UNDERSTANDING “THE FOG OF WAR”: ARCHAEOLOGICAL, HISTORICAL, AND GEOSPATIAL MODELING OF NORTH CAROLINA’S TORPEDO JUNCTION

Abstract

This thesis studies the German U-boat attacks on Allied merchant ships off the coast of North Carolina as part of the Battle of the Atlantic in the spring of 1942. Position fixing methods were not precise during the mid-20th century, and confusion during the attacks often led to misreported locations. This study seeks to reconstruct successful attacks by utilizing personal accounts, weather reports, merchant and U-boat routing information, U-boat and Allied attack and counter-attack methods, as well as the location of the wrecked vessel. By reconstructing and plotting the attack from beginning to end, imprecise and false coordinates can be interpreted in comparison to a vessel’s true location, and a pattern may appear between the attacks. Once this pattern is understood, the “fog of war,” or the uncertainty of battle, may be lifted, and the true sequence of events will be understood for vessels in this study and potentially for those that have yet to be found elsewhere.