Operation Teardrop

Part of the Battle of the Atlantic, World War II

A liferaft carrying survivors from U-546 in the midst of a group of U.S. Navy destroyer escorts on April 24, 1945

Date	April–May 1945
Location	North Atlantic Ocean
Result	Allied victory

Belligerents

Germany

United States

Canada

Commanders and leaders

Eberhard Godt

Jonas H. Ingram

Strength

11 submarines

4 escort carriers,
42 destroyer escorts

Casualties and losses

218 killed,
unknown wounded,
33 captured,
5 submarines sunk

126 killed,
unknown wounded,
1 destroyer escort sunk

Operation Teardrop was a United States Navy operation of World War II conducted during April and May 1945 to sink German U-boats approaching the United States East Coast that were believed to be armed with V-1 flying bombs. Germany had threatened in propaganda to attack New York with V-1 flying bombs and V-2 missiles. After the war the Allies determined that the submarines had not been carrying either.

Operation Teardrop was planned during late 1944 in response to intelligence reports which indicated that Germany was preparing a force of missile-armed submarines. Two large US Navy anti-submarine warfare task forces were set up. The plan was executed in April 1945 after several Type IX submarines put to sea from Norway bound for North America. While severe weather conditions in the North Atlantic Ocean greatly reduced the effectiveness of the four US Navy escort carriers involved, long patrol lines of destroyer escorts detected and engaged most of the German submarines. Aircraft of the Royal Canadian Air Force supported this effort. Five of the seven submarines in the group stationed off the US were sunk, four with their entire crews. 33 U-546 crew members were captured, and specialists among them abusively interrogated. One destroyer escort was sunk, with the loss of most of her crew. The war ended shortly afterwards and all surviving U-boats surrendered; interrogation of their crews found that missile launching equipment was not fitted.

In late 1944, the Allies received intelligence reports which suggested that Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine was planning to use V-1 flying bombs launched from submarines to attack cities on the east coast of the United States. In September of that year, Oscar Mantel, a spy captured by the US Navy when the submarine transporting him to Maine was sunk, told his Federal Bureau of Investigation interrogators that several missile-equipped U-boats were being readied. United States Tenth Fleet analysts subsequently examined photos of unusual mountings on U-boats at bases in Norway, but concluded that they were wooden tracks used to load torpedoes. Further rumors of missile-armed submarines emerged later that year, including one from Sweden passed on by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. The British Admiralty discounted these reports, and assessed that while V-1s could be potentially mounted on Type IX submarines, the Germans were unlikely to devote scarce resources to such a project.

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