Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Wreck of U-Boat Found Near New Orleans
There’s exciting news for all you World War II buffs — a U-boat was recently discovered in Lake Ponchartrain near New Orleans. Local lore has long told of a Nazi submarine in the lake, and there are vague references to it in Kriegsmarine archives. But it’s never been proven — until now. The local paper, The Statesman-Picaroon, has the story; but it’s behind a paywall. I can’t link to it, so here’s a synopsis.
Early in 1942, Admiral Donitz, commander of the U-Boat arm of the Kriegsmarine, authorized unrestricted submarine warfare off the east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. One piece of the Gulf operations was a secret mission to cripple the vital oyster industry around New Orleans. The idea was to interrupt the US supply of oysters (a well-known aphrodisiac), thus driving down birth rates and leaving the US with insufficient manpower to fight a protracted war.
The mission was assigned to the U-1369, an older Type VIIA boat under the command of Kapitanleutnant Gustav von Merkin, an ardent Nazi and the grand-nephew of the famous German naval hero, Der Captain Katzenjammer (LINK). The U-1369 left Bremerhaven in February 1942; and after an uneventful trans-Atlantic crossing marred only by persistent problems with the batteries, she arrived in the Gulf in late March. The mission was timed to coincide with peak oyster harvesting season, which would allow von Merkin to destroy virtually the entire oyster fleet.
U-1369 entered Lake Ponchartrain via Lake Borgne undetected and spent several days reconnoitering the area. Before dawn on the appointed day, von Merkin brought his boat to the surface and went to battle stations in preparation for his attack on the unsuspecting oyster fleet.
Unfortunately for the boat, he was spotted by a young Civil Air Patrol cadet on his first solo flight. Cadet Alphonse Boudreaux, flying a Vought O-1 3/4 “Brown Pelican” observation plane, spotted the U-1369. Without a radio to report the sighting or weapons to attack, Boudreaux did what he could and made a series of simulated strafing runs on the submarine in the hopes of spoiling its attack. His efforts succeeded and caused von Merkin to order an emergency dive.
Eager to do anything to damage the boat, Boudreaux threw his thermos of turtle soup at the sub during a pass. Against all odds, the thermos struck the submarine and lodged in one of the air intake vents, preventing it from closing. The lake’s brackish water rushed in as the submarine dived and flooded the battery compartment.
Due to the aforementioned battery problems, the water caused deadly chlorine gas to form and to quickly fill up the boat. The lethal gas forced the crew to abandon the boat as it sank to the bottom and buried itself in the mud of Lake Ponchartrain. The entire crew escaped, with the only casualty being the boat’s mascot — a pet chicken named Heinrich, who was heard clucking the Horst Wessel Lied (as the crew had trained it to do) before being overcome by the chlorine gas.
Cadet Boudreaux returned to Moisant Army Airfield and reported his encounter. However, Boudreaux was known to spin some rather fantastic yarns. Plus, he had had a few too many sazerac cocktails before (and during) the flight. No one believed him nor did anyone make an effort to locate the boat, which would have been difficult as Boudreaux, in his impaired state, could not remember where he had spotted U-1369. Boudreaux went on to serve honorably throughout the war and became a local celebrity in the years after. He insisted to his dying day that he had attacked a Nazi submarine in Lake Ponchartrain — a claim now proven true.
U-1369’s crew made it to the south shore of the lake and attempted to blend in with the local populace. New Orleans has a sizeable German community, and they would have succeeded if not for their native Aryan arrogance. They refused to split up and made little effort to keep a low profile. Soon, they were all picked up by the local FBI office after trying to tip the strippers on Bourbon Street with reichsmarks and insisting that they have bratwurst with their red beans and rice rather than andouille sausage.
When interrogated, the crew, to a man, refused to answer questions, fearing that the US would get classified documents and equipment (especially the ENIGMA machine*) if the boat were salvaged. None gave any answer other than name, rank, and service number. Getting no information whatsoever from the crew, the feds sent them to a local POW camp where they herded crawfish at local farms and worked in the Tabasco mines of southern Louisiana for the duration.
After the war, most went back to Germany, but some stayed. It is of note that Gustav von Merkin stayed in Louisiana, married, obtained US citizenship, got a law degree from Tulane, and even ran for governor once in 1960, garnering a hefty share of the electorate with the slogan “You Can’t Do Much Worse Than What You’ve got Now!”
U-1369 was finally discovered by a team from Robert Ballard’s Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute that was investigating Titanic sightings on Lake Ponchartrain**. During routine sonar soundings, the team came upon the wreck and confirmed its identity after several dives. Despite repeated calls to explore the sunken ship, there are currently no plans to do so. Soon after U-1369 was found, PETA successfully sued to have it designated a war memorial that contains remains of war dead. PETA claimed, successfully, that Heinrich the Chicken’s remains qualify as legitimate war dead because, as PETA’s lead lawyer in the suit said, “Chickens are people too.”
* The ENIGMA machine was a coding machine invented by the noted German mathematician, Professor Edvard Nigma of the Berlin Institute of Numbers. The machine turned plain text messages into a series of intricate riddles that could only be decoded by a similar machine on the receiving end. The Allies eventually broke the ENIGMA code by using a BAT (Bedeutung Aus Torheit) computer developed by an American industrialist and his young ward.
