Didn't know the name of the operation, but I thought it was pretty common knowledge that German u-boats prowled the east coast during WW2.
I agree with
MacLeod. What you get taught at school about historical events very much depends on your location.
If I am not mistaken it was only a few years ago that a sunken German U-Boot (submarine) was found rather close to the East Coast. Made rather big headlines as it was one they had been searching for in a completely different area.
Quite a lot of ships both from the US and Germany sunk each other off the coast near New York. That was the main shipping route and hence the main target. I suppose that kids in NY might be more likely to learn about that than for example school children on Hawaii.
ETA: here we are: U 550 was found south of Nantucket almost exactly 2 years ago
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/wissen/s...er-entdecken-deutsches-u-boot-wrack-1.1425001 in German
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-550 in English