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

by Clay Blair

  * The Admiralty originally credited a Sunderland of RAAF Squadron 461 for this kill.

  * However, the Admiralty erroneously credited a Sunderland of Australian Squadron 10 for the kill of U-109, later corrected in a postwar analysis.

  * The Admiralty wrongly credited the kill of U-635 to the frigate Toy of Gretton’s Escort Group B-7, which had attacked a U-boat. Long after the war, the Admiralty shifted the credit to Hatherly’s B-24.

  † Doubtless by coincidence, on April 7, at the conclusion of this battle, Hitler awarded Dönitz Oak Leaves to his Ritterkreuz.

  * In early April, similar reports of flak-gun successes had come from three other IXs: Emmer-mann in U-172 and Helmut Pich in U-168, both IXC40s, and Karl Neitzel in the IXC U-510.

  * At the time of the award, Möhlmann had commanded U-571 at the battlefronts for almost two full years. His confirmed score was six ships (one tanker) for 37,346 tons sunk, two ships (one tanker) for 13,658 tons wrecked beyond repair, eight ships for about 51,000 tons destroyed plus damage to another tanker of 11,400 tons. Upon arrival in France, he left the boat for other duties and later was appointed commander of Training Flotilla 14.

  * See photo opposite p. 497, Volume I.

  † Control logged further that this unusual Italian report was “confirmed” by B-dienst on April 13.

  * In three prior Atlantic patrols, Horst Hessler in U-704 had sunk only one confirmed ship, a 4,200-ton British freighter. It is not clear why the boat was retired so soon. After reaching the Baltic.in early April, Hessler was reassigned to commission a new VII.

  * At the time of the award, his confirmed score was fifteen ships for 77,483 tons, including the British destroyer Veteran. The hits on Biter could not be confirmed.

  * In a 1991 reassessment, the Admiralty credited the British destroyer Vidette of B-7, commanded by Raymond Hart, with the kill of U-630

  * Halifax 231 to 235; Slow Convoys 125 to 128; Outbound North 176 to 181; Outbound North (Slow) 3 to 5. See Appendix 3.

  † According to Admiralty figures. In a close match, Professor Rohwer has calculated fifty-five merchant ships lost in April for 312,612 tons.

  * In his book Iron Coffins.

  † Hitler’s gift to Tojo, the IXC U-511 (“Marco Polo I”), sailed to Japan on May 10, but separately. Her skipper, Fritz Schneewind, sank the 7,200-ton American Liberty ship Sebastiano Cermeno

  * Since April 12, 1940, on U-37.

  * On November 7, 1941.

  * At the time of the award, his confirmed score was thirty-eight ships sunk for 189,633 tons, second in (confirmed) ships and tonnage after Kretschmer.

  * At the time of the award, his confirmed score on the VII U-98 and U-l 77 was twenty ships for about 116,000 tons.

  * Having sunk twenty-four confirmed ships for about 140,000 tons on the VII U-98 and U-177, Gysae ranked seventeenth among all skippers in the war.

  * Hitler’s gift to Japan, the IXC U-511 (“Marco Polo I”), and the Italian cargo submarines Cappellini and Giuliani had reached Penang in July with spare torpedoes for the returning German U-cruisers.

  * At the time of the award, Lüth’s score on the ducks U-9 and U-138 and the IXs U-43 and U-181 was forty-seven ships sunk for about 229,000 tons, including the French submarine Doris. He was the second-ranking U-boat skipper in the war after Otto Kretschmer who, as related, sank forty-five ships for about 270,000 tons and captured one for about 2,000 tons.

  * The crew of U-181 received high, decorations as well. The chief engineer, Carl-August Land-fehrmann, was awarded a Ritterkreuz, the seventh presented to U-boat engineers to that time.

  * There were five thousand German POWs on board, including some submariners, en route to camps in North America, confined to the lower deck under guard.

  † This elusive objective was finally attained in October 1943, by the far-fetched “recognition” of an ancient Anglo-Portuguese treaty. American reinforcements soon eased into the Azores under British flag. In 1944, the Portuguese allowed the Americans to openly build air and naval bases on the island of Terceira.

  * As related, Herring sank the 7,000-too Vichy freighter Ville du Havre during the Torch invasion. The Shad damaged the inbound blockade-runner Pietro Orselo on April 1.

  † See U-boat Control (BdU) War Diary (KTB) on those dates and at NARA in RG 457: SRMN 35, p. 45; SRMN 37, pp. 58-137; SRH 208, pp. 70-93.

  * Partly an inside joke: Walter’s young son was named Ingol.

  * The XVIIAs U-792, U-793, U-794, and U-795 and the XVIIBs U-1405, U-1406, and U-1407.

