Part 1 [KTB 161]
Part 2 [KTB 163]

In subsequent years, with the cooperation of the United States Government and the citizens of Ocracoke Island, this small plot was dedicated to the British Government and is now an official English cemetery. It can be viewed today on Ocracoke Island. Permanent grave markers are present and a British Flag flies continuously over the site to remind all who see it of the brave men who fought in WW II and died in the defense of democracy. It is also a reminder of the close ties by this country to our mother country, England.

Cape Lookout

Cape Lookout, with its fine natural harbor, is located five miles east of Beaufort, North Carolina. During early colonial history, it was an ideal sanctuary for pirates. The Cape was a beautiful, isolated barrier with only a lighthouse until early World War II when again, it became a ‘haven’ for desperate seafaring men. The German submarine menace on the North Carolina coast in the winter of 1942 forced the Navy to form a ‘bucket brigade’. This consisted of a group of ships that would only sail during daylight hours and spend their nights anchored in the harbors such as Charleston, Cape Lookout and the Chesapeake Bay. Those of you who may have visited the area after the war remember seeing buoys for submarine nets that remained rusting on the beach.

Early Mined Harbor

One of the ‘bucket brigade’ harbors was a specially mined harbor in the ocean between Hatteras Inlet and Ocracoke Inlet. The idea was to put U. S. merchant ships in the harbor at night, which was surrounded by Mark 6 contact mines.

In theory, this sounded good – but as a practical matter, several of our own ships were sunk by the mines when they failed to enter the harbor properly. In 1943, a Navy minesweeper was dispatched from Norfolk to clear this minefield, as the harbor was no longer used. The Mark 6 contact mines were considered ‘unsweepable’ because instead of a cable, they were anchored to the bottom with chains. This proved an interesting and exciting time for the ship! However, after several months, most of the mines were swept and the minesweeper proceeded to the Pacific for further duty.

Many years after the war, one of these mines was brought by a trawler, which had snagged it, to the dock at Jack’s Store in Silver Lake on Ocracoke Island. Apparently, the fisherman did not know what it was – and hammered on it for several days, thinking it might be a treasure from Blackbeard’s time! When the Coast Guard heard about, they carried the mine to the northern end of the island to be detonated. On the way there, it fell off the truck – but still did not detonate. Finally, with the aid of the Norfolk bomb squad, it was determined it was still live and with one shot, it exploded. The explosion left a crater 150 feet across, caught the marsh on fire, and the Ocracoke Fire Department ad to be called out. Needless to say, if the mine had gone off in Ocracoke Harbor, there would have been little left of Jack’s Store and the surrounding area.

Some seamen who were on ships torpedoed during World War II still reside in Snug Harbor, a seaman’s retirement home of the Outer Banks about thirty miles north of Morehead City. They can recite their experiences with the U-Boats and subsequent rescue at sea. While I was visiting there, an old sailor sitting in the lobby was overhead to say: “That young author believes all these stories they are telling him.”

Conclusion

Hitler’s refusal to heed his U-Boat Commander’s recommendation of sending more that six submarines to our east coast in early 1942 probably saved the country an oil and sugar crisis. As it was, these still had to be rationed and England’s ability to stockpile was materials for pending operations against the Axis was curtailed. While all such postponements and setbacks cannot be directly linked to the success of the German U-Boats off the American Coast, Dönitz’s submarine offensive unquestionably restricted Allied operations.

During the early part of 1942, the U-Boats were making their mark and the Americans were repeating just what happened in World War I – that is, instead of instituting convoys, they were sending random single ships out to hunt the U-Boats. President Woodrow Wilson had a saying for this action in World War I which was equally applicable for the first months of 1942: “They despaired of hunting the hornets all over the farm.”

For the readers information, this came almost entirely from first-person interviews conducted by Cdr. JAMES CHEATHAM. Guys like JIM make this history come alive – thanks JIM.