Wreck of U-544

 Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck

Unterseeboot 544 was a Type IXC/40 U-boat laid down in July 1942 at the Deutsche Werft shipyard in Hamburg, and commissioned into Kriegsmarine service in May 1943.

Following a short training cruise, the U-544 and her crew departed on their first war patrol from Kiel in November 1943 and made for the mid-Atlantic to hunt Allied shipping. Ranging from the Iceland Coast down to the Azores, the U-544 unsuccessfully joined in 5 separate wolfpacks but scored no kills in the target-rich waters, and on the morning of her 69th day at sea surfaced to refuel and replenish her supplies along with two other U-boats from a 'Milk Cow' supply sub.

While conducting her replenishment, the U-544 was spotted by a patrolling aircraft from the Escort Carrier USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60), which quickly relayed their position to other planes aloft at the time. Within minutes, several TBF Avenger's converged on the surfaced U-boats and began their attack.

Caught in a highly vulnerable position with her deck hatches and fuel ports open, the U-544's crew raced to disconnect her fueling hoses and secure her for diving as her AA gunners opened fire on the attacking aircraft. All of the other U-boats immediately crash-dove to avoid the rain of bullets, bombs and rockets coming from above, leaving U-544 all but alone on the surface and leaving her to draw the majority of the American fire. Within minutes of the start of the attack, the U-544 was repeatedly strafed and hit with several high-explosive rockets, damaging her outer hull and making her difficult to control or submerge. While she slowly began to flood and submerge beneath the waves, an American plane planted two bombs directly into the hull of the U-544 which blew her open to the waters of the Atlantic.

With fatal hull damage, the U-544 flooded and sank at this location on January 16th, 1944 with all hands.

www.uboat.net/boats/u544.htm