Wolfpack Eisbär

(Group Polar Bear) was a force of German U-boats that operated from 23 August 1942 in the South Atlantic during the Second World War. The group was to operate off Cape Town, which was considered to be vulnerable. Some of the most experienced U-boat commanders including Harald Gelhaus, Werner Hartenstein and Carl Emmermann participated in the operation.

During the voyage south, the group temporarily was diverted to attack Convoy SL 119 that had been attacked by . Template:GS sank (5,941 GRT) on 27 August and sank the liner on 12 September, which began the Laconia Incident. U-156 was replaced in by Template:GS and the group was redirected to the waters around South Africa.

The Allies were preoccupied with Operation Torch and the campaign in north-west Africa, giving priority to the protection of troop convoys that left the Allied navies with few escort vessels to reinforce the South Atlantic Station. Merchant ships were sent to Durban instead of Cape Town and routed far to the south, across the South Atlantic to South America, thence to sail up the east coast, crossing the Atlantic from the US to Britain.

sank 23 ships (155,335 GRT) off Cape Town and Durban along and eleven ships (60,829 GRT) in transit, for the loss of Template:GS. The 34 ships sunk (216,164 GRT) averaged 8.5 ships (54,041 GRT) per boat, one of the most successful U-boat operations of the war. The U-cruisers sank 27 ships of 161,407 GRT, an average of 6.75 ships per U-boat (40,350 GRT). Ammiraglio Cagni sank one ship making 28 ships and 163,400 GRT. About 2,690 crew, passengers, Italian internees and military personnel on the ships were killed.

Background

From mid-July 1942, to tie down Allied convoy escorts and to sink more ships in distant waters, four to six U-boats and a U-tanker operated in the middle-Atlantic, west of Freetown in Sierra Leone. On 7 August, a U-boat was allowed freedom of manoeuvre to commit reprisals against Brazil for its support of the Allied naval war, despite its neutral status but this gave Brazil a pretext to declare war on 28 August. As in 1941, an extension of operations to the South Atlantic was planned by the Naval War Staff (, SKL) for the summer of 1942, to exert strategic pressure.Template:Sfn

Template:Location map-line The sudden appearance of a U-boat group off South Africa was to inhibit the transport of Allied reinforcements to the Middle East and interrupt trade with India. To deny the Allies time for counter-measures, SKL wanted to conceal the voyage of the boats to the south for as long as possible. The U-boat commanders received orders to avoid contact with all merchant ships south of the Equator and only to attack valuable targets such as big warships.Template:Sfn

Rear-Admiral () Karl Dönitz the commander, U-boats ( BdU) disagreed with SKL because the strategic pressure that could be exerted was insufficient justification for a long-range operation. Dönitz wanted priority to remain with the tonnage war, with sinkings as the measure of success. The southern voyage of the boat should be used offensively, as far as 15° South. SKL, basing its strategic calculations on the widening war, refuse to relent until 6 September, when received freedom of action against merchant shipping as far as 5° South.Template:Sfn

At a review of naval operations in September 1942, Dönitz described to Hitler the declining prospects for U-boat operations off the east coast of the US, due to the introduction of convoys and increased air reconnaissance. The U-boats were to return to the North Atlantic, the coast of West Africa and to Cape Town in the South Atlantic.Template:Sfn In 1941 the Germans had attempted to attack ships around South Africa but were defeated by the interception of German U-boat supply ships. For operations in 1942, Dönitz had available long-range Type IX submarines and supply boats to substitute for commerce raiders used earlier in the war.Template:Sfnm In mid-August the four Type IXC U-boats of had sailed from France, followed at intervals by a second wave of four of the new and larger Type IXD2 submarines.Template:Sfn

German plan

File:Cape of Good Hope Iss059e078303 lrg.jpg

Photograph of Cape Town showing the Cape Peninsula and Table Bay (centre left) from the International Space Station

Dönitz and the commanders due to operate in intended that around 5 October 1942, Template:GS (Karl-Friedrich Merten) and Template:GS (Carl Emmermann) would conduct a reconnaissance of Table Bay near Cape Town, getting past the minefield sown by the German commerce raider Doggerbank () earlier in the year and the defensive minefields laid by the British, using captured charts. In the early hours of 8 October, during the new moon, an attack on the expected fifty ships anchored there would be made. Outside the bay, Template:GS, Template:GS and Template:GS would lie in ambush for fleeing ships. The boats might then raid the Indian Ocean, depending on circumstances.Template:Sfn

