Abstract:
Williams describes an incident of World War II having a North Carolina connection. On May 11, 1942, off the North Carolina coast, the German submarine U-558 sank HMS Bedfordshire, a British naval ship on submarine patrol. All thirty-seven British sailors were killed. Days later four bodies from the ship washed up on Ocracoke Island. Residents buried the four in a small plot. Later the United States ceded the land to England in perpetuity for one dollar. Each May memorial services are held there by military representatives from Canada, England, and the United States.