After Pearl Harbor brought America into the war in earnest, German Admiral Karl Dönitz saw a ripe opportunity: the vast and unprotected Atlantic coast of the United States, from Maine to Florida. The U-boat commander dispatched his submarines to cruise the East Coast, where they roamed startlingly near shore—the Germans called this the “Happy Time”—sinking freighters, tankers, trawlers, and barges. The goal was to destroy supplies being produced to feed the Allied war effort. The U.S. Navy was slow to organize an escort system for coastal shipping, and ships were sunk in full sight of
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