Sounds Magazine, Volume 19, Number 1, Spring 2005 Page: 23 of 52
52 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 32 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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By Joel Mangum
Many people may not realize how close
the fight of WWII came to the coast of the
United States. The second sub to be sunk
in US waters and the first to be sunk by
the US Coast Guard occurred just 30 miles
offshore from Topsail Beach, south of
Cape Lookout. Another landmark event
occurred when 33 German POWs were
taken from that same sunken sub and
became the first foreign troops to be
interned on U.S. soil since the War of 1812.
In early 1942, German U-boats were
patrolling the eastern U.S. coast from Maine
to Florida, and wreaking havoc on
American supply ships. During January and
February of that year, more than 60 allied
ships were sunk by U-boats, some in broad
daylight and using only the deck guns of the
submarine. Some German sailors dubbed
their missions "American hunting season"
because of the easy pickings.
What's even more shocking is the U-
boats were sometimes within 10 miles of
shore, and able to see cities and ships sil-
houetted in shore lights. U-boats were
close enough to listen to jazz radio stations
being broadcast from the U.S. mainland.
During daylight the sub would sit on the
ocean bottom, conserving fuel and batter-
ies and resting the crew. At night, the U-
boat would surface and look for targets.
Captain Helmut Rathke of U-352 was
assigned to patrol the shipping routes of
North Carolina from Cape Hatteras to
Cape Lookout and was under orders to
sink any supply ships sighted. After two
weeks of no definite targets, Rathke and his
crew were desperate to sink a ship and
spotted what they thought was a small
freighter at 4:25 p.m. on May 9, 1942. They
fired a torpedo they initially thought to be
a direct hit, but moments later realized the
target was not a freighter, but actually the
fully armed USCG warship Icarus. The U-
352's torpedo was off the mark and explod-
ed prematurely 200 yards off the port quar-
ter. The crew of Icarus immediately wentinto battle mode and dropped five depth
charges where they thought the U-boat to
be. Depth charges are canisters of explo-
sives dropped from ships that detonate
when reaching a certain point under water.
Because the U-352 was operating in only
100 feet of water, it could not crash-dive far
enough to evade its attackers. After three
more depth charges were dropped by
Icarus, the U-352 broke apart and surfaced
at a latitude of 34.12 degrees north and lon-U-boats near Topsail:
The sinking of U-352I
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he Docksider a' .Spring 2005 SOUNDS p.23
gitude of 76.35 degrees west, with 33 men
spilling out of the conning tower. Fifteen
other Germans went down with the ship.
According to US Navy Department
records, 45 minutes went by before the
German survivors were rescued. One Icarus
crewman even told the Germans bobbing in
the water, "Gentlemen, I wish you a good
evening -- down with the sharks!"
Because there were no regulations or
precedents on picking up prisoners of
war, Icarus radioed headquarters three
times before getting a response. After
motoring away from the men in the water,
the Icarus crew was ordered to turn back,
pick up the survivors and land them at
Charleston, SC for interrogation. The pris-
.....story continues on next pageI
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Pletl, Connie. Sounds Magazine, Volume 19, Number 1, Spring 2005, periodical, Spring 2005; Hampstead, North Carolina. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth887602/m1/23/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting National WASP WWII Museum.