In 1942, German submarines were waging a devastating campaign along America’s eastern seaboard, sinking hundreds of Allied merchant ships within sight of the coast. But amid that deadly onslaught, a small British trawler and her crew made the ultimate sacrifice—and today, their graves remain forever British soil on U. S. territory.
When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, the Kriegsmarine redirected its U-boats to the American East Coast. The waters off the Outer Banks of North Carolina became a killing zone. German submarines sank hundreds of ships there, and the U. S.
Navy, unprepared for anti-submarine warfare, struggled to respond effectively. To help defend the vital transatlantic shipping lanes, the Royal Navy dispatched 24 armed trawlers to operate from American ports. One of these was HMT Bedfordshire, a 443-ton vessel manned by 37 sailors from the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy. Early on the morning of May 11, 1942, the Bedfordshire was patrolling off Ocracoke Island when she was sighted by the German submarine U-558.
The U-boat’s first torpedo missed, but the second struck the little warship directly, completely destroying her. Her captain and all 36 crewmen were killed. Three days later, two bodies washed ashore on Ocracoke Island. The Royal Navy white ensign draped over them confirmed the identity of the missing vessel—they were Sub-Lieutenant Thomas Cunningham and Ordinary Telegraphist Stanley Craig.
The U. S. authorities buried the two men in a small plot next to the main cemetery in Ocracoke village. Soon after, two more bodies came ashore, but they could not be identified.
They too were laid to rest beside the British dead. A fifth body, also unidentified, washed up nearby on Hatteras Island on May 21. He was buried beside the grave of a British merchant mariner who had died a month earlier. In late May, a sixth and final body was identified as Seaman Alfred Dyson, who came ashore at Swan Quarter, North Carolina and was buried at a cemetery in Creeds, Virginia.
The people of Ocracoke and Hatteras never forgot the British sailors who died protecting their coast. In 1976, the bicentennial year of U. S. independence, both communities decided to permanently honor them by declaring that the two small cemeteries would be leased in perpetuity to Great Britain.
That act created two tiny parcels of British land on American soil. The cemeteries are formally administered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which maintains all British and Commonwealth war graves around the world, including providing the headstones. The United States Coast Guard and local residents help maintain the sites, and the Royal Navy’s white ensign permanently flies over both. Every year on May 11, a remembrance ceremony is held at both locations to honor the lost crewmen of the Bedfordshire and the oiler Delfino, which was also sunk during World War II.
Local officials and community members stress the importance of the continuing commemoration. Those sailors gave their lives to keep supply lines open between the United States and the United Kingdom, which was essential to ultimately defeating Nazi Germany. During the 1940s, little was reported about the battles taking place just off the American shore. But the people of Ocracoke Island have kept the memory alive.
A plaque at the cemetery reads, in part: “There is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England. ”
The wreck of the Bedfordshire, discovered in 1980, is protected as a war grave under British law. To the local islanders, the plot by the main cemetery is simply known as “forever England.
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The final resting place of those British sailors remains a small but lasting piece of the United Kingdom on American soil.