Royal Navy

Submarine Tracking Room

At the tracking room at the Admiralty, Commander Rodger Winn, kept watch over the deployment of U-boats and on 2 August, before the departure of the four Type IXC U-boats of , Winn speculated that the U-boats off Freetown and a possible move to Ascension Island might foreshadow a move further south. Winn thought that the departure of and its Milch Cow support boat, was for operations in far waters; Winn guessed that they were bound for the waters off South Africa. The departure of in mid-August and the sailing at intervals of four of the new and larger U-cruisers of the Type IXD2 class from 21 September, bore out Winn's analysis when was sunk on 12 September and U-156 began signalling for assistance on the international frequency. Survivors rescued by U-boats were transferred to Vichy rescue ships; Winn thought that the attack on Laconia was not conclusive but on 21 September, he warned the Commander-in-Chief South Atlantic, that the arrival of U-boats in the south 'seemed imminent'. On 28 September Winn reported that the whereabouts of the U-boats was unknown but that two fishermen had reported seeing the landing of men from a U-boat about Template:Cvt north of Cape Town.Template:Sfnm

In early October, in a blunder by the censor, German news reported that U-boats were operating in the Far East. On 5 October, Winn reported that by mid-October, U-boats might operate in the Mozambique Channel and two days later a ship was sunk off Cape Town. The Admiralty and the Commander-in-Chief South Atlantic had reduced the shipping at Cape Town by making Durban, on the east coast, the last stop for ships bound for Britain from the Indian Ocean. For the duration of Operation Torch (8–12 November), ships were routed far to the south of Cape Town and then north-west to Brazil, Trinidad and the US, to join convoys across the north Atlantic.Template:Sfn Unknown to the British, was not going to operate as a (pack) in the South Atlantic but to disperse after the raid on Table Bay.Template:Sfn

South Atlantic Station

In late 1942, the demands of Operation Torch, especially the duration of the campaign in Algeria and Tunisia, that ended in May 1943 and required more supplies from more convoys, stretched the Allied escort effort. The west Africa–south Africa–east Africa route continued without convoy for much longer; ships were sent on devious courses to evade U-boats but they had eventually to cross the South Atlantic.Template:Sfn The naval forces of the Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic (Vice-Admiral Sir Campbell Tait) were not adequate for an anti-U-boat campaign. Four destroyers and a few corvettes were based at Cape Town on loan from the Eastern Fleet based at Mombasa. There were not enough escorts or aircraft to convoy ships on the Cape to Freetown route up the west coast of Africa or the Cape to Suez route up the east coast. The British and the Americans diverted twelve British anti-submarine warfare (ASW) trawlers from the Western Approaches and eighteen from US waters, along with six more destroyers and four corvettes from the Eastern Fleet. Four Catalina flying boats of 209 Squadron were transferred to Cape Town and Durban. The transfers took time and the trawlers from US waters did not arrive until December.Template:Sfn

Prelude

Convoy SL 119

Convoy SL 119 was found by Template:GS of (ex-) and directed the rest of the wolfpack, Template:GS, Template:GS and Template:GS, along with the boats in the vicinity, diverted by Dönitz (BdU) from the voyage to the South African coast, comprising the Type IXC U-boats Template:GS, Template:GS, U-172 and U-504. U-566 sank two ships with a total of 14,085 GRT on 28 August before being damaged by depth charges; U-107 was forced to retire and on 29 August the other boats were also ended their attacks.Template:Sfn U-156 sank (5,941 GRT) on 27 August and on 12 September sank Laconia causing the Laconia incident.Template:Sfn

Raeder and SKL

Dönitz was overruled by Erich Raeder the and SKL. was redirected southwards to Cape Town, refuelling from the tanker Template:GS south of Ascension Island. U-68 had sunk the British ship (5,300 GRT) on 12 September and the Dutch ship (6,861 GRT) on 14 September; Template:GS took over from U-156.Template:Sfnm A second wave of four long-range Type IXD2 boats, Template:GS, Template:GS, U-179, Template:GS and an Italian U-cruiser, , were close behind. The rest of the boats had not expended any torpedoes, leaving the other Type IXC boats with 22 torpedoes each, the IXD2s with 24 each and Cagni with 42).Template:Sfn

