Немецкая подводная лодка U-552: «Красный Дьявол» Второй мировой войны

German World War II submarine

German submarine U 552 was a Type VIIC U boat built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during World War II. She was laid down on 1 December 1939 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg as yard number 528, launched on 14 September 1940, and went into service on 4 December 1940. U 552 was nicknamed the Roter Teufel ("Red Devil") after her mascot of a grinning devil, which was painted on the conning tower. She was one of the more successful of her class, operating for over three years of continual service and sinking or damaging 35 Allied ships with 164,276 GRT and 1,190 tons sunk and 26,910 GRT damaged. She was a member of 21 wolf packs. U 552 was involved in two controversial actions: On 31 October 1941, she sank the Reuben James, the first US Navy warship to be lost in World War II; this was at a time when the US was still officially neutral, and caused a diplomatic dispute. On 3 April 1942, she sank the freighter David H. Atwater off the US seaboard. U 552 had an unusually long service life, surviving to the end of World War II; after evacuating from her French base during the spring of 1944, she operated on training duties in the Baltic Sea until she was decommissioned in February 1945. On 5 May 1945, she was scuttled in Helgoland Bight, to prevent her falling into enemy hands.

German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. U 552 had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. She had a total length of , a pressure hull length of , a beam of , a height of , and a draught of The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four stroke, six cylinder, supercharged diesel engines producing a total of for use while surfaced, and two Brown, Boveri & Cie GG UB 720/8 double acting electric motors producing a total of for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to
The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of When submerged, the boat could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at U 552 was fitted with five torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and one at the stern), 14 torpedoes, one SK C/35 naval gun, 220 rounds, and a C/30 antiaircraft gun. The boat had a complement between 44 and 60.

Following construction, which was completed on 4 December 1940, U 552 was given two months of working up training, during which she prepared her crew and equipment for the operations ahead. She then sailed from Kiel on 13 February to Helgoland for her first official patrol, arriving there on 18 February 1941. This port city was to remain U 552s home base until she was transferred to the occupied French port of St Nazaire in mid March 1941.

U 552s first official war patrol began on 18 February 1941, when she left Helgoland for a patrol in the North Sea and the North Atlantic south of Iceland. This first operation yielded one British tanker and one Icelandic trawler carrying fish. The British tanker Cadillac was sunk just north of Scotland on 1 March, while the trawler was sunk just south of Iceland on 10 March. No targets were engaged until 26 April when at 18:09 GMT, the U 552 was midway between Iceland and northern Scotland. Topp sighted “smoke cloud bearing 10°T” from a small “patrol vessel size” target. The target was followed “at the limit of visibility” while waiting for nightfall. At 00:10 (27 April), about 130 nautical miles SE of Iceland, the small vessel Commander Horton was attacked. The U 552 log records “Fishing trawler (patrol vessel) sunk with 82 shots of 8.8 cm and 102 shots MG C30. No resistance.” (Commander Horton, 227 tones, 14 casualties). Around 11:00 GMT on 27 April, the U 552 was submerged and “Propeller sounds heard bearing 200°T”. Topp then commenced a surface pursuit of a large steamer. “Estimate enemy speed 16 knots. Am gaining only as a result of the zig zags.” At 14:12, at grid position AL3236, the Beacon Grange was in the targeting range of 1000 meters. The submerged U 552 fired a fan of three torpedoes. All three torpedoes hit the ship. A few minutes later while the crew were launching lifeboats, the U 552 surfaced and “ran in for a coup de grace”. A fourth torpedo was fired and the U boat log records “Hit aft 20 meters. Steamer breaks completely in the center, deck awash, ends continue to float.” (Beacon Grange, 10,119 tones, 2 casualties)

