German U-Boat Activity in the Gulf of Mexico During WWII
In the early 1940’s, two diametrically opposed actions were taking place off the coast of Louisiana and in the State of Louisiana, specifically New Orleans. On the one hand, German Uboats were operating in the Gulf of Mexico and sinking Allied ships while on the other hand, Higgins Boats was manufacturing landing craft for the landing at Normandy that would ultimately lead to the defeat of Germany in WWII. The scope of this combined story is too large to cover in a single brief. Thus, this brief will only focus on the German U-boat activity in the Gulf. A later series of briefs will address the story of Higgins Boats. It can be said that the former story ends badly for the Germans while the latter story is one of success and triumph for the Allied war effort.
Among the reasons to address the topic on German U-boat actions in the Gulf of Mexico is to honor the memory of the brave civilian seamen and innocent passengers who gave their lives in the service of the Allied war effort. In summary, during the period 1942-43, it has been reported that 53 of the 76 Allied ships attacked in the Gulf and the Florida Straits were sunk. The number of Allied seamen, armed guards, and ships’ passengers killed numbered 447, 38, and 16, respectively. In contrast, only one German U-boat with a crew of 52 seamen and officers was sunk during that period. Fortunately, the response of the U.S. Military to this threat ultimately managed to drive the German U-boats out of the Gulf. Being extremely early in the entrance of the United States in WWII having only declared war on Germany on December 11, 1941, in response to Germany’s declaration of war on the United States on the very same date, a cohesive strategy and response including the availability of effective ships and aircraft to address the German U-boats in the Gulf were slow to develop.
At the urging of Vice Admiral Karl Doenitz, supreme commander of the U-boat arm of the German Navy, Hitler initiated the assault on foreign and domestic shipping, principally targeting tankers, along the U.S. Atlantic Coast, the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico in May of 1942 by authorizing Operation Paukenschlag or Operation Drumbeat. It is interesting to note that upon Hitler’s death by suicide on April 30, 1945, and in accordance with Hitler’s last will and testament, Doenitz became President of Germany and Supreme Commander of the German Armed Forces. As such, he was forced to order a member of his government, Alfred Jodl, to sign the instruments of German surrender in Reims, France, on May 7, 1945, thus ending the war in Europe. Doenitz remained as effective head of the German government and military until his cabinet was dissolved by the Allied powers on May 23, 1945. After the war, he was indicted as a war criminal, stood trial at Nuremberg, and was convicted of committing crimes against peace and war crimes against the laws of war and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Upon his release, he lived near Hamburg until his death in 1980 at the age of 89.
Reportedly, the number of German Uboats directed to the Gulf in Operation Drumbeat totaled 23. Their principal mission was to attack and destroy ships carrying any type of fuel from ports in Texas and Louisiana. However, the Uboats did not limit their engagements to such vessels. One such encounter was the sinking of the passenger steamer SS Robert E. Lee, on July 30. 1942, at a location approximately 45 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Of the 407passengers and crew members aboard, 15 passengers, one officer, and 9 crew members died as a result of their ship being torpedoed by German U-boat U-166. One of the fifteen passengers who lost his life was a survivor of the sinking SS Stanvac Palembang, a Panamanian tanker, off the island of Tobago. The survivors of the SS Robert E. Lee were rescued by patrol crafts USS PC-566 and USS SC-19 and transported to Venice, Louisiana. In this instance, the crew and passengers of the SS Robert E. Lee were somewhat vindicated by the sinking of the U-boat but that’s somewhat of a convoluted story that bears telling.
At the time the SS Robert E. Lee was torpedoed, she was being escorted by the United States Navy patrol craft PC-566. The patrol craft immediately attacked the submarine using depth charges after which the skipper of the patrol craft, LCDR Herbert G. Claudius (pictured here), USNR, concluded that U-166 had been sunk. Given that conclusion, Claudius proceeded to rescue the passenger and crew of the USS Robert E. Lee. Here the story takes an unfortunate turn; that is, the Navy did not believe that U-166 had been sunk. The Navy actually credited a U.S. Coast Guard amphibious aircraft with sinking U-166. As a result of its belief, the US Navy reprimanded Claudius and removed him from seagoing command but the story does not end here. In 2001, the wrecks of the USS Robert E. Lee and U-166 were discovered. The U-boat was located less than 2 miles from the wreck of the Lee. The wreckage of U-166 has been designated a war grave (of the 52 officers and crew members entombed there) and protected against any attempts to salvage it. In 2014, a detailed survey of the wreckage by National Geographical Explorer-in-Residence, Robert Ballard, provided visual evidence that U-166 had been sunk as a result of the depth charges released by U.S. Navy patrol craft PC-566. Given this finding, on December 16, 2014, the Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus posthumously awarded the captain of PC-566, LCDR Herbert G. Claudius, USNR, the Legion of Merit with a Combat “V” device for heroism in battle and credited him with the sinking of U166.
The initial target of the German U-boat operation against Allied ships was along the Atlantic Coast. That operation proved to be highly effective. During the 6 or so months following the German declaration of war against the United States in December 1941, German U-boats sank 225 merchant vessels resulting in the deaths of more than 4,600 merchant sailors, naval personnel, and civilians. These devastating losses were achieved at the loss of only eight German U-boats and 332 German officers and sailors. Only after Allied defenses stiffened and became more effective in that theatre of operation, did the Germans turn their attention to the Gulf of Mexico and Operation Drumbeat. To undertake this operation, Admiral Doenitz tasked 23 U-boats out of fleet of 292 submersibles. All but five of the U-boats designated for this operation were the larger Type IX U-boats. The fuel capacity of these U-boats gave them a steaming range of some 13,000 nautical miles, more than enough of the 7,500 nautical mile round trip from their base on the French coast to the Florida Straits and 4 or so weeks operation in the Gulf. By the deployment of Type XIV U-tankers to the mid-Atlantic, lower fuel capacity Type VII U-boats were also capable of Gulf operations and made up the remaining five of the total 23 U-boat Gulf task force.