Operations

Cape Town

File:Map of South Africa.svg

Map of South Africa and coastal ports

On the night of 6/7 October, U-68 had been in position for five days, photographing the bay. Emmermann in U-172 had a Metox radar detector and moved towards Table Bay on the surface, placing most of the crew on the deck, wearing life jackets, in case a mine was set off. Emmermann kept the boat on the surface for several hours so that the crew could take turns on deck to watch the peaceful scene as the other boats lay in wait outside the bay. The bay was seen to be empty and covered by searchlights and radar, precluding the likelihood of the attack achieving surprise. Emmermann submerged U-172 before dawn and watched through the periscope in brilliant sunshine.Template:Sfn

Outside the bay, U-159 sank the British . The captains of U-68 and U-172 contacted BdU to request that the plan be abandoned but Dönitz wanted them to continue. At midnight on 8 October when the attack was due to begin, Cape Town had not been blacked out and the authorities were ignorant of the attack on Boringia. Having received a garbled reply, Emmermann 'assumed that BdU had agreed to the cancellation and that he had freedom of action' from 4:00 a.m. on 7 October.Template:Sfnm

U-172 sank the US ship and then the Panamanian . U-172 sank with a torpedo and U-68 used seven torpedoes to sink the Greek freighter and the Dutch , both of which managed to transmit distress signals. At dawn the destroyers , and and , with the corvette sailed and spent much of the day rescuing survivors. Every aircraft that was airworthy went aloft to reconnoitre. The next morning, when tried to rescue the 28 survivors of Boringia it was torpedoed and another seven members of the crew of Boringia were killed along with 53 from Clan Mactavish. Aircraft on anti-submarine patrol guided to the area to rescue survivors who were landed at Cape Town.Template:Sfnm

Other attacks

File:HMS Active (H14).jpg

photographed under way in 1944

U-159 had gone into action off Cape Town on and sank the US ship on 9 October then survived a depth-charge attack by a South African aircraft. U-159 moved to the south-east and sank , and , all British, by the end of the month.Template:Sfn On 7 November, the US ship, , Template:Cvt to the south-east of the Cape of Good Hope, was destroyed when its cargo of ammunition exploded, the sound being heard Template:Cvt away at the Cape Point lighthouse. The next ship sunk was a US schooner, , by gunfire, the survivors making a Template:Cvt-voyage to Angola.Template:Sfn

By this time, U-159 was on the return leg of its voyage and refuelled from U-461 before sailing for St Paul's Rocks, about Template:Cvt to the north-east of Brazil, then raiding along the Brazilian coast. U-159 sank the liner , from which 120 of the 130 crew and passengers survived, twelve of whom were rescued by , which U-159 sank on 15 December. was sunk on 16 December and then U-159 sailed for Lorient in France.Template:Sfn

On 8 October, U-172 had sunk the Panamanian and the Greek Pantelis. Anti-submarine vessels from Cape Town attacked the U-boat, which escaped with minor damage. On 10 October the troopship , en route from Suez to Britain, was sunk in a storm. BdU sent U-172 to Brazilian coastal waters and in mid-November, it sank and in the South Atlantic, then off the Brazilian coast then sank the US off St Paul's Rocks, before refuelling for the voyage home.Template:Sfn

File:Rochers Saint-Pierre et Saint-Paul.png

Location map of the Saint Peter and Paul Rocks ()

On 8 October, after U-68 had sunk the Greek Koumoundouros and the Dutch Gaasterkerk, it sank the US tanker and the British liner . On 9 October, the US ship was sunk, followed by the emigré-manned . On 29 October, short of fuel, U-68 began the journey home and on 6 November, about Template:Cvt south of Saint Helena sank with the loss of 104 crew and passengers. The captain, Karl-Friedrich Merten, surfaced and gave the survivors a compass course for Saint Helena.Template:Sfn

U-504 commenced operations off Cape Town on 17 October then headed up the east coast of South Africa and sank . All but three of the crew of Empire of Chaucer survived, the captain and 11 men being rescued by Empire Squire, after 23 days fifteen men were rescued by SS Nebraska and another 14 landed at Bredasdorp in the Western Cape, after a two-week voyage. On 23 October, was sunk off East London and on 26 October U-504 sank the US ship , followed on 31 October by the British east of Durban and off Madagascar. U-504 sank the Brazilian east of Port Elizabeth on its return voyage.Template:Sfn

