The Greatest Pinch of WWII narrates the extraordinary journey of a German sailor who survives the sinking of the U-85 in March 1942 and plays a pivotal role in the capture of another German U-boat, the U-144, with its encryption devices intact. Many of his shipmates from the U-85 were recovered and taken into custody aboard the USS Roper DDS 247, the attacking warship. Those who did not survive, totaling nine, were buried with honors in Hampton, at the VA National Cemetery, and their graves are recognized annually by representatives of the German consulate. The original German Enigma coding machine, recovered from the ship during a dive in 2001, is on loan from the German government to the Atlantic Graveyard Museum in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
The Greatest Pinch of WWII begins with the USS Roper sinking the U-85, one of several German U-boats operating off the East Coast of the US. A German sailor named Stephon survives the sinking but finds himself adrift at sea, thirty miles off Cape Charles, Virginia. A friendly northeaster carries him into Chesapeake Bay, where he is rescued by local watermen and taken to Smith Island. Familiar with procedures on the U-boats, Stephon is determined to rejoin a German crew. With the help of an American teenager, Quinton, he begins signaling along the coast. He makes contact with another U-boat, the U-144, and succeeds in getting some doctored charts out to this second U-boat.
