There had been naval attacks off the New Jersey coast in World War I, Bilby reported, but while that war is best remembered for intractable trench warfare and the widespread use of poison gas, in these cases the submarine captains were reluctant to torpedo civilian craft. But for half of 1942, most ships remained defenseless against the unseen torpedoes. Resor didn’t sink right away and was towed to its current resting place, about 30 miles East of Barnegat Lighthouse (Google Earth)Īccording the Bilby, the British warned the Americans about the likelihood of submarine attack. It was only oil spilled from the sunken tankers. One memorable report in a shore town weekly paper at the time reassured residents not to worry about the balls of tar washing up on the beaches. There were only two survivors, Seaman John Forsdal and Coxswain Daniel Hey. “You could see the fire all the way up to Belmar,” Bilby said. 28, 1942, a newspaper commissioned a boat to carry a reporter and photographer out to the ship, Bilby said in a recent interview. Resor off of Manasquan with a full load of crude oil on Feb. When the German submarine U-578 torpedoed the tanker the R. Local newspapers at the time included accounts of the wrecks, describing the glow visible in the distance. WHYY thanks our sponsors - become a WHYY sponsor World War II was being fought right along the Jersey Shore, leaving beaches strewn with washed up oil, wreckage and occasionally the body of a sailor. By day, thick black smoke could be seen belching into the sky as the ship burned and sank, while at night, the glow from the flames could be seen from along the coast. Many of the ships were attacked within a few miles of the beach, he said. From January of 1942 until August of that year, German torpedoes sunk a dozen or more shifts off the coast of New Jersey, with many more attacked off North Carolina, Virginia and the Gulf of Mexico, according to Joseph Bilby, a New Jersey military historian and author. Once the United States entered the war, it became open season for U-boat captains on ships off the East Coast. 8, 1941, German submarines, or unterseeboote, ranged the North Atlantic, seeking to cut off trade and starve the defiant British. The tanker “Dixie Arrow”, was torpedoed off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, by U-71 on 26 March 1942. Even as thousands volunteer to fight in Europe, Africa and the Pacific, war has come to our shores. It’s the opening days of America’s involvement in a war that has already spread around the world, with dire, implacable enemies to the east and the west. You know it’s an American ship, probably an oil tanker from how long that fire has been burning out on the open ocean. The shock and horror of the attack on Pearl Harbor remains fresh and raw as you look out toward a distant orange glow on the horizon. It’s night, and a cold, steady breeze off the Atlantic numbs your nose. Imagine yourself on a beach in Sea Isle City in the winter of 1942.
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