U-cruiser attacks

File:LocationMadagascar.svg

Southern Africa and the island of Madagascar

U-178 sank the troopship (20,119 GRT) on the voyage to the south, rounded the cape and began operations off Durban. After failing to catch a tanker and using two torpedoes to no effect on a freighter, the U-boat barely escaped an attack from an aircraft. On 1 November an attack on what was thought to be (18,700 GRT) but was the British (8,200 GRT) succeeded, in which 150 of the 400 people on board were killed. Ibbeken circumnavigated Madagascar, sinking the Norwegian (2,600 GRT) and the 5,200 GRT British ship but engine trouble led to less success than anticipated. Off Durban, the British Louise Moller (3,800 GRT) was sunk but the British 6,300 GRT Adviser was damaged and later towed into Durban. ASW aircraft made two attacks on U-178, after which the captain sailed far offshore to repair its engines, then began the return journey to France. As U-178 rounded the Cape an attack sank the US ship Jeremiah Wadsworth (7,200 GRT), returning on 9 January 1943 with six recognised sinkings of 47,000 GRT.Template:Sfn

U-177 and U-181 reached Cape Town at about the same time and on 2 November, U-177 attacked the Greek (4,500 GRT) with four torpedoes, missing with two, but the two that hit set off the cargo of ammunition and the ship exploded, showering the submarine with débris, injuring a lookout. For the next ten days the submarines searched off Cape Town, U-177 attacked the 2,600 GRT US freighter during a five-hour chase and missed with five torpedoes. U-177 surfaced and engaged the ship with its deck gun but the Americans fired back and escaped. From 19 November U-177 patrolled off Lourenço Marques and over 26 days sank six ships and a tanker of 44,800 GRT. (6,796 GRT) was a troopship with 899 passengers, 765 interned Italian civilians and 134 South African troops, torpedoed on 18 November.Template:Sfn When Gysae realised he signalled Dönitz who forbade rescue attempts. Two passengers were taken prisoner and about 400 survivors were in boats and on rafts. Dönitz notified the Portuguese who sent from Mozambique, that rescued 192 people, 43 of them South African troops. About 750 people were killed; 120 bodies were washed ashore at Durban and many of the 630 missing died in shark attacks. U-177 returned to France on 22 January after 128 days, with eight ships confirmed sunk of 49,371 GRT.Template:Sfn

On 3 November, U-181 sank the American with two of four torpedoes, 34 of the crew of fifty being killed. U-181 sank (Panamanian 5,060 GRT) with three crew killed and 46 rescued on 8 November, the Norwegian vessel (3,799 GRT) on 10 November and the American (4,969 GRT) on 13 November. Two days later the destroyer forced U-181 to dive to Template:Cvt, dropping 30 depth charges over a nine-hour attack. The corvettes and arrived and continued the hunt, Jasmine dropping five depth charges, before U-181 escaped in the noise of the depth charge explosions and the dark, to make repairs. After repairing the damage U-181 moved about Template:Cvt to Lourenço Marques and from 19 November to 2 December sank eight ships of 23,800 GRT, using all 355 rounds of deck gun ammunition that caused many casualties and risked U-181 being caught on the surface. Lüth kept back two torpedoes and reached France on 18 January after a voyage of 129 days, Template:Cvt having sunk twelve ships of 58,381 GRT.Template:Sfn

File:SAAF-Lockheed PV1 Ventura-001.jpg

SAAF Lockheed PV1 Ventura

U-179 had not been diverted to Convoy SL 119 and on the afternoon of 8 October, while Template:Cvt south of Cape Town, dived to avoid a Ventura maritime reconnaissance bomber of the South African Air Force (SAAF). Before night fell was torpedoed then U-179 dived to Template:Cvt after seeing another aircraft. The crew of the freighter managed to launch all six lifeboats that were spotted by another Ventura. Many other ships were under attack and sending distress calls but Active was diverted to rescue the survivors and took on board the crew, less one man, by 11:30 a.m. The destroyer got a radar contact Template:Cvt to the south-east, followed by an Asdic contact then a sighting. Active accelerated to Template:Cvt, opened fire and then dropped depth-charges that brought the U-boat to the surface, after which it sank out of view. No wreckage was found but a large oil slick formed.Template:Sfn

sank the Greek ship (2,000 GRT) on 29 November but a greater ASW effort being made off the Cape of Good Hope led the commander, Carlo Liannazza, to sail for home, refuelling near the equator from U-459 and returning to BETASOM (Bordeaux).Template:Sfn

