U-576 Video off North Carolina Coast

[tomahawk6]

Powerful images of the sunken U boat off Cape Hatteras.The crew of 45 remain on their eternal patrol.They had sunk a merchant ship but that crew was rescued.The two wrecks are 240 yards apart.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article99634292.html

“It goes from a page in a scientific report down to a very real place at the bottom of the ocean,” said David Alberg, superintendent of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary in Newport News, Va.

“When you see (the submarine) and see the dive planes tilted up in a sign that the ship was doing everything it could to get to the surface, and all the hatches sealed, you realize that this is a tomb for all those young men we fought. You begin to look at it a little differently.”

All told nearly 1,600 sailors, including 1,100 merchant mariners, died off North Carolina during the war, Alberg said. Most died in 1942, when U-boats attacked merchant convoys in what historians call the “Battle of the Atlantic.”

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

Actually T6:

Most of the seamen who died off the coast of the Carolinas (plus Georgia and even Florida) in 1942, in a small sub-set of the Battle of the Atlantic that the German called the Happy Time, died because they were not in convoys.

1942 is the year the US joined the fight and USN Admiral King categorically refused to follow the advice of the British and Canadian admiralty to organize merchant traffic along the US coast into convoys immediately. He let merchant ships ply their trade independently along the US coast and they were easy picking for the U-Boats. It got so bad that the Canadian Navy organized its own convoys from the Caribbean to Nova Scotia for the tankers, as they were a strategic asset. Not a single tanker navigating in Canadian convoys was ever lost. This finally convinced King to act, with the additional fact that the Canadian Navy agreed to assume escort duties from New York to Halifax and then to mid-ocean (on what became known as the triangle run: New York to Halifax to mid-ocean to New York) leaving New York and south to the USN.

Many people blamed King for these death, but in 1942, the US Navy was just entering the war, he did not have enough ships yet to fight in all the oceans where he had to fight so his decision to concentrate his limited escort forces on protecting the main assets of the Navy, battleships and aircraft carriers, and the troop convoys beginning to cross the Atlantic with American soldiers was a rational one regardless of the consequences on local merchant traffic.

To make matters worse, in 1942, the limited US Navy assets that were thrown into the coastal defence of the US against submarines, both on the water and in the air, where woefully incompetent and usually completely missed their targets. They were basically ineffective. Again, that is not unusual or even abnormal. The anti-submarine war at sea was entering its fourth year. Tremendous advances had been made by submarine forces in both equipment and tactics. While the British and Canadian had grown along with these developments, the Americans were new at this game and lacked the training to make it work. Once they figured it out by 1943, things changed drastically and the USN kill ratios became in line, then surpassed, the Brits and Canadians'. 

 

[CBH99]

Thanks for that post OGBD,

That was genuinely interesting, and has led for an hour or two of research now.  The older I get, the more I feel like History Channel is the ONLY channel I have that is worth watching.

Made for some good reads & some good documentary videos on Youtube.  Thanks 

 

[tomahawk6]

Found an image of the crew.

 

[tomahawk6]

sonar image by noaa

Legal Status of U-576
http://monitor.noaa.gov/science/u-576-legal.pdf

 

[tomahawk6]

More images by NBC.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/archive-photos-show-german-u-boat-crew-world-war-ii-n231596

 

[tomahawk6]

One of U-576 victims was the dispersed convoy commodore's ship Empire Spring sunk 50 miles east of Sable Island with the loss of the entire crew of 55.

http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/1330.html

Casualty List

http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/crews/ship1330.html

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Actually T6:

Most of the seamen who died off the coast of the Carolinas (plus Georgia and even Florida) in 1942, in a small sub-set of the Battle of the Atlantic that the German called the Happy Time, died because they were not in convoys.

1942 is the year the US joined the fight and USN Admiral King categorically refused to follow the advice of the British and Canadian admiralty to organize merchant traffic along the US coast into convoys immediately. He let merchant ships ply their trade independently along the US coast and they were easy picking for the U-Boats. It got so bad that the Canadian Navy organized its own convoys from the Caribbean to Nova Scotia for the tankers, as they were a strategic asset. Not a single tanker navigating in Canadian convoys was ever lost. This finally convinced King to act, with the additional fact that the Canadian Navy agreed to assume escort duties from New York to Halifax and then to mid-ocean (on what became known as the triangle run: New York to Halifax to mid-ocean to New York) leaving New York and south to the USN.

Many people blamed King for these death, but in 1942, the US Navy was just entering the war, he did not have enough ships yet to fight in all the oceans where he had to fight so his decision to concentrate his limited escort forces on protecting the main assets of the Navy, battleships and aircraft carriers, and the troop convoys beginning to cross the Atlantic with American soldiers was a rational one regardless of the consequences on local merchant traffic.

To make matters worse, in 1942, the limited US Navy assets that were thrown into the coastal defence of the US against submarines, both on the water and in the air, where woefully incompetent and usually completely missed their targets. They were basically ineffective. Again, that is not unusual or even abnormal. The anti-submarine war at sea was entering its fourth year. Tremendous advances had been made by submarine forces in both equipment and tactics. While the British and Canadian had grown along with these developments, the Americans were new at this game and lacked the training to make it work. Once they figured it out by 1943, things changed drastically and the USN kill ratios became in line, then surpassed, the Brits and Canadians'.

and as I recall Roosevelt had a hankering for Subchasers that were inadequate for anything but near coastal patrol. 

 

[CBH99]

Oh wow.  Look at how clear that sonar image is.  Good find T6.