** Titanic on Lake Ponchartrain
Published in Humor
You had me going for just a moment until you got to the part about the oysters.
Oysters, a thermos and a singing chicken?! You really require a willing suspension of disbelief.
An admirable campaign slogan indeed. I’ve been contemplating a write-in campaign for Bozo the Clown in the local mayoral contest: “Even funnier than the clowns on the ballot!”
Great! I hear that working in the Tabasco mines is hot work!
An excellent day to commemorate such a nefarious plot! And kudos to Cadet Boudreaux, likely a rajin’ cajun. Think of how many of us boomers might not be here today but for him.
LOL! Well done!
I tell you! All we need to do is to cripple the oyster supply of the U.S. and the war is over!
Well played sir.
But of course! It is April 1st
Had me going right up to here. (Of course, on more careful reading, the oysters should have done it…not enough coffee yet this morning.)
When I first saw the headline my thought was it was possibly a post-war prize U-boat taken to New Orleans for evaluation, sunk there (See Operation Deadlight) and subsequently forgotten. When it was clear by the 2nd paragraph that it was lost on a war mission, I checked today’s date. Hard confirmation that this was a date-specific article came with the U-boat’s number and type. There were no U-boats with numbers between U-1308 and U-1405 and a Type VIIA would have been incapable of reaching New Orleans, even if it refueled mid-Atlantic.
Besides, the only U-boat kills claimed by CAP aircraft were off the Atlantic coast and neither kill was confirmed postwar. (Disappointing to me when I was a CAP cadet back in the day.)
Texas singer, songwriter Kinky Friedman ran for Governor in 2006. His campaign slogan was “Why the Hell not?” I had heard he was running for Governor but not about the slogan. I was in Jersey City NJ traffic, behind a truck with Texas license plates when I first saw the Kinky for Gov “Why the Hell not?” bumper sticker. I almost spritzed coffee out my nose guffawing. It’s my all time fav.
Actually (little-known fact) they were arrested not for “enemy action,” but for an early and even worse, extraordinarily transgressive example of “cultural appropriation.”
Ballard apparently has not yet revealed his Titanic-adjacent discovery that the Loch Ness Monster also found a worthy home in Louisiana’s largest inland body of water. Rumor has it that “Nessie” (gender and pronouns unknown) hitched a ride on the U-Boat, having been advised by Rudolf Hess (following his Scottish parachuting escapade–not a joke, folks) that it was time to leave the UK, since strenuous military US involvement in the war was off the table, and British surrender was inevitable.
Oysters were designated a vital war industry in WW 2. They were the cocktail party canape of choice then, much like bacon-wrapped shrimp is what the elites eat today.
Thanks for the comment.
None of this is out of the ordinary in New Orleans.
Earl Long, a typical, colorful, nutcase Louisiana politician, was governor up to 1960, so the slogan just wrote itself.
Herding crawfish isn’t much easier, but at least you’re outside and not 100′ down in a mine. The crew actually did pretty well down here as their innate German efficiency made them prized workers. Many natives took a more relaxed approach to their jobs, so annual output in both industries increased substantially when they started working.
Reminded me of another story…
Alphonse was quite the character, a local her and a real ladies man. The National World War II Museum has an exhibit titled Cajuns in the Conflict: Native Louisianians in the War that features him.
The family name is an old one that was revered in Imperial Germany. His grand-uncle, Der Captain, was quite the character, too. I hope you clicked on the link and read up on him.
No one in any position of authority gave credence to Cadet Boudreaux’s story, so no official report was made about the sinking. The incident was only recently verified, so I’m sure that official records have not yet been updated.
This incident is just another example of how our knowledge and understanding of WW 2 continually evolves.
@she, thank you for the comment and additional information. The “Ness and Hess” information is a perfect example of how historians collaborate to deepen our understanding of history.
FYI: This fine article by Call Me . . . Tim is part of his application to join the Trump prosecution team.
Those of us who’ve bothered to read the packaging know the tabasco mines are real.
Cadet Boudreaux was an LSU grad. Randy Newman the composer, singer met him in the Big Easy and after hearing his story included a subtle reference to him in His song “Rednecks”:
I doubt some even call Him Tim.
Nicely done “SCM…Tim”! The thermos stuck in air vent; ingenuous. Probably wouldn’t fool a submariner but you got me! I wanted to believe it! :-)
Great post Tim. Just as a side note, a true story about my late father-in-law. He was a farm boy from North Dakota. He joined the Merchant Marine in WWII to escape the farm. On his first voyage his freighter was sunk off the lower east coast by a German U-Boat.
He and his shipmates that made it onto a lifeboat watched as the U-Boat surfaced. They thought they were going to be hit by machine gun fire. The U-Boat skipper sent them some food and told which direction to row to get back to the American coast.
The irony is my late father was in combat on his first submarine war patrol in the Pacific as an 18-year-old.
That’s him! And to think some people say he’s a figment of my imagination.
That’s high praise indeed, coming from you. I thoroughly enjoy all your posts and am glad you liked it.
Readers have been calling me on certain factual inconsistencies, but it’s all true. I swear!