German sub sank by hand to hand combat

[caryc]

On Newsmax they interviewed one of the two remaining survivors of the USS Arizona.

That reminded me of the U66 German sub sank by hand to hand combat. My Dad was on the USS Buckley destroyer escort. during the 2nd war. They got news of a sub being in their area. They went and found the sub and fired their guns at it. Then they actually rammed it and crippled it. The two ships were intertwined from the crash and close combat ensued on the Buckley's fore deck. Some of the Buckley's crew also dropped hand grenades down the hatches on the sub. Eventually the sub went down and the Buckley took a bunch of prisoners and limped in for repairs. Sounds pretty exciting :!:

I forget when it was but Revell came out with a model of the Buckley with a picture of it ramming the sub on the box. I don't know why my Dad never bought one.

 

[arfmel]

That’s an interesting story. Here’s a link to more details:

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/atlantic-battle-uss-buckley-german-u-66

 

[Fox Mike]

Didn't they make a move (roughly) about that. . .The Enemy Below?

 

[RSIno1]

I forget when it was but Revell came out with a model of the Buckley with a picture of it ramming the sub on the box. I don't know why my Dad never bought one.

Same reason my dad never wanted a BAR or M1 Carbine. That part of their lives was over and they had moved on. He designed and made a lot of the tooling Saginaw Steering gear used to build the guns. He made enough on war bond awards to move the family to CA. My parents always did want to go back to Alaska though. When the war in Europe was over they allowed him to go in the Army. Of course he ended up running a machine shop in Anchorage. The men were sent by ship my mom and other wives went there on the newly completed Alcan Highway.

 

[gramps]

Thanks arfmel! That was an exciting read!
gramps

 

[hpman66]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YIBF4HwtANA
USS Buckley vs U-66 during the Battle of the Atlantic
The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered
Published on Oct 3, 2018

 

[Mike J]

Thank you for sharing that with us Cary. I knew nothing about that battle.

 

[Hawk-in-Wi]

if you ever want to see a American WWII Sub you can check this one out

located in Manitowoc Wi and build by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co., she was one of 28 build during WWII in Manitowoc ,, 4 of the 28 where lost during the war along with 336 crew men
she can be seen at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum
it's been pretty well restored and 2 of it's 4 engines still run

 

[blume357]

I read the account in the link and was really surprised that a submarine could take that kind of punishment and not just go down.... multiple hits with a 3" gun?

 

[eveled]

AFAIK, that was basically Ernest Hemingway’s plan. He patrolled around Cuba looking for U-boats on the surface. He was given unlimited gasoline and grenades.

His plan was to speed up with his Tommy gun blazing and drop grenades down the hatch.