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Wreck of U-606

Portugal / Acores / Lagoa /
 Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck, submarine
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Unterseeboot 606 was a Type VIIC U-Boat built for the German Kriegsmarine, laid down at Blohm & Voss Shipyard at Hamburg in March 1941 and commissioned into service in January 1942. After training in the Baltic Sea for eight months as part of the 5th Unterseebootflottille, U-606 and her crew departed for Bergen where they began their first war patrol in September 1942.

Interrupted by engine troubles shortly after her departure, the U-606’s maiden patrol ended at 15 days and with no successes, however less than a month later she was back at sea on her second patrol, claiming her first sinking on the American Tanker Gurney E. Newlin off Ireland while operating in a wolfpack against convoy HX-212. Returning to Brest in December after her 50-day patrol, the U-606’s crew quickly readied their boat for her third deployment to the target-rich hunting grounds South of Iceland, and stood out on their third War Patrol on January 4th, 1943. Operating in two wolfpacks hunting Allied convoys in the North Atlantic during her patrol, the U-606 found no targets to attack through February and following the breakup of her second wolfpack she was routed to a position roughly in the center of the Atlantic between Newfoundland and Ireland to hunt for convoys.

Routed to the England-bound convoy ON-166 on the 21st of February by U-Boat Command, the U-606 joined no fewer than 19 other U-Boats in attacking the convoy, which was fiercely defended by several Allied escort vessels. After dark on the 22nd of February the U-606 had maneuvered herself into firing position on several vessels in the convoy, and began her attack at 2220hrs by firing a spread of six torpedoes into a tightly spaced group of vessels. Within minutes of her attack, the American SS Chattanooga City and British SS Empire Redshank were hit and sinking, and the American SS Expositor was severely damaged and being abandoned. Stealthily withdrawing from her attack, the U-606 cleared the immediate area of the sinking vessels and the convoy escorts which had arrived to render assistance to the men in the water, however her attempt at escape was foiled by the crew of the Polish Frigate ORP Burza, which picked up the submerged U-Boat on their ASDIC systems and began a prolong depth charge attack. Forced to the surface by damage to her ballast control systems, the U-606 was taken under fire by the Burza’s anti-aircraft guns and moderately damaged before her crew could get her submerged once again, allowing the sub to sink to deep water where she disappeared from the Polish vessel’s ASDIC screens.

Thought to be sunk, the U-606 remained in deep water for almost an hour while her crew frantically tried to maintain control of the battered submarine, almost losing depth control several times and constantly fighting heavy water leaks. After nearly sinking to her crush depth and with seawater coming into contact with her batteries and forming lethal Chlorine Gas, the Captain of U-606 ordered his boat surfaced where he hoped he could escape into the darkness and effect damage control measures. Surfacing well off the North side of the convoy, the U-606 was seemingly alone in the dark waters but in truth had been immediately picked up by the radar systems aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Campbell which was closing at flank speed. As her crew went topside to man her guns, the U-606 was taken under fire by the Campbell’s deck guns and struck several times, sending her crews running for cover and leaving the U-606 defenseless against her attacker. Campbell passed close aboard the U-606 and raked her superstructure with machine gun fire while also lobbing depth charges at the surfaced sub, further damaging the already battered U-Boat. Fearing that the German sub was again trying to go deep, the Captain of the Campbell ordered his Cutter to come about and rang for flank speed as he bore down on the U-606, which his gunners kept under fire until the Campbell rammed her just aft of the conning tower at nearly 20 knots.

Both ships were heavily damaged by the collision, with the Campbell flooding her engine room and going dead in the water, but U-606 had taken her final blow. After the two ships separated, the U-606 drifted into the darkness and was being abandoned by her surviving crew when she gave out and sank at this location on February 22nd, 1943. Of her 47 crew, only 11 were found alive the next morning and spent the balance of the war as POW’s in Canadian camps.
Coordinates:   47°43'59"N   33°43'0"W

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  • Hans Götze (guest)
    Para saber más: u-historia.com
This article was last modified 11 years ago