German submarine U-68 (1940) (2024)

German submarine U-68 (1940)
Career (Nazi Germany)
Name:	U-68
Ordered:	7 August 1939
Builder:	AG Weser, Bremen
Yard number:	987
Laid down:	20 April 1940
Launched:	22 October 1940
Commissioned:	1 February 1941
Fate:	Sunk 10 April 1944 north-west of Madeira, Portugal. 56 dead and 1 survivor[1]

German submarine U-68 was a Type IXC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 20 April 1940 at the AG Weser yard at Bremen as 'werk' 987, launched on 22 October and commissioned on 1 January 1941 under the command of Korvettenkapitän Karl-Friedrich Merten as part of the 2. Unterseebootsflottille.

U-68 conducted ten combat patrols, sinking 32 merchant ships, for a total of 197,453gross register tons(GRT); she also sank one auxiliary warship of 545 GRT. She was a member of one wolfpack.

On 10 April 1944, during her tenth patrol, she was sunk northwest of Madeira by US aircraft from the escort carrier Guadalcanal.

Service record[]

1st patrol[]

U-68 left Kiel on 30 June 1941 for the Atlantic Ocean via the 'gap' between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. She was unsuccessfully attacked with 24 depth charges by the British corvette HMS Rhododendrun west northwest of Cape Finisterre in Spain.^[2] She docked at the port of Lorient, on the French Atlantic coast, on 1 August. She would be based there for the rest of her career.

2nd patrol[]

Heading for the south Atlantic, the boat came across the Silverbelle southwest of the Canary Islands and sank her on 22 September 1941. A month later, she sank the Darkdale while the unfortunate ship was at anchor in Jamestown harbour, St. Helena on 22 October. Her third victim, the Hazelside, was destroyed on the 28th, 600mi (970km) southeast of St. Helena. U-68 also sank the Bradford City west of South West Africa (now Namibia) on 1 November. The U-boat collided with the stricken ship while diving underneath her. The submarine's bow was bent.

Nevertheless, the submarine returned to Lorient on 25 December.

3rd patrol[]

U-68's third sortie was also conducted off the west coast of Africa. She sank the Helenus on 3 March 1942 200mi (320km) south of Freetown in Sierra Leone, followed by the Baluchstan on the 8th. The boat's crew were kept busy, sinking the Baron Newlands on the 16th and the Ile de Batz on the 17th; all the vessels met their end in the vicinity of Liberia.

She also sank the Scottish Prince about 180mi (290km) west of Takoradi in Gold Coast^[3] and the Allende, both on the 17th.

U-68 had turned for home when she sank the Muncaster Castle with two torpedoes south southwest of Monrovia.^[4] More than ten lifeboats were seen by the Germans; there were 329 survivors.

4th patrol[]

For her fourth patrol U-68 moved to the Caribbean Sea, leaving Lorient on 14 May 1942. On the night of 5 June she sank MVC.O. Stillman, which was then the largest oil tanker in the World.

On the night of 10 June, northeast of the Panama Canal, she torpedoed the 8,600-ton British freighter Surrey. 5,000 tons of dynamite in the cargo detonated after the ship sank. The shock wave lifted the U-boat out of the water as if she had suffered a torpedo hit; both diesel engines and the gyrocompass were disabled.^[5]

Another victim was the Port Montreal. She was sunk with what Merten noted in the boat's war diary as a lucky [torpedo] hit.In all, U-68 sank seven ships during this patrol before returning to Lorient on 10 July.

5th patrol[]

The submarine left Lorient on her fifth patrol on 20 August 1942. She would not see her base again until December. At 109 days, this was to be her longest and most successful sally. Heading once more into the South Atlantic, she attacked and sank the Trevilley east northeast of Ascension Island on 12 September. The Master and Chief Officer were taken prisoner.

She travelled further south, sinking ships such as the Gaasterkerk on 8 October and the Sarthe on the same date, both in the area of the Cape of Good Hope. She also disposed of the Belgian Fighter on the 9th.Turning for home on 16 October, she sank the City of Cairo on 6 November. U-68 returned a month later to Lorient on 6 December.

6th patrol[]

The boat's sixth patrol in the first half of 1943 was again to northern South America. Having sunk two ships, she was attacked by a US Mariner flying boat on 2 April; damage was slight.

7th and 8th patrols[]

U-68 was attacked by one of four British De Haviland Mosquitos on the western edge of the Bay of Biscay on 14 June 943. One man was killed, three were wounded

Patrol number eight was relatively uneventful.

