LIVING HISTORY
13
Sea Frontier, the Navy command center for the East Coast.
The command center’s diary for early 1942 is peppered
with submarine sightings and reports of ships ablaze at sea,
but there was little that could be done because the Navy and
Coast Guard lacked defensive capabilities to protect the vast
coastline against the stealthy invaders.
The Germans ultimately wanted to cripple American shipping
in order to topple Great Britain, and they came close
to achieving that goal. In the first four months of 1942, the
U-boats were deadly effective, sinking 173 ships on the East
Coast and sending hundreds of merchant mariners to their
deaths. That was the case on Feb. 22 when the W.D. Anderson
was enroute from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Philadelphia with
a full load of crude oil.
Local residents are unlikely to know the name of Hans-
Georg Friederich “Fritz” Poske, the commander of German
U-boat U-504, but his legend lives on in the wrecks he left
along the Florida coastline. Poske recorded his observations
when hunting down the W.D. Anderson, which was
desperately trying to evade the U-boat by zigzagging along
the coast.
“After 45 seconds hit center, with an immediate violent
detonation of the gasoline cargo,” Poske wrote. “In seconds
the ship is broken and in flames from forward to astern. After
12 seconds a second explosion in the stern that breaks off. The
disappearance of the particular parts is not distinguished in
the flaming sea.”
ONLY ONE SURVIVOR
Aboard the ship was 23-year-old Frank Leonard Terry, a
Pennsylvanian whose job was wiper; he was alone on the fantail
when it exploded.
He jumped into
the water as flaming
oil spread from the
wreckage. None of
his fellow crewmen
escaped the flaming
wreckage, and all of
them died. A fishing
boat found Terry
and brought him to
the Coast Guard in
Stuart.
The day before,
Poske had sunk the
Republic, another
tanker ship, much
closer to shore. He
described the attack
in his log: “The
speed was carefully
matched, the steamer
runs … quite close
under land. Medium
Hans-Georg Friedrich “Fritz” Poske was commander
visibility otherwise
of U-504, the German submarine
which lurked off Jupiter Inlet in February 1942,
somewhat hazy and
sinking the Republic and the W.D. Anderson.
bright moonlight.
Shot from tube III and IV. After 150 seconds, two detonations,
hit under the bridge and aft of the engine room, where sparks
were flying in the air. When the steamer is seen again the
stern is already under water. He settles quickly by the stern.” >>
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