Posted on 04/23/2015 4:30:09 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
“U.S.A.: At 12:15pm U-853, five miles southeast of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, torpedoes and sinks USS Eagle (PE-56). The Eagle was at a dead stop. The explosion amidships sends a geyser of steam and water 200 feet skyward, breaking the ship in two and sinking her within minutes. 49 seamen are killed.”
These are waters sailed by my family since the early 1600s. My grandfather told me that a German sub was sunk off of nearby Reid State Park...perhaps during WWI.
Curiously, the US Gov’t did not recognize that this boat was sunk by this sub until 2001!
Here is what happened to this sub:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-853
U-853 carried a crew of 55. The Germans nicknamed the U-boat der Seiltänzer (”the Tightrope Walker”), and her crew painted an emblem of a yellow shield with a red horse on her sail.[4]
Eagle Boat 56, a World War I-era patrol boat, was towing targets for a United States Navy dive-bomber training exercise 3 miles (4.8 km) off Cape Elizabeth when she exploded amidships and sank. Only 13 of the 67 crew survived. Although several survivors claimed to have seen a submarine sail with yellow and red insignia, a Navy inquiry attributed the sinking to a boiler explosion. The Navy reversed its findings in 2001 to acknowledge that the sinking was due to hostile fire and awarded Purple Hearts to the survivors and next-of-kin of the deceased.
On 5 May 1945, President (Reichspräsident) of Nazi Germany Karl Dönitz ordered all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases. U-853 was lying in wait off Point Judith, Rhode Island at the time. According to the US Coast Guard, U-853 did not receive that order, or less likely, ignored it.[14] Soon after, her torpedo blew off the stern of SS Black Point, a 368-foot (112 m) collier underway from New York to Boston. Within 15 minutes Black Point had sunk in 100 feet (30 m) of water less than 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Point Judith.[16] She was the last US-flagged merchant ship lost in World War II. Twelve men died, while 34 crew members were rescued. One of the rescuing ships, Yugoslav freighter SS Kamen, sent a report of the torpedoing to authorities. The US Navy organized a “hunter-killer” group that included four American warships: Ericsson (DD-440), Amick (DE-168), Atherton (DE-169), and Moberly (PF-63).[17]
The group discovered U-853 bottomed in 18 fathoms (108 ft; 33 m), and dropped depth charges and hedgehogs during a 16 hour attack. At first the U-boat attempted to flee, and then tried to hide by lying still. Both times it was found by sonar.[18] The morning of 6 May 1945 two K-Class blimps from Lakehurst, New Jersey, K-16 and K-58, joined the attack, locating oil slicks and marking suspected locations with smoke and dye markers. K-16 also attacked with 7.2-inch rocket bombs. Numerous depth charge and hedgehog attacks from Atherton and Moberly resulted in planking, life rafts, a chart tabletop, clothing, and an officer’s cap floating to the surface. With the loss of all 55 officers and men, U-853 was one of the last U-boats sunk during World War II.[18] and, with U-881, the last to be sunk in US waters. Atherton and Moberly received credit for the kill.[2
That particular poem, in its context, has great relevance here and now. All of us should be asking ourselves: “How clearly and sharply am I speaking out against the evils that have taken root in America today?”
That was one of the things that stuck with me when I first read Herman Wouk's WWII novels in circa 1979. One of his characters lived there before the war.
Thanks for the post. Damn shame those sailors died after the war was over. Reminds me of the Battle of New Orleans.
And moving into the Alps.
Technically, no. The Rheims surrender was May 7, the Berlin signing May 8. They would not have been covered by the initial May 4 document.
http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1945/450506a.html
Thanks, this is a fascinating window on that time. Each morning I check the to see how the advance of the Russians on Berlin was reported.
Have you ever seen the movie “Untergang”? It’s about the fall of Nazi Germany.
I read your entire thoughtful post to our America’s Summit, Restore the Republic national town hall tonight.
It was in the context of what happened in Germany, and what is happening in America today.
I thought I should let you know that everyone on the call greatly appreciated your words of insight and wisdom.
Thank you.
I don’t think I have seen that one.
German for “Downfall.” Same movie, in German.
Wow. I’m flattered. Or stunned.
You’re welcome.
The first theme is fairly self-explanatory, as the Germans sought to examine how an educated, advanced and developed country with a rich tradition of cultural and artistic accomplishment could descend into barbaric depravity.
They have done an excruciating amount of soul-searching in this regard..."
Thanks so much for yet another insightful essay, they always make me think I should increase my monthly contribution to Free Republic.
And, sometimes I do... ;-)
In response:
"Educated", "Advanced", etc... maybe, but fundamentally modern inheritors of European history back to Roman Empire times, as updated by recent examples from Napoleon and Bismarck.
In sum, by 1914 Germany was a great empire, after hundreds of years of steady success and territorial expansion.
In 1914 Germany's rulers intended to continue that success by conquering "lebensraum" in the East, and making Germany the dominant European power.
Germany's First World War failure led to a rethinking of just what it meant to be German, and the result was Hitler -- most importantly combining North and South Germans (Austrians), a "voice of the people", certainly of the average German soldier, who lost heart and surrendered in November 1918.
Hitler would instill powerful motivation and courage in Germany's next generation of warriors.
So, the imperial plan which resulted from Wilson's "peace without victory" (and as predicted by people like US General Pershing) was to have a "round two" in 20 years.
"Round two" began in 1939 with huge technological and conceptual advances -- no more trench warfare, now highly mobile Blitzkrieg.
So the WWII idea of European conquest did not come from Hitler, he was merely the instrument of its accomplishment.
That idea was basic to the old Keiser-Reich.
As was the idea of turning Eastern Europe into medieval principalities with lords of unlimited power over surf/slaves -- life unworthy of life.
So what was new in Germany's "round two"?
Were mass exterminations new? Not really.
What about the Holocaust?
Yes, the Holocaust was new to Germany, though certainly not to the world.
Hitler himself referenced Turkey's genocide against Christian Armenians, pointing out that today nobody remembers or cares about it.
And mass deaths through starvation and brutality were Stalin's specialty -- so it's not even known: if or when Hitler's ordered murders ever exceeded in number those of old Stalin.
So Hitler did not invent the idea that millions must die to accomplish ideological goals.
He had only to pattern on Stalin, which he did.
But Nazis had a little something that Soviets did not: 1) the remnants of conscience, meaning they didn't so much enjoy machine-gunning down civilians, women & children.
And 2) a talent for engineering "outside the box" (ahem, German engineering) far beyond Soviet & other brutal regimes' imaginations.
And so the "Jewish question" was answered by engineering -- railroad supplied camps equipped with gas chambers & crematoria for the mass production of... non-existence.
In short and in summary, the Big Lie here is not what they did in WWII, but their insistence today on how "educated" & "advanced" they previously had been.
In fact, they were ignorant fools, puffed up to think of themselves as "superior" to everyone else.
Truly educating such blithering idiots cost the lives of tens of millions (mostly non-Germans) and unimaginable suffering by those who survived.
This could & should all be expressed in biblical terms, but I must leave that to others here far better qualified.
“The fool hath said in his heart, ‘there is no God.’”
— Psalm 14:1
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