In those days the order of the day was " No information that will make us look bad" The IJN had subs prowling off the coast of California too.
Still, not as bad as the propaganda {outright lies} that Hitler fed his own troops. My dad was USN armed contingent aboard a couple of liberty ships during the war. Ferrying troops and supplies into North Africa and bringing German POWs back to the states. The German soldiers had been told that NYC had been reduced to a smoking ruin at the hands of the third Reich. Dad told me that the look on their faces as they pulled into New York harbor, with everything still standing tall and proud, was nothing short of utter disbelief and astonishment!
Pop was on watch one night when a ship in the convoy had a Squirrelly captain who turned on his lights for fear of running into the ship in front of him. A few minutes later... BOOM! BOOM! Out went his lights.
