U-Boats Offshore

by Edwin P. Hoyt

Story of what happened in the early days of World War II when Nazi U-boats were sent against the east coast of America. German U-boats were sinking shipping faster than it could be built. They were finally driven away from the American shore by the autumn of 1943.

Genres: History, World War II, Military History, War

Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Edwin P. Hoyt was a prolific American writer who specialized in military history. He was born in Portland, Oregon to the publisher Edwin Palmer Hoyt (1897–1979) and his wife, the former Cecile DeVore (1901–1970). A younger brother, Charles Richard, was born in 1928. Hoyt attended the University of Oregon from 1940 to 1943.

In 1943, Hoyt's father, then the editor and publisher of The Oregonian, was appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt as the director of the Domestic Branch, Office of War Information. The younger Hoyt served with the Office of War Information during World War II, from 1943 to 1945. In 1945 and 1946, he served as a foreign correspondent for The Denver Post (of which his father became editor and publisher in 1946) and the United Press, reporting from locations in China, Thailand, Burma, India, the Middle East, Europe, North Africa, and Korea.

Edwin Hoyt subsequently worked as an ABC broadcaster, covering the 1948 revolution in Czechoslovakia and the Arab-Israeli conflict. From 1949 to 1951, he was the editor of the editorial page at The Denver Post. He was the editor and publisher of the Colorado Springs Free Press from 1951 to 1955, and an associate editor of Collier's Weekly in New York from 1955 to 1956. In 1957 he was a television producer and writer-director at CBS, and in 1958 he was an assistant publisher of American Heritage magazine in New York.

Starting in 1958, Hoyt became a writer full-time, and for a few years (1976 to 1980) served as a part-time lecturer at the University of Hawaii. In the 40 years since his first publication in 1960, he produced nearly 200 published works.

While Hoyt wrote about 20 novels (many published under pseudonyms Christopher Martin and Cabot L. Forbes) the vast majority of his works are biographies and other forms of non-fiction, with a heavy emphasis on World War II military history.

Hoyt died in Tokyo, Japan on July 29, 2005, after a prolonged illness. He was survived by his wife Hiroko, of Tokyo, and three children, Diana, Helga, and Christopher, all residing in the U.S.

Reviews

[Tim Q · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great, but sad history that I hope we never repeat. Our Navy’s bureaucracy and slow response to the threat was frustrating to read. This passage sums it up to me “…at the end of four months of war, the Americans still did not know how to fight U-boats. The information [how to fight a U-Boat] was available since the beginning…Monthly, the [British] anti submarine-warfare units make reports, and with each new development in anti submarine tactics, they brought the body of information up to date…The U.S. naval attaches in London were soon privy to all this confidential and even secret material, and they carefully laid it out for Washington in reports, beginning in 1939.” Pages 116-117

Let’s not forget these brave mariners and never repeat our inability (or lack of interest) to learn from others.

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fast-moving book uses dramatic style to present the history of Operation Drumbeat and subsequent U-boat operations in American waters from the point of view of the United States. Describing itself as the first book ever to recount the story of how U-boats crossed the Atlantic in World War II to attack U.S. shipping (it precedes the publication of Gannon's Operation Drumbeat by more than a decade), the book catalogs in remarkable detail the pattern of circumstances that made this first strike truly resemble the attack of a small pack of wolves among a large flock of defenseless sheep.
These circumstances included a lack of preparedness for war (the bombing of Pearl Harbor had occurred just five weeks before the first sinking by U-123 (Hardegen), waking the Americans to the realities of war but turning their attention to the west coast); the unwillingness of U.S. Navy and merchant ships to work together for the safety of the latter; the lack of escort vessels and air cover; and the slowness of the United States to realize the realize the seriousness of the situation, both on the part of the general population, who objected to dimming lights along the coast because it would hurt business; and on the part of government officials, who mobilized themselves with a lack of alacrity that alarmed their British allies.
Although the true Operation Drumbeat consisted of only the first wave of U-boats to attack U.S. shipping, the book covers the period January 1942-May 1943, during which time the German presence in American waters remained steady. Told mainly from the American point of view, but including some chapters from the Germans' perspective, many interesting incidents are recounted, including the sinking of U-85 (Greger) and U-352 (Rathke); and the landings of German saboteurs on the U.S. coast. The American inexperience in anti-submarine warfare which at first resulted in many false reports of sightings and sinkings (and heavy casualties among the whale population) and the often strained diplomatic traffic between the UK and the United States are also described.
The book includes a bibliography and chapter notes. The only deficiency of this volume is its lack of an index, which would have made it more useful as a reference tool. Even so, this book is an excellent overview of how the United States first experienced U-boat warfare in its home waters.

[Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hoyt begins with the assertion that submarine attacks on shipping close to the US shore at the beginning of World War II nearly shut down the vital lifeline necessary to keep Great Britain in the conflict, but only offers anecdotes about individual attacks. There's little analysis, and the anecdotes get a little repetitive and boring towards the end of the book, but overall it was interesting enough to keep reading.

[Roger Thomas]

Thanks for mentioning Civil Air Patrol. This book could easily be updated to include detailed Ultra info.