Rising from a surface patrol, the German U-38 has hailed and fired the first shot against any American interest in the war across the bow of the Standard Oil Tanker R.G. STEWART after high noon September 11, 1939. In the initial days of the global conflict that would become World War II, American shipping interests were impeded the world over by the German Navy, but far more were stopped and searched by the British and French in the first year.
Fischer's sense of authenticity and drama are superior, and he was impassioned to portray all the war's participants in realistic light. This work was one from his last winter in Shandaken, New York, before moving to Woodstock in 1940. The edgy excitement of his native country possibly in conflict with his American allegiance had to stir emotions in Fischer, and he was an outspoken political being, with his early firm stance against the rising Communists within the left-leaning artistic circles he frequented.
The U-Boat, while inspecting the American tanker, caught sight of the INVERLIFFEY bound for London from Trinidad, caring aviation fuel. The submarine gave a short chase, captured and sunk the British tanker. The entire crew was rescued in three life boats by the R.G. STEWART and put on the S.S. CITY OF JOLIET. The German submariners had their greater success running on the surface in the early years of the war, before the Allied developed effective anti-submarine warfare tactics. Here, official American War Artist Anton Otto Fischer puts forth a great scene of close perspective and conflict.
