In mid-August 1918, as the Allies were beginning the big push that would eventually bring the war “over there” to an end, the people at the Jersey Shore were experiencing it in their own backyard. On Aug. 12, the U-117 had sunk the Norwegian steamship Sommerstadt, northeast of Barnegat Light, and on the morning of Aug. 13, the U-boat was fired on by the British steamer Pyrrhus. Later that day, the U-117 was laying mines off Barnegat Inlet when a target was sighted.

Capt. C.H. White was prevented from talking to the press due to wartime censorship, but he told naval intelligence, “My…