During the afternoon of 28 April 1941, a historic battle was underway about 180 miles south of Iceland. A wolf pack “Rudeltaktik” of five U boats had launched the war's first submerged daylight attack on a convoy. The submerged U boats, which were spread out over a distance of about 10 miles, intercepted and attacked an east bound convoy. The U 123 (Karl Heinz Moehle), had spotted Convoy HX 121 and called in U 65 (Joachim Hoppe), U 95 (Gerd Schreiber), U 96 (Heinrich Lehmann Willenbrock), and U 552 (Erich Topp) for the kill. U 552 started things off at 14:15 GMT (60°06’N 20°18’W), when it torpedoed the British tanker Capulet. Nine casualties resulted, and the tanker was abandoned, but did not sink. At 17:25, three more ships were sunk by U 96 with one spread of three torpedoes: British tanker Oilfield (47 casualties, 8 survivors); Norwegian tanker Caledonia (12 casualties, 25 survivors); and British freighter Port Hardy (one casualty). U 65 was sunk by H. M. S. Douglas in a depth charge attack, and all 50 men in the crew perished. After torpedoing the tanker Capulet, U 552 was depth charged in five separate attacks from destroyers H. M. S. Maori and H. M. S. Inglefield, forcing the submarine to remain submerged for hours until the convoy was out of range. The U 552 had been damaged and this would be a troubled day, with attacks from air and sea as it neared the convoy, swift dives, and gingerly resurfacing. After diving and hearing nothing at 01:45 on the 30th, Erich Topp realized that Convoy HX 121 must have changed course to the north. His convoy pursuit was broken off and his boat came to a southerly course. At 02:18 GMT, Topp sent a message to B. d. U. (Admiral Dönitz): “Sank: “Beacon Grange”, a patrol vessel. From convoy tanker 8000 tons. Return Transit via North Channel. [My position] AM2477.” In his log, Topp recorded “Intention: As long as fuel allows, position in North Channel.”

On 30 April, the surfaced U 552 was about 150 nautical miles west of the North Channel entrance and searching for targets. At 21:40 GMT, Topp sighted a ship, the troopship S. S. Nerissa approaching from the north west. For almost 2 hours, Topp stalked the zigzagging Nerissa and adjusted his torpedo firing solution accordingly. Finally, Topp saw a phosphorescent glow on the sea and decided that 1,000 metres was as close as he should approach his target, and he fired a fan of three torpedoes. The U 552 log records that one of the three torpedoes “hit astern” at 00:27 Berlin Time (GMT+2). About 6 minutes later, Topp closed in on the already stricken ship and fired a fourth torpedo as a coup de grace into Nerissa's aft starboard side while her crew and passengers were launching lifeboats. More than half of the 207 casualties were Canadians. (S. S. Nerissa, 5,583 tones, casualties 207)  

The U 552 had four remaining torpedoes and she continued searching for merchant ships in transit towards the North Channel. Topp was not successful in engaging any additional targets and almost 48 hours after sinking the S. S. Nerissa, the U 552 commenced her homeward transit south. She arrived in St Nazaire on 6 May.

U 552 left St Nazaire for her third war patrol on 25 May 1941. In 39 days, she travelled into the North Atlantic and sank three British vessels: the Ainderby on 10 June, the Chinese Prince on 12 June, and the Norfolk on 18 June. During the attack on the Norfolk, U 552 attempted to attack the remaining ships in the convoy, but was forced to break off the attack due to the arrival of several of the convoy's escorts. All of these attacks occurred off the northwest coast of Ireland, and once U 552 returned to St. Nazaire on 2 July 1941, she had amassed a total of 24,401 GRT from the ships she had sunk.

U 552s fourth patrol was much less successful than her previous three. Having left St Nazaire on 18 August, she proceeded to head south into the waters off Portugal and Spain. Here, she sank the Norwegian vessel, Spind. Following this sinking, U 552 returned to St Nazaire on 26 August 1941, after only 9 days at sea.

Her next two patrols all took her further into the Atlantic, where the danger was lessened, but so were the targets, with the result that she only hit three more cargo ships. Also this time, during her final patrol of 1941, she sank the Reuben James, which was torpedoed on 30 October in controversial circumstances.

