How A Notorious Nazi Sub Brought World War 2 to Georgia in April 1942

During World War 2, American cities and coastlines were darkened for fear of potential German attacks. And in Georgia, those fears became reality on the night of April 8, 1942, as a Nazi submarine brought the distant war to the Georgia coastal channels and beaches with three daring moonlight attacks off St. Simons Island.

The Esso Baton Rouge was one of three ships attacked and sunk by German sub U-123 near St. Simons Island on April 8, 1942.Photo byGeorgiaHistory.com

Just off the coast, a darkened American ship slid silently through calm waters, silhouetted against the moonlight rising behind the quiet island. The oil tanker SS Oklahoma was making a delivery run, sailing north loaded with oil from a refinery in Louisiana.

Suddenly, just after midnight, an explosion erupted as a torpedo struck the Oklahoma near the engine room.

An hour later, another explosion erupted, this time from a torpedo strike on another oil tanker, the Esso Baton Rouge.

Before the sun peered over the horizon, the American steamship SS Esparta also was struck and sunk.

All three ships were victims of the notorious Nazi submarine, U-123, which was credited with sinking a total of 44 ships during its career.

The explosions shattered windows on St. Simons. Rescued crew members were sheltered at the Coast Guard Station on St. Simons Island. Twenty-two sailors were dead, and five of the unidentified would be buried at Brunswick's Palmetto Cemetery in a grave marked "Unknown Seaman -- 1942."

World War II had come to Georgia, and rumors spread that German troops were landing on the coast, according to contemporary newspaper reports. Today, the story of those attacks is memorialized at the Home Front Museum on St. Simons Island. The museum occupies the former Coast Guard Station and houses relics, photos and verbal history from those dark days in the 1940s.

U-123's luck eventually ran out, and it was sunk by depth charges from a US Navy aircraft in March 1943 off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

For more on the Home Front Museum and the attacks by U-123, visit OurTravelCafe.com

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