Nelson, K. A. Killing Shore

The True Story of Hitler’s U-boats Off the New Jersey Coast

It is January 1942. Six weeks after the United States entered World War II, Imperial Japan is crushing American forces in the Far East, while the Germans are triumphing across much of Europe. Adolf Hitler's troops are poised to attack along the east coast of the United States, but this Atlantic Pearl Harbor would prove far more devastating than the Japanese attack on Hawaii. The wolves are closing in, and few Americans suspect that their beaches and coastal towns will soon witness the worst naval battle in United States history. The Western Hemisphere is the key to victory for the beleaguered Allies, but only if the enormous economic and military resources of North and South America can be transported across the Atlantic by Allied merchant ships. These civilian-manned cargo ships are the backbone of the American war effort and the lifeline that keeps Britain and the Soviet Union alive but Hitler's favourite admiral knows this too, and he has set in motion a plan of unprecedented audacity. The dreaded German U-boats are setting course for the United States. In the fiery months that follow, American soldiers and German U-boat sailors engage in a desperate battle that stains the waters of the East Coast with oil and blood. At the centre of this deadly cat-and-mouse game is a brave group of civilian sailors who man the tankers and freighters that supply the war effort against the Axis powers. Thousands of them lost their lives when hundreds of merchant ships were sunk. Every American coastal state became a battlefield in 1942, and the events off the coast of New Jersey illustrate the dangers and brutality of this forgotten campaign. The seabed along the Garden State is now littered with shipwrecks, bearing witness to the countless deaths that befell friends and foes alike just a few kilometres from the beach promenade. Although these sailors lost their lives, the battle they fought decided the fate of millions of people.