Turtledove
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The Rochester was an American oil tanker sunk by a German U-boat in January 1942. It was the 17th such attack during the war. When the rescue boat brought 30 survivors to port in Norfolk, Virginia on January 31, it was met by newsreel reporters. One of the Rochester crewmen told a reporter that the sub attacked in broad daylight, and many shipmates were killed. As he tried to tell his story further, the reporters had to run away from Naval officers who were coming to confiscate the footage. The reporters got their footage into circulation, and it ran in movie theaters on February 5. The newsreel narrator asked, "And how many U-boats has the Navy sunk? Any at all?"[1]

References[]

  1. See e.g. Atlantis and Other Places, pgs. 91-92.
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