U-557 was a Type VIIC U-boat

U-boat

U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

 built for the German

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 Kriegsmarine

Kriegsmarine

The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...

 for service during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. She was laid down on 6 January 1940, launched on 22 December 1940 and commissioned on 13 February 1941. Oberleutnant Ottokar Paulssen was in command throughout her career. She sank six merchant ships and one warship, a total of almost over four patrols.

She was rammed and sunk on 16 December 1941 west of Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

.

Emergency in the Baltic

U-557s career began in Königsberg

Königsberg

Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...

, from which she departed en route for Kiel

Kiel

Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

. A routine dive in the Baltic

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

 turned into an emergency when the boat sank out of control. She hit the bottom stern-first with a thump. The depth gauge read 142 m (465.9 ft); the submarine was in severe difficulty, having taken on tons of water, poisonous chlorine gas was leaking from the batteries and there was a danger of an explosion. U-557 had also suffered her first death; a mechanic had sustained fatal head injuries in the after torpedo room. A human chain of sailors was formed, passing buckets of sea water to each other, in an attempt to shift some of the water from the stern to the bow. After many hour's toil, the boat pivoted so that the bow hit the bottom. But the sheer weight of water (about 40 tons), prevented U-557 from reaching the surface. The boat, having exhausted its supply of compressed air, stayed on the sea-bed. The crew, under the direction of the Chief Engineer, rocked the boat by moving rapidly from stern to bow and back again. The submarine eventually worked herself free. After 20 hours, U-557 surfaced. and sailed on to Kiel.

First patrol

U-557 spent a week in dry-dock; emerging on 5 May, she "looked and smelled newly commissioned". Leaving Kiel for her first patrol on 13 May, her route took her through the Kiel Canal

Kiel Canal

The Kiel Canal , known as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal until 1948, is a long canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.The canal links the North Sea at Brunsbüttel to the Baltic Sea at Kiel-Holtenau. An average of is saved by using the Kiel Canal instead of going around the Jutland Peninsula....

, across the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

, passing southeast of Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

 and into the Atlantic. Her first kill was the sinking of the British ship Empire Storm south of Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

 on 19 May 1941. On 25 May, a convoy was spotted and stalked for some hours. U-557 fired five torpedoes and scored three hits; she then received instructions from U-boat Headquarters to "transmit beacon signals", (for other U-boats to home-in on). By now she was being chased by escort ships, so Paulssen ordered the boat to dive deep; a pattern of depth charge

Depth charge

A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon intended to destroy or cripple a target submarine by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a preselected depth in the ocean. Depth charges can be dropped by either surface ships, patrol aircraft, or from...

s soon followed. The submarine eluded her pursuers, who dropped more depth charges, by using 'silent routine' and her electric motors to get away. When it was judged safe, the boat surfaced.

Two days later she received a signal that ordered "all U-boats with torpedoes" to go to the assistance of the battleship Bismarck

German battleship Bismarck

Bismarck was the first of two s built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the primary force behind the German unification in 1871, the ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1936 and launched nearly three years later...

, then being hunted by the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. Later that day, another message was received which stated that all "U-boats in [the] vicinity [were] to search for survivors". U-557 arrived in the area on 29 May; none were found. In early June, following fruitless searches for two separate convoys, a solitary ship was sighted, this vessel was hit by two torpedoes but stubbornly refused to sink. Having sailed his boat among the amazed survivors, Paulssen sank the ship with a third 'eel'.

On their way to a refueling rendezvous with the tanker Belchen, the boat encountered three warships; evasive action was taken, but positive identification was delayed by the large number of icebergs in the region. The trio, which steamed away at a speed far in excess of U-557s best, were London class cruisers. The submarine met the tanker about 80 mi (128.7 km) south of Greenland. A second U-boat joined the pair of German vessels, then a third. That evening three explosions were heard from the tanker's position. It seems the cruisers had found what they were looking for.

Steaming in the relatively calm waters between the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia and St. John's, Newfoundland, U-557 had a lucky escape when three torpedoes, fired by a Thames class submarine passed under or astern of the boat. Using its superior speed, the British vessel escaped a counter attack. It was not until 24 June that U-557 made contact with another convoy and that was only after an arduous hunt. Three torpedoes were fired, scoring two hits. But U-557 was trapped on the surface by the swift response of the escorts who converged on the U-boat from all directions. The only means of escape lay in diving, which she did. The inevitable barrage of depth charges followed the rapidly sinking boat. The submarine surfaced two hours after the last detonation. The crew took stock of the damage which was serious enough to curtail the patrol, and forced her passage to Lorient

Lorient

Lorient, or L'Orient, is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-History:At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis...

 in France, where she arrived on 10 July, 1941.

