"Hitler`s U-Boat War, The nunted 1942

u-856
"Hitler's U-Boat War, The nunted 1942-L945"
By clay slair
published by RandomHouse
Page 561
"After duty as a weather boat, the new rxc40 u-856, commanded
by
priedrich wittenb€Fg, age twenty-five, followed u-550 into
canadian waters. poFewainedUy Allied'codebreakers canadian ASW
forces hunted for wittenb€Fg, but they had no immediate luck.
upon learning from the codebreakersthat u-856 intended to follow
U-550 into the area off NewYork, American authoritfes mountedan
all-out hunt for her by the "jeep" carrier croatan and her five
d e s t r o y e r _ e s c o r t s. p 1 u st w o t m e r i c a n h u n t e r - k i l l e r g r o u p s c o m p r i s i n g
a total of seven destroyers.
In the early hours of npril 7, one of two Avengers from croatan,
p i l o t e d b y w i l b u r t A . L y o n s , g o t U - 8 5 6o n r a d a F b u t c o u l d s e e
nothing by eye. As the Avenger approached,w'ittenberg madethe
m i s t a k 6 o f f i r i n g a t i t w i t 6 f l a k ' g u n s , g i v i n g a w a y6 i s p o s i t i o n .
rn excited respoise, Lyons dropped-a ejA5 rather than a f1are,
but u-856 was mov'ing too fast for the pido to homeand wi ttenberg
escapedand went deEp.
other ai rcraft from croatan and the armadaof destroyers and
destroyer escorts mounteda u-boat hunt to exhaustion. The destroyer
soy-le got a sonar contact on u-856 and attacked with thirteen depth
charges, but wittenberg escapedaga'in. Ten hours 1ater, the veteran
destFoy6r champlin, which hail sun[ the rxc u-].30 a yeai earl'ier,
again found u-bS0.'Assisted by the destroyer escolt. Huse, commanded
by R. H. wanless, who attacked with Hedgehogs,chanFlin dropped
twenty-one depth charges. These savaged-U-856and forced her to the
surTace.
wittenberg ordered his crew to abandonship and scuttle, but the
conning-tower hatch was jammedshut and had to be pried open with
a crowbar. while the cerfrans coped with this blockhqe. chirmplin and
Huse opened up w'ith 6" and 3"/50 cal i ber quns. The eaitai n bf the
champfin, :ohh J. shaffer rrrr then rammeilu-856 soliittyfdD*eGern.
Not to be outdone, Huse al so steamed i n to ram, but she rfiKsed.
Presently, u-856 upendedand sank. Tragically, an errant 20mmon
champli n- woundedfbur of her own men, it<t ppei'shaffer mortal ly.
The destroyers ttields and ordronaux fished out eleven and seventeen
Germans,respective-ly. rhe twenty-eight survivors of U-856 included
wittenb6rg ahA his first watch ofFic6r."
also, from "u-Boat commander,a perfscope view of the Battle of the
Atlantic" by Peter cremer, published by ttaval rnstitute press: "out
of 820 u-boats that participated in the Battle of the Atlantic, 78L
were destroyed in action; out of 40,000 men, more than 30,000 lost
their lives."
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