On this date in 1918, the Germany attacked America!
Well, the Kriegsmarine attacked Massachusetts.
Actually, one U-Boat shelled and sunk a tug off the town of Orleans on Cape Cod, and took a few potshots at the surrounding environs for good measure. Some U.S. Navy seaplanes showed up, some bombs were dropped, the sub gave it up for a bad idea and slunk off to do more normal U-Boaty-type things such as torpedo merchantmen, and everybody involved professionally in the matter seemed a little embarrassed about the whole incident.
Of course for quite some time afterward, every trick of light, loud noise, or low-flying seagull along the east coast was reported as a Jerry submarine.
Incidentally, the U-Boat attack on Orleans was the first time American soil had been fired upon by foreign troops since the War of 1812.
Pancho Villa doesn't count as foreign troops?
ReplyDelete"Of course for quite some time afterward, every trick of light, loud noise, or low-flying seagull along the east coast was reported as a Jerry submarine."
ReplyDeleteThey didn't redeem themselves with that Lite-Brite ditherfest, that's for damn sure.
"Pancho Villa doesn't count as foreign troops?"
ReplyDeleteTechnically he was still an independent contractor at the time.
Technically he was still an independent contractor at the time.
ReplyDeleteYou mean kinda like the ones down there now?
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't even over when the Japanese dropped The Bomb on Pearl Harbor
ReplyDeletehttp://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2008/07/obama_ignorance_watch_1.asp
"Throughout our history, America’s confronted constantly evolving danger, from the oppression of an empire, to the lawlessness of the frontier, from the bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor, to the threat of nuclear annihilation. Americans have adapted to the threats posed by an ever-changing world." B H. Obama, (Who was Born in Hawaii)
I'm still amused that I'm in a state that was successfully bombed by the Japanese and isn't Hawaii.
ReplyDeleteBlasted balloon bombs.
Give him a break. It's not as though he remembers where he was when he heard the news...
ReplyDeleteFor a fascinating read about some Uboat ops off the east coast during WWII, try Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson.
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If they did it today, "Spend it all" Deval Patrick would probably surrender.
ReplyDelete