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, sinking 13 ships during her career. She was most notorious for her final attack, in which she shelled and sank the small fishing vessel MV Ebb, and killed a number of its crew with machine gun fire as they attempted to launch a liferaft. She was sunk with all hands by a Royal Canadian Air Force bomber three days later on July 31, 1942.

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 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 1 The Patrols 2 The Sinking of the Ebb 3 Raiding career 4 References

[edit] The Patrols

U-754 departed Kiel on her first patrol on 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. John's, Newfoundland. During this patrol, she sank four freighters. The submarine narrowly escaped a bombing attack by a Royal Canadian Air Force Bolingbroke bomber on March 23 which inflicted minor damage.^[1] The submarine returned to Brest in France on 2 February to resupply and rearm.

The second patrol left from Brest on 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 25 April.

Her final patrol was her least successful, in terms of ships sunk, although the tonnage was higher, as she sunk the 12,435-ton SS Waiwera in the mid-Atlantic on 29 June, ten days after leaving Brest. It was however, nearly a month later, on 28 July, that she scored her final victim, when she controversially shelled the trawler Ebb near Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia. The submarine's radio transmissions betrayed a pattern to Royal Canadian Navy intelligence, information which was used by Norville Everitt Small the commander of Royal Canadian Air Force 113 Squadron to deploy patrols from RCAF Station Yarmouth targeting the suspected position of U-754.^[2] On July 31, a Hudson bomber piloted by Squadron Leader Small himself caught U-754 on the surface south of Yarmouth not far from the scene of the Ebb sinking. The submarine was precisely straddled by a cluster of depth charges as it began to dive. The coning tower of the wounded submarine briefly surfaced to be strafed by the Hudson's machine guns before submerging for the last time. A trail of large air bubbles was followed by a massive underwater explosion as U-754 went to the bottom with all 43 hands. It marked the first submarine kill of the RCAF's Eastern Air Command.^[3]

[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 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 charged 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 1-85780-072-9.
• Bridgland, Tony, Waves of Hate, Leo Cooper, Great Britain: 2002. ISBN 0-85052-822-4.

See Also: List of U-boats