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

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

USS Eagle 56

From Wikipedia.

The USS Eagle 56 (PE-56) was a U.S. Navy World War I-era patrol boat that remained in service through World War II.  On 23 April 1945, while towing targets for U.S. Navy bomber exercises off the coast of Maine, it was sunk by German U-boat U-853.

Only 13 of the 62 crew survived

The loss was classified as a boiler explosion until 2001, when historical evidence convinced the Navy to reclassify the sinking as a combat loss due to enemy action.  The Eagle was the second to last Navy warship to be sunk by German during the war.

It was one of 60-Eagle Class patrol craft built by Henry Ford late in World War I as submarine chasers, none of which saw action.  Unpopular due to their poor sea handling, only eight remained in service by the time WW II began for the United States.

It was the second to last U.S. warship to be sunk by Germany during WW II.

--GreGen

Naval Ceremony for the USS Eagle-- Part 2

This was held this past Tuesday.

The sinking occurred during the waning days of World War II, with the Germans surrendering just two weeks later, on May 7, 1945.  Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945, ending the war.

*  The vessel was one of a class built by Henry Ford at the end of World War I.

**  The U-583 didn't survive the Eagle by long.  The submarine was discovered in 18 fathoms (108 feet) and depth charges and hedgehogs were dropped during a 16-hour attack.  At first, it tried to hide by lying still.  Both times it was found by sonar.

On the morning of 6 May 1945 two K-Class blimps from Lakehurst, New Jersey, the K-16 and K-58 joined the attack, locating oil slicks and marking suspected locations with smoke and dye markers.  The K-16 also attacked with 7.2-inch rocket bombs.

Numerous depth charge and hedgehog attacks from the USS Atheron and USS Moberly resulted in planking, life rafts, a chart tabletop, clothing and an officer's cap floating to the surface.

The U-853 was one of the last U-boats sunk during World War Ii and the last to be sunk in U.S. waters.

--GreGen

Naval Ceremony for USS Eagle This Tuesday

From the April 20, 2024, Portland (Maine) Press Herald "Navy vessel sunk off Maine coast during World War II to be remembered at ceremony" by Joel Lawlor.

The ceremony will be held at 11 am Tuesday, 79 years to the day since the USS Eagle 56 was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Cape Elizabeth.

The U.S. Navy will host a wreath-laying ceremony Tuesday, April23, to commemorate the sinking of the USS Eagle 56, a Navy patrol vessel that was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat in the waning days of the war with Germany.

It is believed that the German submarine U-853 sank the Eagle.

Forty-nine sailors died in the sinking off the coast of Cape Elizabeth (Maine) on April 23, 1945-- exactly 70 years ago Tuesday.  Just 13 were rescued.

The ceremony is set to begin at11 a.m. at Fort Williams Park, will be at the plaque memorializing the USS Eagle, which is located on the south side of the Portland Head Light driveway.

--GreGen