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

“Nelson keeps the prose lively with intimate storytelling . . .”

The United States is “effectively a continent-island,” the sea “represented the United States’ guarantor of prosperity and security.” K. A. Nelson, in Killing Shore: The True Story of Hitler’s U-boats Off the New Jersey Coast, however, adds that these facts took a dark side in World War II as the public witnessed German submarines sinking ships off the American coast.

In the months immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had brought the United States into the war, the U-boats on the East Coast inflicted the worse American naval defeat in the country’s history. Explosions from torpedo attacks became so common that some people believed they scared off the fish.

Compiling this book was exceptionally difficult because no one at the time had a clear or complete view of what was happening. “Denial and obfuscation prevailed.” Crew members and passengers were more likely to die from exposure at sea than from drowning or torpedo attack.

The story of the U-boat attacks has many ironies. The first use of submarines in warfare was by Americans, going back to the Revolution. Germany was late among countries to adopt the submarine and only adopted unrestricted warfare on merchant ships in World War I after Great Britain did so on the surface. The reason for the Kriegsmarine’s reluctance to adopt that strategy was fear of bringing the United States into the war!

Allies adopting the convoy system and the Germans attacking shipping in American waters too late saved Great Britain from losing the First World War to the submarine. Acquiring the merchant fleets of Norway and other occupied nations also won the war for the Allies although at a terrible cost to the crews.

The last days of the submarine in World War I proved bizarre. All sea powers learned much from the underwater warfare of 1916–1918. The Jersey Shore, however, would show that the United States had much to learn.

U. S. Navy Admiral Ernest King made almost every mistake that he could with his then limited resources. The Navy (and the civilians on the Jersey Shore) could feel, hear, and watch the explosions as merchant ships went down.

Britain needed America to survive and almost all that shipping passed near New York, as well as ninety percent of the oil for the East Coast of the United States. Ships in that zone did not travel in heavily defended convoys but as individual vulnerable vessels.

Fortunately, the Germans never had enough submarines and what they had was misused by Hitler and his land oriented military advisors. Submariners traveled for thousands of miles in abominable conditions and could die from the stormy Atlantic as well as from enemy action.

The war waged off the Jersey Shore that was otherwise famous for its peaceful recreation, was as deadly as it was spectacular. America, unlike Canada, was virtually unprepared for the U-boat attacks and declined to institute convoys along the American coast.

Precautions such as zigzagging and not using running lights were practically useless against U-boats. The “happy time” of easy German U-boat victories ended in August 1942, although by then thousands of the merchant marines and U. S. Navy sailors had died.

The author seeks to learn of the individuals who suffered on all sides in this exceptionally violent campaign. When possible, the author tells the story from the participants’ views.

Much of Killing Shore is specific encounters, told by all witnesses, including rescuers and people on shore. Each story draws the reader to the next. Killing Shore also mentions the landing of German spies in the United States and the attempt to plant mines in American waterways.

Killing Shore offers a great deal of detail on World War II Atlantic submarine warfare, even the clothes worn by the sailors on both sides! Sonar, for example, had problems not often explained in movies as with so much about life on merchant vessels. The same applies for the U-boats, such as the use of the deck guns.  Neither background nor detail is lacking, although the U-boat enthusiast might want more on some topics.

Nelson keeps the prose lively with intimate storytelling, as befits the subject, including sometimes with sarcasm. The narrative can appear as disjoined and disorganized, however. Some of the sidebars might have been omitted such as the shark attacks on the Jersy shore. Killing Shore has annotation, a selective bibliography, and illustrations (some in color).