Today in WW II History

[Theis]

On this day of July 13 1942...

12/13 July 1942
Minelaying: 55 aircraft to Lorient, St Nazaire and the Frisians. 1 Hampden and 1 Wellington lost.

1 Lancaster made a leaflet flight to France and returned safely.

13 July 1942
12 Bostons bombed Boulogne railway yards without loss.

13/14 July 1942
Duisburg

194 aircraft - 139 Wellingtons, 33 Halifaxes, 13 Lancasters, 9 Stirlings - on the first of a series of raids on this industrial city on the edge of the Ruhr. 6 aircraft - 3 Wellingtons, 2 Stirlings, 1 Lancaster - were lost and 4 more aircraft crashed in tons England.
The force encountered cloud and electrical storms and reported that their bombing was well scattered. Duisburg reports only housing damage - 11 houses destroyed, 18 seriously damaged - and 17 people killed.

Minor Operations: 10 Blenheim Intruders, 6 aircraft on leaflet flights. 1 Intruder lost.

July 13 - World War II: German U-Boats sink three more merchant ships in Gulf of St. Lawrence.

June 13, 1942
U-157 depth charged by coast guard cutter USS Thetis.

[TacitBlue]

June 13, 1942
U-157 depth charged by coast guard cutter USS Thetis.

Where did that occur? was it one of those U-boats that got surprisingly close to the US coast?

[Hagar]

Where did that occur? was it one of those U-boats that got surprisingly close to the US coast?

Off Key West, Florida. http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/h_AtlWar.html

Coast Guard cutters and aircraft destroyed three U-boats along the coast during this German offensive. The 165-foot Icarus sank the more heavily armed U-352 off the coast of North Carolina. Its sister cutter, the Thetis, sank the U-157 off Key West, Florida.  Coast Guard aircraft made 61 unsuccessful bombing attacks on U-boat contacts by the end of the summer of 1942. They also sighted and reported the location of more than 1,000 survivors and rescued 95 on their own, including the surviving crewmen of the U-701 after their U-boat was sunk by an Army Air Force bomber.

[TacitBlue]

Somewhere I have a map that shows the locations of all of the signifigant ship wrecks off the coast of North Carolinas Outer Banks area. There are a few U-Boats shown. I was surprised to learn that they got that close, but then again they were at war with us.

[Felix/FFDS]

Somewhere I have a map that shows the locations of all of the signifigant ship wrecks off the coast of North Carolinas Outer Banks area. There are a few U-Boats shown. I was surprised to learn that they got that close, but then again they were at war with us.

Even the Mexicans sunk a U-boat in the Gulf..!

[H]

They may have gotten closer than that but it was a long time ago that I heard the report of an underwater exploration on the east coast. During the war, a bridge gave way while a train was crossing. It seems the public wasn't made aware that it was an an act of sabotage.
Someone will have to come up with more facts because at this point it begins to sound like "urban legend." The report was that, when divers were checking out the train wreckage, they discovered the u-boat under it.
However, there are more reliable reports of agents being put ashore by u-boat in both the U.S. and Canada.

[Theis]

On this day in 1943, a Japanese destroyer rams an American PT (patrol torpedo) boat, No. 109, slicing it in two. The destruction is so massive other American PT boats in the area assume the crew is dead. Two crewmen were, in fact, killed, but 11 survived, including Lt. John F. Kennedy.

Japanese aircraft had been on a PT boat hunt in the Solomon Islands, bombing the PT base at Rendova Island. It was essential to the Japanese that several of their destroyers make it to the southern tip of Kolombangara Island to get war supplies to forces there. But the torpedo capacity of the American PTs was a potential threat. Despite the base bombing at Rendova, PTs set out to intercept those Japanese destroyers. In the midst of battle, Japan's Amaqiri hit PT-109, leaving 11 crewmen floundering in the Pacific.

After five hours of clinging to debris from the decimated PT boat, the crew made it to a coral island. Kennedy decided to swim out to sea again, hoping to flag down a passing American boat. None came. Kennedy began to swim back to shore, but strong currents, and his chronic back condition, made his return difficult. Upon reaching the island again, he fell ill. After he recovered, the PT-109 crew swam to a larger island, what they believed was Nauru Island, but was in fact Cross Island. They met up with two natives from the island, who agreed to take a message south. Kennedy carved the distress message into a coconut shell: "Nauru Is. Native knows posit. He can pilot. 11 alive need small boat."

The message reached Lieutenant Arthur Evans, who was watching the coast of Gomu Island, located next to an island occupied by the Japanese. Kennedy and his crew were paddled to Gomu. A PT boat then took them back to Rendova. Kennedy was ultimately awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, for gallantry in action.

The coconut shell used to deliver his message found a place in history-and in the Oval Office.
PT-109, a film dramatizing this story, starring Clift Robertson as Kennedy, opened in 1963.