The killing machine known as Unterseebooten-507 skulked, undetected, through the murky yellow water at the mouth of the Mississippi River, practically within shouting distance of the Louisiana shore. Six full months after Nazi Germany’s declaration of war against the United States, not a single airplane – military, civilian, or otherwise – was surveilling Chandeleur Sound as U-507 crept closer and closer to the mainland.
On orders from Kriegsmarine U-boat Admiral head Karl Dönitz, U-507 and her insidious partner, U-506, had spent the previous two weeks pummeling merchant ships in the Gulf of Mexico. Hitler and Dönitz were hellbent on using submarine attacks to undercut American morale and undermine the Allies’ capacity to wage war.