U-853-- Part 5: Sinking the USS Eagle 56 and Battle of Point Judith

Although several survivors of the Eagle claimed to have seen a submarine sail with yellow and red insignia, a Navy inquiry attributed the Eagle's sinking to a boiler explosion.  The Navy reversed its finding in 2001 to acknowledge that the sinking was due to hostile action and awarded Purple Hearts to the survivors and next-of-kin of the deceased.

BATTLE OF POINT JUDITH

On 5 May 1945, the new president of Germany, Karl Donitz ordered all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases.

The U-853 was lying in wait off Point Judith, Rhode Island at the time.

Either the submarine didn't receive this order or ignored it.

Soon afterwards, a torpedo from her blew the stern off of the collier Black Point underway from New York to Boston.  Within 15 minutes the Black Point had sunk in 100 feet of water less than four nautical miles south of Point Judith. Twelve men died and 34 were rescued.

--GreGen

German Submarine U-853-- Part 4: Third and Final Patrol

SECOND PATROL

In seven weeks between 27 August and 14 October 1944, the U-853 was on it second patrol, but sank no ships.  The ship had been fitted out with a Schnorchel, a retractable air intake and exhaust that allowed it to remain submerged while running her diesel engines.  This reduced the need to spend dangerous periods on the surface charging batteries.

LAST PATROL

ON 23 February  1945, the U-853 was sent on her third war patrol to harass U.S. coastal shipping.  She did not sink any targets during the first weeks of patrol.  On 1 April she was ordered to the Gulf of Maine.

On 23 April, she fatally torpedoed the USS Eagle 56  near Portland, Maine.  The Eagle has been towing targets for the US Navy dive bomber training exercise 3 nautical miles off Cape Elizabeth when she exploded amidships and sank.  Only 13 of her 67 crew survived.

The same day, the USS Selfridge dropped nine depth charges on a suspected submarine.  The next day, the USS Muskegon made sonar contact and attacked the U-853, but failed to destroy her.

--GreGen

German Submarine U-853-- Part 3: First War Patrol, Weather-Watching and the Queen Mary

On her first war patrol from May to June 1944, the U-853 was assigned weather watching duty.  German intelligence believed weather would have a major impact on an expected Allied invasion of Europe.  On 25 May, she spotted the RMS Queen Mary, loaded with American troops and supplies.  (The Queen Mary most likely was carrying 15,000 soldiers at the time.)

The U-853 submerged to attack but was outrun by the much faster ship.  As she surfaced in the Queen Mary's wake, she was attacked by British aircraft from an oil tanker and a grain ship converted into Merchant Aircraft Carriers.

No major damage took place to the submarine, however.

Meanwhile, the escort carrier Croatan had been hunting weather boats for nearly a month and had already sunk  the U-488 and U-490.  German radio messages were intercepted from the submarine and the Croatan and six destroyers went looking for her.

The U-853 proved elusive, but on 17 June, a weather report from the U-853 was picked up just 30 nautical miles away.  Planes were scrambled and an attack made within minutes.  Strafing runs were made and two sailors were killed and 12 wounded.  The submarine crash dived to safety.

The U-853 returned to its base at Lorient in northwest France, ending the patrol.

--GreGen

German Submarine U-853-- Part 2: The 'Tightrope Walker'

The U-853 was built by DeSchiMAG AG Weser of Bremen, Germany.  Ordered on 5 June 1941, her keel was laid on 21 August 1942 and commissioned on 25 June 1943.

The Germans nicknamed the ship "der Seiltanzer" meaning "The Tightrope Walker" and her crew pained an emblem of a yellow shield with a red horse on the sail.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

LENGTH:  251 feet 10 inches

BEAM:  22.6 feet

SPEED:  18.3 knots surfaced, 7.3 knots submerged

TEST DEPTH:  750 feet

COMPLEMENT:   4 officers, 44 enlisted

ARMAMENT:

6 torpedo tubes (4 bow, 2 stern)

one 4.1-inch deck gun

one 31.5-inch AA gun

one twin 2 cm FlaK 30 AA guns

--GreGen

German Submarine U-853

From Wikipedia.

This was the German ship that is now given credit for sinking the USS Eagle 56.

