Historical sign above Nauset Beach in Orleans, Massachusetts
(Photo - Organic Photography)
(Photo - Organic Photography)
On the warm morning of July 21, 1918 – during the last year of the First World War - a new prototype of German submarine surfaced three miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts and attacked an unarmed towboat and her four barges. A handful of the shells fired by the U-boat’s two deck guns struck Nauset Beach, giving the modest town of Orleans the distinction of being the first, and only, spot in the United States to receive fire from the enemy during the entire World War.
Coming to Cape Cod’s defense that momentous day were a hodgepodge of average American citizens – doctors, fishermen, vacationing cottagers, young children - as well as two groups of first responders that could not be more opposite; the waning United States Life-Saving Service and the fledgling air arm of the United States Navy.
In what would end up being one of their last hurrahs, lifesavers, who were stationed on the beach in Orleans, launched a surfboat under heavy enemy shellfire and rowed in the direction of the thirty-two sailors trapped aboard the tug and barges. It was a situation Cape Cod’s surfmen never imagined being in; they were far more accustomed to rescuing sailors from wooden schooners caught in Nor’easters than from the jaws of an enemy submarine.
Meanwhile, in the sky above, rickety seaplanes from the local Naval Air Station dive-bombed the enemy raider with payloads of TNT. It was the first time in history that American aviators engaged an enemy vessel in the western Atlantic.
Although upwards of one thousand citizens watched the spectacle from shore, the “Attack on Orleans” is a story very few Americans, outside the proud town of Orleans, have ever heard.
Coming to Cape Cod’s defense that momentous day were a hodgepodge of average American citizens – doctors, fishermen, vacationing cottagers, young children - as well as two groups of first responders that could not be more opposite; the waning United States Life-Saving Service and the fledgling air arm of the United States Navy.
In what would end up being one of their last hurrahs, lifesavers, who were stationed on the beach in Orleans, launched a surfboat under heavy enemy shellfire and rowed in the direction of the thirty-two sailors trapped aboard the tug and barges. It was a situation Cape Cod’s surfmen never imagined being in; they were far more accustomed to rescuing sailors from wooden schooners caught in Nor’easters than from the jaws of an enemy submarine.
Meanwhile, in the sky above, rickety seaplanes from the local Naval Air Station dive-bombed the enemy raider with payloads of TNT. It was the first time in history that American aviators engaged an enemy vessel in the western Atlantic.
Although upwards of one thousand citizens watched the spectacle from shore, the “Attack on Orleans” is a story very few Americans, outside the proud town of Orleans, have ever heard.
The Arm of Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Map of the Attack and Where the Shells Allegedly Landed
Map of the Attack and Where the Shells Allegedly Landed
