Unterseeboot 754
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| U-754 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | VIIC
|
||
| Launch Date | July 5, 1941 | ||
| Commission Date | August 28, 1941 | ||
| Construction yard | Kriegsmarinewerft, Wilhelmshaven | ||
| Patrols | |||
| Start Date | End Date | Assigned Unit | |
| 30 December 1941 | 9 February 1942 | 1st Flotilla | |
| 7 March 1942 | 25 April 1942 | 1st Flotilla | |
| 19 June 1942 | 31 July 1942 | 1st Flotilla | |
| Commanders | |||
| August, 1941 | July, 1942 | Kptlt. Johannes Ostermann | |
| Successes | |||
| Type of Ship Sunk | Number of Ships Sunk | Gross Registered Tonnage | |
| Commercial Vessels | 13 | 55,659 | |
| Military Vessels | None | 0 | |
Unterseeboot 754, or more commonly U-754 was a German submarine or U-boat deployed during the Second World War against allied shipping in the Atlantic Ocean. She was a successful if short lived boat, which sank 13 ships during her career. She was most notorious for her final victory, in which she shelled and sank the small fishing vessel MV Ebb, and killed a number of her crew with machine gun fire as they attempted to launch a liferaft. She was sunk with all hands the following day.
The U-754 was a German Type VII submarine, built in the Kriegsmarinewerft at the main fleet base of Wilhelmshaven in Northern Germany on the North Sea. She was completed on the 28 August 1941, and given to the experienced Kapitänleutnant Johannes Ostermann to command. Following her work-up period in which the boat was tested and the crew trained, she was despatched on her first patrol.
Contents |
[edit] The Patrols
U-754 departed Kiel on her first patrol on the 30 December 1941, and her operating area was primarily in the mouth of the St Lawrence River, operating against convoys entering or leaving the waterway, or destined for the many ports at the river's mouth, such as Halifax, Nova Scotia or St Johns, Newfoundland. During this patrol, she sank four freighters before returning to Brest in France on the 2 February to resupply and rearm.
The second patrol left from Brest on the 9 March 1942, and after a brief sweep in her previous area of operations, she swung south to take advantage of the Second happy time then occurring off the United States's Eastern Seaboard. During this patrol she sank seven more ships, three of them in one attack on a small coastal convoy, in which she hit several small barges and coastal cargo ships. She returned to Brest on the 25 April.
Her final patrol was her least successful, in terms of ships sunk, although the tonnage was very high, as she sunk the 12,435-ton SS Waiwera in the mid-Atlantic on the 29 June, ten days after leaving Brest. It was however, nearly a month later, on the 28 July, that she scored her final victim, when she controversially shelled the tiny trawler Ebb near Cape Sable in Nova Scotia. Three days after this, just a few miles from the scene of the Ebb sinking, U-754 was herself sunk, when she was hit by depth charges from a 113 Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force Lockheed Hudson aircraft, which sent her to the bottom with all 43 hands.
[edit] The Sinking of the Ebb
The Ebb was a motor fishing vessel operating out of Boston for the General Sea Foods Company. At a minuscule 260-tons, it was unlikely that she would be troubled by the war, as she was far too small for an effective torpedo shot, and insignificant enough that use of gunfire was not thought to be worth the risk. This belief was sadly misplaced, as on the 28 July 1942, whilst fishing off Cape Sable her crew were shocked to see U-754 emerge from the water.
The submarine, without any form of communication, immediately opened fire on the tiny ship with her anti-aircraft guns. The ship stopped and made signals that they had surrendered, but the fire continued, one gun sweeping through the crowd of crew members who were attempting to launch the ship's liferaft. Five of the seventeen crew were killed and seven more seriously wounded, before the Ebb sank after taking over fifty hits. The survivors were discovered and rescued by the destroyer HMS Witherington fourteen hours later.
Had U-754's crew survived the war, it is likely they would have been out under trial in a similar manner to the officers of the U-852 who also fired on sailors without warning. Similar incidents of gun attacks aimed at crews occurred on the U-247 and U-552.
[edit] Raiding career
| Date | Ship | Nationality | Tonnage | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 January 1942 | MV Belize | Norwegian | 2,135 | Sunk |
| 21 January 1942 | SS William Hansen | Norwegian | 1,344 | Sunk |
| 25 January 1942 | SS Mount Kitheron | French | 3,876 | Sunk |
| 26 January 1942 | SS Icarion | Greek | 4,013 | Sunk |
| 23 March 1942 | MV British Prudence | British | 8,620 | Sunk |
| 31 March 1942 | SS Menominee | American | 441 | Sunk |
| 31 March 1942 | barge Ontario | American | 490 | Damaged |
| 31 March 1942 | barge Barnegat | American | 914 | Sunk |
| 31 March 1942 | barge Alleghany | American | 914 | Sunk |
| 1 April 1942 | SS Tiger | American | 5,992 | Sunk |
| 3 April 1942 | SS Otho | American | 4,389 | Sunk |
| 6 April 1942 | MV Kollskeg | Norwegian | 9,858 | Sunk |
| 29 June 1942 | MV Waiwera | British | 12,435 | Sunk |
| 28 June 1942 | MV Ebb | American | 260 | Sunk |
[edit] References
- Sharpe, Peter, U-Boat Fact File, Midland Publishing, Great Britain: 1998. ISBN 185780072.
- Bridgland, Tony, Waves of Hate, Leo Cooper, Great Britain: 2002. ISBN 0-85052-822-4.
See Also: List of U-boats