  * Ordinarily the snort was raised and laid down flat into a slot on the upper deck almost effortlessly by hydraulic devices. In this instance the hydraulic system must have malfunctioned.

  * The FAT II (electric) was to be introduced first in the Mediterranean and Arctic, where the FAT I (air) could not be used owing to phosphorescent water in the former and too much daylight in the latter. If all went well, FAT IIs were to be issued to the Atlantic U-boat force in May. The production rate was modest: one hundred torpedoes per month to start, gradually increasing after August 1943.

  * The others: U-211, U-256, U-263, U-271, U-650, and U-953. Four first sailed in October 1943. The U-263 and U-650 did not ever sail as flak boats.

  † Including U-636, which made her maiden patrol in the Atlantic but was transferred to the Arctic at its conclusion, and two boats that sailed for the Mediterranean, U-409 and U-594. The U-409 got into the Mediterranean, but a Hudson of British Squadron 48, piloted by H. C. Bailey, sank with rockets the U-594, commanded by Friedrich Mumm, on June 4.

  * Including three transfers from the Arctic, U-467, U-646, and U-657. The usual setbacks and delays in the Baltic continued. An Eighth Air Force raid (126 bombers) on Kiel on May 14 sank at dockside the VIIs U-235, U-236, and U-237 and damaged the VIIs U-244 and U-1051, two VIIF trans-’ port boats, U-1061 and U-1062, and the XB minelayer U-234. Another Eighth Air Force raid (ninety-seven bombers) on Vegesack (Bremen), on May 18, severely damaged U-287 and U-295. The VII U-450, which had been rammed at a Kiel dock in the fall of 1942, was rammed a second time near Danzig during workup. The IXC40 U-528 twice collided with other boats in tactical exercises. Found wanting for various reasons, her original skipper and that of the VII U-671 had to be replaced.

  † See second footnote, p. 170.

  ‡ Type IXs going to calmer Middle Atlantic waters or to more remote areas carried twenty torpedoes, six of them G7as, in topside canisters. The fourteen belowdecks consisted of six T-3s and four conventional G7es in the bow and two FAT II and two conventional G7es in the stern.

  * The Admiralty originally attributed the kill of U-663 to a Halifax of British Squadron 58, but Alex Niestlé (1998) credits Rossiter.

  † Submarines Versus U-boats (1986).

  * The attribution of these kills is derived from Franks, Search, Find and Kill (1995), a revision of his edition of 1990. At this time, Oulton also sank an inbound VII, as will be described.

  * Deliveries of B-24s to the U.S. Navy commenced in August 1942. That year the Navy received fifty-two new B-24s; in 1943 it received 308 new B-24s and in 1944, 604 new B-24s.

  † See Volume I, pp. 478-479. MAD stood for Magnetic Airborne Detector. Employed by low-flying aircraft, the gear could detect magnetic anomalies made by a submerged U-boat.

  * The Army Air Forces transferred 217 ASW aircraft to the U.S. Navy: 77 B-24s, 140 B-17s, B-18s,andB-25s.

  † One pilot in VB 110 was Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., eldest son of former Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy and bRöther of the future President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

  ‡ Contrarily, the official USAAF historians wrote that in the period July 13-August 2, American Squadrons 4 and 19 of 479th Group played “an extremely active part” in the Biscay campaign. The Americans sighted twelve U-boats, attacked eight, sank one, U-404, and shared credit with the RAF and RCAF for sinking U-558 and U-706. Five B-24s were lost, one to U-boat flak. Thirty-seven airmen perished.

  * In
the previously cited NSA document NR 1736, Box 705, RG 457, “Bombe History,” signed by Wenger, Engstrom, and Meader.

  † The misleadingly titled Information and Secrecy (1994). The unreleased documents are cited under the general rubric “NSA RAM File.” RAM is an acronym for Rapid Analytical Machines. Of course, Burke also relies on many NSA documents that have been released to NARA (RG 457) as well as an impressive list of other documents and published works.

  * Benignly known as Communications Supplementary Activities Washington (CSAW, pronounced “See-Saw”) and later, the Naval Security Station.

  † The official British intelligence historian wrote that “the earliest British four-wheel Bombes proved to have low serviceability, owing to the shortage of good quality raw materials.” See Hinsley, vol.2(1981),p.752n.

  ‡ See Appendix 3.

  * At the time, the Admiralty erroneously credited a B-24 of Squadron 86 with this kill. Including his role in sinking U-563, this was Oulton’s second kill in May.

