Hitler’s U-Boat War- The Hunted 1942-45

by Clay Blair

  Although his plane was riddled with flak and his gas tanks were leaking dangerously, Cundy made a second pass and dropped the remaining three depth charges. These fell nearby, exploding simultaneously, engulfing U-628 in a “gigantic fountain” of water. The boat was destroyed and sank quickly. Cundy’s aircrew reported thirteen Germans in the water and “several bodies” but only one of the swimmers had a life jacket. There were no survivors.

  Stahl in the U-648 was apparently unable to assist the U-628 survivors and proceeded onward to a refueler and the Americas. However, owing to the U-tanker shortage, he was diverted to be a provisional refueler and never came close to American waters.

  • The IXC U-505, commanded by Peter Zschech, age twenty-four, which had aborted in late June, resailed from Lorient on July 3 in company with five other boats. On the sixth day out, July 8, three British destroyers of a hunter-killer group caught and attacked U-505 off Cape Finisterre. The close depth charges split an external fuel-oil tank. Following the trail of oil, the warships hunted and blasted U-505 for thirty-six hours, a terrifying ordeal for the Germans. After finally shaking the hunters, U-505 returned to Lorient on July 13, once again for extended repairs.

  • The VII U-607, commanded by young Wolf Jeschonnek, which embarked from St. Nazaire on July 10 to plant eight big TMC mines in the harbor at Kingston, Jamaica. For the Biscay crossing, Jeschonnek teamed up with two other outbound VIIs, the U-613, commanded by Helmut Köppe, age thirty-four, who was to lay eight TMC mines off Jacksonville, Florida, and the U-455, commanded by Hans-Martin Scheibe.

  On Jeschonnek’s twenty-fourth birthday, July 13, which he celebrated with a bottle of champagne, a Halifax of British Squadron 58, piloted by Arthur R. D. Clutterbuck on Musketry patrol, sighted the three boats and gave the alarm. A Sunderland of British Squadron 228, piloted by Reader D. Hanbury, joined the Halifax to attack the U-607. Confident of his new quad 20mm and twin 20mm guns and coolly smoking a cigarette, Jeschonnek directed his gunners to repel the Sunderland. According to crewmen of U-607, contrary to policy, Scheibe in U-455 and Köppe in U-613 then dived, leaving U-607 to fight it out alone. She did so until the 20mm guns jammed, leaving her completely vulnerable. The Sunderland killed the quad 20mm gun crew, then dropped a string of seven shallow-set depth charges that utterly destroyed U-607.

  The force of the explosions, which may have included some of the TMC mines, blew seven men into the sea: Jeschonnek; his first watch officer, Egon Horsmann, age twenty-one; the twenty-two-year-old second watch officer; a nineteen-year-old midshipman; and three enlisted men. Hanbury in the Sunderland dropped them a life raft, then remained overhead with the Halifax to direct surface ships to the scene. In due course the sloop Wren of Johnny Walker’s Support Group 2 found the raft and rescued the seven men.

  Köppe in U-613 survived only eleven more days. On July 23, the four-stack American destroyer George E. Badger, commanded by Thomas H. Byrd, which was part of the screen for the “jeep” carrier Bogue and was loosely escorting convoy UGS 12, got U-613 on sonar. In three skilled attacks, Byrd hit U-613 with depth charges and destroyed her, possibly detonating the TMC mines. Shattered wood, mattresses, clothing, mutilated bodies, and a German translation of Poe’s Murders in the Rue Morgue rose to the surface, but no living Germans.

  • The big XB minelayer U-117, commanded by Hans-Werner Neumann, age thirty-six, which sailed from Bordeaux on July 22 to plant sixty-six SMA moored mines off New York harbor. Five days later, on July 27, Control directed U-117, which was following a “southern route,” to divert temporarily and provide fuel to the IXC U 66, commanded by Friedrich Markworth, inbound from the Americas.

  Alerted by a “good” Enigma decrypt, two aircraft from the “jeep” carrier Card, which was supporting convoy UGS 13, launched a Wildcat-Avenger team. They found the U-66 inattentive on the surface on August 3. While a Wildcat, piloted by Arne S. Paulson, bore in, strafed the boat, and drove her under, Richard L. Cormier, piloting an Avenger, came up from behind, but his depth charges and Fido homing torpedo failed to release. In a second pass, Cormier was finally able to drop two depth charges and a Fido, but U-66, although badly wrecked, escaped.

