Lights Out

You have to be of a certain age to have seen newsreels or documentaries showing the dimming of the lights of Broadway during WW II. The Great White Way was turned dark in the evenings in an effort to keep potential German or Japanese bombers from finding Times Square.

At least that's what I always thought. And while the dimming well might have been to make land identification harder, it was also done to confuse ships, or U-boats from using the lights of the shoreline to navigate their way into New York Harbor.

This last element of subterfuge was gleaned from an obituary of a U-boat captain who just passed away at the truly advanced age of 105. Just when you might think there's only a few left from WW II up pops someone from the other side who had a more than interesting life.

The headline to the NYT obituary written by Richard Goldstein goes:

Reinhard Hardegen, 105, Who Brought U-Boats to America's Shore, Dies

If you're of a certain age the other way, you might not fully understand what the headline means. You might think Mr. Hardegen was responsible for bringing a type of aquatic amusement park ride to the States.

Well, no.

The U-Boats, or underseet boats, were a fleet of German submarines that were deadly to Allied North Atlantic shipping. Many a merchant or troop ship was torpedoed and lost due to their deadly presence in ocean waters. They took their toll on shipping and the lives of the crews.

And Mr. Hardegen, as a lieutenant in the German Navy, did his part for his cause sinking 19 merchant vessels in all in two operations that brought him so close to New York waters that he observed the lights of homes and cars in the Rockaways, and the illumination of Coney Island's Ferris wheel.

Captain Hardegen was familiar with New York waters. In 1933 as a training cadet he saw New York City at night from the top of the Empire State Building. The building had just been completed in 1931.

On one of his missions  in 1942 he approached the entrance to New York's Lower Bay and marveled at the lit skyline. The skyline and tourist books helped him navigate Long Island and New York harbor waters. I remember reading that in 1933 Hitler had all the maps of Germany made unavailable to outsiders. How old Captain Hardegen's guide books were is not known, but they proved helpful.

So, the dimming of lights in New York City was also to reduce the ambient light that illuminated the shoreline. But Captain Hardegen already had a head start on where things were. He apparently was so successful at his missions that we was awarded the Knights Cross by Hitler, who also got an earful from a man who had strong opinions about Hitler's shortcomings in establishing a more offensive navy.

There is nothing in the obituary to tell us if Mr. Hardegen visited the United States after the war and might have once again walked through the city he once stalked from the confines of a U-boat.

It is not known if Captain Hardegen actually called Hitler a dummkopf  when he gave the Fuhrer a tongue lashing, but he did get to live to 105.  Certainly proving there is no such thing as an uninteresting life.

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