U-boats in the Gulf
In 1942, German U-Boats were waging a costly hidden war in the Gulf of Mexico, only a few miles off the coast of Louisiana.
Lost among the histories of major World War Two battles with Nazi Germany are a series of attacks on American ships along the Gulf coast of Louisiana and other southern states. The German navy called it Operation Paukenschlag, or Operation Drumbeat. It was Germany’s Second Happy Time, following the success of U-Boat attacks in the North Atlantic.
When the U-Boats arrived in the Gulf of Mexico in 1942, there were no naval escorts and no coastal blackouts. The German subs would remain submerged during daylight hours, then surface and hunt their prey in darkness. Cargo ships appeared as silhouettes against the lights of coastal communities.
“This is part of the reason why they call it a happy time,” explained World War Two historian Martin Morgan, “because it’s extremely easy for them to hunt down a ship sailing by itself hundreds of miles from shore out in the middle of the open Gulf of Mexico”.The only thing blacked out by the U.S. military was press reports of the carnage taking place offshore.“It was because we didn’t want the spies to find out and report word back to German Naval Headquarters that the U-Boats were doing a very fine job”, said Morgan.
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