  * His score in the Arctic and Atlantic was five confirmed ships (two tankers) sunk for about 54,000 tons; mortal damage to the 11,500-ton British cruiser Edinburgh; damage to a 7,200-ton British Liberty, Fort Concord, finished off by U-403.

  † Account according to Franks (1995), reconfirmed by Niestlé. Originally the Admiralty listed the cause of the loss of U-753 as “unknown.”

  ‡ See Appendix 2.

  * Sunk were U-89, U-186, U-456, U-753, and the Elbe boat U-266, which, as related, had pulled out to refuel. There were no survivors from any of the lost U-boats. The U-223 and U-402 were among the most heavily damaged.

  * At the time, the Admiralty erroneously credited Swale with sinking U-640 and another American Catalina of VP 84 with sinking U-657. In several postwar reappraisals, the credits were finally established as written. See Franks (1995), Milford (1997), and Niestlé” (1998).

  * At first Allied authorities believed that in this attack Stoves sank U-954, commanded by Odo Loewe, age twenty-eight, on which Peter Dönitz was serving. There were no survivors. However, in postwar years the Admiralty credited the kill to two British warships of Brewer’s Support Group 1: frigate Jed (R. C. Freaker) and the ex-American Coast Guard cutter Sennen (F. H. Thornton).

  * The Admiralty believed the U-boat was U-209, which actually was sunk earlier (May 7) by an aircraft during the battle with Outbound North (Slow) 5. In the postwar reappraisal, the Admiralty did not withdraw the credit for the kill from Jed and Sennen but changed U-209 to an “unknown” U-boat, in reality U-954.

  * The Archer group had come across to Newfoundland in mid-May, escorting alternately Outbound North (Slow) 6 (thirty-one merchant ships) and the fast Outbound North 182 (fifty-six merchant ships) without the loss of a single vessel.

  † Designed originally as an antitank weapon but hurriedly adapted for ASW aircraft.

  * The actual figures to that date were thirty-three boats and about 1,600 men lost: one Type XIV U-tanker, U-463; nine Type IXs; and twenty-three Type VIIs. The losses in all of May were a record forty boats (often and erroneously stated to be forty-one boats). These included three Ritterkreuz holders: Ulrich Folkers in (7-725, Günter Seibicke in U-436, and Max-Martin Teichert in U-456. As related, the latter was awarded the medal posthumously. See Appendix 2.

  † The rockets were still top secret, so he was required to say he used “depth charges” in the attack. See Franks, Search, Find and Kill (1995).

  * Not to be confused with Macintyre’s Escort Group 2.

  † At the time of the award, his credited score was 85,676 tons sunk. His confirmed score was six big merchant ships sunk for 36,000 tons, including the British troopship Abosso, plus two sailing ships for 240 tons, and damage to three tankers for about 30,000 tons.

  * U-217 was the fourth of six Type VIID minelayers (U-2J3 to U-218) to be lost. While awaiting approval to plant SMA moored mines, all six conducted torpedo patrols, sinking altogether four ships for 22,800 tons by torpedo and one 75-ton sailing vessel by gun.

  * In his book about World War II German POWs in United States camps, The Faustball Tunnel (1978), John H. Moore wrote that one of the sixteen survivors of U-118, seaman Werner Dreschler (a.k.a. “Limmer”), became a stool pigeon and when this was discovered by other German POWs, they murdered him at a camp in Papago Park, Arizona, on March 13, 1944. American authorities tried, found guilty, and on August 25, 1945, hanged seven German POWs for the murder, Moore wrote. (“Faustball” means a clenched fist.)

  * To further relieve congestion in New York harbor, beginning with UGS 11, slow Torch convoys sailed from Norfolk every fifteen days to July 27, then every ten days.

  † At Port Lyautey, Morocco, the war diary of U.S. Navy Fairwing 15 (including Army Air Forces B-24s and Navy Catalinas) noted sixteen attacks on U-boats from July 5 to July 15: seven attacks by USAAF Squadron 1, six by USAAF Squadron 2, two by USN Squadron VP 92, and one by USN Squadron VP 73. These planes sank two U-boats, U-506 and U-951. One B-24 was “lost at sea,” cause unknown.

  * These nine included the U-66, which left France on April 29.

  * Commissioned on May 25, 1942. The PC-565 was one of seventeen such vessels on convoy duty in the Eastern Sea Frontier in May-June 1943. See photo insert.

  * At the time of the award, on July 8, his score was thirteen confirmed ships sunk for about 74,000 tons, plus two 32-ton motor launches sunk by his minefield at Port Castries, St. Lucia.

  * Emmermann was scheduled to refuel from the XB minelayer U-118, commanded by Werner Czygan, but, as related, planes from the “jeep” carrier Bogue had sunk her on June 12.

