The German U-Boat Raid Off the United States Coast

Highlighting the proximity of German submarine attacks to American soil.

“It will be seen that the submarine campaign has been carried almost to the threshold of America’s greatest shipping centre, and that ships have been sunk on the busiest traffic routes along the coast as far south as Cape Charles.” – Text at bottom.

This dramatic aerial perspective of the Atlantic Coast south of New York Harbor was originally published in the June 1918 issue of Mid-Week Pictorial. The engaging image highlights the audacity of the German U-151 campaign and the startling vulnerability of American coastal waters. A loosely rendered countryside is dotted with towns large and small, with the nation’s capital prominently featured. Along the coastline, victims of the submarine attacks are represented by sinking vessels (though a few were salvaged). More than a dozen of which had been reported lost in the preceding fortnight alone! Some vessels are identified as having been torpedoed, while others were “bombed”; boarded by the U-Boat crew and destroyed with explosive charges after their passengers and crews had been removed.

U-151’s patrol was the first major German U-boat operation against the U.S. East Coast. The ship departed Germany in April 1918 and reached American waters in May. During its roughly two-month combat cruise, it sank over 20 vessels (60,000+ tons of shipping), laid dozens of mines, cut telegraph cables, and spread panic along the entire Eastern Seaboard.