The US Navy, concerned about the impact of the German announcement on families of "Ranger" crewmen, issued a denial of the German claim. In the radio broadcast dated 15 February 1944, Captain Gordon Rowe, Commander of USS "Ranger", stated:"The story that we were sunk was a coward's trick—spreading anxiety and fear among the innocent... The next day we issued a denial and ... on October 4 we spread panic and chaos in the Norwegian shipping lanes. Only one thing we regret. We kept looking for the Tirpitz but either she wouldn't or couldn't come out... Meanwhile the Ranger, still very much afloat, is doing her job." She patrolled and trained pilots along the New England coast steaming as far north as Halifax, Nova Scotia. Departing from Halifax on 11 August, she joined the British Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, Scotland, on 19 August, with which she patrolled the approaches to the British Isles.