Strike America or hold the Atlantic?

Admiral Karl Dönitz is watching from Lorient an opportunity the war has not yet offered. Since 11 December 1941, the United States has been at war, and its Atlantic seaboard remains staggeringly exposed. Cities from New York to Miami enforce no blackout whatsoever; at night, tankers and freighters stand out in perfect silhouette against the glow of neon signs and lighthouses, presenting themselves like training-range targets to any prowling U-boat. No organized convoy system yet exists in these waters.

Dönitz can arm only a handful of Type IX U-boats, the sole vessels with sufficient range to reach the American coast and return. Hitler is pressing for submarines to be redeployed to the Mediterranean to support Rommel and the Afrika Korps, and to Norway to defend a coastline the Führer considers threatened. Meanwhile, the North Atlantic convoys continue pouring war matériel and provisions into beleaguered Britain: interdicting them remains the Kriegsmarine's primary strategic objective.

Caught in this three-way pull, Dönitz must decide without delay. He can launch Operation Paukenschlag, the drumbeat, dispatching his scarce Type IXs to strike at point-blank range off American ports; concentrate instead all available forces against the transatlantic convoys, the vital lifeline of British resistance; or yield to the high command's demands and redeploy his submarines to the Mediterranean and Norway, abandoning the western Atlantic to its own turmoil.