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This events of 16 April 1944 were among the most dramatic in Coast Guard history. This photo (one of several taken from aboard the USS Joyce during the climax of the engagement, is also filled with details about the dramatic events it depicts:

The U-550, commanded by 26-year-old Kapitänleutnant Klaus Hänert, was on her first war patrol when she spotted a convoy approximately 200 miles east of NYC and 70 miles south of Nantucket. The convoy was guarded by the six destroyer escorts of Escort Division 22/Task Group 21.5, five of which were manned by Coast Guardsmen. The sixth DE, the Navy-manned USS Gandy (DE-764), was a replacement for the USS Leopold, which had been torpedoed and sunk the month prior in the worst combat loss in USCG history.

Sighting the tanker Pan Pennsylvania- one of the largest tankers in the world at the time- Hänert fired three torpedoes before crash diving to elude the escorts he knew would be hunting him. The U-boat ended up stuck in the mud on the seafloor, but a thermocline and the boat’s relatively low profile against the seabed partly camouflaged them from sonar detection.

As the USS Joyce (DE-317) and USS Peterson (DE-152) recovered the Pan Pennsylvania’s survivors, Hänert blew the ballast tanks to wrench the U-550 free of the bottom and began an escape towards the continental shelf. This caused the USS Joyce to suddenly get a clear sonar return on the sub. The Joyce pursued the contact and laid a pattern of depth charges directly on top of the Germans. The blasts fatally wounded the U-550, and Hänert elected to surface and surrender.

The U-550 heaved to the surface. Seconds before Hänert could emerge from the hatch with a white flag, the American ships opened fire, killing two men in the tower and wounding Hänert. The U-boat was then rammed by the USS Gandy, then depth charged again at point-blank range by the USS Peterson, all while being kept under merciless fire from three directions by the Joyce, Gandy, and Peterson. The destroyers eventually ceased fire, although some of the Peterson's gunners continued shooting and likely killed at least two of the Germans survivors (nerves were raw following the USS Leopold’s sinking just 39 days earlier.) Holes from the 20mm and 40mm shellfire are visible in the photo.

Contrary to erroneous reports that persist to this day, the Germans probably never fired any of the U-550’s T5 Zaunkönig torpedoes at the destroyers, and they definitely did not fire their guns. Note that the guns in the photo are in the “up”, i.e. diving, position. The handful of casualties sustained by the Coast Guardsmen & Navy sailors- none of which were fatal- were the result of friendly fire as the three DEs maneuvered around the target with guns blazing.

The first 40 or so Germans out of the boat began swimming toward the nearest destroyer, the Peterson (see the trail of men in the water in this wider-angle version of the photo.) The Joyce then pulled alongside the foundering U-boat, at which time the photo in this post was taken. The remaining German crew then jumped off and swam toward the Joyce. Hänert and 12 of his men (barely) made it aboard. One of the Germans later died of his injuries. The following day, the Coast Guardsmen, Germans, and Pan Pennsylvania survivors (talk about awkward…) gathered for a burial at sea presided over by LCDR Robert Wilcox, the USS Joyce's commander

Wilcox was still stricken with guilt over his inability to rescue most of the Leopold’s crew the prior month. This may have influenced his decision to rescue the Germans. He had no formal obligation to do so and, considering that it was unknown whether any other U-boats were in the area, stopping to effect a rescue entailed no small amount of risk. The USS Peterson’s captain chose to sail away without recovering any of the Germans, who all died from the fatally cold water.

The men in this photo are the last ones off the U-boat, although the engineer may still have been below decks scuttling the boat. Klaus Hänert can be seen near the rear gun with his hands on his hips. He had been wounded in the eye, shoulder, and knee (he could not see out of his right eye), so this was probably a deliberate attempt to portray composure for the sake of his men. The man standing in the middle of this photo, looking at the camera (there is empty space on either side of him), is an 18-year-old machinist from Hamburg named Johann Rauh. Rauh later immigrated to the US and settled in Long Island, where his children still live today.

In the months and years that followed, the Germans corresponded with Wilcox and other Coast Guardsmen. Wilcox even hosted the U-550’s engineer at his New York home in the early 1960’s. The wreck of the U-550 was lost until its discovery in 2012 by an amateur team of wreck divers. It’s exact location remains a closely guarded secret.

An excellent book by Randall Peffer, <em>Where Divers Dare: The Hunt for the Last U-boat</em>, was written about the 1944 incident and the 2012 discovery. Bob Wilcox’s son and granddaughter, as well as Klaus Hänert’s son, all remain active in preserving the memory of the events that brought their fathers and their crews together that day.