German Submarine U-853 - First Patrol

First Patrol

On her first patrol from May to June 1944, U-853 was assigned to weather-watching duty under the command of Kapitänleutnant Helmut Sommer. This was his first war patrol. German intelligence believed that weather conditions in the Atlantic could be used to help predict the timing of an Allied invasion of Europe. On 25 May 1944 U-853 spotted the Queen Mary, loaded with American troops and supplies. The U-boat submerged to attack, but was outrun by the much larger and faster ship. As she surfaced in the Queen Mary's wake U-853 was attacked by Fairey Swordfish aircraft from British merchant aircraft carriers MV Ancylus and MV Empire MacKendrick. The U-boat took no significant damage and returned fire, hitting all three aircraft. The planes were able to return to their carrier, but after recovery one was deemed a total loss and jettisoned.

The escort carrier USS Croatan (CVE-14) had been hunting weather boats for nearly a month and had already sunk U-488 and U-490. Intercepted radio transmissions led Croatan and six destroyers to search for U-853. The U-853 proved so elusive that Croatan's crew nicknamed their prey "Moby Dick." After ten days of hunting, on 17 June Huff-Duff (HF/DF, high frequency direction finding) picked up a weather report from the U-853 only 30 miles (48 km) away. Within minutes two FM-1 Wildcat fighters strafed the submarine, killing 2 men and wounding 12 others. Sommer suffered 28 shrapnel and bullet wounds yet still managed to give the order to submerge. In all likelihood Sommer saved his submarine from being destroyed by allied bombers.

Three weeks of pursuit from 25 May until 17 June placed an enormous strain on U-853's crew. Twenty-three-year-old Oberleutnant zur See Helmut Frömsdorf took command of the boat on 18 June (his first command) and returned to Lorient. Sommer and a large number of the crew was declared unfit for duty. On 10 July Sommer was formally relieved by Oberlutenant Otto Wermuth.