Was a Type IXC/40 U-boat.  Her keel was laid down on 21 August 1942 and commissioned  on 25 June 1943.  She saw action in the Battle of the Atlantic, conducting three war patrols, sinking two Allied ships.

On her final patrol she had been sent to harass Allied ships along the United States coast.  She destroyed the USS Eagle 56 near Portland near Portland, Maine, and just days before the German surrender torpedoed and sank the collier Black Point during the Battle of Point Judith.

Then, the day before the surrender, American warships located the U-583 and sank her 7 nautical miles  east of Block Island, Rhode Island, resulting in in the loss of her whole crew of 48.

Today the wreck is a popular deep sea diving spot in 121 feet of water.

--GreGen

USS Eagle 56-- Part 6: General Characteristics

BUILDER:  Ford Motor Company

COMMISSIONED: 26 October 1919

LENGTH:  200 feet 9 inches

BEAM:  33 feet 1 inch

DRAFT:  8 feet 6 inches

SPEED:  18.32 knots

COMPLEMENT:   Officers: 5, Enlisted :56

ARMAMENT:

2 4" caliber guns

1 3" caliber gun

2 .50 BMG machine guns

--GreGen

USS Eagle 56-- Part 4: Afterwards

On 5 May 1945, the U-583 sank the collier Black Point off the coast of Cape Judit, Rhode Island, causing the loss of 12 lives.  During the ensuing Battle of Point Judith, the U-583 was chased and sunk by Navy and Coast Guard ships on 6 May.

Because the Allies had cracked Germany's codes, the U.S. intelligence knew in 1945 that U-boats had been sent across the North Atlantic to disrupt shipping in hopes of obtaining better surrender terms.  However, only general warnings rather than specific information about this plan were passed to commanders.

RECLASSIFICATION

In 2001, the Naval Historical Center reviewed the case and reclassified the sinking as a combat loss. In June 2001 Purple Heart medals were awarded to three survivors and the next of kin of those killed.

As of 2007, this is the only time that the U.S. Navy has overruled its own Court of Inquiry.

WRECK DISCOVERY

The ship's wreckage was located in June2018 and visited by a civilian dive team later that same month.  It lies 5 miles off the coast of Maine at a depth of 300 feet.  A video taken by the divers shows that the Eagle 56's boilers intact.  The ship's steel plating is starting to waste away, but the site has been designated a war grave and has all the protections associated with it.

GreGen

USS Eagle 56-- Part 3: The Sinking Was It a Boiler Explosion or U-Boat?

Next, the Eagle was assigned to Naval Air Station Brunswick from 28 June 1944.  

At noon 23 April 1945, the Eagle exploded amidship and broke into two pieces 3 miles off Cape Elizabeth, Maine.  The destroyer USS Selfridge was operating nearby and arrived 30 minutes after the explosion to rescue 13 survivors from the crew of 62.

The Selfridge obtained a sharp, well-defined sonar contact during the rescue and dropped nine Mark X Mod 2 depth charges without obvious result.  According to a classified U.S Navy report, the German submarine U-853 had been operating in the waters off Maine.

At a Naval Board of Inquiry in Portland the following week, five of the 13 survivors claimed to have seen a submarine. Several spotted a red and yellow emblem on the submarine's sail.  These insignia match the markings of the the U-853: a red horse on a yellow shield.  The Eagles boiler had been overhauled just two weeks before she sank and none of the other boilers on the Eagle boats had ever exploded.

Nevertheless, the official Navy inquiry concluded that Eagle 56 had suffered a boiler explosion.

--GreGen

USS Eagle 56-- Part 2

The Eagle 56 was patrolling off the Delaware Capes in January 1942 and remained at sea  almost constantly during the Second Happy Time of the Battle of the Atlantic, referring to German U-boats attacking Allied shipping along the east coast of the U.S.

When her depth charges were expended, a small ship from Cape May, New Jersey, would come out with a new supply.

The Eagle 56 rescued survivors of the Jacob Jones off Cape May in February 1942.  It was damaged by a collision with the submerged wreck of Gypsum Prince while rescuing survivors from a British freighter that had collided with the British tanker Voco on 4 March at the entrance to Delaware Bay.

It was repaired by using parts from another Eagle-class boat.

Next it was assigned to the Key West Sonar School in May 1942.

--GreGen