I well remember that day too. I was a Navy brat at Norfolk and that Naval base was hopping. Soon thereafter, fiery explosion flashes off Virginia Beach were a nightly event ... allied convoys assembled out there and German subs were picking them off ... Oil spills galore, from tankers, blanketed area beaches inside and out of Cheseapeake Bay. Later, towards the end of the war, German prisoners of war were held at some local bases to do things like trim the roses (under guard) and talk to kids like me. That sort of explains the large influx of germans to America after the war.
the germans were picking off tankers because there wasn’t any convoys along the east coast or the gulf in early ‘42. hell the lights were still on allowing the u-boats to target ships at night. didn’t want to upset the folks by turning them off.