series_hybrid t1_iweop18 wrote
Cargo-ships were easily sunk when found. The first year of WWII, the Germans called the east coast of the US the "happy hunting ground" when we were sending supplies to England.
Since Japan was an island empire, their ships were criss-crossing the south Pacific, and books about submarine list them sinking cargo-ship after cargo-ship...
Early in the war, it was often customary to stop the ship, and give the crew a chance to man the lifeboats. However too many submarines were then chased down by destroyers.
Thenidhogg t1_iwf4sfc wrote
'u-boats off shore' by Hoyt is a great book about this
p38-lightning OP t1_iwix9xf wrote
Also "The Mathews Men" by William Geroux. He focuses on the small seafaring community of Mathews, VA and its men who braved the U-boats.
firelock_ny t1_iwhj3o7 wrote
> the Germans called the east coast of the US the "happy hunting ground" when we were sending supplies to England.
I've read accounts of nights during the war you could fly from Maine to Florida along the Atlantic coast and never be out of sight of a burning ship.
Jaggedmallard26 t1_iwhnukj wrote
>Cargo-ships were easily sunk when found.
Only until they figured convoys out. The happy period ended when the Brits started rolling out convoys and then ended for good when heavy bombers got repurposed for anti submarine warfare. By the end a U-boat was a death sentence for its crew.
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