On 31 October 1941, USS Reuben James was one of five destroyers escorting convoy HX 156, close to the coast of Iceland, about west of the island. Reuben James had just begun turning to investigate a strong direction finder bearing when a torpedo launched from U 552 struck her port side and caused an explosion in her forward magazine. The destroyer was the first US Navy warship to be sunk in World War II.

In 1942, again commanded by Erich Topp (who later became an admiral in the postwar Bundesmarine), U 552 participated in the "Second Happy Time" (Operation Drumbeat or Paukenschlag), during which German submarines had great success against unescorted American merchantmen sailing alone along the eastern seaboard of the US. U 552 was particularly successful during this period, sinking 13 ships and damaging another in just three patrols in the first six months of 1942. Two further patrols under Topp during the summer netted four more ships. However, in an attack against Convoy ON 155 on 3 August 1942, the boat was nearly sunk when she was caught on the surface by the Canadian corvette The corvette machine gunned the submarine and hit the conning tower with a four inch shell, causing severe damage and forcing Topp to return to base for repairs. U 552 was badly damaged by heavy seas during another patrol and was put into port for repairs, during which Topp was promoted and replaced by a more cautious commander, Klaus Popp.

U 552 had less success in later years, as did the U boat force in general, as U boats failed to keep ahead of the rapidly increasing numbers and capabilities of Allied antisubmarine efforts. She was transferred to operations off the Spanish, Portuguese, and African coasts, which were nearer to base and less dangerous than the newly reorganized defenses of the United States, where she attempted to sink troopships during Operation Torch. Whilst on this duty, Topp sank a small British minesweeper and later a cargo ship, but failed to enter the Straits of Gibraltar or seriously threaten the landings. During 1943, U 552 was increasingly unable to serve effectively against the well prepared and organized Allied convoy system, a fact reflected by her failure to sink a single ship during her two patrols into the North Atlantic Ocean. During one of these, a Royal Air Force B 24 Liberator aircraft spotted her and she was seriously damaged by depth charges, which necessitated four months' repairs. In 1944, she had a single patrol, but was unable to close with or threaten any Allied convoys, so was withdrawn to Germany in April 1944 for use as a training vessel in the 22nd U boat Flotilla, a role she fulfilled until she was decommissioned in February 1945. On 5 May 1945, she was scuttled in Wilhelmshaven Bay to prevent her capture.

Date Ship Name Nationality Tonnage Fate1 March 1941Cadillac12,062Sunk10 March 1941Reykjaborg687Sunk27 April 1941Commander Horton227Sunk27 April 1941Beacon Grange10,119Sunk28 April 1941Capulet8,190Damaged1 May 19415,583Sunk10 June 1941Ainderby4,860Sunk12 June 1941Chinese Prince8,593Sunk18 June 1941Norfolk10,948Sunk23 August 1941Spind2,129Sunk20 September 1941T. J. Williams8,212Sunk20 September 19414,150Sunk20 September 1941Barbaro6,325Sunk30 October 1941Reuben James1,190Sunk15 January 1942Dayrose4,113Sunk18 January 1942Frances Salman2,609Sunk20 January 1942Maro3,838Sunk25 March 1942Ocana6,256Sunk3 April 19422,438Sunk4 April 19427,953Sunk7 April 1942British Splendour7,138Sunk7 April 1942Lancing7,866Sunk9 April 1942Atlas7,137Sunk10 April 1942Tarnaulipas6,943Sunk15 June 19422,759Sunk15 June 1942Etrib1,943Sunk15 June 1942Pelayo1,346Sunk15 June 1942Slemdal7,374Sunk15 June 19422,436Sunk25 July 1942British Merit8,093Damaged25 July 1942Broompark5,136Sunk3 August 1942G. S. Walden10,627Damaged3 August 1942Lochatrine9,419Sunk19 September 1942HMS Alouette520Sunk3 December 1942Wallsend3,157Sunk