Cavell (Personal Communication) noted several reasons for the initial success of Operation Drumbeat:
1) Already noted is the development of the Type IXC U-boats.
2) Progress in overcoming the worst of the problems with the effectiveness of its torpedoes.
3) The unwillingness of the United States to implement blackouts of coastal cities. Ultimately, blackouts were implemented resulting in a reduction in ship sinkings.
4) Most of the ships that were sunk were operating solo rather than being a part of a convoy.
5) Rather than protecting shipping in the Gulf of Mexico, the focus of the U. S. Navy was protecting Atlantic Ocean convoys rather than on coastal defense.
Rather than deploy the Operation Drumbeat U-boats in the task force simultaneously, they were deployed sequentially with provision for overlapping periods of deployment. One of the first U-boats to be deployed, U-507, was commanded by Korvettenkapitän Harro Schacht. At the fuel saving speed of 5 knots, the voyage from the coast of France to the Straits of Florida took almost 4 weeks. Shacht used this time to drill his crew on the procedures and practices that would be needed in their encounters with Allied ships. During the next two weeks, U-507 would be responsible for the sinking of nine Allied ships. One notable sinking attributed to U-507 was that of the SS Alcoa Puritan on May 6, 1942, at a location determined to be about 45 nautical miles south-southeast of the entrance to the Mississippi River. This location was established some 60 years later on the basis of marine surveys being conducted by Shell International Exploration and Production and validated by C&C Technologies.
Loaded with bauxite, the SS Alcoa Puritan sailed out of the Port of Span, Trinidad, on May 1, 1942, reportedly heading for Mobile, AL. Somewhere along the northern Gulf Coast, U-boat U507 encountered the ship and launched a torpedo that missed passing astern of the Puritan. The skipper of the Puritan, Capt. Yngvar A. Krantz, immediately initiated evasion actionrunning a zig-zag course at top speed. At this point, U-507 surfaced and began firing at the Puritan with its deck-mounted gun, ultimately disabling the Puritan’s steering mechanism causing the ship to go in a circle. Recognizing that the Puritan was now a “sitting duck”, Krantz ordered that the ship’s engines be shut down and the crew to abandon ship. It appears that Commander Schacht (pictured below) of U-507 waited until all personnel aboard Puritan had abandoned the ship at which time, he ordered a second torpedo be fired. This time the torpedo struck the ship near the engine room on the port side causing the ship to first list to port and then to sink. It is reported that the submarine subsequently approached the Puritan survivors and that Schacht expressed sorrow and hoped that the survivors would “make it in all right.” In an hour or so, a U.S. Navy Patrol Aircraft that had been previously contacted by the ship’s radio operator spotted the survivors and directed the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Boutwell to pick them up, some of whom had been seriously injured. The success of U-507 and its commander, Schacht, ended January 13, 1943, when the U-boat was sunk by a U.S. Navy aircraft off the coast of Brazil.
This brief has primarily focused on the details of only two of the multiple ship sinking in the Gulf of Mexico by German U-boats. Given the information readily available, it is impossible to conclude if the stories of these sinkings are representative of many or most of the other sinkings. It is apparent that it would have been a frightening time to be onboard any ship in the Gulf during this period…but brave seamen and officers continued to do so. The U-boat attacks in the Gulf significantly diminished in 1943 with only four ships sunk. Similarly, Atlantic Coast sinkings decreased from 99 in 1942 to 6 in 1943, one in 1944, and 3 in 1945. The significant reductions in sinkings are attributed to the development of effective tactics and strategies by the US Navy combined with properly equipped and dedicated aircraft and ships. (Note: The numbers of listed sinkings are approximate but considered to be reasonably accurate.) The New England Historical Society reported that German U-boat attacks officially started January 13, 1942, along the Atlantic Coast of the United States and essentially dominated those waters until August. During that period, more than 233 Allied ships were sunk in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, and 5,000 seamen and passengers killed.
Acknowledgement
Appreciation is expressed to Professor Samantha Cavell, Assistant Professor of History, Southeastern Louisiana University, for her review, comments, and suggestions relative to the content of the brief.
Sources
1942 — May 14, US tanker David McKelvey torpedoed, ~35M so. of MS Riv. mouth, LA– 17 – Deadliest American Disasters and Large-Loss-of-Life Events (usdeadlyevents.com)
U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged on Eastcoast and Gulf of Mexico During World War II (usmm.org)
U-Boats in the Gulf | The forgotten war in the Gulf of Mexico (usatodaynetwork.com)
Battle of the Caribbean - Wikipedia
SS Robert E. Lee - Wikipedia
German U Boats in the Gulf | The Heart of Louisiana
Rio History: Hunting German U-Boats in the Gulf of Mexico – Port Isabel-South Padre Press (portisabelsouthpadre.com)
Karl Dönitz - Wikipedia
U-Boat Attacks Of World War II: 6 Months of Secret Terror in the Atlantic - New England Historical Society
Ask Rufus: The U-boat war along the Gulf Coast - The Dispatch (cdispatch.com)
Personal Communication. Professor Samantha Cavell. Assistant Professor of History. Southeastern Louisiana University. September 4, 2023