 It was this legislation that enabled the country to take on the Axis powers a few years later, but not before extensive losses on the East coast, which was crawling with German submarines by the end of 1941.That year the Germans sank 1,232 Allied and neutral ships worldwide, including those manned by the Merchant Marine, and the following year was even worse.The Allies would lose 1,323 ships, while Germany's submarine losses totaled just 87.