Hi, I am writing a radio piece about a story my Grandmother used to tell me about a sunken U-boat and I am hoping y'all can help me. Basically the story goes that at some point during the Second World War a U-boat was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico and ticket stubs from shows in New Orleans where found in the uniforms of the drowned German sailors.
Now, it doesn't take much more than a cursory search to figure out that this is a total urban legend. Part of a paranoid hysteria spawned from the fear people had of the success the U-boats were having along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts during early to mid 1942. A 1st page only google search will come back with several versions of the story from all over eastern North America from Newfoundland to Galveston.
It is my understanding that there were some sabotage and espionage missions which were undertaken. But these stories are different. They exist to underscore either the audacity of the German Uboatmen or the level to which they could rely on German-American traitors.
So my question is if anyone has a lead on an original source. Were these rumors just the result of a culture of fear and speculation only. Or were they planted? Some government agency hoping to remind everyone to trust no one and look over their shoulders or maybe a newspaper man cashing in on the war frenzy. Anything that points me in the direction of a verifiable printed account would be awesome. Thanks.
U-boat scares are common across the United States and Canada in both World War I and World War II. Even in Alaska. Though Alaska is separated from Germany by two oceans and a continent, that didn't stop people in both world wars from fantasizing about German raids.
One of the most famous examples I can think of is a gentleman named Edward Krause, who lived in Alaska in 1917. He had been arrested in Juneau, the territorial capital (for Alaska was a territory until 1959) and was awaiting execution for murder.
Krause was originally German but had become a naturalized citizen. While on Death Row, he escaped jail, and city residents started connecting nonexistent dots. Krause was part of a German plot, they concluded. He was a spy, and he would soon meet a German U-boat and make his way back to Germany after having murdered a good Alaskan.
Less than three days after his escape in April 1917, Krause was discovered, half-starved, on a nearby island and shot on the spot.
In fall 1914, there were fears that German cruisers or submarines would attack Vancouver, Seattle or Victoria. Indeed, reports of the German threat were so strong that Washington, D.C. and New York City newspapers published as "fact" that a German cruiser had attacked Prince Rupert, British Columbia and robbed the town's banks and coal depot.
If you're interested in why U-boat fear was so great, you might try David Ropeik's How Risky Is It, Really? which goes into the psychology of fear. It's not a history book, but it's helpful.
I guess I should have been more clear to say that many versions of this story exist in print but they came from many years later and are always printed as something someone heard.