The sinking of U-85 was a naval action of World War II that took place just after midnight on 14 April 1942. The German submarine U-85 was deliberately sunk by its own crew after a brief engagement with the American destroyer USS Roper. The U-boat's entire crew died. U-85 had been on its fourth patrol and was operating off the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
German U-boats had been operating off the Atlantic coast of the United States since January 1942, as part of Operation Drumbeat. The operation was the German plan to disrupt shipping to the United Kingdom and either reduce the war efforts of them or the United States or knock both countries out of World War II. Their initial efforts in January and February 1942 proved successful, leading the Germans to assign more U-boats to the crucial shipping lanes off the American coast. This period became known as the Second Happy Time.
U-85 was located off North Carolina by USS Roper using the destroyer's new radar system. The officers aboard the destroyer initially mistook the U-boat as a fishing boat or Coast Guard vessel due to its small size. U-85 then fired a torpedo from its rear that narrowly missed the destroyer, which confirmed it to be a U-boat. A machine gun aboard the destroyer prevented U-85's crew from reaching their deck gun to return fire on Roper and the U-boat's conning tower was damaged by one of the destroyer's naval guns. The damage sustained by Roper's crew was insufficient to sink the U-boat, and its sinking suggests it was scuttled (deliberately sunk) by its crew.
The bodies of 29 of the 46 crewmen aboard U-85 were recovered the next morning by Roper. After being analyzed, they were buried with military honors in Hampton, Virginia. The two senior officers aboard Roper were awarded and the crew as a whole was praised. The action marked the first time that an enemy submarine was sunk in American home waters by the United States Navy.
Background
Operation Drumbeat was the German plan to attack Allied shipping along the East Coast of the United States. German commanders hoped that sinking Allied ships in their own waters would either reduce the war efforts of the United States and United Kingdom or knock them out of the war completely. Five U-boats were sent out in the first wave. The Germans were astonished by their initial success, with 23 Allied ships sunk in January and February 1942. In response to these successes, eight more U-boats were sent out to the American coast. The early months of 1942 became known to German commanders as the Second Happy Time.
The waters off North Carolina were given the nickname "Torpedo Alley" due to the high number of Allied merchant ships sunk by U-boats there during the Second Happy Time. The region was a common shipping lane, and vessels often passed through not following a zig-zagging patternwhich would make it harder for U-boats to hit themand with their lights on. While there were naval patrol vessels in the region, they were few in number and slow, unseaworthy, or inappropriate for anti-submarine efforts. The historian Michael Gannon described the Fifth Naval District, where Torpedo Alley laid in, as "the best organized and trained antisubmarine warfare force" on the East Coast. However, their initial attempts to combat German U-boats were ineffective. U-boat commanders described the American defenses as "improvised" and said they obviously lacked training. One said that there was "no evidence that the Americans were switching over to wartime conditions". Lighthouses were in full operation, radio stations provided navigation assistance to ships, and coastal defense stations gave details of rescue operations and the schedules of aerial and naval anti-submarine warfare patrols. On 1 April, the Fifth Naval District announced a new "hunter-killer" doctrine to aggressively detect and defeat U-boats. The strategy called for placing all of its available watercraft and aircraft on intensified ocean patrols. They also equipped their warships with new radar systems.
USS Roper was a Wickes-class destroyer that was commissioned in February 1919 for service with the United States Navy. She was moved to the naval operating base at Norfolk, Virginia, in March 1942, assigned to patrol and escort duty in the waters of the Fifth Naval District. She was one of seven ships equipped with new radar systems to assist in anti-submarine warfare.
U-85 was commissioned in June 1941. It was a type VIIB U-boat, one of just 24 built for the navy of Nazi Germany (Kriegsmarine). The U-boat was commanded by Oberleutenant zur See Eberhard Greger, who had been in that position since the U-boat was commissioned. It was attached to the Third U-boat Flotilla.
Prelude
U-85 left Saint-Nazaire, France, for its fourth patrol on 21 March 1942. This patrol was its first off the East Coast of the United States, though not its first off North America; it had spent its third patrol off Canada. The U-boat carried a complement of 46. The U-boat was off New England between 8 and 10 April. On 10 April, it sunk the Swedish freighter Christina Knudsen in the waters off New Jersey. U-85 then headed to its assigned station off Cape Hatteras, a body of water that makes up part of North Carolina's Outer Banks. It positioned itself in the shallow waters east of Bodie Island on 13 April.
Roper left Norfolk in the evening of 13 April, around 1840, for anti-submarine patrols. Her commanding officer was Lieutenant Commander Hamilton W. Howe. Also aboard was Commander Stanley C. Norton, the commander of Destroyer Division 54. Roper was the flagship of the division. It took two and a half hours for the destroyer to pass False Cape, which she did so by 2110, and then entered the Graveyard of the Atlantic. She soon arrived at her assigned patrol box, which had been based on intelligence received by the Fifth Naval District. The destroyer made a contact at 2238, and Howe veered Roper off course but did not order general quarters. One depth charge was dropped and the destroyer resumed her course. At 2300, both Howe and Norton turned in for the night and gave command to the officer of the deck, Ensign Kenneth Tebo.
