1940-1945

Florida Civil Air Patrols hunt down German U-Boats

A coast under siege – the Atlantic becomes a battleground

On January 14, 1942 Americans experienced their first German submarine attack off the Atlantic coast when the tanker Norness was sunk off Long Island. Before the month had ended, a dozen more U-boat raids had been launched against unarmed, unwarned merchant ships and ocean liners in coastal Atlantic sea lanes from Nova Scotia to Florida. It was just the beginning of what became a merciless and prolonged campaign by the Germans known as “Operation Drumbeat,” to control Atlantic shipping lanes and disrupt Allied supply lines.

The U-boats hunted in packs and favored oil tankers as their targets.

Military caught off-guard

The U.S. military was initially ill-prepared to provide a defense against the raids. The Navy was so thinly stretched along the 1200 miles of eastern and southeastern Atlantic seaboards that it could not effectively combat the subs. Meanwhile, the Army Air Force was struggling to meet demands for regular combat missions and could not cope with the addition of U-boat duty. In the first two months of the year, 114 merchant vessels from various countries were attacked and over 60 sunk. Hospitals up and down the Atlantic coast filled with burned and injured survivors. As described by Miami historian Helen Muir in her book Miami U.S.A., “The Nazi wolf pack struck again and again up and down the coast at the merchant ships moving in slow procession, hugging the coast to avoid the Gulf Stream with its tugging current. Unseen, ghostly, these subs lay on the sea bottom close to shore ready to fire on the unarmed vessels—American, British, Cuban, Swedish, Mexican—which were as vulnerable as ducks in a shooting gallery.”

Florida’s first blow

The first attack in Florida occurred on the night of February 19, 1942. The U.S. oil tanker, Pan Massachusetts, was torpedoed twenty miles south of Cape Canaveral, turning it into a flaming torch. Twenty crewmembers died. The 18 survivors were picked up by a rescue ship and taken to Jacksonville.

Civil Air Patrol rallies to defense

On March 5, 1942, the first Civil Air Patrol operations were authorized by the military to operate anti-submarine Atlantic coastal patrols on an experimental basis. Shortly thereafter, the program was expanded, and three initial coastal patrol bases were authorized, at Atlantic City, NJ; Rehoboth, DE; and Lantana, FL. The original idea for the patrols was to perform unarmed reconnaissance flights. Aircraft that spotted targets were instructed to report back to their base and remain in the area until help arrived.

Watch is expanded and civilian defense is stepped up

As the relentless attacks continued, additional Civil Air Patrol bases sprang up around the state. In addition to Lantana, active bases were established in Miami, Flagler Beach, Jacksonville, Panama City and Sarasota. In the greater Miami area, CAP operations were conducted from Chapman Field, the Municipal Airport, Embry-Riddle’s seaplane base and the Opa Locka Naval Air Station.

At left: 1943 Civil Air Patrol Recruitment poster, courtesy U.S. Office of War Information, National Archives

Men and women flew patrols and rescue missions in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and Atlantic, spending their own money on fuel, holding smoke bombs in their laps, ready to heave them out as signals if they sighted a sub. Eventually, practical realities dictated that CAP aircraft be armed with actual bombs and/or depth charges so that sighted subs couldn’t escape attack while CAP planes waited for reinforcements.

Women in wartime: CAP’s unsung heroes

Though women were not allowed to fly coastal patrol missions, they were very much in evidence in the CAPs search and rescue missions and other wartime services. Local CAP crews had the advantage of being able to speed to locations where downed planes or ships were thought to be located and could fly at lower altitudes than Army aircraft. Pilots were familiar with the terrain and could spot wreckage more easily than Army pilots. Volunteers flew these missions for subsistence pay only, often spending thousands of dollars from their own pockets. CAP members also guarded airfields and patrolled waterways to provide protection against saboteurs. They flew courier missions and mercy missions (blood and organ transplant, and patient transport) and provided air and ground transport for non-CAP key personnel.

Gulfamerica inferno off Jacksonville

On the night of Friday, April 10th, the tanker Gulfamerica was torpedoed and set ablaze off the coast of Jacksonville, clearly visible to hundreds of watchers onshore, who also reported seeing bursts of gunfire from the submarine. The Navy announced the attack the following Tuesday, April 14th, when it acknowledged the tanker had been sunk with the probable loss of 19 lives. At the same time, the Navy announced that a small merchant vessel had been torpedoed a day earlier with the apparent loss of one life. Survivors from both torpedoings — 29 from the tanker and 39 from the merchant vessel — were taken to Jacksonville hospitals.

Miami suffers blackouts as tourists flee

In Miami, tourists left in droves and Miami was ordered first to dim, then to completely blackout, the lights of the city. In addition to the Civil Air Patrol, citizens of every kind formed a Coast Guard auxiliary to report submarines. Yachtsmen, fishing scows, sailboats, all carried out search and rescue operations, to save victims of German U-boat attacks from the waters off the coast.

Turning the tide

Monthly shipping losses continued through April 1942 but by that time, the U.S. military had finally begun to organize its defenses. In addition to reinforcing coastal air patrols, convoys including warship escorts were formed to escort merchant ships, as many as 60 ships per crossing. New radar technology, and the breaking by Allied intelligence services of the U-boat’s sophisticated Enigma code also penetrated the secrecy which had previously aided U-boat operations.

The cost of the conflict

After May 1942, losses declined, and by September, only one ship was lost. No others were sunk for the remainder of the year. Nevertheless, the damage had been severe. Americans all along the U.S. east coast experienced fuel shortages and gasoline rationing. By the end of July 1942, the Germans had sunk nearly 400 vessels, including more than thirty-five ships off the coast of Florida.

Proud legacy of vigilance and protection

The CAP coastal patrol served the nation for 18 months of the war, from March 5, 1942 to August 31, 1943. By that point, the regular forces had been built up sufficiently to take over the CAP’s coastal patrol missions. However, the CAP continued to provide important additional support services for the duration of the war, its usefulness undiminished. At the conclusion of the program in August 1943, the CAP had expanded to 21 bases across the country.

Today, the Civil Air Patrol still proudly serves as an auxiliary to the United States Air Force (USAF).

Above L-R: CAP coastal patrol tracks a U-boat, WWII; Miami News, February 8, 1942, early diagram indicating range of U-boat strikes; women in the CAP, photo courtesy United States Air Force (USAF).