Starting weeks after Hitler declared war on the United States in
mid-December 1941 and lasting until the war with Germany was all but
over, 73 German U-Boats sustainably attacked New England waters, from
Montauk New York to the tip of Nova Scotia at Cape Sable. Fifteen
percent of these boats were sunk by Allied counter-attacks, five
surrendered in the region, and three were sunk off New England--Block
Island, Massachusetts Bay, and off Nantucket. These have proven
appealing to divers, with a result that at least three German naval
officers or ratings are buried in New England, one having killed himself
in the Boston jail cell. There were 34 Allied merchant or naval ships
sunk by these subs, one of them, the 'Eagle', was not admitted to have
been sunk by the Germans until decades later. Over 1,100 men were thrown
in the water and 545 of them made it ashore in New England ports; 428
were killed. Importantly, saboteurs were landed three places: Long
Island, Frenchman's Bay Maine and New Brunswick Canada, and Boston was
mined. Very little was known about this.