfare, the Navy hunted down and sank 5 German submarines within the North Atlantic. They stopped what they believed was an imminent assault on the East Coast. The victory got here at a price. The final American warship misplaced within the Atlantic fell to a German torpedo. Determined to verify the missile menace, Navy interrogators brutally tortured the captured German crews, casting a shadow over the Navy’s final success within the Battle of the Atlantic.
Intelligence Sparks the Hunt
Two captured spies could have triggered the sudden operation. William Colepaugh and Erich Gimpel landed in Maine from U-1230 in late November 1944. Inside weeks, they have been captured and ended up in FBI custody. Their interrogators discovered a surprising revelation.
Germany was getting ready a number of submarines to be geared up with V-1 rockets, the spies allegedly reported. The weapons would strike New York and different East Coast cities quickly.
The intelligence reached Navy commanders not lengthy after. Mayor of New York Metropolis Fiorello La Guardia even went public with the warnings. As the general public turned fearful, the Warfare Division dismissed the menace. Army officers informed President Franklin Roosevelt the likelihood was too low to justify diverting assets on a ghost hunt.
The Navy disagreed.
Vice Admiral Jonas Ingram commanded the Atlantic Fleet. He known as reporters to a warship in New York Harbor on January 8, 1945. The admiral warned that missile assaults have been attainable. He introduced that naval forces have been assembling to counter the submarine-launched weapons.
German propaganda amplified American fears. Minister of Armaments Albert Speer made a broadcast that January. He claimed V-1 and V-2 missiles would fall on New York by February 1. That was sufficient proof for the Navy.
In the meantime, intelligence analysts studied reconnaissance images of German sub pens in Norway. Unusual mountings appeared on a number of submarines. Some officers concluded they have been wood tracks for loading torpedoes. Others remained unconvinced, believing they have been rocket railings.
Previous to that, German engineers had performed underwater sub-based rocket exams in June of 1942. Kapitänleutnant Friedrich Steinhoff commanded submarine U-511 through the experimental trials close to Greifswalder Oie. The trials proved rockets might launch from submerged platforms. Growth led to early 1943 as navy commanders realized the system degraded the seaworthiness of U-boats.
Allied commanders in 1945 have been unaware that this system had died.
Gruppe Seewolf Crosses the Atlantic
9 Sort IX submarines left Norway in mid-March 1945. Seven of them fashioned Gruppe Seewolf. Their mission was attacking delivery off the American coast. The aim was diverting Allied anti-submarine forces away from British waters, the place German boats confronted devastating losses.
American code-breakers tracked each motion. British intelligence had cracked German Enigma encryptions years earlier. Alerts revealed departure dates, programs, and locations. Given the earlier intelligence studies, Allied commanders have been involved.
Ingram and Tenth Fleet workers concluded the boats doubtless carried V-1 flying bombs. They designated the response Operation Teardrop. The Atlantic Fleet assembled two large barrier forces to cease the subs.
Every activity power included two escort carriers and greater than twenty destroyer escorts. They’d type patrol traces throughout the North Atlantic. Any submarine approaching American waters would face overwhelming firepower properly earlier than reaching the coast.
The First Barrier Power sortied from Hampton Roads between March 25 and 27. The ships refueled at Naval Station Argentia in Newfoundland. Twelve destroyer escorts fashioned a line 120 miles lengthy east of Cape Race by April 11. Escort carriers Mission Bay and Croatan patrolled behind them.
Heavy seas hampered air operations. Plane struggled to launch and recuperate within the Atlantic’s spring storms. The climate even pressured the submarines to stay submerged, slowing their westward progress.
Gruppe Seewolf pressed on anyway. The boats in the end discovered no targets. Convoys had been routed far south to keep away from each climate and submarines. The shortage of targets pressured them to proceed pushing towards the American protection line.
The Last Loss
Destroyer escort USS Frederick C. Davis made sonar contact on April 24. The goal appeared at 2,000 yards. Sound operators reported a pointy, clear echo.
The destroyer and the USS Hayter turned to interact the goal, however misplaced contact with the sub. As they regained contact, the sub already had them in its sights.
U-546 fired first. An acoustic torpedo struck the port aspect of Frederick C. Davis at 8:39 a.m. The explosion tore by means of the ahead engine room. 5 minutes later, the ship broke in two.
Ensign Philip Lundeberg assisted with injury management within the stern part. The crewmen fought desperately to keep up watertight integrity.
Earlier than the strict sank, the sailors managed to protected all however two depth prices. The fees exploded underwater because the part went down. Concussive shockwaves killed many swimmers.
“I used to be within the water on the time, and I had a fairly extreme ache in my abdomen,” Lundeberg later recalled. “It felt as if my insides have been being twisted round.”
Rescue ships recovered a number of survivors from the frigid water. Many waited three hours for pickup. The ship’s complement numbered 192. A complete of 126 died. Frederick C. Davis turned the final American warship sunk within the Atlantic theater.
Close by escorts instantly counterattacked. Destroyer escorts Flaherty, Hayter, Neunzer, Janssen, Pillsbury and Varian pursued U-546 for greater than ten hours. They dropped depth prices and fired hedgehog projectiles. The submarine lastly surfaced at 6:44 p.m., closely broken and unable to dive.
American gunfire destroyed the boat inside minutes. Rescue crews pulled 33 Germans from the water, together with commander Paul Simply. 4 different U-boats (U-1235, U-880, U-518, U-881) have been intercepted and sank with their whole crews throughout Operation Teardrop whereas the others escaped. U-546’s survivors would offer the one likelihood to verify or deny the missile menace.
The Interrogations
Eight U-546 specialists have been separated from different prisoners instantly after rescue. The Navy despatched them to isolation at Naval Station Argentia. Common prisoners went to straightforward POW camps. The specialists confronted one thing totally different than their comrades.
