USCGC SPENCER vs. U-175

Ocean Escort Unit A-3, a multi-national collection of the US Coast Guard cutters SPENCER (WPG-36) and DUANE (WPG-33) along with the British corvette HMS DIANTHUS, the Canadian corvettes CHILLIWACK, ROSTHERN, TRILLIUM and DAUPHIN, and the Polish destroyer BURZA, was underway this day escorting Convoy HX-233 from Nova Scotia to England.  The two 327-foot, 2200-ton “Treasury”-class cutters of A-3 were some of the Guard’s newest and had been pressed into escort service since the opening of the war.  Having left St. Johns April 12^th, for five days the 57 merchantmen of Convoy HX-233 pitched through the rough North Atlantic to the longitude of Reykjavik.  The stormy Winter of 1942-43 had been a successful one for Hitler’s U-boats and SPENCER’s men had vowed not to shave until they had bagged “a hearse.”  By now CDR Harold Berdine, USCG, and his crew were looking pretty scruffy.  Then at noon on this day SPENCER recorded a contact inside the escort screen.

SPENCER charged this unseen contact, cris-crossing the spot with two trains of depth charges.  She then threaded her way between the columns of the convoy, maintaining contact and vectoring DUANE to the spot.  Meanwhile 38 fathoms below, the crew of U-175 had their hands full.  The depth charges had burst light bulbs, battered men and equipment, and ruptured pipes throughout the boat.  The crew worked feverishly to stem the flooding as the skipper maneuvered to escape his pursuers.  The continuing “pings” of the cutters reminded them of the immediacy of further attack.  And failing to stem the flooding after 48 minutes, U-175 had no choice but to surface.

The sub broached about a mile from SPENCER and was immediately spotted.  SPENCER, DUANE, and the Naval Armed Guard of nearby freighters fired every gun they had!  Germans who braved the deck to return a few shells were cut down in minutes.  The U-boat’s conning tower was mauled by 5-inch shells, and her hull was enveloped with splashes.  One return shell did hit SPENCER, fatally wounding USCG Radioman Julius Petrella, but rudder damage condemned the stricken sub to impotent circles.  SPENCER bore in to ram but turned away when the enemy was seen scrambling for their life rafts.

SPENCER had drilled for just such an occasion–a boarding party was immediately launched!  As the cutters picked up 41 enemy sailors, Berdine’s men entered the sub.  But they could not stop the flooding.  One giant wave washed completely over her, her stern rose, and it became obvious she was doomed.  The Allies would have to wait another 14 months for the successful capture of a U-boat, when the USS GUADALCANAL (CVE-60) escort group captured U-505 and the codebooks and ciphers she held.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  23 APR 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 1 The Battle of the Atlantic.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1947, pp. 344-45.

Noble, Dennis L. and Truman R. Strobridge.  “Spencer vs. the Nazis.”  Sea Classics, Vol 48 (10), October 2015, pp. 10-21.

Scheina, Robert L.  U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft 1946-1990.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1990, p. 28.

Walton, William.  “Scratch One Hearse!:  Spencer vs. U-175.”  Sea Classics, Vol 35 (3), March 2002, pp. 50-56.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  During WWII the US Coast Guard was a branch of the Treasury Department, having been created originally to stem smuggling.  The “Treasury”-class cutters were named for former Secretaries of the Treasury.  SPENCER was named for John C. Spencer who served President John Tyler between 1843-44.  DUANE was named for the Honorable William J. Duane, one of several Treasury Secretaries in the Andrew Jackson administration.  On 1 April 1967 the Coast Guard was transferred to the newly created Department of Transportation.  Then, after 9/11, the Coast Guard became part of the Department of Homeland Security.

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                                              MV SAN DEMETRIO

The Eagle Oil and Shipping Company operated in England from 1912-59 moving petroleum products between Mexico, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom.  Each of their tankers was given the Spanish name of a Christian saint.  MV San Demetrio was an 8070-ton tanker launched in 1938.  In October 1940 she shipped a cargo of 11,200 tons of aviation gasoline in Aruba and headed to Halifax, where she was to join 38 other freighters in British-bound Convoy HX-84, shepherded by HMS JERVIS BAY, an armed merchant cruiser.  By the eighth day at sea the convoy was halfway to Avondale, England.

The sky this day was overcast with only a ribbon of light on the horizon as the afternoon watch finished.  Lookouts spotted the masthead of a ship to port just as the sound of gunfire boomed across the moderate swell.  The German pocket battleship ADMIRAL VON SCHEER climbed over the horizon firing her 11″ guns.  JERVIS BAY turned to, making a suicidal charge.  She was burning from stem to stern before her seven 6″ guns were within range.  The gallant former liner sacrificed herself with the loss of Acting CAPT Edward S.F. Fegen and 189 crewmen, but she bought time for the convoy to scatter.  Fegen would later receive the Victoria Cross. 

Scheer now turned her guns on the convoy.  SS Beaverford, Fresno City, Trewellard, Maiden, and Kenbane Head all went down–Beaverford after engaging the attacker herself to buy more time.  San Demetrio was hit three times and caught fire.  A gasoline tanker ablaze is a potential disaster, and most are abandoned.  Such was the case when Captain George Waite, O.B.E., signaled “finished with engines” from the bridge telegraph–the signal to San Demetrio’s enginemen to abandon ship.  Sixteen crewmen led by 2^nd Officer Arthur C. Hawkins clamored into the starboard lifeboat and lowered to the roiling, gasoline-coated sea below.  The skipper and 22 others slipped away in another boat, but the two boats quickly lost contact.  Capt. Waite’s fears proved true, San Demetrio’s amidships tanks exploded like a giant Roman candle.

