LTC Allan F. Pogorzelski, CAP   and LTC Axel I. Ostling, CAP 

Additional research indicates the following source. The book is "Jeeps in the Sky" (the story of the light Plane) written by Lt Col Andrew Ten Eyck with a forward by Colonel Robert L. Scott, Jr. for AFIPR, Headquarters Army Air Forces. The copyright is 1946 by Army Air Forces Aid Society, First Printing in the U.S.A. by the Tenny Press.

Page 27 ....

" Although the victory against the submarine was a joint operation of the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, and the CAP, it is a fact that the U-boats disappeared in direct proportion to the spread of CAP operations. The Berlin radio commenting on the dwindling effectiveness of its underseas campaign, complained of the unexpected appearance of the fleets of civilian aircraft as the main hazard which forces the U-boats out of our coastal waters. "

I would submit this information written in 1945-46 as direct source information source.

I believe Colonel Scott, in addition to serving in the American Volunteer Group in China before our being attacked on December 7, 1941, served as the Air Force Commander of CAP, while Colonel (B/G) E. Johnson was in Germany interviewing German Prisoners on Special Assignment (TDY) after the close of hostilities.

"A final evaluation of CAP's coastal patrol came many months later – and from the other side of the Atlantic. After the German surrender, one of Hitler's high-ranking naval officers was asked why the Nazi U-boats had been withdrawn from the United States coastal waters early in 1943. The answer was exploded in a curt guttural: 'It was because of those damned little red and yellow planes!'" p. 45, Flying Minute Men, Revised edition, 1988. There is no citation in the book for this statement.

Personally, I doubt CAP was the major reason, though it may have contributed. CAP could, however, been a thorn in the side of the U-boat crews. One of those painful irritations. See the next quotation.

Quoting Michael Gannon, in reference to CAP aircraft, "For their part, U-boat commanders cursed the persistent presence of what they called the "yellow bees." p.356, Operation Drumbeat, Harper & Row, 1990. Unfortunately, there is no citation for this either.

"The Battle of the Atlantic," Admiral Samuel Eliot Morrison, Little Brown & Co.,1947 one of a comprehensive series of books on the Navy in W.W.II has a good section on CAP, but doesn't mention German reactions to CAP.

Book I Volume I (1948 appx) might be the answer, I believe the quote came from an interview conducted by then Colonel Johnson on detached service, interviewing German Officers after the surrender. (Or perhaps Colonel Smith or Robert Scott of the God is my Copilot fame.)

"One time, a C.A.P. pilot saw a submarine cruising inside the shallow water area, but the sub paid no attention to the harmless little plane overhead. The pilot said he flew low enough to throw a rock or a wrench and hit the submarine, yet the U-boat in shallow water went moving along just like a cabin cruiser. When it was ready, the sub went out through a gap in the shoals and sank a ship.

I asked Gill Wilson if he thought the C.A.P. pilots, dressed in civilian clothes and having no military status, would object to carrying bombs on their puddle-jumpers. As usual, Wilson was enthusiastic and asked, "Where do we get them?"

Accordingly, I had special bomb racks built at one of our depots bomb racks that could be attached to these small planes in a very short time. We also built a cheap bombsight, and thereafter most of the C.A.P. planes carried bombs-fifty pounders the pilots could drop on the submarines, knowing full well that if they were taken prisoner in civilian clothes, they would not be considered part of our armed forces, but guerillas.

Before the C.A.P. had finished their task in the war, they had flown more than twenty-f our million miles, mostly in single-engine, small land planes, well out over the ocean. They also performed other tasks. They flew courier service; they towed targets for antiaircraft batteries; they tracked for searchlight crews; and they flew sentry duty along the Mexican border looking for spies. They spotted forest fires and helped put them out; they were used in time of emergency when there were floods or other disasters; they located one lost plane after another in mountainous and wooded terrain. In addition to all this, they furnished a reservoir of cadets and enlisted men for the Army Air Forces. They did a magnificent job all through the war, and they did sink some submarines."

Re- history of a local unit-- perhaps memory or records of an old time member--

Most wings and squadrons dutifully destroyed all records after 2-3 years as suggested in regulations of that time. The local unit might invoke the local newspaper sense of community pride and run an article seeking old time members or family members of former members and pick their mind.

Oh that they would had computer and video cameras in the olden days-- would make the work of the historian so much easier.

The "Brave Coward Zack" by the Smiling' Jack Author, direct quote to him from Colonel Johnson.

CHAPTER 40
A BIG COMPLIMENT FROM A NAZI COMMANDER

"After eighteen months of anti-sub Civil Air Patrol, the military had enough planes built to take over all anti-submarine operations. C.A.P. pilots who had flown over 300 hours on ocean coastal patrol were eventually awarded U.S. Army Air Force Air Medals. We were very proud of this.

Colonel Earle Johnson remained C.A.P. national commander until World War I I was over. Then President Harry Truman assigned Earle to a very unusual job.

Colonel Earle's special assignment was to go to Japan and Germany, pose as a

magazine writer, and interview civilians and military prisoners to get their reactions about losing the war and having their countries occupied by Americans and Allies.

After the world tour, Earle stopped by Stuart, Florida, to visit us. We went deep-sea fishing, and he told the following story.

While visiting a war criminals' prison in Germany, he managed to get an interview with the ex-commander of the Nazi submarine "wolf pack" that had operated off the U.S. Atlantic coast. Earle asked, "Commandant, what do you consider to be the most outstanding factor of your defeat off the Atlantic coast of America?"

The commandant angrily replied, "It vos dose gottdamned leetle red and yellow airplanes!"

Naturally, C.A.P.'s contribution was only a small part of the amazing, mammoth war effort by the millions of loyal Americans and Allies, but it is comforting to know that we worried th' hell"

That's a first hand source--- not hearsay..