Aftermath

Analysis

In 2000, Clay Blair called the operation one of the most successful U-boat efforts of the war. Four Type IX boats sank 23 ships (155,335 GRT) off Cape Town and Durban along with eleven ships (60,829 GRT) in transit to and from the cape for a total of 34 ships (216,164 GRT), an average of 8.5 ships (54,041 GRT) per boat, a greater monthly success than the best month of attacks off the US coast. The U-cruisers that operated off Cape Town and Durban sank 27 ships of 161,407 GRT, an average of 6.75 ships per U-boat (40,350 GRT). The ship sunk by raised the total to 28 ships and 163,400 GRT.Template:Sfn

In the latter half of 1942, roughly fifty U-boats operated around the Azores, Canary Islands, Freetown Sierra Leone, further south and around Cape Town and Durban. The U-boats sank about 150 ships of around 900,000 GRT for the loss of three U-boats and their crews, fifty ships for each U-boat, that was called an "extraordinary achievement" by Blair and an embarrassing failure for the British anti-submarine effort in southern waters. Since the position of ship losses were not disclosed by the Allies, the impression that north Atlantic convoys were being massacred was increased.Template:Sfn

In 2000, Werner Rahn, a German military historian and one of the authors of Germany and the Second World War (1979 to 2008) wrote that though the British had discovered the southward movement of the boats and had taken such defensive measures as they could by rerouting ships, the U-boats sank 15 ships (108,070 GRT) in five days from 7 October. By November, 156,235 GRT had been sunk, 28 per cent of all U-boat sinkings in October. The U-boats began their return journeys from the South Atlantic in early November. was followed by a second wave of Type IXD2 U-cruisers, with a range of Template:Cvt at Template:Cvt obviating the need to refuel and take on supplies.Template:Sfn

The U-cruisers sailed along the African coast into the Indian Ocean as far north as Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) and by mid-December 1942, had sunk 25 ships (134,780 GRT). BdU tried to keep a standing patrol in the area for the next few months but the British introduction of convoy made it impossible to maintain the rate of sinking. Rahn wrote that strategically, and the U-cruisers were at least six months too late. The sinkings off Cape Town and in the Indian Ocean did little to obstruct the reinforcement of the British in Egypt and the offensive that followed the defence of El Alamein because the bulk of it has already arrived.Template:Sfn

In 2005, Richard Woodman wrote that for the loss of U-179 the German long-range submarines exposed the vulnerability of British shipping, that was necessarily dispersed all over the globe. Woodman speculated about what might have happened if Dönitz had had the bigger, long-range U-boats at the start of the war. The sinking of U-179 from was the only result of the anti-submarine effort made in the region, because the U-boats did not follow (wolfpack tactics) but operated individually in an orgy of destruction.Template:Sfn

German order of battle

Group Polar Bear ()

Template:Sfn

Boat	Name	Flag	Type	Notes
Template:GS	Karl-Friedrich Merten	Template:Naval	Type IXC submarine
Template:GS	Werner Hartenstein	Template:Naval	Type IXC submarine	Replaced by U-159 after the Laconia incident
Template:GS	Helmut Witte	Template:Naval	Type IXC submarine	Replaced U-156 after the Laconia incident
Template:GS	Carl Emmermann	Template:Naval	Type IXC submarine
Template:GS	Wilamowitz-Moellendorff	Template:Naval	Type XIV submarine	Tanker and supply boat
Template:GS	Fritz Poske	Template:Naval	Type IXC submarine