The starboard lifeboat drifted through the next day, sighting, but failing to attract, a passing ship.  On the second day another ship was seen on the horizon, emitting a column of black smoke.  It turned out to be San Demetrio, who burned but had not sunk.  Taking their chances, the men reboarded and revived the engines and fire mains.  Slowly they stemmed the fires.  Down by the bows, Hawkins set a course for Ireland, navigating by dead reckoning and the occasional glimpse of the sun.  Miraculously, on 16 November San Demetrio dropped anchor off Glasgow, her original destination.  Her tattered Red Ensign still waved, set a half mast for engineman John Boyle who had finally succumbed to his injuries near Ireland.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  11 NOV 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Brock, Paul.  “Am Engaging Enemy…Believed to be Admiral Scheer.”  Sea Classics, Vol 55 (4), April 2022, pp. 8-16.

Jesse, F. Tennyson.  The Saga of San Demetrio.  London, England: H.M. Stationery Office, 1943, (reprint by Pratt Press, 2007).

Warsailors.com website.  “Convoy HX-84-Page 2: Report of an Interview with Mr. Charles Pollard, Chief Engineer, and Mr. Arthur C. Hawkins, 2^nd Officer of M.V. San Demetrio.” dtd. 20 November 1940, AT: http://www.warsailors.com/convoys/hx84page2.html, retrieved 25 July 2024.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Three San Demetrio crewmen were killed in the initial attack and four more died of injuries after abandoning ship.  The men in Captain Waite’s lifeboat were rescued by a passing freighter and taken to Newfoundland.  Because San Demetrio had been abandoned at sea, the 15 crewmen who brought her safely to port were entitled to salvage compensation to the tune of £2000 for some.  Arthur Hawkins received the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) for his heroism in recovering and salving the tanker.

San Demetrio was repaired and returned to service.  She was torpedoed by U-404 and sank off Virginia on 17 March 1942.

Captain Waite had received his O.B.E. after the Eagle Company tanker San Alberto was torpedoed and broke in half in December 1939.  Days later, he and several crewmen reboarded the still-floating after section of the tanker, revived her boilers, but were unable to make headway, backwards, toward England.

In 1943 the story of San Demetrio was made into a movie, “San Demetrio London,” starring Walter Fitzgerald and Arthur Young.

An armed merchant cruiser was a former civilian freighter or ocean liner acquired by the Navy, armed usually with 8-inch guns or smaller, and detailed to escort duties.  Such would have been no match for a German pocket battleship.

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                                        STAFFORD vs. MANCHEN

Convoy KN-382 coursed its way slowly north from Key West to New York, this night reaching a position 98 miles east of Cape Henry.  The long war looked to be winding down, at least in Europe, where Allied troops were fighting in the streets of Berlin.  The danger of German U-boats was still great however, and four warships of Task Group 02.10 escorted this convoy.  One of them, the patrol frigate NATCHEZ (PF-2), picked up a sonar contact off her starboard bow.  At nearly the same moment lookouts spotted a periscope wake.  Of grave concern was that a schnorkel was also sighted behind the periscope!

A schnorkel was an engineering innovation that allowed the sub to draw air through a snorkel tube, and thus operate her diesel engines while still submerged.  Slow submerged speed was the U-boat’s greatest vulnerability, and this innovation frightened American anti-submarine planners!

LT John H. Stafford, USNR, turned NATCHEZ directly for the sub, hoping to drop depth charges or at least to ram.  COFFMAN (DE-191), BOSTWICK (DE-103), and THOMAS (DE-102) were vectored to the scene as well.  But the sub disappeared before NATCHEZ reached the spot.  Stafford launched a pattern of depth charges and turned back to search again.  Sonar contact was reestablished and the frigate surged forward.  But an emergency turn by the convoy nearly caused a collision, and NATCHEZ had to veer off course.  The frigate again acquired the target, slowed to 10 knots, and launched hedgehogs (programmed to detonate only if they contact an object).  No explosions were heard.  Persisting with the contact now at 1400 yards, Stafford dropped magnetic depth charges that detonate only near a metal object.  Two explosions emanated from great depth, but at 2250 another escort, COFFMAN, acquired the same contact.

Kapitänleutnant Erwin Manchen dove, circled, backed down, changed speeds, fishtailed, and released pillenwerfer, bubble-generating devices to confuse sonar.  But the escorts boxed the contact, and more depth charges blasted the deep.  At 0207 a barrage from NATCHEZ brought oil to the surface.  Attacks continued for two more hours until a deep blast was heard at 0447.  No subsequent contacts were made.  Nothing further was heard from U-879 or her 52 crewmen, even after Germany’s surrender on 7 May.

U-879 had been hunting off our eastern seaboard since mid-April; she had sunk SS Belgian Airman on the 14^th, and damaged the tanker SS Swiftscout on the 23^rd.  She has been confused in both German and American records with U-548, the latter being the probable victim of REUBEN JAMES (DE-153) and BUCKLEY (DE-51) off Sable Island on April 19^th.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  6-7 MAY 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A-B”.  (letter “B” and appendices), Washington, DC: GPO, 1959, p. 170.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 5 “N-Q”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1979, p. 20.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol X  The Atlantic Battle Won.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1956, p. 344.

Roscoe, Theodore.  United States Destroyer Operations in World War II.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1953, p. 513.

Wynn, Kenneth.  U-Boat Operations of the Second World War  Vol 2: Career Histories, U511-UIT25.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1998, pp. 26, 182.

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