German U-boats in America Obverse

While on patrol off of the east coast of the US, charged with protecting Bremen, one of Germany’s new merchant submarines, from British warships, the German navy submarine U-53 paid a brief visit to Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, on October 7, 1916, where the captain and crew received courtesy visits from US Navy officers stationed there. The next day near Nantucket Lightship, U-53 proceeded to sink several ships bound for England with contraband cargo after their crews were given time to disembark into lifeboats. The last two ships were sunk as US Navy destroyers arrived on the scene to assist those in the boats. The British and other allies were outraged both at the submarine’s reception in the US and also by the fact that US forces, albeit still neutral, had done nothing to stop the Germans.

On US soil, French President Henri Poincaré and English Tommy attempt to persuade a top-hatted US President Woodrow Wilson of the danger of the German submarine lurking on the horizon; around: RAENKE-SCHMIEDE BEI DER ARBEIT (“conspirators at work”)