Unterseeboot 853
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Unterseeboot 853 (U-853) was a Type IXC/40 submarine of the Kriegsmarine. Her keel was laid down on 21 August 1942 by AG Weser of Bremen. She was commissioned on 25 June 1943 with Kapitänleutnant Helmut Sommer in command. U-853 conducted three patrols, sinking two ships totalling 5783 tons. She was known to her crew as der Seiltaenzer ("the Tightrope Walker"). Her emblem was a yellow shield with a red horse.
From May to June 1944, U-853 was assigned to weather-watching duty. On May 25, 1944 three Fairey_Swordfish aircraft from merchant aircraft carrier MV Empire MacKendrick found and attacked the U-boat. The boat took no significant damage, and returned fire, hitting all three aircraft. The planes were able to return to their carrier, but after recovery, one was deemed a total loss and was jettisoned.
Meanwhile, the escort carrier USS Croatan (CVE-14) had been hunting weather boats for nearly a month and had already sunk U-488 and U-490. She now turned her attentions to U-853. That U-boat, however, proved so elusive that Croatan's crew nicknamed their prey "Moby Dick." On June 17, after ten days of hunting, "huff-duff" (HF/DF, high frequency direction finding) picked up a weather report from the U-853 only 30 miles away. Within minutes, two FM-1 Wildcat fighters were strafing the submarine, killing Bootsmann Kurt Schweichler and Maschinengefreiter Karl-Heinz Löffler, and wounding 12 other men.
The three weeks of being hunted placed an enormous strain on U-853's crew. Oberleutnant zur See Helmut Frömsdorf took command of the boat on June 18, and returned to Lorient, where Kptlt. Sommer and a large number of the crew was declared unfit for duty. On July 10, Sommer was formally relieved by Oblt. Otto Wermuth, but the boat remained in port until August 27, when Korvettenkapitän Günter Kuhnke, Commander of the 10th Flotilla, took command for a transit to Flensburg, arriving October 14. Kuhnke then took over command of the 33rd Flotilla, relinquishing command to Oblt. Helmut Frömsdorf, who took the U-boat on her final patrol.
On April 23, 1945 U-853 sank USS Eagle 56 (PE-56), which was towing targets for United States Navy dive-bombers just off the coast of Maine.
On May 5, 1945, Commander in Chief of Submarines (Befehlshaber der Unterseeb) Karl Dönitz ordered all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases, commending them "you have fought like lions"! U-853, lying in wait off Point Judith, Rhode Island, did not receive that order. Soon after, her torpedo struck SS Black Point, a collier underway for Boston, Massachusetts. Within 15 minutes, Black Point had capsized in 95 feet of water, the last US-flagged merchant ship sunk in World War II. Twelve men died, while 34 crew members were rescued. One of the rescuing ships, SS Kamen, sent a report of the torpedoing that was picked up by four American warships:
discovered U-853 bottomed in 18 fathoms (33 m), and dropped more than a hundred depth charges through the night. The next morning, May 6, two blimps from Lakehurst, New Jersey, K-16 and K-58 joined the attack, locating oil slicks and marking suspected locations with smoke and dye markers. K-16 also attacked with 7.2-inch rocket bombs. Finally, planking, life rafts, a chart tabletop, clothing, and an officer's cap floated to the surface, indicating the destruction, with all hands, 55 officers and men, of the last U-boat sunk during World War II.
In 1968, with the permission of the German government, a team dove to the wreck of U-853 and brought up her 20mm Flak cannon. The antiaircraft gun was donated to Delaware Technical and Community College, where it was essentially abandoned and allowed to become overgrown with weeds. In April 2004, it was "rediscovered" and donated to the Fort Miles Historical Association, which will restore the vintage weapon. The cannon is in excellent condition, having been rigged for dive and undamaged by the attack that sunk the U-boat.