German submarine U-754

U-Boat Infobox
type=VIIC
fieldpost number=
yard number=
order date=
keel=January 8, 1940
launch=July 5, 1941
commission=August 28, 1941
yard=Kriegsmarinewerft, Wilhelmshaven
U-Boat Patrol
startdate=Start Date
enddate=End Date
assigned unit=Assigned Unit
U-Boat Patrol
startdate=30 December, 1941
enddate=9 February, 1942
assigned unit=1st FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=7 March, 1942
enddate=25 April, 1942
assigned unit=1st FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=19 June, 1942
enddate=31 July, 1942
assigned unit=1st FlotillaU_Boat Command
startdate=August, 1941
enddate=July, 1942
name=Kptlt. Johannes Ostermann
U_Boat Sink
type=Type of Ship Sunk
total=Number of Ships Sunk
tonnage=Gross Registered Tonnage
U_Boat Sink
type=Commercial Vessels
total=13
tonnage=55,659
U_Boat Sink
type=Military Vessels
total=None
tonnage=0

"U-754" was a German Type VII submarine deployed during the Second World War against allied shipping in the Atlantic Ocean. She was a successful if short-lived boat, sinking 13 ships during her career. She was most notorious for her final attack, in which she shelled and sank the small fishing vessel MV "Ebb", and killed a number of its crew with machine gun fire as they attempted to launch a liferaft. She was sunk with all hands by a Royal Canadian Air Force bomber three days later on July 31, 1942.

The "U-754" was a Type VII submarine, built in the Kriegsmarinewerft at the main fleet base of Wilhelmshaven in Northern Germany on the North Sea. She was completed on 28 August, 1941, and given to the experienced Kapitänleutnant Johannes Ostermann to command. Following her work-up period in which the boat was tested and the crew trained, she was despatched on her first patrol.

The Patrols

"U-754" departed Kiel on her first patrol on 30 December 1941, and her operating area was primarily in the mouth of the St Lawrence River, operating against convoys entering or leaving the waterway, or destined for the many ports at the river's mouth, such as Halifax, Nova Scotia or St. John's, Newfoundland. During this patrol, she sank four freighters. The submarine narrowly escaped a bombing attack by a Royal Canadian Air Force Bolingbroke bomber on March 23 which inflicted minor damage. ["The Creation of a National Air Force" W.A.B. Douglas, (University of Toronto Press, 1986) p. 480.] The submarine returned to Brest in France on 2 February to resupply and rearm.

The second patrol left from Brest on 9 March 1942, and after a brief sweep in her previous area of operations, she swung south to take advantage of the Second happy time then occurring off the United States's Eastern Seaboard. During this patrol she sank seven more ships, three of them in one attack on a small coastal convoy, in which she hit several small barges and coastal cargo ships. She returned to Brest on 25 April.

Her final patrol was her least successful, in terms of ships sunk, although the tonnage was higher, as she sunk the 12,435-ton SS "Waiwera" in the mid-Atlantic on 29 June, ten days after leaving Brest. It was however, nearly a month later, on 28 July, that she scored her final victim, when she controversially shelled the trawler "Ebb" near Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia. The submarine's radio transmissions betrayed a pattern to Royal Canadian Navy intelligence, information which was used by Norville Everitt Small the commander of Royal Canadian Air Force 113 Squadron to deploy patrols from RCAF Station Yarmouth targeting the suspected position of "U-754". [http://www.cda.forces.gc.ca/cfli/engraph/research/pdf/36.pdf.] On July 31, a Hudson bomber piloted by Squadron Leader Small himself caught "U-754" on the surface south of Yarmouth not far from the scene of the "Ebb" sinking. The submarine was precisely straddled by a cluster of depth charges as it began to dive. The conning tower of the wounded submarine briefly surfaced to be strafed by the Hudson's machine guns before submerging for the last time. A trail of large air bubbles was followed by a massive underwater explosion as "U-754" went to the bottom with all 43 hands. It marked the first submarine kill of the RCAF's Eastern Air Command. ["The Creation of a National Air Force" W.A.B. Douglas, (University of Toronto Press, 1986) p. 520 and http://www.rcaf.com/squadrons/1-100series/113squadron.php]

The Sinking of the "Ebb"

The "Ebb" was a motor fishing vessel operating out of Boston for the General Sea Foods Company. The crew of the small 260 ton vessel felt it was unlikely that they would be troubled by the war, as she was far too small for an effective torpedo shot, and too insignificant to justify the risk of a surface attack by gunfire. On 28 July 1942, however, while fishing off Cape Sable her crew were shocked to see "U-754" emerge from the water.

The submarine immediately opened fire without warning on "Ebb" with her anti-aircraft guns. The ship stopped and made signals that they had surrendered, but the fire continued, one gun sweeping through the crowd of crew members attempting to launch the ship's liferaft. Five of the seventeen crew were killed and seven more seriously wounded, before the "Ebb" sank after taking over fifty hits. The survivors were discovered and rescued by the destroyer HMS|Witherington fourteen hours later. [ [http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/1972.html U-Boat Net Account of sinking] ]

Had "U-754's" crew survived the war, it is possible that they would have been charged with war crimes as were the officers of "U-852" who also fired on sailors who had abandoned their ship. Similar incidents of gun attacks aimed at crews occurred on the "U-247" and "U-552".

Raiding career

ee also

List of U-boats

References

* Sharpe, Peter, "U-Boat Fact File", Midland Publishing, Great Britain: 1998. ISBN 1-85780-072-9.
* Bridgland, Tony, "Waves of Hate", Leo Cooper, Great Britain: 2002. ISBN 0-85052-822-4.

Notes