In a letter we received a while ago from ART JACOBSON (2154-1992), we learn that his family had quite a run-in with U-172 when she was under CARL EMMERMANN (315-+-1987). He writes:

“My connection and therefore my interest, in U-Boats is because my father was in the Naval ARMED GUARD and his ship was sunk on 9 July, 1942 by Carl Emmermann in U-172. By the way, my uncle was in the same gun crew and he went through the same ordeal. (HARRY’S NOTE - that was the 8,379 ton SS SANTA RITA sunk by torpedo and gunfire. HERMANN HOFFMANN 1365-1990 was I.W.O. on this boat at that time; later he was C.O.)

Well, guess what? I’ve got two more connections I just found out about. My aunt, my mother’s sister, was a WAVE during WW II. She was part of the cryptological unit. She manned the ‘HUFF-DUFF’ (High-Frequency Direction Finder) radio receivers, intercepted the daily radio transmissions from U-Boats and helped pin-point their locations. I talked to my aunt recently and I got the feeling that there is much more to this story. I recently responded to a ‘PASS-DOWN-THE-LINE’ note I saw in NAVAL HISTORY magazine by a woman author seeking information for a book she is writing entitled ‘THEY ALSO SERVED; AMERICAN WOMEN IN WORLD WAR II’. I wrote her and told her about my aunt. She contacted my aunt and wants to devote an entire chapter of her book to my aunt’s story. The author said there were only 29 women in the Navy doing what my aunt did. I know that there were a lot more WAVEs doing direction finding than 29. My aunt was involved in other things which , up to this point, she has never discussed because she was sworn to secrecy for 100 years by the Navy! My mom thinks she was not only involved in receiving messages but also in sending bogus messages.......probably to the U-Boats!

And for another revelation. My aunt’s husband was a naval officer during WW II. Among other things, he was on the heavy cruiser USS TUSCALOOSA during her service on the North Atlantic and the Murmansk convoy routes. He was actually present during that disaster of all convoy disasters, PQ-17!”

ART - keep us posted and please let us know any updates.