About Those Four U-boats That Surrendered at Portsmouth Navy Yard

From the New England Historical Society "The sensational surrender of four Nazi U-boats at Portsmouth Navy Yard."

Portsmouth Navy Yard is in Kittery, Maine, close to the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 

On May 15, 1945, onlookers thronged the shoreline trying to get a glimpse of a German U-boat being towed up the Piscataqua River to surrender at the Navy Yard.  Germany had surrendered May 7, 1945,  bringing World War II closer to an end.

Over the next five days, three more U-boats arrived.  Once at the yard, the submarines were studied for their technological advances and their cargos.

U-boats usually traveled in groups called Wolf Packs during the war.  In the early days against England and especially in 1942, when the U.S. entered the war, they had remarkable success.  They sank about 3,000, mostly merchant vessels.  They also killed  more than 5,000  seamen and passengers.  This was the Battle of the Atlantic.

More people died in their attacks than did at Pearl Harbor.

--GreGen