©THIS DAY IN WORLD WAR II: JULY 5, 1943 – BRITISH AIRMEN SINK GERMAN “U-535” By Linda Lee Greene, Author & Artist

The slow, eastbound convoys delivering war materiel from the western Allies to Great Britain across the north Atlantic during World War II found it dangerous going in those German U-boat infested waters. But as the twilight sun of July 5, 1943 ignited the ocean’s black depths, it portended a good day for the Allied convoys.

Having set sail on her first and only patrol in the north Atlantic from Kiel in northern Germany on May 25, 1943, was also German submarine “U-535.” Under the command of Kapitänleutnant Helmut Ellmenreich and three subordinate officers and forty-four enlisted men, “U-535” had scored no kills during her tedious forty-one days and nights of subaquatic existence in that turbulent sea. Fourteen days into the U-boat’s tour of duty, the crew’s ennui was interrupted by depth charges rocking their boat, explosives dropped by Great Britain’s famous No. 269 Royal Air Force Squadron aloft in an American Lockheed Hudson Light Bomber, followed by a further aborted attack from another Hudson from the same air squadron. In return shelling, the U-boat’s flak damaged the second Hudson, and all the while the U-boat stayed up, and showed promise of much fight left in her. The wounded Hudson got on the horn lickity-split and apprised the incoming United States Navy Catalina Patrol Bomber (amphibious aircraft) attached to Squadron VP-84 of the outcome of the skirmish. Catalina shadowed the U-boat for several hours, but to no avail, for like a canny and tempered shark, she slithered away underwater and escaped the Allies as dusk pulled a gray and opaque curtain over the ocean once more.

Through the balance of June and the opening days of July, “U-535” continued her dogged hunt for Allied convoys to kill along the western borders of Europe. But as she and her pack comprised of “U-170” and “U-536” surfaced and headed inbound on the 5^th of July, they were attacked by an alert and hungry British Liberator Maritime Reconnaissance Aircraft of No. 53 Squadron Royal Air Force northeast of Cape Finisterre, Spain. They evaded the opening attack, but “U-536” was strafed in the second round, gave the signal to her sister ships to crash dive, and down she and “U-170” went to the safety of the deep. For reasons unknown, “U-535” stayed topside and gave return fire with her AA guns, hitting the Liberator. Nevertheless, “U-535” was torn asunder by eight depth charges dropped by the British aircraft. With all hands on board, the submarine sank, and with no remorse on the part of those war-weary British airmen. The Allied convoys were spared a terrible fate that day, and with one crewman wounded, the damaged British Liberator screeched back to base on a wing and a prayer, and some crack piloting.

Books by Linda Lee Greene are available at Amazon.com.