  The strafing by Paulson in the Wildcat caused heavy casualties on U-66. The bullets killed the second watch officer and an enlisted man and fatally wounded another enlisted man. They hit Markworth in the stomach, his first watch officer, Klaus Herbig, age twenty-one, in the knees, a midshipman in the chest, and an enlisted man in the heel. Four others were also slightly wounded. The survivors radioed U-boat Control for immediate help, stating that it was unlikely that U-66 could reach France and suggested an emergency stop at El Ferrol, Spain. In response, U-boat Control directed U-66 to continue the rendezvous with Neumann’s outbound U-117.

  The two U-boats met in the early hours of August 7. Neumann in U-117 sent over his doctor and his first watch officer, Paul Frerks, age thirty-five, who was to take temporary command of U-66 from the badly wounded Markworth. At daylight, as the doctor attended to Markworth and the other wounded, U-117 commenced pumping fuel to U-66. Minutes later an Avenger from Card, piloted by Asbury H. Sallenger, came upon the scene and attacked. Both boats opened up with flak guns but Sallenger and his crew were not to be denied. They dropped two depth charges close to U-117 and climbed out of flak range. The boats hurriedly separated and U-66 dived. The U-117 apparently tried to dive but could not, or stayed up to fight it out. Pilot Sallenger went after U-66 with a Fido but it missed, and for the second time in a week U-66 escaped from intense aircraft assaults.

  Sallenger circled out of range of U-117’s flak guns and radioed Card for help. Twenty minutes later two Wildcats and two Avengers arrived at the scene. The Wildcat pilots, Norman D. Hodson and Ernest E. Jackson, strafed U-117 “unmercifully.” Then the Avenger pilots, Charles R. Stapler and R. H. Forney, bore in with depth charges and Fidos. These destroyed U-117 with the loss of all hands, and possibly detonated her mines. For his heroism in attacking two U-boats alone, Sallenger was awarded a Navy Cross. The other pilots won Silver Stars.

  Unaware of the loss of U-117, Control directed her skipper, Hans-Werner Neumann, to cancel his New York mine-laying mission and to serve as a provisional tanker at locations west of the Canaries. As related, a number of boats returning from the Americas and Freetown sought to refuel from U-117, but in vain.

  • The Type VIIs U-262 and U-760, commanded by Heinz Franke and Otto-Ulrich Blum, respectively, which sailed from La Pallice on July 24. Owing to the shortage of tankers, Control ordered another Type VII outbound to the Americas, U-664, commanded by Adolf Graef, which sailed from Brest on July 21, to refuel U-262 and U-760, then return to France. On the first day at sea, Franke in U-262 reported that an Allied aircraft had hit and damaged the boat, but that he could make repairs and continue.

  Chattering away on radio transmitters, which the allies DFed, these three VIIs met near the equally talky U-66 and U-117 on August 6. As ordered, the U-664 transferred oil to U-262 (by means of a water hose!) in about four hours, not without difficulties. On the morning of August 7, Graef heard—and imprudently reported—distant explosions that he assumed, correctly, to be aimed at U-66 and U-117. In view of all the carrier aircraft present, he postponed his meet with Blum in U-760 by about twenty-four hours, to the morning of August 8. When they did meet, Graef’s men passed the water hose to Blum in U-760y while U-262 lay to a short distance away.

  In the midst of this fuel transfer, a Wildcat-Avenger team from Card appeared out of the clouds and attacked all three U-boats. John F. Sprague in the Wildcat dived to rake the boats with machine-gun fire. All three skippers remained on the surface and manned their new quad and twin 20mm and other flak guns. The heavy flak riddled the Wildcat, which crashed into the sea, killing Sprague. However, his fire had killed U-664’s second watch officer, Heinz Böhme, and a coxswain, Helmut Jendeleit, who had run on deck to disconnect the hose, and wounded three others. The Avenger, piloted by Asbury Sallenger, who had helped sink U-117 the day be
fore, braved the flak to drop two depth charges, but the fire from the U-boats riddled his aircraft as well (killing his radioman) and he was forced to ditch. Later in the day Card arrived in the area and one of her screen, the four-stack destroyer Barry, rescued Sallenger and his gunner.

  Some confusion was to arise as to who did what in this dramatic shoot-out. Franke in U-262 claimed that he shot down one of the two aircraft, but these or perhaps other aircraft damaged U-262 so severely that Franke was compelled to cancel his patrol to the Americas and abort to France. U-boat Control therefore directed Franke to give his newly acquired fuel back to Graef in U-664 and also to Blum in U-760, who were then to resume their patrols to the Americas.

