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The Discovery of U-176

In early January 2002, a scientific team searching off the coast of Cuba for sunken Spanish Galleons stumbled across the wreck of a World War Two U-boat missing since the 15th of May 1943, and now intend to return to the site to make a documentary film of the wreckage. The exploration will be difficult, as the vessel lies at a depth of 800 to 900 meters and will require the use of deep-sea video equipment and remote operated vehicles. The U-boat also still contains the crew of 53 submariners鈥�, entombed inside the steel hull.

The keel of the type IXC submarine was laid down on February 6th 1941, in the A.G. Westner shipyard a Bremen, Germany. Commissioned in December 1941, her commander Captain Reiner Dierksen became renown for his doggedly and ruthless attacks on Allied and neutral shipping. On his maiden voyage he was credited with five and a half ships sunk and was often criticised for his incautious and headstrong attitude, in pursuit of his prey.

The events unfolded on her third patrol, on the night of May 13th 1943, when Dierksen sank two small tankers in the Old Bahama Channel off the north coast of Cuba. The sinkings prompted the Caribbean Sea Frontier force to mount a vigorous U-boat hunt in the area. As a result, on the morning of May 15th, an American OS2U Kingfisher floatplane of Navy Scouting Squadron VS 62 spotted U-176 in the Bahama Channel about one hundred miles east of Havana.

Seeing a small convoy approaching, the scout plane dropped a smoke bomb where U-176 had crash dived, then with his wing tips coaxed one of the three convoy escorts to the scene, the Cuban Sub Chaser (SC) 13, one of a dozen ex-American eighty-three-foot Coast Guard cutters given to Cuba.

The SC 13 reported an excellent sonar contact at four hundred yards and she ran in and dropped three depth charges, set for 100, 150 and 200 feet. After the third explosion, the SC 13 regained sonar contact at five hundred yards and dropped two more depth charges set for 200 and 250 feet.

These explosions brought up 鈥渂rown鈥� or 鈥渕uddy鈥� water and slight traces of oil. The escort puttered around some more, then rejoined the convoy after an absence of merely one hour. Incensed by the lack of tenacity shown by the Cuban escort, the American Naval Authorities recommended the skipper be censured. No credit for a kill was granted, but, remarkably, this eighty-three-foot cutter had sunk U-176 with the loss of all hands with merely five depth charges.

Had the U-176 survived, she might have encountered a special American troop convoy. This was BT 203, which sailed from New York to the Pacific 鈥� the first troopship convoy in over a year to leave from an Atlantic port for the Pacific. The convoy subsequently arrived in Panama unmolested by U-boats and proceed safely onward to the Pacific theatre.

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