Nazi Attack on America

Gr 8 Up—In this very fine production, the narrator states early on that one of its objectives is to remind Americans how close the Nazis came to our shores. During the war, more than 600 ships sank in American waters and 5,000 lives were lost. In 1942, the German U-boat U-166 sank a cargo ship and the passenger ship SS Robert E. Lee in the Gulf of Mexico. In retaliation, Commander Herbert Claudius of the submarine chaser PC-566 dropped depth charges, or underwater explosives, on the attacker, and Claudius claimed a hit in his report after seeing an oil slick in the area. However, a review board declared that he had failed in his attack, and he was removed from command and sent back to training. Fifty-nine years later, a team led by deep-sea explorer Robert Ballard examined the wreckage and found evidence of a massive explosion, not the impact damage typically caused by depth charges. By piecing together thousands of photos, Ballard's team was able to prove the hypothesis that a depth charge from PC-566 had landed directly on top of the bow of U-166. The explosion of the depth charge in turn detonated the torpedoes in the U-boat's hull. This evidence convinced the U.S. Navy to reconsider its 1942 decision. In 2014, Claudius's son was presented with his father's Legion of Merit medal. This is not only a heartwarming story but also an eye-opening history lesson of a forgotten watery battlefield.