  * PBM-3 Mariners. These were the troublesome models that, as related, had to be “stripped” to become PBM-3S. By the end of 1943, two more squadrons of PBM-3 Mariners, 203 and 211, at Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, respectively, were operating over Brazilian waters.

  † Arrived in Natal on January 21, 1943.

  ‡ VP 83, an amphibious Catalina squadron, arrived in Natal on April 1, 1942, to relieve VP 52. VP 83 returned to Norfolk in May 1943, where it converted to B-24s and was renamed VB 107. As such, it returned to Natal and began operations on July 5, 1943. The B-24s (USN PB4Ys) could fly 1,200 miles eastward from Natal to Ascension Island and, of course, vice versa.

  § In addition, three more Ventura squadrons, 130, 143, and 145, at Fortaleza, Recife, and Natal, respectively, were assigned.

  # At the time of the award, he was credited with sinking 169,102 tons. His confirmed score was twenty-four ships for 134,706 tons sunk, ranging in size from a 35-ton sailing ship to the 23,400-ton troopship Orcades.

  * Guggenberger’s score on U-81 and U-513 was nine ships for about 57,500 tons, including the fleet carrier Ark Royal and four sailing vessels.

  * Having sunk no ships on this patrol, Müller-Stöckheim’s score in the two full years he commanded U-67 was thirteen confirmed ships (six tankers) sunk for about 72,000 tons, plus damage to three tankers.

  * In addition, three boats were retired to the Training Command: the IXB U-108, and the VIICs U-71 and U-704.

  * At that time, Richard Zapp, Herbert Sohler, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, and Günter Kuhnke, respectively.

  * These troops were bound for South Africa to carry out a harebrained scheme to incite Boers against the British.

  * Slow Convoy 135 was “massively escorted” by the RCAE Her surface escort included the Biter support group and the first British MAC ship, the 8,200-ton Empire MacAlpine, with four Sword-fish, which came across to Canada with convoy Outbound North (Slow) 9.

  * Because of a lack of suitable defensive armor, Mosquito pilots were not to attack U-boats. Another Polish pilot also attacked the U-boats but his guns jammed. Damaged by flak, Szablowski limped five hundred miles back to base and crash-landed. He survived but was killed in action in 1944.

  * There were about twenty-five Army Air Forces and Navy ASW squadrons composed of B-18s, B-25s, Catalinas, Mariners, Hudsons, Venturas, and soon in the Caribbean and along the “bauxite route�
�� to Brazil. In his The U-boat War in the Caribbean (1994), Gaylord T. M. Kelshall provides many details of the air order of battle and activity.

  † TAG convoys: Trinidad, Aruba, Guantánamo Bay.

  * Wydeen was lost while piloting another blimp, K-94, on the night of October 30, 1943. The craft inexplicably burst into flames and sank in the sea near San Juan, Puerto Rico. No survivors were ever found.

  * He was twenty-eight-year-old bombardier Isadore Stessel of Brooklyn, New York, killed by a shark. His posthumous Purple Heart went astray in the mail. However, a story in The Miami Herald in 1997 alerted relatives, to whom the Navy presented the medal and other awards on May 17, 1997.

  * Still recovering from his wounds and no longer capable of combat, the disabled Müller was repatriated to Germany in March 1944. After further hospitalization, he joined the staff of U-boat Control to serve as “liaison officer for German prisoners of war.”

  * At the time, Prueher’s attack on U-604 was assessed as a “definite kill.”

  † At the time of the award, his confirmed score was thirteen ships for 66,700 tons.

  * The 1-8 left Brest on October 6 and arrived in Penang on December 5. Redesignated RO-50J, the U-1224 sailed from Kiel on March 30, 1944, with a Japanese crew. She was sunk on May 13 near the Cape Verde Islands by the new American destroyer escort Francis M. Robinson, part of the screen for the “jeep” carrier Bogue.

  * According to the official British historian: six battleships, seven cruisers, thirty-two destroyers, forty-eight submarines, and so on. The official Italian naval historian, Marc’ Antonio Bragadin, wrote that of the six battleships, the old Cesare had been converted to a “barracks ship”; the Vittorio Veneto was in dry dock for battle-damage repairs; and the old, smaller Doria and Duilio were in the yards being modernized. Hence only the first-line battleships Littorio and Roma were combat ready. Ten heavy and light cruisers were left, Bragadin wrote, but only five light cruisers were available for fleet operations. Twenty destroyers “remained afloat,” but only eight to ten were available for fleet operations. Of about forty Italian submarines in the Mediterranean, Bragadin asserted, only one 1,000-ton large and eleven 600-ton mediums could be deployed for the defense of Sicily.