Different Battles

The rescue off the Florida coast of the crew of a tanker torpedoed by famed German U-boat Commander Peter Cremer and a later encounter with three German U-boats, such were the exploits of Coast Guard Auxiliary volunteer Kit Johnson in 1942. 

Later in life, Author Rody Johnson wanted the full story of these adventures, but his father had developed Alzheimer’s. His search led first to his father’s fishing companion who had participated in the action. To get the tanker story, Johnson poured through Merchant Marine files and talked with men who had served on these ships. Finding the U-boat commander seemed impossible. Most had been killed during the war. But in a series of surprising developments, he found Cremer and visited him in Germany. This is the story of a search, of the lives of Kit Johnson and Peter Cremer in war and old age, and of the author’s discovery of a hero.