Ships attacked

Merchant ships attacked by Template:Sfn

Ship	Year	Flag	GRT	Notes
	1940	United Kingdom	5,296	Sunk U-68, 12 September, 04°30′S, 07°50′W, 2†, 49 resc.
	1922	Netherlands	6,861	Sunk U-68, 15 September, 5°05′S, 8°54′W, 2† 50 resc.
	1925	Greece	3,598	Sunk, U-68, 8 October, 34°10′S, 17°07′E, 5† 26 resc.
	1922	Netherlands	8,679	Sunk, U-68, 8 October, 34°20′S, 18°10′E, all 64 resc.
	1921	United States	8,207	Sunk, U-68, 8 October, 34°40′S, 18°25′E, all 33 resc.
	1920	United Kingdom	5,271	Sunk, U-68, 8 October, 34°50′S, 18°40′E, all 57 resc.
	1920	United States	4,981	Sunk, U-68, 9 October, 34°52′S, 18°30′E, 11† 40 resc.
	1921	Belgium	5,403	Sunk, U-68, 9 October, 35°00′S, 18°30′E, 5† 49 resc.
	1915	United Kingdom	8,034	Sunk, U-68, 6 November, 23°30′S, 05°30′W, 104† 192 resc.
	1918	United Kingdom	5,941	Sunk U-156, 26 August, 35°45′N, 18°45′W, 11†, 77 resc.
	1922	United Kingdom	19,695	Sunk U-156, 12 September, 5°05′S, 11°38′W, 1,658† 1,083 resc.
	1927	United Kingdom	4,745	Sunk U-156, 19 September, 2°12′S, 17°36′W, 1† 41 resc.
	1930	Denmark	5,821	Sunk U-159, 7 October, 35°09′S, 16°32′E, 32† 33 resc.
	1921	United Kingdom	7,631	Sunk U-159, 8 October, 34°53′S, 16°45′E, 61† 75 resc.
	1920	United States	6,557	Sunk U-159, 9 October, 35°47′S, 14°34′E, 6† 48 resc.
	1942	United Kingdom	7,167	Sunk U-159, 37°50′S, 18°16′E 7† 46 resc.
	1936	United Kingdom	4,978	Sunk U-159, 29 October, 38°51′S, 21°40′E, 1† 39 resc.
	1919	United Kingdom	7,327	Sunk U-159, 29 October, 40°33′S, 21°35′E, all 63 resc.
	1920	United States	5,462	Sunk U-159, 7 November, 40°00′S, 21°30′E, all 60†
Template:SV	1887	United States	2,290	Sunk U-159, 13 November, 26°30′S, 00°20′W, 1† 16 resc.
	1937	United Kingdom	7,410	Sunk U-159, 13 December, 02°43′S, 29°06′W, 20† 130 resc.
	1926	Egypt	4,999	Sunk U-159, 15 December, 00°42′S, 29°34′W, 2† 40 resc.
	1925	United Kingdom	4,358	Convoy Trin-27, sunk U-159, 16 Dec, 00°24′N, 31°27′W, 17† 28 resc.
	1920	United States	6,296	Sunk, U-172, 7 October, 34°05′S, 17°16′E, 7† 43 resc.
	1937	Panama	4,700	Sunk U-172, 7 October, 34°13′S, 17°21′E, 12† 49 resc.
	1911	Greece	3,845	Sunk U-172, 8 October, 34°20′S, 17°50′E, 28† 5 resc.
	1927	United Kingdom	23,456	Sunk U-172, 10 October, 35°51′S, 14°40′E, 48† 1,016 resc.
	1929	United Kingdom	4,982	Sunk U-172, 31 October, 30°20′S, 02°10′W, 34† 10 resc.
	1928	United Kingdom	4,966	Sunk U-172, 2 November, 27°03′S, 02°59′W, 24† 20 resc.
	1922	United Kingdom	6,630	Sunk U-172, 23 November, 0°30′N, 38°45′W, 55† 1 resc.
	1918	United States	5,364	Sunk U-172, 28 November, 03°58′N, 26°19′W, 7† 39 resc.
	1942	United Kingdom	5,970	Sunk U-504, 17 October, 38° 12'S, 20° 04'E, 3† 47 resc.
	1920	United Kingdom	5,669	Sunk U-504, 23 October, 33°20′S, 29°30′E, 2† 87 resc.
	1942	United States	7,176	Sunk U-504, 26 October, 33°10′S, 28°30′E, 3† 54 resc.
	1942	United Kingdom	7,041	Sunk U-504, 31 October, 30° 48'S, 34° 11'E, 2† 52 resc.
	1927	United Kingdom	5,024	Sunk U-504, 31 October, 30°02′S, 35°02′E, all 47†
	1921	Brazil	5,187	Sunk U-504, 3 November, 35°27′S, 28°02′E, 1†, 57 resc.