  Later that night, August 8, while running on the surface to charge batteries, the bridge watch of Graef’s U-664 spotted a very large ship in the darkness. Graef pronounced it to be a tanker; the first watch officer, Herbert Stahn, age thirty-four, thought it was a “jeep” carrier. Stahn was right; it was Card and her screen, inexplicably and scandalously unalert. In a botched night surface attack, Graef fired two FATs from forward tubes I and III. The torpedo from Tube I missed; the torpedo in III misfired and had to be ejected. Swinging around, Graef fired a slow T-3 Falke homing torpedo from his stern tube but it, too, missed. Belatedly, one of Card’s screen, a four-stack destroyer, got U-664 on radar, but Graef dived deep and evaded the desultory depth-charge attack.

  At noon on August 9, Graef surfaced to air the boat and charge batteries. At that time an air patrol from Card consisting of a Wildcat, flown by Norman D. Hodson, and two Avengers, flown by Gerald G. Hogan and R. H. Forney, came upon U-664. In the first attack, Hodson in the Wildcat strafed, Hogan dropped a 500-pound bomb, and Forney dropped two depth charges. Graef had intended to fight back but inasmuch as only one of his six 20mm guns would fire, he dived. However, crewmen said later, the green first watch officer, Stahn, was too slow in dogging the hatch and the powerful explosions caught U-664 at periscope depth and blew her back to the surface.

  Confusion ensued on U-664. Some of the green crewmen misinterpreted the boat’s return to the surface as a preliminary to abandon ship and rushed topside. Intense fire from the aircraft killed five of these men. Nine others jumped into the water as Graef was giving the order to redive, and these nine were left in the sea. Leaking badly, U-664 submerged a second time, but the damage was so severe that Graef was compelled to resurface at once and abandon ship. Carrying water, provisions, and a profusion of life jackets, the surviving crew jumped overboard. About seven hours later another of Card’s screen, the four-stack destroyer Borie, fished out Graef and forty-three other Germans and took them on to Casablanca.

  Unaware that U-664 was lost, Franke in the aborting U-262 proceeded to the proposed rendezvous to give her and also Blum in U-760 spare fuel for their patrols to the Americas. On August 12, an unidentified aircraft caught Blum on the surface. Blum repelled the aircraft with his new quad 20mm and other flak guns but not before the B-24 had dropped three depth charges close to his bow. As a result of the damage from these explosions, Blum, too, was compelled to abort his patrol to the Americas and return to France. U-boat Control therefore directed Blum to give his spare fuel to Horst Uphoff in the VIIB U-84, which was returning from a barren patrol in the Gulf of Mexico and Yucatan Channel and, like a dozen other boats, had planned to refuel from Neumann’s lost XB U-117.

  Both severely damaged boats, U-262 and U-760, proceeded to rendezvous with U-664 and the homebound U-84, respectively, to give spare fuel. Blum in U-760 reported on August 20 that he had waited at the site for Graef in U-664 for ten days and that Graef must be presumed lost. U-boat Control agreed and told Franke in U-262 to return home hugging the coast of Portugal and the north coast of Spain. In the unlikely event that Graef was not lost, Control directed him to abort his patrol to the Americas and to come home the same way, in company with Franke in U-262, if a meet could be arranged.

  Blum in U-760 also reported that Uphoff in the homebound U-84 did not appear at the rendezvous but that several Allied “destroyers” did and these worked him over with depth charges, inflicting more damage. Believing he could not make it to France, Blum requested authority to take U-760 into Spain to get medical assistance and to make repairs. Control was reluctant to grant Blum’s request, but authorized a one-day stopover.

  Shortly after midnight on September 6, a Leigh Light-equipped Wellington of British Squadron 179, piloted by a Canadian, Donald F. McRae, picked up U-760 on radar. McRae attacked from an altitude of one hundred feet, straddling the boat with six depth charges. Although the U-760 was badly wrecked, Blum limped into Vigo, Spain, on September 8. Unable to repair his boat, he interned himself and his crew, but all hands soon reached Germany. While returning to base, the Wellington lost both engines and McRae had to make a crash landing. The plane was badly wrecked but McRae and all hands survived.

  By luck and good seamanship, Franke got U-262 back to La Pallice on September 2. With the loss of U-664 and internment of the wrecked U-760, she was thus the only survivor of these three Americas-bound VIIs. Uphoff in the U-84, homebound from the Americas, who was to meet these three but did not, was also lost, as will be described.

  • The Type VIID minelayer U-218, commanded by Richard Becker, who sailed from Brest on July 29. Becker’s task was to lay mines off Trinidad. On August 1, a Wellington of British Squadron 547, piloted by a Canadian, James W. Hermiston, attacked U-218f strafing and depth-charging. The charges fell wide but the strafing wounded six men, forcing Becker to abort to Brest, where he arrived on August 6.

  The three (of thirteen) boats that sailed to American waters in July and actually got there laid minefields. All three survived to tell the tale.