Action At midnight on 14 April, a crew change occurred on the destroyer. The sky was clear and starlit and the sea was calm. Wind was blowing from the southeast with a force of one. Off the destroyer's starboard (right) side was the Bodie Island Lighthouse and Bodie Island Bell Buoy No. 8. At 0006, while making with a heading of 182° true, and after having just put the Wimble Shoal Light astern, the crew of Roper made a radar contact. The object they detected had a heading of 190° true and was away. Roper's radio crew called out to Tebo about “something unusual”. Tebo acknowledged this and sent a quartermaster to wake Howe. The captain decided to let Tebo pursue the object, believing it to be nothing more than a fishing boat or Coast Guard vessel. After propeller sounds were detected by her underwater sensors, Roper's speed was increased to and was brought to a heading of 195° true.
Greger likely decided to try to evade the destroyer and escape on the surface, as the water in this region was only about deep. This would make it dangerous for the U-boat to submerge. The U-boat only had a speed of while traveling on the surface, meaning it would be unable to outrun the destroyer.
About away from the object, the wake of a small vessel running away at a high speed was observed by lookouts on the bow. Howe gave the order to man battle stations and prepare to open fire. The machine guns, 3" naval guns, torpedoes, and depth charge batteries were readied. The unknown vessel began to turn to port (left) as Roper approached it. The destroyer remained in the vessel's starboard quarter to avoid being struck by possible torpedoes, as U-boats could launch them from the rear using the torpedo tubes their sterns. The vessel's wake revealed its wide arc to the left, heading towards deeper water; its behavior was consistent with that of enemy submarines. When Roper was about astern of the vessel at 0034, a torpedo passed down the destroyer's port side and nearly hit her, missing by just . The torpedo had been fired from U-85's stern tube likely in an attempt to shake the destroyer off its trail. This confirmed the suspicion that Roper was pursuing a U-boat. The chase continued for about ten minutes.
The U-boat turned sharply to starboard when Roper was away, likely trying to align its bow to launch another torpedo. Tebo ordered the destroyer hard to starboard to follow suit. However, the U-boat's turning radius was much smaller than Roper's. Her searchlight was directed on U-85 at 0045 by Lieutenant Williams Vanous, who had taken up station on the flying bridge at the beginning of the action. The U-boat was only about to starboard and was quickly turning. Roper's crew could see German sailors rushing from the conning tower towards U-85's deck gun, which was an 8.8 cm SK C/35 naval gun. The searchlight was held on the U-boat as it turned to starboard, remaining inside the turning radius of the destroyer. With the object now identified as an enemy submarine, Howe gave the order to open fire. The No. 3 3"/.50 gun atop Roper's deckhouse misfired thrice. The gun of the same caliber on the starboard side misfired once. The .50 caliber machine gun atop the deckhouse misfired a total of five times. Both of the 3" guns' cases were thrown overboard to have the guns ready for further action. In one instance, the case pulled away from the projectile and the latter had to be removed separately. The same thing occurred when trying to unload another gun that was unable to bear during the action. Later inspections of the cartridges revealed indentations in their primers, which may have been a result of weathering. Their crews also may have pulled the triggers before loading the shells.
Chief Boatswain's Mate Jack Wright, who was at the No. 1. .50 caliber machine gun that sat beside the No. 3 3" gun, pushed the machine gun's gunner aside and cleared the weapon. He then opened fire on the U-boat's deck gun. Some members of the gun crew were hit, some scrambled behind the gun or conning tower for cover, and others jumped into the water. Howe wrote in his report that Wright "opened fire so promptly and effectively that he was a major factor in bringing about the destruction of the submarine." As the U-boat slowed in speed, it had its port side facing Roper. The destroyer also slowed down, though it was to avoid losing the U-boat in the dark. A shot came from the No. 5 3" gunits crew led by Coxwain Harry Heyman, who had replaced the previous gun captain just two days earlier and had never been in charge of the weapon during a firingand landed a direct hit on the U-boat's conning tower, near the waterline. The shot breached the U-boat's pressure hull and sent up smoke and debris. The gun fired at U-85 several more times over the course of the action.
Around this time, Greger likely gave the order to scuttle the U-boat. The stern torpedo doors were likely opened to allow water to enter. Its crew subsequently scrambled out and leapt into the water, some donning life jackets. The U-boat settled slowly and by the stern. Howe ordered a torpedo fired to finish off U-85, but the U-boat disappeared beneath the water before a torpedo could be fired. Howe speculated that the U-boat had been scuttled in his after-action report.