Wreck of U-590

Brazil / Amapa /
 Second World War 1939-1945, navy, shipwreck, submarine
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Unterseeboot 590 was a Type VIIC U-boat laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in October 1940 and commissioned into Kriegsmarine service in October 1941. Assigned to the 6th Unterseebootsflottille for training lasting until April 1942, the U-590 stood out of Kiel on her first of five War Patrols on April 4th, 1942.

Finding no targets in the mid-Atlantic or along the African coast during her first three patrols, the U-593's first 'kill' came in March 1943 when she claimed the sinking of a British merchant ship off Ireland on her fourth patrol. After returning to the U-boat pens at St. Nazaire after her first successful patrol in April, the U-590 underwent an overhaul and change in command before departing on her 5th War Patrol, bound for the Brazilian coast.

Hunting the merchant ships streaming out of the Amazon River Delta loaded with raw materials, the U-590 claimed her second kill on an anchored Brazilian merchant ship off Salinas on June 19th, 1943 shortly after her arrival in her patrol area. Continuing her operations off the Amazon River Delta into July, the U-590 and her crew were operating on the surface on July 9th when they were spotted by a patrolling US PBY Catalina Flying Boat, which immediately began an attack run on the sub.

U-590's lookouts spotted the inbound aircraft and the sub quickly rigged for a crash dive to elude her attacker, but before she could get deep enough the American aircraft straddled her with a string of depth charges. Severely damaged by the blasts, U-590's crew were unable to maintain control of her ballast tanks and the Submarine plunged straight to the bottom of the Atlantic with all 45 of her crew at this location on July 9th, 1944.

uboat.net/boats/u590.htm
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Coordinates:   3°22'0"N   48°38'0"W

Comments

  • My Dad was the pilot of the PBY that sunk U-590
This article was last modified 12 years ago