Remember that time a German submarine shelled Massachusetts?

[TexasTowelie]

I missed this article yesterday when it marked the 100 year anniversary of the event. However, I thought the article was interesting so I wanted to share it.


ORLEANS, Mass. (AP) — Over 3,000 miles from the trenches and battlefields of the Western Front, where many hundreds of thousands had already died, residents of Orleans, Massachusetts, were enjoying a typical summer morning on July 21, 1918, waiting for the fog to lift off the shore.

Then suddenly, a German U-156 submarine broke the surface and brought World War I home. Orleans became the only part of the United States to be shelled by the enemy. For a brief moment, "over there" had become "over here."

Just after 10.30 a.m., the heavy thump of something hitting land signaled the first attack on American soil in 100 years.

"I don't know if it was the first shot or the sound of my feet hitting the floor," the late Ruben Hopkins, then a 22-year-old guard at Orleans' lifesaving station No. 40, recalled in a recording. "I was out of my bunk up there in seconds flat."

Read more: https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/remember-that-time-a-german-submarine-shelled-massachusetts/article_1672b581-5de2-5b25-9ad7-491fd19502ff.html