🌊 The Day the War Reached Nauset

On a calm morning at Nauset Beach, the horizon looks harmless.

Seals bob offshore.
Wind moves through the dune grass.
Kids run toward the water.

Now imagine a gray shape rising just beyond the breakers — low, mechanical, deliberate.

On July 21, 1918, that’s exactly what happened.

A German submarine surfaced off Orleans.

And opened fire.

A Sunday Morning on the Edge of the Atlantic

It was just after 10:30 a.m. when the Imperial German Navy submarine SM U-156 surfaced east of Nauset.

World War I was raging across Europe. The United States had entered the war in April 1917. But here on the Lower Cape, the conflict still felt distant — something read about in newspapers, not something you could see from Fort Hill.

Until that Sunday.

The submarine began firing its deck guns at a tugboat — the Perth Amboy — which was towing four barges along the coast. The vessels were carrying stone and cargo southward.

Shells splashed into the Atlantic. Others overshot and landed near the dunes.

Residents along the bluffs and shoreline gathered to watch.

Not fleeing.
Watching.

Because the idea that enemy artillery could be visible from Orleans seemed almost unreal.

But it wasn’t.

Yes — Orleans Was Fired Upon

The event became known as the “Attack on Orleans.”

U-156 fired multiple rounds at the tug and barges. The vessels eventually escaped. No one on shore was killed, though fragments landed close enough to rattle nerves and make headlines.

Contemporary newspapers — including the New York Times (July 22, 1918) — reported the shelling the next day.

It remains the only confirmed World War I attack on the continental United States north of Florida.

Not on a naval base.
Not in a harbor.

Off Nauset.

What the Records Actually Show

Naval logs and wartime reports confirm:

• Submarine: SM U-156

• Commander: Kapitänleutnant Richard Feldt

• Date: July 21, 1918

• Time: Approximately mid-morning

• Target: Tug Perth Amboy and four barges

• Location: Offshore from Orleans / Nauset Beach

• Civilian casualties: None

The submarine did not target the town itself. Its objective was maritime disruption — striking American shipping close to shore.

But the psychological effect was immediate.

A European war had surfaced within sight of Cape Cod.

You Can Still Stand There

There is a historical marker in Orleans commemorating the attack.

The sand has shifted since 1918 — storms have moved dunes, reshaped inlets, redrawn edges — but the line of sight remains.

If you stand on Nauset and look east, you’re looking toward where U-156 rose from the Atlantic.

The Lower Cape likes to think of itself as removed from the world’s chaos.

History says otherwise.

The Cape Has Never Been Isolated

For centuries, this coastline has been tied to global currents:

Whaling routes.
Transatlantic shipping lanes.
The Marconi wireless station in South Chatham transmitting across oceans.

And, briefly, a German submarine cruising just beyond the breakers.

The idea that “nothing ever happens here” is comforting.

It just isn’t accurate.

The Part People Forget

What lingers isn’t damage.

It’s perspective.

On that Sunday morning, residents didn’t hide. They gathered along the shore to see it for themselves.

There’s something distinctly Cape about that.

If you’ve ever stood on Nauset and felt how open the horizon is — how little separates you from the wider world — you already understand the setting.

You just might not have known the story.

Sources & Documentation

• Imperial German Navy records, SM U-156 patrol (July 1918)

• New York Times, July 22, 1918

• Boston Globe, July 22–24, 1918

• Massachusetts Historical Society archives

• Town of Orleans historical documentation

• Orleans historical marker at Nauset commemorating the event