GREENLAND PATROL

Eastwind in 1944

German prisoners 

Captured German trawler

In November 1944, U.S. Coast Guard cutter Eastwind - a heavily armed icebreaker - and an Army task force captured a clandestine German weather station operating in Greenland during World War Two.

Eastwind also seized the German trawler Externsteine supplying the weather station code-named Edelweiss II.

The cutter was ideal for the Coast Guard's "Greenland Patrol" aimed at protecting the strategic Danish territory and rooting out Nazis. Clandestine weather observations from Greenland aided German forecasting for the Atlantic Ocean.

Launched in June 1944, Eastwind's main battery consisted of two twin-mount 5-inch deck guns. Anti-aircraft weaponry consisted of three quad-mounted Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft autocannons and six Oerlikon 20 mm auto-cannons. The cutter also carried depth charge projectors and anti-submarine weapons.

"Her hull was of unprecedented strength and structural integrity, with a relatively short length in proportion to the great power developed, a cut away forefoot, rounded bottom, and fore, aft and side heeling tanks," according to Wikipedia.

SADDLE PATROL

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2021

Photos: U.S. Coast Guard

Three-thousand horses hit the sand and joined the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II to expand coastal security.

“The beach patrols provided a presence that re-assured the American homefront that they were being protected by a vigilant armed force," Chris Havern, a Coast Guard historian, told the Coast Guard Compass, the service's official blog.

The patrols were credited with locating Nazi saboteurs put ashore in New York and Florida, according to Compass.

The horses were acquired from the Army. Training programs were established in Pennsylvania and South Carolina. Coast Guard-trained dogs sometimes accompanied the beach patrols.

At the end of the war, the horses were sold at auction.

CUTTER ICARUS

Coast Guard cutter Icarus

Survivors of U-352 eat lunching

Arriving with survivors at Charleston

Photos: National Archives

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Icarus WPC-110 sank a German U-boat on May 9, 1942 and rescued the survivors - delivering the first German prisoners of war to the continental U.S. in World War Two.

It happened in "Torpedo Alley" off the coast of Cape Lookout, North Carolina - the only U-boat kill credited to a Coast Guard cutter.

Here's how it unfolded, according to Wikipedia:

"Icarus picked up a contact on sonar, and a torpedo exploded nearby. Icarus anticipated the presumed U-boat's next move and dropped 5 depth charges at the site of the prior torpedo explosion. As sonar picked up a moving target again, Icarus moved to intercept, dropping two more depth charges, apparently hitting their target as bubbles were seen rising to the surface. Passing the spot again, Icarus dropped three more charges.

"Shortly thereafter, U-352 surfaced, and Icarus opened fire with machine guns and prepared for a ramming maneuver. When the U-boat's crew abandoned ship, Icarus ceased fire, releasing one last depth charge over U-352 as it sank beneath the water.

"The only U-boat previously sunk on the East Coast had gone down with all hands, and there were no standing orders concerning the rescue of survivors. Icarus had to call both Norfolk and Charleston before receiving authorization to pick up U-352's survivors.

"Forty minutes after the incident, Icarus picked up 33 of its crew, including U-352's commander, Kapitänleutnant Hellmut Rathke, and delivered them to the Commandant of the 6th Naval District Charleston Navy Yard the next day."