German U-boat wreck discovered off North Carolina coast U-576 rests 240 yards away from freighter it sank during 1942 sea battle 30 miles from United States coastline Ships hit by U-boats off the US East Coast (and Gulf) Their presence in American waters was not intended for "show" but to help win World War II for Germany. While in recent decades it is has been revealed that German U-boats patrolled the coast of North Carolina during World War II, little known is that they also were here during World War I. Michael Lowery, a guest lecturer with the National Park Service, revealed this aspect of Outer Banks history during a presentation Jan. 12 in the Ocracoke Community Center. The abbreviated name "U-boat" comes from the German word unterseeboot, … U-boat sank tanker Bluefields, but was sunk by Allied planes, ship Wrecks rest 240 yards apart on bottom of Atlantic (CNN) A World War II German U-boat, sunk during the … See our larger map for the Cape Hatteras. During World War I, three U-boats sank ten ships off the Tar Heel coast in what primarily was considered a demonstration of German naval power. She was part of the 3rd U-boat Flotilla, and was ready for front-line … “Within three weeks of the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Germans were beginning to sink ships off the East Coast,” said NOAA superintendent David Alberg, who studies maritime battles. The submarine was laid down on 11 March 1940, at the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft yard at Flensburg, launched on 7 May 1941, and commissioned on 28 August 1941, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Hellmut Rathke. German submarine U-352 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. A German U-Boat has been spotted 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina - 72 years after it sank during a Nazi mission +13 Wreckage of the submerged U-576 … But by 1942, U-boats had become bigger, faster, and more deadly. German U-boats lost off the US coast. The red line shows the approximate route for the North Atlantic convoys.