The stronger the hit was, the more effect it would have.” Hardegen’s orders included a battle call: “Hit them like you’re beating a drum. We knew much was at play with this first attack on America we had to get the first strike right. As a U-boat commander I could not have dreamed of anything more exciting, it was new territory for me. Reinhard Hardegen, recalls in his book On Combat Station! U-Boat Engagement Against England and America what it felt like to be a German U-boat commander at this time: “We were to sail to America as the first envoys to hit a good number of merchant ships in different harbors all at the same time. “They are chipper in a rough kind of way, satisfied with their lot, and proud of their work.” Hunt in the Atlantic by H. On its fourth patrol in April of the same year, U- 576 sank two more ships, the 5,000-ton American merchant vessel Pipestone County and the 1,300-ton Norwegian freighter Taborfell.
In February 1942, on its third patrol, U- 576 sunk its first ship, the 6,900-ton unescorted British freighter Empire Spring, 50 miles from Sable Island. U- 576 was part of the first wave of 16 U-boats dispatched to attack merchant ships near the Canadian and U.S. They did, however, have more success when they were sent across the Atlantic to hunt in the waters off the coast of North America starting in January 1942. Nazaire, France, but they did not sink any enemy vessels during their first two patrols off the coasts of Russia, Ireland, and England. Heinicke and his 45-man crew went on four patrols as part of the seventh U-boat flotilla based in St. U- 576 was a German U-boat built in 1940 and launched the following year under the command of Kapitӓnleutnant Hans-Dieter Heinicke. Our crews are like the sword wielding brotherhoods of the Viking age.” Hunt in the Atlantic by H. “The men of the gray boats came together from all areas of the Reich to form one colorful German whole, linked together and working in sync. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and AccessibilityĬrew of U- 576 at watch in the conning tower.
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