When most folks think of World War II, they think of Europe or the Pacific, but there was quite a way going on right off the US coasts as German U-Boats plied their deadly craft and a lot of men died and ships went down.
The August 17th Houma (La) Today had an article about a shrimp boats encounter with a U-Boat.
In May,1942, shrimper Ira Pete and his father were drifting along just after dark and separating the day's catch when they say a U-Boat nearby, also drifting. They could even hear the diesel engines, but fortunately, were not seen. Wisely, they decided to keep quiet and not do anything to draw attention.
The U-Boat suddenly pulled away at high speed and a short time later, the shrimpers saw a flash of light and heard an explosion as the submarine sank one of the 41 American ships sunk in the Gulf of Mexico during the month.
The victim was the tanker William C. McTarnahan. Always a bad thing to be on a tanker or ammunition ship when you get torpedoed. The Pioneer then spent the rest of the night rescuing the badly burned sailors from the ship.
STANDARD WARTIME OPERATIONS
Shrimpers could always expect to be boarded before leaving port during the war years. They were assigned a strict fishing area and even had the amount of fuel they were carrying checked. Authorities wanted to know the amount of time the ship would stay out as well.
Much More Serious Than Most Know. --Cooter
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