Unterseeboot 507

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U-507
Type IXC


Launch Date July 15, 1941
Commission Date October 8, 1941
Construction yard Deutschewerft, Hamburg
Patrols
Start Date End Date Assigned Unit
No Patrols 4th Flotilla
March 7, 1942 March 25, 1942 2nd Flotilla
April 4, 1942 June 6, 1942 2nd Flotilla
July 4, 1942 October 12, 1942 2nd Flotilla
November 28, 1942 January 13, 1943 2nd Flotilla
Commanders
October, 1941 January, 1943 Kptlt. Harro Schacht
Successes
Type of Ship Sunk Number of Ships Sunk Gross Registered Tonnage
Commercial Vessels 19 77,135
Military Vessels None 0

Unterseeboot 507 (usually abbreviated to U-507) was a German Type IXC submarine of the Kriegsmarine built for service in the Second World War and the Second Battle of the Atlantic. U-507 was mainly notable for two patrols she conducted during the Second happy time in mid-1942, during the first of which she caused havoc in the Gulf of Mexico amongst unprotected American shipping, and then in the second attacked ships along the coast of Brazil, in an inexpliable and shocking attack on a neutral nation's shipping in its own waters which almost single- handedly provoked the Brazilian declaration of war on Germany.

It was built during 1941 by the Deutschewerft shipyards in Hamburg, and she was commissioned on October 8, 1941, with Kapitänleutnant Harro Schacht in command. Schacht commanded the boat for its entire lifespan, receiving the Knight's Cross in January 1943 in recognition of his successful patrols in the preceding year. He never wore his award however, as he was killed with his entire crew when the boat was sunk four days later.

Once the U-507 had completed her working up period of six months following her commissioning, she departed German waters and entered the Atlantic Ocean for her first patrol, an uneventful and simple cruise to Lorient in France, which was to be her permanent home port for the remainder of her life.

Contents

[edit] War Patrols

The second patrol was more eventful, as the boat rounded Florida at the end of April 1942, taking full advantage of the lit-up settlements on the shoreline to pick and choose her targets amongst the unescorted shipping which bottlenecked between Cuba and the Floridan peninsula. Here she sank four large cargo ships in three days before following the coastline along Western Florida and Alabama, where in three more days she sank four more large unprotected ships, making full use of the failure of the local authorities to enforce either convoy regulations or the blackout. On 6 May she sank the SS Alcoa Puritan about 45 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. On the 12 May she sank the 10,000 ton SS Virginia right in the mouth of the Mississippi, killing 26 sailors in an audacious attack which shocked the American authorities. Swinging south, she sank a Honduran freighter as she cruised out of the Caribbean Sea, leaving a shaken seaboard behind her. On this cruise alone she had sunk nine ships at 45,000 tons.

Her second patrol was even more controversial, as a fruitless passage across the Atlantic brought her to the Brazilian coast in mid-August 1942. There she searched for allied shipping hugging the coastline in Brazilian territorial waters heading for North America. Here she again saw unescorted ships and a lit coastline, and Schacht made the inexplicable decision to attack without first ascertaining the nationalities of her targets. The first was the SS Baependy on the 16 August, which was torpedoed and sunk with 270 civilian lives. A few hours later the SS Araraquara was sunk, killing 131 people, followed by the SS Annibal Benevolo, on which 150 civilians drowned. The next day the slaughter continued, the SS Itagiba sunk within sight of the city of Vitória, killing 36, and the SS Arara similarly sunk with 20 deaths as she picked up the survivors of the Itagiba. Two days after this, the tiny sailing vessel Jacyra was sunk, and a Swedish ship was torpedoed three days after that, before U-507 returned to Lorient. In just one week, U-507 had sunk seven ships of 18,000 tons and killed over 600 people, all of them neutral civilians.

The political ramifications of what Schacht and his crew had done off the Brazilian coast were enormous. Brazil went from a neutral favourable to Germany to an enraged opponent in the space of 48 hours, declaring war on Germany and suppling a Brazilian Expeditionary Force to the war in Europe and a squadron of ships to the Atlantic. More importantly, Brazilian Air Force bases were made available to American naval air squadrons, thus denying the U-boats their previous advantage of hiding in Brazilian coastal waters, and giving the allies air cover across most of the Southern Atlantic, making the job of the U-boats significantly harder. In addition, Germany's standing amongst neutral nations, particularly the formerly pro-German dictatorships of South America, was in tatters, never to recover.

The fourth patrol of U-507, though bloodless, was also highly significant, as after two months ineffective cruising between the West African and Brazilian coasts of the South Atlantic, U-507 received a radio call from U-156 on the 15 September reporting that she had sunk a ship carrying 1,500 Italian prisoners of war. This ship was the RMS Laconia, and U-507 made all haste to aid in the rescue operation, collecting a large number of survivors on board and towing several lifeboats, until attacks by American aircraft on the rescuing submarines forced her to dive and escape. She returned to Germany with her human cargo, and there received the orders which were the end result of the Laconia incident, which consisted of a total ban on aiding shipwreck survivors, except ships' officers who were to be captured for information purposes.

On her fifth and final patrol she put this information to full use, as she sank three British ships off the Northern Brazilian coast, and captured the masters of two of the ships, F.H. Fenn and D MacCullum. These victories had taken her into 1943 with a reputation for success, confirmed when her capatin was informed of his Knight's Cross award. Sadly for him, the crew and the captives, just four days later the U-507 was spotted by an American navy PBY Catalina aircraft of VP-83 flying from a newly available Brazilian base, which dropped several depth charges on the boat. The site of the attack was 330 miles from shore at Cape Saint Roque in Brazil, and there were no survivors, the 56 dead including Schacht, the captives, and the boat's new captain Heinz Radau, who was conducting an observation and familiarisation patrol.

[edit] Raiding career

Date Ship Nationality Tonnage Fate
30 April 1942 SS Federal American 2,881 Sunk
4 May 1942 SS Norlindo American 2,686 Sunk
5 May 1942 SS Munger T Ball American 5,104 Sunk
6 May 1942 SS Joseph M Cudahy American 6,950 Sunk
6 May 1942 SS Alcoa Puritan American 6,759 Sunk
8 May 1942 SS Ontario Honduran 3,099 Sunk
8 May 1942 SS Torny Norwegian 2,424 Sunk
12 May 1942 SS Virginia American 10,731 Sunk
16 May 1942 SS Amapala Honduran 4,184 Sunk
16 August 1942 SS Baependy Brazilian 4,801 Sunk
16 August 1942 SS Araraquara Brazilian 4.872 Sunk
16 August 1942 SS Annibal Benevolo Brazilian 1,905 Sunk
17 August 1942 SS Itagiba Brazilian 2,169 Sunk
17 August 1942 SS Arara Brazilian 1,075 Sunk
19 August 1942 sv Jacyra Brazilian 90 Sunk
22 August 1942 MV Hamaren Swedish 3,220 Sunk
27 December 1942 MV Oakbank British 5,154 Sunk
3 January 1943 SS Baron Dachmont British 3,675 Sunk
3 January 1943 SS Yorkwood British 5,401 Sunk

[edit] See also

[edit] References