AUXILIARY U-BOAT ENCOUNTERS

Photo said to be U-333

Editor's Note: The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary helped patrol our shores in World War Two as German U-boats terrorized shipping lanes. This is a fascinating excerpt from the John A, Tilley's book “The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary: A History, 1939-1999."

By John A. Tilley

Actual encounters with Nazi U-boats during World War Two attained a status in U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary lore similar to sightings of the Loch Ness Monster.

The 45-foot cruiser Diane, owned by Mr. Willard Lewis, spotted a submarine late one night off Hillsboro Light, on the east coast of Florida. Lewis and his single crewman looked at each other, simultaneously shouted "Let's go," and steered for the enemy. Asked later what he hoped to accomplish by ramming a steel submarine with a wooden motorboat, Lewis explained, “I aimed at her conning tower, . . . and I might have messed up something." The Diane missed the U-boat by about forty feet.

Shortly thereafter Lewis took command of the 40-foot cabin cruiser JayTee, patrolling out of Ft. Lauderdale. His crew consisted of a character named "Uncle Bill," whose last name no one knew. On the morning of May 6, 1942, Lewis got orders via radio to search for survivors from a tanker that had just been torpedoed. [The American Petroleum Transport Company's steam tanker Halsey]. Before the Jay-Tee could reach the reported position, it sighted a U-boat wallowing on the surface. It probably was U-333, which was trying to repair a damaged hydroplane after an encounter with two Coast Guard cutters and a destroyer.

With the Jay-Tee in hot pursuit (despite the fact that its armament consisted of a Colt .45 pistol), the U-boat tried to dive, but porpoised to the surface. It submerged again, and Lewis began to circle, wondering what he should do next. Suddenly there was a sickening crash and the Jay-Tee rose several feet out of the water. Lewis and Uncle Bill looked over the side and discovered that the U-boat was surfacing directly beneath them. After a few seconds it dived again, leaving the Jay-Tee with a cracked keel and a streak of grey paint on its bottom.

The Germans apparently regarded the patrolling yachts and motorboats as a nuisance (any boat with a radio could report a submarine's position, thereby robbing it of the element of surprise), but not much of a threat. One U-boat supposedly surfaced deliberately alongside a converted fishing boat of the Coastal Picket Force. The German captain emerged onto his bridge and, in perfect English, shouted "Get the hell out of here, you guys! Do you want to get hurt? Now, scram!"