World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC: Winter Omen

Two U.S. passenger-cargo ships, cram-full of servicemen, war stuffs and civilians on war missions, started eastward across the Atlantic in early February. Somewhere at sea, U-boats, probably using wolf-pack tactics, picked them up, kept snapping at their keels. By night, a torpedo sank one of the ships; four days later, the other was sunk. Each ship went down in less than 30 minutes, Some lives were saved. This week Washington, announcing the sinkings, also announced the death toll: more than 850.

The Nazi U-boat fleet, now readying a great spring campaign in the Atlantic, had given the Allies an omen of what was to come.