Wreck of U-177 | Second World War 1939-1945, navy, shipwreck, submarine

 Second World War 1939-1945, navy, shipwreck, submarine

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Unterseeboot 177 was a Type IXD2 U-Boat laid down at the AG Weser Shipyard in Bremen in November 1940 and commissioned into the Kriegsmarine in March 1942. Departing on her first war patrol, the U-177 ranged far South to Madagascar, where she found excellent hunting and sank eight ships for her 128 days at sea.

Her second war patrol brought her to the same waters and similar results, a further six ships were sunk for her 184 days at sea. Upon her return to Bordeaux in October 1943 she underwent her first wartime refit to repair and upgrade her systems, along with a change in command as her original Captain departed to command the 25th U-boat Flotilla, in part due to his success aboard the U-177. Following a homeport shift from Bordeaux La Pallice in December of 1943, the U-177 departed on her fourth War Patrol on January 2nd, this time bound for the waters off South America.

One month into her patrol, the U-177 was running on the surface West of Ascension Island when her radar signature was picked up by a patrolling American B-24 which immediately moved in to attack. Spotted by lookouts aboard U-177, the approaching aircraft sent the U-boat into a crash dive, but the bomber was able to straddle the U-177 with a well-placed spread of depth charges that severely damaged her pressure hull and caused heavy flooding. Left no choice, U-177's Captain ordered the sub to the surface hoping to fight off the American plane.

As the U-177 broke the surface, her gun crews found the B-24 too far away to fire on and her engineers reported that the flooding was worsening and could not be stopped. U-177's Commander, Korvettenkapitän Heinz Buchholz passed the order to abandon ship, but only 15 men were able to get topside and into a life raft before the Veteran U-boat gave out and sank at this location on February 6th, 1944 with 50 of her crew, including her Captain, still on board. Her surviving crew were picked up several days later by the USS Omaha (CL-4) and spent the remainder of the war as POW's.

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