U-cruisers

U-cruiser forceTemplate:Sfn

Boat	Name	Flag	Type	Notes
Template:GS	Robert Gysae	Template:Naval	Type IXD2 submarine	17 September 1942 to 22 January 1943
Template:GS	Hans Ibbeken	Template:Naval	Type IXD2 submarine	8 September 1942 to 9 January 1943
Template:GS	Ernst Sobe	Template:Naval	Type IXD2 submarine	15. 8. 1942, sunk, 8. 10. 42, 33°28′S, 17°05′E, 67†Template:Sfn
Template:GS	Wolfgang Lüth	Template:Naval	Type IXD2 submarine	12 September 1942 to 18 January 1943
Ammiraglio Cagni	Carlo Liannazza	Template:Country data Kingdom of Italy

U-cruiser attacks

Merchant shipsTemplate:Sfnm

Ship	Year	Flag	GRT	Notes
	1920	Greece	4,538	Sunk U-177, 2 November, 32°30′S, 16°00′E, all 29†
	1938	United Kingdom	2,558	Damaged U-177, 9 November, 35°58′S, 26°37′E, 2† 44 resc.
	1928	United Kingdom	7,006	Sunk U-177, 19 November, 30°39'S, 34°41'E, 36† 12 resc.
	1942	United States	7,191	Sunk U-177, 20 November, 29°40′S, 36°35′E, all 62 resc.
	1926	United Kingdom	6,796	Sunk U-177, 28°30′S, 33°00′E, 858† 194 resc.
	1926	United Kingdom	10,799	Sunk U-177, 30 November, 27°20′S, 33°40′E, 3† 310 resc.
	1912	Greece	3,548	Sunk U-177, 7 December, 24°46′S, 35°30′E, 31† 2 resc.
	1919	United Kingdom	6,408	Sunk U-177, 12 December, 26°15′S, 34°40′E, 2† 44 resc.
	1921	Netherlands	3,085	Sunk U-177, 14 December, 31°02′S, 34°00′E, 53† 19 resc.
	1928	United Kingdom	20,119	Sunk U-178, 10 October, 07°03′S, 11°12′W, 4† 821 resc.
	1919	United Kingdom	8,233	Sunk U-178, 1 November, 29°20′S, 32°13′E, 26† 380 resc.
	1929	Norway	2,561	Sunk U-178, 4 November, 25°55′S, 33°10′E 25† 42 resc.
	1919	United Kingdom	5,244	Sunk U-178, 4 November, 25°46′S, 33°48′E, 3† 47 resc.
	1907	United Kingdom	3,764	Sunk U-178, 13 November, 30°50′S, 35°54′E. 11† 52 resc.
	1939	United Kingdom	6,348	Damaged U-178, 15 November, 32°03′S, 33°52′E, all 66 resc.
	1942	United States	7,176	Sunk U-178, 27 November, 39°25′S, 22°23′E, all 57 resc.
	1923	United Kingdom	6,558	Sunk U-179, 8 October, 33°40′S, 17°03′E, 1† 90 resc.
	1918	United States	8,159	Sunk U-181, 3 November, 37°23′S, 13°34′E, 58† 16 resc.
	1913	Panama	5,060	Sunk U-181, 8 November, 36°00′S, 26°32′E, 3† 46 resc.
	1938	Norway	3,799	Sunk U-181, 10 November, 34°59′S, 29°45′E, 2† 31 resc.
	1919	United States	4,969	Sunk U-181, 13 November, 32°23′S, 30°07′E, 2† 49 resc.
	1919	Norway	2,241	Sunk U-181, 19 November, 25°48′S, 33°15′E, 38† 8 resc.
	1910	Greece	3,562	Sunk U-181, 20 November, 25°42′S, 33°27′E, 11† 21 resc.
	1941	United States	6,797	Sunk U-181, 22 November, 26°45′S, 33°10′E, 6† 55 resc.
	1923	Greece	6,481	Sunk U-181, 24 November, 26°38′S, 34°59′E, 1† 34 resc.
	1939	United Kingdom	5,281	Sunk U-181, 24 November, 27 00′S, 34°45′E, 4† 39 resc.
	1915	Greece	3,551	Sunk U-181, 28 November, 25°13′S, 34°00′E, all 32 resc.
	1911	Greece	4,153	Sunk U-181, 30 November, 24°29′S, 35°44′E, 12† 22 resc.
	1918	Panama	4,328	Sunk U-181, 2 December, 28°14′S, 33°24′E, 29† 8 resc.
	1928	United Kingdom	3,845	Sunk Ammiraglio Cagni, 3 November, 02°35′S, 18°31′W, 10† 44 resc.Template:Efn
	1920	Greece	1,995	Sunk Ammiraglio Cagni, 29 November, 34°45′S, 17°42′E, 18† 18 resc.

Bibliography

• • Template:Harvc

External links

• Convoy SL.119 convoy.web