First patrol

U-575's first patrol was from Trondheim in Norway; she headed for the Atlantic Ocean via the gap between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. She swept an area southeast of Greenland and sank the Tuva on 2 October 1941. The ship's crew abandoned their vessel in a pair of lifeboats and two rafts, but had to leave one of their number who had been trapped underneath debris. The neutral US destroyer USS Winslow, escorting convoy ON 20, came to help Tuva. As Winslow reached the area, she closed in on U-575 and began the tracing with depth charges, but U-575 escaped without any damage.

The submarine was the target of an air attack on 7 October, but received minimal damage. She arrived at St. Nazaire in occupied France, on 9 October.

Second patrol

Having left St. Nazaire on 9 November 1941, U-575 headed for the Newfoundland and Labrador coast.

On 1 December 1941 she encountered the American tanker Astral at 35°40´N/24°00´W (ca. grid square CF75-79). The tanker had departed Aruba in Venezuela, and sailed to Lissabon with a cargo of 78,200 barrels of benzine and kerosine. For many hours, U-575 hunted Astral so that she could come into a good firing position; after doing so, Captain Heydemann recognized the neutral US flag, and refrained from attacking the tanker.

On the return leg, when U-575 was looking to re-fuel at Vigo, Spain, she was depth charged. The damage was serious enough to prevent her entry into the Mediterranean; she was obliged to return to St. Nazaire, which she did on 17 December.

Third patrol

For her third foray, U-575 left St. Nazaire on 14 January 1942. On the 25th, a lookout broke an arm in bad weather.

At the end of January, U-575 was involved with U-123 in trying, in the mid-ocean 'air-gap', to rendezvous with the Spreewald, a German blockade runner whose doctor might be able to treat one of U123's crew members who had been injured. On the 31st, U-123 met U-575, but there was no sign of the Spreewald. She had been sunk, but it was not then known by whom.^[4]

Fourth patrol

U-575's only target on this patrol was the Robin Hood, which she sank about 300 nautical miles (560 km; 350 mi) southeast of Nantucket Island (off the eastern US coast).

Liliput, the emblem of U-575

Fifth patrol

U-575 performed a steady stream of sinkings on her fifth sortie. The Norlandia was sunk on 4 July 1942 and Empire Explorer on the ninth. Additionally, she sunk two sailing ships (Comrade and Glacier) with gunfire on the 18th.

She also damaged San Gaspar off Manzilla, Trinidad^[5] on the 18th. It was assumed at that time that this ship had been sunk, but she was taken in tow by the tug HMS Roode Zee to Port of Spain,^[5] repaired, and returned to service in October 1943.

Sixth patrol

On the boat's sixth patrol, a man was lost overboard on 5 October 1942.

U-575 tallied another kill when she sank the troopship MV Abosso which was sailing unescorted about 700 nautical miles (1,300 km; 810 mi) northwest of the Azores. 362 people were killed. Abosso's top speed was only 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) and therefore normally sailed only in convoys. One passenger, Dutch Navy submarine commander Lieutenant ter zee der 1e klasse H.C.J. Coumou had warned against this but the British authorities overruled him. On board were 162 crew, 20 DEMS gunners to defend the ship and 210 passengers. The passengers were 149 military, 44 internees and 17 civilians, including 10 women with children. The cargo was 3,000 tons of wool and mailbags. Among the military passengers were 44 newly trained pilots of the 23rd Service Flying Training School in Southern Rhodesia and 34 Dutch submariners on their way to crew the submarine Hr. Ms. Haai, which was then under construction. Haai had been laid down as HMS Varne for the Royal Navy but had been reallocated to the Dutch Navy. 30 of the submariners were killed on Abosso and the Dutch were unable to replace them. The British authorities therefore reallocated the submarine again, and she was launched as the Norwegian Navy HNoMS Ula.

Seventh patrol

On U-575's seventh mission, she sank the US ship City of Flint from the convoy UGS 4, this time about 300 nmi (560 km; 350 mi) southeast of the Azores on 25 January 1943.

Statistics

Cover page of the Hamburger Illustrierte of 22.1.1944 – "Three and their gun", the silhouette on the gun is the City of Flint

• Days on sea: 64
• Overall distance travelled: 10,132.3 nmi
• Distance travelled surfaced: 9,692.70 nmi (95.7%)
• Distance travelled submerged: 439.6 nmi (4.3%)
• Most distance travelled in 24 hours surfaced: 294.8 nmi (on 09.01.1943)
• Most distance travelled in 24 hours submerged: 40.7 nmi (on 20.12.1942)
• Total diving time: 10,449 minutes; 174.2 hours; 7.26 days (10.8%)

Eight patrol

Her eighth sortie, which commenced on 22 April 1943 and finished on 11 June, was relatively uneventful.

Ninth patrol

U-575 had a new Captain, Oberleutnant zur See Wolfgang Boehmer, since September 1943, in time for her ninth patrol.

The expedition was split into four parts; the first three were only a couple of days' duration. The fourth was longer and included an approach by a B-24 Liberator which turned away when engaged by the U-boat's anti-aircraft guns. Nevertheless, she crash-dived.

Tenth patrol and loss

In memory at the sailing with German U-Boatmen 1944 on HMCS Prince Rupert

U-575 was fitted with a Snorkel. On this journey she was used as weather-boat. U-575 left St. Nazaire for the last time on 29 February 1944. After sinking HMS Asphodel northwest of Cape Finisterre on 10 March, the boat was hunted for 18 hours by convoy escorts, but escaped.

Her luck ran out on the 13th when she was sunk by the combined efforts of the Canadian frigate HMCS Prince Rupert, the American destroyer USS Hobson and destroyer escort USS Haverfield, a British Vickers Wellington of No. 172 Squadron RAF, two B-17 Flying Fortresses of 206 and 208 squadrons and a TBM Avenger from USS Bogue. Depth charges were used in the attack.

18 men died with U-575; there were 37 survivors.

Wolfpacks

U-575 took part in 18 wolfpacks, namely:

• Brandenburg (15 – 26 September 1941)
• Steuben (14 November – 2 December 1941)
• Endrass (12 – 17 June 1942)
• Tiger (26 – 27 September 1942)
• Luchs (27 September – 6 October 1942)
• Panther (6 – 16 October 1942)
• Puma (16 – 22 October 1942)
• Delphin (26 December 1942 – 14 February 1943)
• Amsel 1 (3 – 6 May 1943)
• Elbe (7 – 10 May 1943)
• Elbe 1 (10 – 14 May 1943)
• Mosel (19 – 24 May 1943)
• Siegfried (22 – 27 October 1943)
• Siegfried 3 (27 – 30 October 1943)
• Jahn (30 October – 2 November 1943)
• Tirpitz 3 (2 – 8 November 1943)
• Eisenhart 4 (9 – 15 November 1943)
• Preussen (2 – 13 March 1944)

Notes

Citations