Two interrogators arrived on April 28. One wore a Navy captain’s uniform however was apparently a civilian agent. They doubtless got here from the joint Army-Navy facility at Fort Hunt, Virginia.
Tenth Fleet data described what adopted. The Germans proved “extraordinarily safety aware.” They refused to expose info Allied intelligence already possessed by means of Enigma decrypts.
Simply confronted “shock interrogation” on April 30. The precise strategies of the interrogation stay unknown. Data present he ended up unconscious, earlier than waking someday later.
The beatings continued after switch to Fort Hunt. All eight males endured harsh therapy till Simply agreed to write down an correct account of U-546’s historical past on Could 12. Germany had already surrendered 4 days earlier.
Philip Lundeberg, who survived the sinking of the Frederick C. Davis, went on to turn out to be the American naval historian and curator emeritus of the Smithsonian Establishment’s Nationwide Museum of American Historical past.
He later characterised the therapy in stark phrases. The beatings and torture constituted a “singular atrocity,” he wrote. Interrogators wanted info rapidly. They believed missile assaults have been imminent.
Lots of the data in Fort Hunt have been burned after the warfare. Full particulars of what occurred disappeared with them.
The Navy interrogated extra prisoners after Germany’s give up. U-805 and U-858 survived Gruppe Seewolf. Each boats surrendered at sea on the finish of the warfare. Their crews confirmed they carried no missile gear.
U-873 surrendered on Could 11 because it made its approach to the Caribbean. Steinhoff commanded the boat. His seize assured intense questioning as interrogators knew about his function within the 1942 rocket exams.
Steinhoff confronted brutal therapy at Charles Road Jail in Boston. His preliminary defiance ultimately gave method. He supplied info, although nothing steered missile assaults had ever been deliberate.
A Navy investigation was opened shortly afterward. Steinhoff dedicated suicide on Could 19, 1945 earlier than it was concluded.
The Fact Emerges
Postwar evaluation ultimately unveiled the reality. Germany had explored submarine-launched weapons repeatedly, although none reached operational standing.
The 1942 exams used short-range artillery rockets. They might hearth underwater however could not be aimed successfully. The launch system diminished submarine maneuverability, so the Germans cancelled this system.
German engineers revisited the idea in late 1943. Bodo Lafferenz proposed launching V-2 ballistic missiles from towable containers. A submarine would tow the container to inside 186 miles of the goal. The container would then be positioned vertically for launch.
Work started in November 1944. Building was accomplished on one container at Schichau Dockyard in Elbing. The venture by no means progressed past that single prototype. Technical challenges proved insurmountable. Container stability throughout launch remained unsolved. Missile accuracy introduced issues German engineers could not overcome.
Gruppe Seewolf carried standard torpedoes and nothing else. The submarines had been dispatched merely to assault delivery, not launch rockets at New York.
Albert Speer’s propaganda broadcast had been precisely that. Propaganda. No functionality existed to satisfy his threats, although his speech occurred at a second when Allied analysts nervous of the potential sub-based missiles might pose.
The captured spies’ info proved unreliable. Colepaugh and Gimpel doubtless repeated rumors they’d heard in Germany. Their mission targeted on gathering technical intelligence, not navy operations. Neither had entry to correct details about submarine capabilities. It’s unknown if the lads truly divulged something concrete about German submarine operations.
Legacy and Classes
Operation Teardrop succeeded in its major mission. 5 of seven Gruppe Seewolf boats by no means reached American waters. U-881 turned the final German submarine sunk by U.S. Navy forces. Destroyer escort Farquhar destroyed it with depth prices on Could 6.
The operation demonstrated the ability of alerts intelligence. Enigma decrypts enabled the exact monitoring of submarine actions. Ships might place themselves primarily based on intercepted radio site visitors. The barrier forces knew the place to patrol earlier than the submarines even arrived.
Lundeberg assessed Teardrop as a “basic demonstration” of coordinated hunter techniques. British expertise contributed to American strategies. Communications intelligence proved vital to intercepting the U-boats.
The therapy of the prisoners solid a shadow over that success. The torture violated requirements the Navy usually upheld. Lundeberg’s characterization as a “singular atrocity” got here from somebody who had each motive to hate U-546’s crew. But he nonetheless condemned what American interrogators did.
The desperation driving these interrogations mirrored real concern. Intelligence officers believed American cities confronted imminent assault. The stress did not excuse the therapy, but it surely defined the motive.
Finally, the Navy started its personal submarine-launched missile program virtually instantly after the warfare. Engineers studied German analysis supplies. They examined captured paperwork in regards to the V-1 and V-2 applications.
The submarine USS Cusk acquired a number of modifications in 1947. Staff put in a missile hangar on the ship. A launch ramp prolonged aft. The submarine would floor to arrange and hearth the weapons.
Cusk launched the primary submarine-based guided missile on February 12, 1947. The weapon was a Loon, an American copy of the V-1 flying bomb. The venture proved submarines might function cell launch platforms.
The idea developed quickly. Regulus missiles changed Loons. Nuclear propulsion eradicated the necessity for surfacing. Ballistic missiles outmoded cruise missiles. Polaris boats turned cornerstone weapons of Chilly Warfare deterrence. Each development traced again to wartime German experiments and postwar American willpower to good what Germany had failed to realize.
Gruppe Seewolf represented the final German U-boat offensive towards American shores. Whereas they by no means fired rockets on the continental U.S., these fears drove innovation that formed naval warfare for generations.
Frederick C. Davis stays the final U.S. warship misplaced within the Atlantic throughout WWII. Her 126 useless embrace the ultimate American naval casualties of the European warfare. They died searching what they believed was a harmful menace to their homeland.
