Wreck of U-521

 Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck, submarine

 Upload a photo

Unterseeboot 521 was a Type IXC U-boat laid down at the Deutsche Werft Shipyard in Hamburg in July 1941 and commissioned into Kriegsmarine service in June 1942. After 2 months of training, the U-521 departed on her maiden war Patrol in October 1942 and returned successfully to her new homeport at Lorient 64 days later with two kills on her war record.

With her second patrol taking her as far West as Newfoundland, the U-521 claimed two more ships sunk by her torpedoes during her 76 days at sea before returning to Lorient in late March 1943. After a hasty reprovisioning and minor voyage repairs, U-521 and her crew of again stood out of the U-Boat pens on May 5th and began the long trans-Atlantic voyage to their patrol area; the Virginia Capes. After a 26-day crossing, the U-521 took up her patrols off the coast of the United States and began hunting the merchant ship convoys running up and down the coast. Sighting a Southbound Convoy off Cape May the U-521 quickly moved to outflank the slow moving merchant ships during the night of June 1st and by dawn on June 2nd was submerged and closing on her targets.

The U-521 stalked the convoy throughout the morning of June 2nd and by noon she was roughly 15,000 yards from her target and running 100ft below the surface. Electing to shadow the convoy until sundown when the cover of darkness could conceal his ship, the Captain of U-521 retired to his bunk to rest for the coming night's action. Shortly before 1230hrs sonar operators aboard the U-521 began to pick up the sounds of the convoy but were unaware that at roughly the same time their own propellers were audible to the crew aboard the USS PC-565, a Submarine Chaser escorting the convoy. After actively pinging the potential submerged contact revealed the unmistakable outline of a submarine, the PC-565 swung into action and bore down on the U-521's position, taking only nine minutes to close the distance and begin dropping depth charges.

Aboard the U-521, the sudden change in events caught much of the crew off-guard, including her Captain. By the time he was alerted in his bunk to the situation, the first depth charges were already in the water and at 1241hrs the U-521 was rocked by several close-quarter detonations which severely damaged the sub. With almost all her onboard gauges shattered by the blasts and her forward dive planes warped, the U-521 became almost uncontrollable. Realizing the boat was in serious trouble, the U-521' Captain ordered the ship surfaced so her deck gun could be turned on her attackers as her lack of underwater steerage made launching torpedoes with any accuracy all but impossible. Breaking the water’s surface the U-521 was taken under immediate fire by the PC-565's crew, using their 20mm gun to rake the sub's sail as she struggled to maintain buoyancy. Kptlt. Klaus Bargsten, U-521's Captain, went topside just long enough to sight the PC-565 only 500 yards distant as the Submarine Chaser turned to ram his U-boat and the USS Brisk (PG-89) closing on his location sending 3-inch rounds overhead from its deck gun. Quickly determining that engaging in a surface battle was suicide, Bargsten ordered the U-521 submerged once again and her scuttling charges armed.

Just as she slipped beneath the surface again, the U-521 was overhauled by the PC-565 which dropped another string of depth charges directly onto the sub and bracketed her as they detonated. In the control room of U-521, the only readable gauge was showing the U-521 sinking rapidly past 430ft and closing in on her crush depth, which combined with the lack of engine power spelled almost certain death for the crew. Ordering an emergency ballast blow, Kptlt. Bargsten ordered all men to prepare to abandon the U-521 as soon as she broke the surface. As the U-521 reluctantly surfaced and leveled out at 1243hrs, Bargsten climbed the sail and scanned for the American ships which he sighted only a few hundred yards away. As he turned to order his men to abandon ship the U-521 gave out and sank from under his feet, washing Bargsten from the deck and into the sea. PC-565 again overhauled the diving sub and dropped a final depth charge onto her as she went under where it detonated on contact with the hull and brought up a huge oil slick and debris. PC-565's crew quickly pulled Kptlt. Bargsten from the water and conducted a search for other survivors, but by 1400hrs it was clear that the U-521 had sank with 50 of her crew at this location on June 2nd, 1943. Kptlt. Bargsten spent the rest of World War Two as a POW.


uboat.net/boats/u521.htm