four nameless survivors landed from U-boat attack, Caribbean, Spring 1942

This anonymous group of Allied survivors of U-boat attack in the spring of 1942 derives some of its charm from the very fact that they were simply some of the more than 6,000 sailors cast into the sea by 111 German and Italian submarines in the Bahamas area in that terrible spring. The photo also illustrates the cosmopolitan composition of the crews of these ships – crew were drawn from all over the world. The photo was found in an old folder of images kept at NARA – the National Archives and Record Administration in College Park, Maryland, in 2010.