In January 1942 the Germans would bring the war to the United States with Operation Paukenschlag (Drumbeat), the restrictions against attacking U.S. shipping were no longer in effect and Dönitz now had the chance to move his U-boat war out of the dangerous waters controlled by the Royal Navy and take advantage of the unprepared American coast.

In late December 1941 Dönitz assembled a wolfpack of six U-boats (only five were able to sail on time) and had given their commanders sealed orders that were not to be opened until the boats had passed 20° west. They knew they were about to embark on a long cruise because the boats were overfilled with supplies, whether they knew they were heading to the United States or not they must have suspected it after all the U.S. had just entered the war on Dec. 7 and any smart U-boat commander must have heard the chatter about taking the war to the U.S.

Drumbeat was the first foray of the U-boat to the U.S. east coast and the five boats, U-66, U-109, U-123, U-125 and U-130 were the pioneers for Hitler's navy. The orders were to have the boats on station and begin operations on January 13, 1942 and on that day only two of the boats were in the assigned positions and only one boat, U-130, was able to make a successful attack.

The first ship sunk during the operation was the 5,427 ton freighter Friar Rock, a straggler from convoy SC-64 out of Sydney, Nova Scotia. Two torpedoes sent the ex-Italian ship to the bottom with thirty crewmen, the first deaths in what would be a bloody war off the American coast. Korvettenkapitän Ernst Kals sank a second ship, the Norwegian freighter Frisco, a few hours later. The remaining boats began sinking ships the following day, but U-123 had made a small detour en route to sink the Blue Funnel liner Cyclops, which one could argue was the first ship sunk during Drumbeat, but she was sunk on Jan. 12, the day before the official start date of the operation.

It should be noted that the attacks off the east coast were not a surprise to the Americans, they had in fact been informed by the British that a major operation was underway and that the most likely area was the east coast between Nova Scotia and the Carolinas. However the warnings failed to help as the Americans were completely unprepared to deal with a U-boat threat, the lack of escorts and crews trained in fighting submarines cost the lives of many a sailor. The same was true for the British in 1939, but in over two years of war the British had gained an abundance of experience in fighting submarines, experience paid for with the blood of thousands of British and Commonwealth sailors.