The Controversy of PE-56
23 APRIL 1945
THE CONTROVERSY OF PE-56
On this day the 62 sailors aboard the Navy’s “Eagle”-class patrol craft PE-56 were carrying out the plan of the day, patrolling for German submarines off the Maine coast. Duty on board such vessels left some wanting, clearly the “real” action in the war was elsewhere than off the coast of Maine. Even so, by this date the war in Europe was winding down and the U-boat scourge that had menaced our eastern seaboard in 1942 had long passed. All seemed quiet.
Then suddenly around mid-morning an incredible explosion buckled the 200-foot sub chaser, sending a column of seawater 300 feet into the air. PE-56 fell back to the water in pieces, spaces flooded, men scrambling to reach safety. MM2c Harold Peterson was thrown against a locker below deck but stumbled to a ladder, grabbing an injured and delirious shipmate on the way. But as he struggled his way up the ladder a torrent of inrushing water swept the shipmate from his grasp. Quickly Peterson was confronted with another sailor, this one in a panic over his inability to swim! “Whether you can swim or not, get away from this ship!” shouted Peterson as he grabbed the sailor. They both jumped, but the unlucky shipmate never came to the surface.
A fortunate few made it into the water in the seconds it took PE-56 to sink. As they clung to wreckage in the chilly Spring air, several claimed they saw a submarine surface nearby–in fact five were able to describe a distinctive red and yellow emblem on the sub’s conning tower. Only thirteen were ultimately rescued, Peterson among them.
A Court of Inquiry in the weeks that followed ruled the ship had fallen victim to an accidental boiler explosion, despite the eye-witness reports, despite the fact that PE-56’s boilers had just been overhauled two weeks prior, and despite the observation that no other boiler explosions had been recorded on the seven other “Eagle”-class boats then in service.
Then, German records declassified after the war revealed that U-853 had been operating off the New England coast at the moment of the sub chaser’s demise. Indeed, the sub was destroyed off Rhode Island twelve days later, becoming the last U-boat to be sunk off our coast in WWII. U-853 is known to have borne a crest on her conning tower depicting a red horse on a yellow shield. Decades later, in June 2001, Secretary of the Navy Gordon England re-investigated the case of PE-56, overturning the findings of the Court of Inquiry and crediting her loss to enemy action. Her crewmen are thus authorized the Purple Heart Medal for their sacrifices. Late, to be sure, but made right!
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 30 APR 23
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Associated Press. “Navy Changes Ship’s Records.” The Daily Texan on-line, www.tspweb02.tsp.utexas.edu/webarchive/08-30-01/2001083003_s03_new.html., 30 August 2001.
Cressman, Robert J. “Historic Fleets: Prepared for the Work of War.” Naval History, Vol 28 (4), August 2014, pp. 14-15.
Friedman, Norman. U.S. Small Combatants Including PT-Boats, Subchasers and the Brown-Water Navy: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1987, p. 43.
Wynn, Kenneth. U-Boat Operations of the Second World War Vol 2: Career Histories, U511-UIT25. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1998, p. 173.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: It has been theorized that the 1945 Court of Inquiry might have been sensitive to concerns in the local area. The suggestion that enemy subs were operating off New England might have frightened the local population out of proportion to the true risk, might have raised marine insurance rates, and might have negatively impacted the fishery industry so valuable at the time.
The lay press carried the story of Gordon England’s modern re-investigation of the PE-56 case, but in doing so frequently referred incorrectly to the sub chaser as “USS Eagle.” Though classes of warships are often named for the lead ship in the class, in this case the 50 PE subchasers built during WWI were not given individual names. The “Eagle” name originated with Henry Ford, whose Detroit automobile plants were converted to mass-production of the sub-chasers. Ford envisioned his gunboats would be “eagles to sweep the sea” of enemy subs–thus the “Eagle”-class designator. By 1941 eight “Eagle” boats remained in active service, PE-56 being the only one of these lost to enemy action. Today a marker near the Portland Head Light at Cape Elizabeth, Maine, remembers the loss of PE-56.
