A former U.S. Navy blimp pilot says he dropped a bomb that blew a hole in a Nazi submarine off Cape Cod in October 1944. Now, the pilot's commanding officer and other aviators from the same squadron are blowing holes in his story.
Ed Michaud, a commercial diver, claimed recently to have found the sub four miles off Cape Cod in 41 feet of water. Michaud said Joseph Fallon, 72, told him he piloted the blimp that sank the submarine on Oct. 28, 1944. The blimp was one of eight in Squadron ZP-11 out of South Weymouth.Retired Capt. Robert Connor, the squadron's executive officer in 1944, said Fallon's account was untrue.
"I can flatly state that there was no sub sunk in that area at that time," Connor said Friday.
"I certainly would have known if there had been an attack close in shore on the Cape by anything, because that was our responsibility," said Connor, a career officer who retired as assistant secretary of the Navy in charge of operations.
German Embassy officials also have doubts about Michaud's claim.
"We have inquired back home with our U-boat register," said Ekkehard Brose, the spokesman. "Our register seems to suggest that the last known position of that U-boat was just off Iceland."
A spokesman for Michaud said the sinking of U-1226 was an official secret because it was a spy submarine.