Second patrol

U-557s second patrol began in early August 1941. Her crew had been added-to by including Kapitänleutenant Kelbing who had joined the boat to gain experience before getting his own command. The submarine, with orders to attack shipping in the North Channel

North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland)

The North Channel is the strait which separates eastern Northern Ireland from southwestern Scotland...

 between Scotland and Ireland, carried out her first trim-dive in an unusually quiet Bay of Biscay

Bay of Biscay

The Bay of Biscay is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border, and the northern coast of Spain west to Cape Ortegal, and is named in English after the province of Biscay, in the Spanish...

. She was allocated a new patrol zone due to the paucity of targets in her original area. It was not long before a convoy was sighted and stalked. Five torpedoes were fired from the submerged boat, resulting in three hits. The escorts responded, but U-557 was untroubled; so much so that coffee and sandwiches were distributed. The submarine surfaced and pursued the convoy, but had to dive again to get a hydrophone fix on her quarry. The escorts dropped several depth charges, forcing the boat to crash-dive, only levelling off at 200 metres (656.2 ft). More than 14 hours passed before it was deemed safe enough to surface.

U-557 moved further west. After many days of fruitless searching, a destroyer was sighted; the boat had brushed the side of an unknown convoy. Having dived to avoid the warship, the submarine now surfaced and attempted to shadow the convoy. She soon dived once more to verify the convoy's position She continued the pursuit on the surface (the boat's speed there was far better than that when she was submerged). Her tenacity was rewarded when she "pushed into the herd from astern". Eluding the escorts, all torpedo tubes were fired; three explosions quickly followed. There was no serious escort reaction. U-557 risked re-loading her last two torpedoes on the surface. These were soon fired, without result. She then acted as a signal-beacon, attracting other U-boats to the convoy. Once this was accomplished, she set course for the Bay of Biscay, Lorient and a re-fit.

Third patrol

Her third patrol commenced on 8 October, again in the North Atlantic. After six days steaming in worsening weather, U-557 was about 300 mi (482.8 km) west-southwest of the North Channel. Once again, initial contact with a convoy was made when an escort ship was sighted, but it was disregarded as a potential target. The U-boat was after the merchant ships, not the escorts. Many hours of observation followed until the faint beam of a searchlight was seen. At least 17 ships were counted as the U-boat moved into an attack position. Torpedoes were fired and three explosions were heard. However, contact with the convoy was lost and not re-established until another U-boat attacked. U-557 fired a single torpedo at a freighter but it missed.

Another attack was almost immediately carried out. Two ships were sunk, but in the excitement U-557 sailed too close to an armed merchantman which fired several shells at the U-boat; no hits were inflicted. The boat withdrew to re-load her torpedo tubes and returned to the convoy. Two ships were singled out, but this time the submarine was unsuccessful. She was chased between other ships by a destroyer. At one time only 200m of ocean separated the two vessels, but the U-boat escaped. Another convoy was sighted and tracked; two torpedoes were fired, both hit their targets. Two more ships were sunk. The boat then fell astern of the convoy to re-load her tubes with the last of her torpedoes. Sighting a destroyer, she cautiously followed the escort until the convoy was spotted once again. One more freighter was sent to the bottom, the U-boat was close enough to see the stricken ship's propeller still rotating as she slipped below the waves.

Her last (stern) torpedo was fired at a "10,000 ton monster", but missed. On this patrol, U-557 had sunk six ships and "possibly destroyed" two more. She returned to Lorient on 27 October.

Fourth patrol

Her fourth and last patrol began with her departure from Lorient on 19 November 1941; her destination: the Mediterranean. She managed to slip past the heavily fortified British base at Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

 and reached Messina in Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 on 7 December. On the way, she sank the Norwegian ship Fjord on 2 December. Two days later she left Messina bound for Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

. She sank the British light cruiser north of the city on 15 December 1941, but was herself sunk a day later when she was rammed by the Italian torpedo boat Orione west of Crete.
There were no survivors.

External links

• http://www.uboat.net/boats/u557.htm
• http://www.ubootwaffe.net/ops/boat.cgi