  • The VIIs U-230 and U-566, commanded by Paul Siegmann and Hans Hornkohl, respectively, which sailed on July 5, laid minefields off Norfolk to foul the approaches to Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads. Siegmann planted eight big TMC mines on the night of July 26-27; Hornkohl planted twelve TMB mines on the night of July 30. Neither field produced any sinkings.

  After laying his field, Hornkohl in U-566 sank by torpedo an American warship, the 1,500-ton gunboat PG-57, on August 5. Built at the Krupp works in Kiel in 1931, she was originally a luxurious steel yacht, Alva, owned by W. K. Vanderbilt, who turned her over to the Navy in 1941, rechristened USS Plymouth. When Hornkohl sank her, ninety miles off the New Jersey coast, she was escorting a New York to Guantánamo convoy. Her captain, Ormsby M. Mitchel, Jr., who lost a leg in the sinking, another officer who was killed, Rubin Keltch, and a petty officer, Franklin A. McGinty, who was also killed, were awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism. The 165-foot Coast Guard cutter Calypso, assisted by an American-built British tugboat,* rescued ninety-two of Plymouth’s 183-man crew.

  These U-boats provoked a massive but thoroughly botched hunt by green ASW forces directed by the newly created Tenth Fleet. During it, Hornkohl in U-566 shot up one Navy Ventura, and it crash-landed in the sea. Another Ventura of the unit simply disappeared. Both U-230 and U-566 returned to France, but they encountered great difficulty in finding enough fuel to complete the voyage.

  • The veteran IXB U-107, commanded by yet another new skipper, Volker von Simmermacher, age twenty-four, who had served as a watch officer on the boat since November 1941. He sailed from Lorient on July 28 in company with an other boat. On the first day at sea, von Simmermacher reported later, aircraft at tacked the boats, but the Germans repelled them and U-107 continued onward to the Americas on one engine to conserve fuel.

  A full month after leaving France, on August 28, the U-107 successfully planted twelve TMB mines off Charleston, South Carolina. The minefield produced no sinkings but von Simmermacher probably attacked two American ships by torpedo near Savannah, the Liberty ship Albert Gallatin and the Navy tanker Rapidan. In neither instance did the torpedoes cause any damage. Owing to intense ASW measures that U-566 had provoked, von Simmermacher said he was unable to radio a report of the mining mission u
ntil September 11, by which time Control assumed the boat was lost. She finally reached France on October 3, completing a fruitless voyage of sixty-eight days.

  FURTHER GERMAN LOSSES

  Apart from the boats that sailed in July to the Mediterranean, the Americas, and to the Indian Ocean (group Monsuri), about twenty-two others sailed from Germany or France on various missions in the Atlantic. Musketry/Seaslug ASW forces harassed these boats relentlessly, sinking about half their number, including four more Type XIV “Milk Cow” U-tankers. The loss of these U-tankers was a catastrophic blow that all but shut down Type VII patrols to distant waters and caused the diversion of a half dozen attack boats to emergency refueling tasks in order to bring home the boats already in distant waters.

  • The veteran VII U-267, commanded by Otto Tinschert, age twenty-eight, which sailed from St. Nazaire on July 4. Four days later, on July 7, while off Cape Finisterre, a Catalina of British Squadron 210, piloted by the gallant John A. Cruickshank (who won a Victoria Cross in 1944), found U-267 running unalertly on the surface. Cruickshank attacked, strafing and dropping depth charges. Contrary to doctrine, Tinschert did not shoot back but dived. Later he surfaced, re ported heavy damage, and requested assistance. Since there were no other U-boats near him that day, Control authorized Tinschert to put into the port of El Ferrol, Spain, if necessary.

  Allied intelligence provided helpful information on U-267’s distress. Air and surface vessels converged on Cape Finisterre and El Ferrol, but Tinschert made repairs and eluded the pursuers. He reached St, Nazaire on July 13, completing a hair-raising voyage of ten days. Tinschert, who was ill, left the boat for a rest. She finally resailed in October for one patrol under another skipper; Tinschert returned to command her in November.

  • The veteran VII U-373, commanded by Paul-Karl Loeser, age twenty-eight, which sailed from La Pallice on July 7. His task was to lay twelve TMB mines off the mouth of the Sebou River leading to Port Lyautey, Morocco. While Loeser was on the surface near Madeira on July 24, a Wildcat-Avenger team from the carrier Santee strafed the boat, drove her under, and dropped a Fido. The strafing killed two men, wounded several others, and caused so much damage that Loeser was compelled to abort and call for assistance. The four-stack destroyer Bainbridge and other Santee aircraft mounted an intense hunt for U-373, but Loeser slipped away.