Torpedo Alley
| Torpedo Alley | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War II, the Battle of the Atlantic, and the Second Happy Time | |||||||
USCGC Dione escorting a convoy through Torpedo Alley, 1942 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
|
United States United Kingdom | Germany | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Harold Raynsford Stark Ernest King Royal Ingersoll Daniel de Pass |
Karl Dönitz Robert-Richard Zapp Rolf Mützelburg | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
~1,512 killed at least 87 ships sunk |
145 killed 40 captured 4 submarines sunk. | ||||||
Torpedo Alley (also called Torpedo Junction or the Battle of Torpedo Junction) was a region off the coastline of the North Carolinan Outer Banks, named for the high number of attacks on Allied shipping by German U-boats in World War II. An estimated 80 to over 100 Allied ships were sunk, mostly during the Second Happy Time in 1942. Torpedo Alley encompassed the area surrounding the Outer Banks, including Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras. In all oceans around North America the German submarines sank about 400 ships with 5000 deaths. The U-boats were defeated by the convoy system that went into effect belatedly in 1942.