When the War Came to Chesapeake Bay: June 1942

by Martha Hutchens

image by @flowenol, deposit photos

Picture this.

You are swimming in Chesapeake Bay in June of 1942. The United States has been at war for nearly six months, but on this sunny day, all you can hear is the sound of children playing in the sea.

Until a tanker in the harbor explodes, and the war becomes all too real.

While almost everyone knows of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the other attacks on the U.S. remain a footnote in history—probably because they were underplayed at the time. No one wanted Americans to realize how close the war came to their doorsteps.

And, to be fair, compared to the battles raging in Europe and the Pacific, the attacks in the U.S. were minor.

Still, when I went looking for them, I was amazed at how many I found. Some were small, some startling, and most were completely new to me. This is the story of one.

image by @ratpack2, deposit photos

In the spring of 1942, Kapitänleutnant Horst Degen, captain of the U-boat U-701, received orders for a top-secret mission. He was to lay mines at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. He did this on the night of June 12, 1942.

On June 15, the American tanker Robert C. Tuttle hit a mine. One man was blown overboard and drowned. The ship sank, but the shallow water left the stern above the surface. It was eventually salvaged and repaired.

When the Robert C. Tuttle was hit, the captain assumed he had been struck by a torpedo. (Stay tuned for a future post about the area near here nicknamed Torpedo Junction!) He told the ship following him, the Esso Augusta, to zigzag. Those evasive maneuvers caused the Augusta to hit another mine. The ship was crippled, but not sunk.

The U.S.S. Bainbridge, a destroyer escorting the convoy of tankers, believed they were under submarine attack. The crew scattered a series of depth charges. One of these triggered a mine that exploded near the destroyer, but there was no serious damage.

image by @roibu, deposit photos

Later that day, another ship fell victim to Degen’s mines. The H.M.S. Kingston Ceylonite, a British anti-submarine trawler escorting an American cargo ship crippled by a torpedo, ventured too close to a mine. The explosion triggered a secondary blast in the trawler’s magazine. It sank in under five minutes, taking half its crew with it.

By this time, crowds had packed the boardwalk and beachfront at Virginia Beach. They watched with binoculars and field glasses as the war they'd only read about in newspapers unfolded in front of them.

Needless to say, the shipping channel was closed. But before it could be completely cleared, one final ship would find the minefield. On June 17, the S.S. Santore struck a mine and sank, though most of the crew survived.

Two other ports were targeted by other submarines in this mission—Boston and Delaware Bay. No ships were lost at Boston. In fact, the mines remained undiscovered until after the war. One more ship was sunk off Cape May.

There were a surprising number of attacks on the U.S. mainland during World War II, far more than I expected when I began researching this topic. I’ll be sharing more of what I found soon.

Best-selling author Martha Hutchens is a history nerd who loves nothing more than finding a new place and time to explore. She won the 2019 Golden Heart for Romance with Religious and Spiritual Elements. A former analytical chemist and retired homeschool mom, Martha occasionally finds time for knitting when writing projects allow.

Martha’s debut novel, A Steadfast Heart, is now available. You can learn more about her books and historical research at marthahutchens.com.

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