It was one of these larger planes armed with depth charges that made the first CAP "kill." Captain Johnny Haggins and Major Wynant Farr, flying out of Atlantic City "CAP-Coastal Patrol Base 1", New Jersey, had just become airborne in a Grumman Widgeon (an amphibian, a plane that can land on land or water) when they received a message from another CAP patrol that "contact" had been made about 25 miles off the coast. The other patrol was low on fuel and was being forced to return to base, so Haggins and Farr sped to the area, while flying a scant 300 feet above the ocean.

When the Haggins-Farr patrol reached the area, no sub was in sight. Very shortly thereafter however, Major Farr spotted the U-boat as it cruised beneath the surface of the waves. After radioing to shore, and knowing that they could not accurately estimate the depth of the sub, the crew decided to follow the sub until (they hoped) it rose to periscope depth, when they would have a better chance of hitting the sub with their depth charges.

For over three hours they shadowed the U-boat and eventually ran low on fuel. Just before they had to turn back, the U-boat rose back up to periscope depth. Captain Haggins swung the plane around quickly and aligned it with the sub. He then began a gentle dive to 100 feet where he leveled of behind the sub’s periscope wake. Major Farr pulled the cable release and the first depth charge plummeted into the water just off the sub’s bow. Seconds later a large water and oil geyser erupted, the explosion literally blowing the sub’s forward portion out of the water. Shock waves from the blast rocked the patrol plane. As the sub sank below the surface, it left a huge oil slick as the target for the second run.

On the second run, the remaining depth charge was dropped squarely in the middle of the oil slick. After the second geyser had settled, pieces of debris began to float to the surface. The CAP Coastal Patrol’s first kill was confirmed!