U-604
11 AUGUST 1943
U-604
By November 1941, Britain was hanging tenuously, her economy smothering at the hands of German U-boats. And on the 16th of that month, Germany’s position got incrementally better with the launch of yet another U-boat, U-604, in Hamburg. Kapitänleutnant Horst Höltring assumed command, completed shakedowns, and deployed with the 9th Unterseebootsflottille on 1 August 1942.
U-604 joined three successive wolfpacks between August and December 1942, quickly noting successes. She sank a Dutch, three British, and the American SS Coamo between 25 August and 9 December. On 21 February 1943 the US Coast Guard cutter JOHN C. SPENCER (WPG-36) crossed her path in the North Atlantic. A depth charge attack convinced Guardsmen they had sunk U-225. In fact, Höltring had slipped away undamaged. By the summer of 1943, U-604 was intercepting southern Atlantic shipping to and from Great Britain’s colony in South Africa. And it was here, on 30 July 1943, that PV-1 “Ventura” from US Navy squadron VB-129 spotted U-604 100 miles off Brazil. LCDR Thomas D. Davies dove with guns blazing. Höltring turned abeam of the attack, and Davies’ four Mark 47 bombs straddled the sub. The U-boat was seen to slip beneath the waves, then her stern rose ominously. Thinking he had scored a victory, Davies flew off. Indeed, U-604 was severely damaged; weapons officer Oberleutnant zur See Frank Aschmann and coxswain Oberbootsmaat Herbert Lutz were dead. But Höltring managed to limp away and radio for help.
U-185 arrived to lend assistance, and the pair was attacked four days later by a four-engine PB4Y bomber from VB-107. The bomber vectored USS MOFFETT (DD-362), and a running engagement ensued in which the submerged U-604 barely escaped! MOFFETT re-acquired her target on the 6th and more depth charges racked the hobbled U-boat.
By this date, U-604’s “nine lives” were spent. Fourteen of her crew had given their lives, and her accumulated damage proved more than could be repaired. With U-185 and U-172 standing by, U-604 was prepared for scuttling. But again a PB4Y appeared out of NAF Natal, Brazil! The keen marksmanship of U-185’s gunners sent this bomber spinning in flames into the drink, claiming pilot LCDR Bertham J. Preuher and the 9-man US Navy crew. The two remaining U-boats turned for home, crowded with 31 of U-604’s crew.
On 24 August U-185 was herself attacked. A wounded Höltring went forward in the rapidly flooding boat to help two trapped and badly injured shipmates. But with their escape shortly impossible, the pair begged their skipper to be mercifully shot. Höltring then turned the pistol on himself.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 18 AUG 22
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
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ADDITIONAL NOTES: SS Coamo was an American Agwilines passenger ship crossing with Convoy MFK-3 from Gibraltar to New York when she was attacked by U-604 on 9 December 1942 off Bermuda. She was damaged and detached from the convoy to make port on her own. She was never seen again. All 133 souls aboard were lost, the largest single loss of American merchant mariners in WWII.
Horst Holtring