Soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a bigger naval defeat killed twice as many Americans. After war was declared, the Germans quickly dispatched 20 submarines to American waters to sink commercial ships. During the first six-months of 1942, German U-boats sank 225 American merchant vessels along the Atlantic coast. As defenses improved, U-boats sailed into the Gulf of Mexico to slaughter ships. More than 4600 American merchant sailors and civilians perished, while Germany lost just eight small U-boats and 332 crewmen. The US Navy was unprepared to defend American waters, so U-boats slaughtered 397 defenseless American ships while President Roosevelt kept this disaster secret.

U-boats Slaughtered Americans in 1942