Incident #3658
80 Years ago today: Attack on the Type VIIC German submarine, U-134 (Kptlt. Hans-Günther Brosin), by a PBM Mariner of the “Flying Tigers” of VP-201, lat 27-04W, Long 59-48W, the pilot was LT John T. Hitchcock– a gunfighter’s name– in incident #3658, on 8 July 1943.
U.S. Navy photo in the National Archives. 80-G-205264
The U-boat survived this attack, along with three others on 18 and 19 July and 21 August. U-134 notably knocked USN Blimp K-74 (Sqdn ZP 21) from the sky on the 18 July encounter– the only airship shot down during WWII.
U-134 finally met her match on 27 August 1943 in the Bay of Biscay north of Cape Ortegal, in position 44.03N, 08.05W, by depth charges from the British frigate HMS Rother. (Axel Niestlé & Eric Zimmerman, July 2004).
All hands were lost, with Brosin and his 47 tough-to-kill members of the Ubootwaffe, still on patrol.
The pilot of the lumbering flying boat in the image above, LT Hitchcock, would become an anthropologist and college professor of some note after the war, hanging up his guns so to speak.
As for VP-201, it was redesignated VPB-201 on 1 October 1944, then on 15 May 1946 to VP-MS-1, then to VP-ML-8 the next year when they converted to the new P2V Neptune, and finally Patrol Squadron (VP) 8 on 1 September 1948, later becoming the first squadron to field the P-3 Orion. The Flying Tigers are still around, based at Jacksonville as part of AIRLANT. These days they fly the P-8A Poseidon.
On this particular mission, my father, LT William W. Soverel USNR was the aircraft commander, and Lt John T. Hitchcock was the co-pilot. I think Hitchcock actually toot the photo. U-134 was exceedingly fortunate in this encounter. During the run-in, the PBM’s forward-firing .50-cal guns jammed so the submarine crew did not have to contend with machine gun fire from the aircraft. The submarine AA fire struck the PBM port engine, radio equipment, and the bomb sequencer. The sequencer was designed to release the aircraft’s bombs sequenced to hit every 25 yards. The submarine hit on the sequencer, causing all six bombs to be released at once. As can be seen, had the sequencer not been hit, the submarine would have been sunk as the aim was perfect amidships.
The aircraft’s port engine had to be shut down, leaving the aircraft with a challenging flight to get back to Bermuda, several hundred miles away on one engine. The bomb bay doors could not be closed, increasing drag. The fire suppression system indicated that five bombs remained in the bomb bay, which was on fire. Lt. Hitchcock took a fire extinguisher to the open bomb bay, put out the electrical fire and confirmed that no bombs remained on board.
The aircrew could not alert Bermuda to their predicament or location as their radios were inoperative. If they didn’t make to Bermuda, they would have been lost at sea. The aircrew jettisoned everything unnecessary to continued flight– radios, crew chairs, fire extinguishers, .50 cal ammunition, flares, guns, rations, water, etc.. They made it — barely.
By late 1943, the US and UK had defeated the German submarine offensive, while in the Pacific, Japan was forming suicide attack groups that typically attacked at first or last light. Few contemporary carrier pilots were trained/experienced in instrument flying. Solution: turn to patrol plane pilots like my dad, who had thousands of hours of instrument flying. A year or so after this incident, LT Soverel (now a LT Commander) was ordered to form, train, and deploy to USS Enterprise night air group 55N. He was saved by a Japanese bomber who put Enterprise out of action just as Night Air Group 55 was to join the ship for the final assault on Japan.
Captain Peter W. Soverel USN