 

[Stoker]

One of U-576 victims was the dispersed convoy commodore's ship Empire Spring sunk 50 miles east of Sable Island with the loss of the entire crew of 55.

http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/1330.html

Casualty List

http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/crews/ship1330.html

My Great uncle was on Empire spring and was the second time he was torpedoed. The first time was by U 110 on SS Esmond with my Grandfather.

 

[tomahawk6]

Sorry for your loss Chief.

 

[Retired AF Guy]

Just finished watching the Smithsonian Channel which had an episode about Operation Drumbeat, the first U-Boat offensive against the eastern seaboard starting in Jan 1942. The episode tells the story of U-123 and its captain, Reinhard Hardegen, one of five U-Boats initially deployed off the US seaboard.

Apart from one air attack, U-123 operated uncontested in American waters, until the end its patrol when after sinking an American freighter, it was almost rundown by a Norwegian whaler, which got within 80 yards of the U-Boat before the crew was able to restart its second engine, enabling it to escape.

The show has interviews with various American, German and Canadian historians, including Marc Milner from the University of New Brunswick, who echo comments posted earlier by OGB. According to Milner, these U-Boat operations against the US is still a touchy subject among US historians.

Interesting, U-123, survived the war and served in the French navy until 1959. Hardegen is apparently still alive at 103.                                                           

 

[tomahawk6]

Pretty amazing that he is still alive.He definitely lived a charmed life as I think that the U boat officers for the most part were Nazi true believers.Thanks for the info.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Pretty amazing that he is still alive.He definitely lived a charmed life as I think that the U boat officers for the most part were Nazi true believers.Thanks for the info.

I could be wrong but I have always read that the Kriegsmarine and its officers were never very fanatical Nazi's.  Its also my understanding that Hitler never really appreciated or understood the power his Navy could could wield.  This led to the KM playing third fiddle for resources and may have lead to discontent within the service toward its government. 

I would be interested to others findings/thoughts as I fully admit I may be incorrect.

Either way excellent find T6.  The BOA is something that is little known about and we do not celebrate it enough in our own country; I would suspect its hardly known in the USA where the Naval war in the pacific overshadowed the Naval operations in the Atlantic.

 

[Lightguns]

I could be wrong but I have always read that the Kriegsmarine and its officers were never very fanatical Nazi's.  Its also my understanding that Hitler never really appreciated or understood the power his Navy could could wield.  This led to the KM playing third fiddle for resources and may have lead to discontent within the service toward its government. 

I would be interested to others findings/thoughts as I fully admit I may be incorrect.

Either way excellent find T6.  The BOA is something that is little known about and we do not celebrate it enough in our own country; I would suspect its hardly known in the USA where the Naval war in the pacific overshadowed the Naval operations in the Atlantic.

My understanding was that the late war U Boat crew were drawn from the Naval Hitler Youth and very much NAZIs.  In any case that arm of their navy suffer 75% KIA rate if I recall correctly.  Having deciphered their code, we only missed killing them all because of the weather by the late war.

 

[mariomike]

My understanding was that the late war U Boat crew were drawn from the Naval Hitler Youth and very much NAZIs.  In any case that arm of their navy suffer 75% KIA rate if I recall correctly.  Having deciphered their code, we only missed killing them all because of the weather by the late war.

Probably no more political than our Canadian bomber crews. They had a job to do. A very technical job.

"The pitiful prospects of surviving a tour of bomber operations were only matched in hazard on either side by the German U-boat crews."
Sir Max Hastings

 

[tomahawk6]

Some U boat skippers had some compassion for sailors from torpedoed ships.The sub lacked the capacity for passengers and running on the surface was just asking to be attacked by allied aircraft.Better than being machine gunned in the water which Japan and German subs were guilty of.From my research there was the case of the Laconia where the German Navy ignored Hitler and tried to rescue as many British and Italian POW's as they could.In a twist of fate a US B24 was ordered to sink the German sub which pretty much ended future German efforts to rescue survivors.Its a fascinating read.To top it off the US tried to include the Laconia incident during the war trials but ended up dropping the matter out of embarrassment.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/u-boat-skipper-who-ruthlessly-torpedoed-a-british-ship-then-defied-hitler-to-rescue-survivors.html/2

On the bridge of the Laconia, Captain Rudolph Sharp watched the sun set over the western horizon. The Atlantic Ocean stretched out before him in all its vast, empty beauty. But beneath the waves, he knew killers were lurking.

Aboard his ship, once a luxury Cunard liner, now converted to a troopship, were 2,700 people, mostly Italian prisoners of war guarded by Polish troops, along with dozens of injured British soldiers and other military personnel and 87 women and children — mainly families of servicemen.
The ship was on its way from Egypt to Britain — going the long way round Africa because the Mediterranean was largely controlled by the Axis powers — reaching Cape Town at the beginning of September 1942 before sailing up the West African coast.

The Laconia incident refers to the controversial events surrounding the sinking and subsequent aborted rescue attempt of a British troopship in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. On 12 September 1942, RMS Laconia under the command of Capt. Rudolph Sharp and carrying some 2,732 crew, passengers, soldiers and POWs, was torpedoed and sunk by GermanU-boat U-156 off the coast of West Africa. Operating partly under the dictates of the old prize rules, the U-boat commander,Korvettenkapitän Werner Hartenstein, immediately commenced rescue operations, broadcasting their humanitarian intent on open radio channels to all Allied forces in the area, and were joined by the crews of other U-boats in the vicinity. Heading on the surface to a rendezvous with Vichy French ships under Red Cross banners, with their foredeck laden with survivors, U-156 was deliberately attacked by a USAAF B-24 Liberator bomber.