Dönitz and Operation Drumbeat
runs his U-boats from his headquarters in Lorient. The Battle of the Atlantic is being fought against British and Canadian convoys with uneven results since the Allies improved their escort systems. For months, Dönitz has identified a far more accessible target: the east coast of the United States.
The ports of New York, Norfolk, and Tampa are operating on a peacetime footing — lights on, unescorted shipping lanes, oil tankers with no protection. Dönitz calculates that 5 or 6 U-boats sent there would cause carnage in the first weeks. But Hitler has repeatedly forbidden any hostile act against the United States, which is not yet at war, to avoid giving President Roosevelt a casus belli before Japan is ready to strike. Dönitz's previous requests have all been refused.
He can wait for a political opening before renewing the proposal, to avoid friction with an OKM already unsympathetic; quietly prepare the operational plan and position 2 submarines off the American coast without formal authorisation, ready to act the moment the order comes; or formally renew his proposal to high command in November 1941, hoping the situation will move fast enough for it to be approved.
Should Dönitz wait for a political opening before renewing the proposal, quietly prepare the operational plan without formal authorisation, or formally renew the proposal for operations against the American coast?
Dönitz renews the proposal formally. The refusal holds until 11 December 1941: the day after Pearl Harbor, Germany declares war on the United States. Hitler lifts all restrictions within hours. Operation Drumbeat (Paukenschlag) is launched on 13 January 1942: 5 U-boats strike the American east coast. Over 6 months they sink more than 400 Allied ships in those waters — a naval catastrophe that historians call the zweite glückliche Zeit, the second happy time for the German submarine arm. Hitler's caution in November 1941 had paradoxically delayed one of the most effective campaigns of the U-boat war.
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