9th patrol[]

The boat returned to her most successful hunting ground - the South Atlantic. In another mammoth patrol (107 days), she sank four more ships.

One of them, the Norwegian tanker Litiopa, had numerous torpedoes and rounds from the deck gun fired at her, but stubbornly refused to succumb. Having been initially encountered at night on 21 October 1943, it was not until the following day that she sank.

The Litiopa's sole escort was the mine-sweeping trawler HMS Orfasy. She was sunk relatively easily on 21 October before the attack on the tanker.

The other two ships were the New Columbia, (sunk southwest of Bingerville, Ivory Coast) on 31 October and the French Fort de Vaux on 30 November. The latter vessel met her end after 'Aphrodite' radar decoys had been used to lure the escort vessels away.

U-68's inbound route took her close to the northwest Spanish coast. She docked at Lorient on 23 December 1943.

10th patrol and loss[]

The boat left Lorient for the last time on 22 March 1944. On 10 April, she was sunk northwest of the Portuguese island of Madeira, by depth charges and rockets from Avenger and Wildcat aircraft from the United States escort carrier Guadalcanal. U-68 was lost at position 33°24′N 18°59′W / 33.4°N 18.983°WCoordinates: 33°24′N 18°59′W / 33.4°N 18.983°W.56 men died; there was one survivor.

Summary of raiding history[]

Date	Ship	Nationality	Tonnage	Fate[6]
22 September 1941	Silverbelle	Great Britain	5,302	Sunk
22 September 1941	Darkdale	Great Britain	8,145	Sunk
28 October 1941	Hazelside	Great Britain	5,297	Sunk
1 November 1941	Bradford City	Great Britain	4,953	Sunk
3 March 1942	Helerus	Great Britain	7,366	Sunk
8 March 1942	Baluchistan	Great Britain	6,992	Sunk
16 March 1942	Baron Newlands	Great Britain	3,386	Sunk
17 March 1942	Allende	Great Britain	5,081	Sunk
17 March 1942	Ile de Batz	Great Britain	5,755	Sunk
17 March 1942	Scottish Prince	Great Britain	4,917	Sunk
30 March 1942	Muncaster Castle	Great Britain	5,853	Sunk
5 June 1942	L.J. Drake	USA	6,693	Sunk
5 June 1942	C.O. Stillman	Panama	16,436	Sunk
10 June 1942	Ardenvohr	Great Britain	5,025	Sunk
10 June 1942	Port Montreal	Great Britain	5,882	Sunk
10 June 1942	Surrey	Great Britain	8,581	Sunk
15 June 1942	Frimaire	France	9,242	Sunk
23 June 1942	Arnaga	Panama	2,345	Sunk
12 September 1942	Trevilley	Great Britain	5,298	Sunk
15 September 1942	Breedijk	Netherlands	6,861	Sunk
8 October 1942	Gaasterkerk	Netherlands	8,679	Sunk
8 October 1942	Koumoundouros	Greece	3,598	Sunk
8 October 1942	Sarthe	Great Britain	5,271	Sunk
8 October 1942	Swiftsure	USA	8,207	Sunk
9 October 1942	Belgian Fighter	Belgium	5,403	Sunk
9 October 1942	Examelia	USA	4,981	Sunk
6 November 1942	City of Cairo	Great Britain	8,034	Sunk
13 March 1943	Ceres	Netherlands	2,680	Sunk
13 March 1943	Cities Service Missouri	USA	7,506	Sunk
21 October 1943	HMS Orfasy	Great Britain	545	Sunk
22 October 1943	Litiopa	Norway	5,356	Sunk
31 October 1943	New Columbia	Great Britain	6,574	Sunk
30 November 1943	Fort de Vaux	France	5,186	Sunk
Total amount of tonnage:			201430 tons

See also[]

• List of German U-boats
• List of successful U-boats

References[]

Sources[]

• Blair, Clay (2000). Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted, 1942–1945. New York: Modern Library. ISBN0-679-64033-9.
• Dunmore, Spencer (2002). Lost Subs: From the Hunley to the Kursk. The Greatest Submarines Ever Lost – and Found. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. ISBN0-306-81140-5.
• Morisson, Samuel (1956). The Atlantic Battle Won, May 1943 – May 1945. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. X. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. OCLC768913584.

External links[]

• ubootwaffe.net webpage for U-68
• uboataces.com webpage with insignia for U-66
• at u-boot-archiv.de (German)