A complete, authentic record of the Cape Cod U-boat attack is still
lacking. Occasionally, however, a new bit of information is added to
the story by one who was at the scene. One of the best anecdotes was
told me by a physician who had a cottage on the shore and sat with a
telephone in his hand, observing the shelling and giving a running
account of the attack to the _Boston Globe_.
After the war this gentleman made a crossing on the Leviathan. He fell
into conversation with a German steward, mentioning that he was from
Cape Cod. The German asked if he had, by chance, ever heard of a U-boat
attack there during the war, and then proceeded to give an accurate
description of the Orleans attack. Thus, the doctor-reporter, who
had scored the biggest newspaper scoop in Cape Cod journalism and an
erstwhile member of the U-156 crew met in mid-Atlantic.
The German chuckled: “Yah! we had some fun on that cruise. You didn’t
know, did you, that some of us went ashore one night in a rubber boat
and attended a movie in your Beverly, Massachusetts!”
The only effort to repulse the attacking U-boat was made by a lone
flier from a Naval station at nearby Chatham. He lacked ammunition and
had to resort to bold bluffing. After diving a couple of times over the
submarine, he made a final low swoop and let fly a monkey wrench at the
heads of the crew standing on deck.
Some time ago an article I wrote about the Cape Cod attack was
reprinted in a digest magazine. A retired navy officer, in a little
town in Pennsylvania, read it. He wrote me: “Well do I remember that
dull overcast Sabbath morning, as I was the fellow who threw the monkey
wrench.” And, he invited me to drop in, if I ever got around his way,
and he’d tell me “the whole story.”