Off the coast of North Carolina lie dozens of shipwrecks, remainders of a forgotten theater of World War II

• By Jim Morrison

It’s a World War II campaign largely forgotten, a coastal reign of terror Joe Hoyt and a team of marine archaeologists are determined to bring into sharp focus 70 years later.

During the first six months of 1942, German U-boats, often hunting in wolf packs, sank ship after ship just miles off the East Coast of the United States, concentrating their ambushes along North Carolina, where conditions were most favorable. From the beaches, civilians could see the explosions as the submarines sank more Allied tonnage in those months than the entire Japanese Navy would destroy in the Pacific during the entire course of the war.

German submariners dubbed it the “American Shooting Season.” While estimates of the carnage vary according to where boundaries are drawn, one survey concluded that 154 ships were sunk and more than 1,100 lives lost off the North Carolina coast in that period.

“It’s always surprised me that it’s not something everyone knows. It was the closest war came to the continental United States,” says Hoyt, a marine archaeologist with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary staff in Newport News, Virginia. “For six months, there were sinkings nearly every day off the coast. We think it’s an important part of American history.”

We’re pleased to offer all our fans and readers this new special report about a little known landmark in Brunswick County history: The Gause Plantation and the Gause Tomb./

The report is fully illustrated and thoroughly researched, and is a teriffic digital companion to our book, “The History of Ocean Isle Beach”.

It’s too long for a post here on the site, so we’re offering it as a FREE download! Just click the image below:

We’ll be adding more reports and items of interest soon, so be sure to subscribe to our mailing list to get all the latest!

Fred and Vern

Save on THE HISTORY OF OCEAN ISLE BEACH
(From prehistory to today).
a book by local authors Fred David and Vern Bender.

Regular: $34.95        Now: $19.95

also on sale: SHIPWRECKS FROM CALABASH TO SOUTHPORT
(Scuba Diving, Fishing the wrecks & Treasure hunting in these waters).

Regular: $19.95          Now: $9.95

also save on: HISTORIC SITES OF OCEAN ISLE 2 CD driving tour

Regular: $19.95          Now: $7.99
(Narrated by Fred David)

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Fred and Vern