New book portrays life in WWII Manteo through the lens of the Boat Building Company

By Kip Tabb | Outer Banks Voice

The front lines of WWII were on the doorstep of the Outer Banks in 1942. In the first six months of that year, more than 360 Allied ships trying to cross the Atlantic were sunk by German U-boats. It was a time when enemy submarines waited in ambush off the coast of North Carolina.

“In the first six months of 1942, there were 80 ships sunk off the coast of North Carolina, and 1700 lives lost,” said LeVern Davis Parker, author of the newly published book, Manteo during World War II & Manteo Boat Building Company , in an interview with the Voice.

What happened off the coast of the Outer Banks in WWII is a piece of history that has, Parker feels, inexplicably been forgotte

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