RAF No. 204 Squadron

After spending the early years of the war patrolling the North Atlantic for U-Boats from various bases in southern England, northern Scotland and Iceland, and dangerous reconnaissance missions over Norway, the Squadron moved to RAF Half-Die at Bathurst (present day Banjul), The Gambia, West Africa on August 28th, 1941. The squadron would spend the remainder of the war there. The rather ominous sounding ‘Half-Die” was not a contemporary description, but named for a cholera epidemic that wiped out a large portion of the population in the mid-1800’s, and the name stuck.

Note that the date the squadron moved to West Africa was a little over 3 months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that would draw America officially into the war. The squadron was sent there as a response to increased German U-Boat activity and successes in the area. In the latter half of 1940 the U-Boats had claimed only 10 vessels in this region. There was only one loss in January of 1941, none in February, but starting in March of 1941 the situation took a drastic turn for the worse, and the allies lost 68 vessels in only five months. Six more vessels would be lost from August to December of 1941, bringing the year’s total to seventy-five.

One of these would be the Lehigh at the end of October, 1941 to Arkansan’s nemesis, U-126 (Bauer). The Lehigh was significant as she was American flagged and therefore still a neutral at this point, one of six neutral American merchant vessels that would be lost prior to our entry in the war. In fact, four of the six (in addition to Lehigh were the Robin Moor, Astral, and Sagadahoc) were lost somewhere off the west coast of the African continent.

No. 95 Squadron eventually moved to Bathurst as well in March of 1943. There is a wonderful website on No. 95 Squadron, which includes many pictures of Sunderland operations at Bathurst which you can view here. These photos provide great insight on the men and the conditions they worked under.

Success for the new squadron soon came, and Drake described this rare action in his autobiography; ‘They had some Glenn Martin 167F attack bombers at Dakar, which were quite fast and were flown, I understand, by airmen of the French Navy. One of these would occasionally stray into our airspace on a reconnaissance flight. On 13 December 1941- a Sunday – I had been scrambled on the approach of one such intruder, and was patrolling over the harbor when he appeared. I flew up alongside him and indicated that he should land at our airfield, which he refused to do. This left me with no alternative but to do my stuff and shoot him down – which I did, although I did not like having to do so at all.’” Drake describes the incident in an IWM interview conducted by Richard McDonough, which you can listen to here, Reel 5 of 11.

Drake’s Hawker Hurricane Mark IIB (BD897) had shot down a Martin M-167F (aka ‘Glenn’) over Freetown harbor. Rather than French Air Force units from Dakar, these were actually French Naval Aviation aircraft from Flotilla 5BR operating from Conakry, Guinea. The crew of the Martin is not known at this time.

As Drake mentioned, the French also had four Groups (or Groupes de Bombardement, i.e.; GB) of the Glenn’s based at Thiès, Senegal, just inland from Dakar; GB I/62, GB II/62, GB I/63 & GB II/63. I don’t believe these were ever used to recon Sierra Leone, and there is no mention in the ORB’s I have of them being used to recon Bathurst.

The engagement with Sunderland C/204 was depicted by aviation artist Iain Wyllie for the cover of ‘French Aces of World War 2’ by Barry Ketley and Mark Rolfe (Osprey Publishing, 1999, ISBN-13: 9781855328983):

Getting back to the U-boat threat, 1942 started out fairly calm with only four vessels lost in the first six months. The end of July would herald another large wave of allied losses, beginning with Honolulan. Forty-one more vessels would be lost by year end, bringing the year’s total to forty-six. In fairness, many of these were at or just beyond the effective range of No. 204’s Sunderland’s. No vessels are known to have been lost in convoy under No. 204’s protection. However, many vessels, such as the Honolulan, traveled independently. There were simply too many to escort over such a vast area.

There were nine German Kreigsmarine grids that overlapped No. 204’s operational area: to the north were DS, DT & DU, to the west were EH, EJ & EK, and finally to the south were ER, ES & ET (see map below).

204 Squadron

Per historian/author Ross McNeil and other sources on the RAF Commands website, Cecil-Wright was:

July 3rd marked the opening of the Airmen’s Recreation Club at the marina. A place for the weary crews to take a break from the war. According to the ORB, this was “complete with picture projection room, gramophone pick-up and amplifier, stage, and seating accommodations for 140 persons. Weekly programmes of pictures (2 nights), debating and dramatics, tombola, whist drive [types of games], and informal concert being maintained. Library opened 28/7/42, adjacent to Education Room opened 16/7/42.”

As I alluded to earlier, unfortunately Sunderland L.2158 M/204 was lost the following month. On August 17th, 1942. According to the ORB Appendices, the “Sunderland “M” was airborne at 0545 hours to carry out escort to Convoy SL 119. The flying-boat made contact with the Convoy at Dawn, but disappeared and was not seen again. No messages received.”

1. Flight Sergeant Edward Charles George Jackman (521691), age unknown, RAF, home location unknown.
2. Flight Sergeant Eugene “Ernie” Hastings Connell (R/76031), age 20, RCAF, from Granville Centre, Nova Scotia, Canada
3. Flight Sergeant Walter Douglas Maconnell (R/71384), age 21, RCAF, from Field, British Columbia, Canada.
4. Sergeant William Arthur Davis (976636), age 22, RAF, from Bedford U.K.

Horner was born on January 20th, 1911 in Midland Junction, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. He was educated at Perth Modern School and went on to earn his B.A at W.A. University where he was a top lacrosse player. Prior to the war he was a teacher at the Central School, Midland Junction. He enlisted in the RAAF on February 3rd, 1941 at the age of 30. His flight training was conducted from July 15th to September 25th, 1941 on the twin-engine RCAF Avro Anson as part of Course 33, No. 7 Service Flying Training School (SFTS), Fort MacLeod, Alberta, Canada.

Harold married local girl Doris Balinski (1919-unknown) while home on leave August 23rd, 1944 and they had a son named Neil. Doris was serving as a corporal in the W.A.A.F. at the time. They had been engaged before the war. Harold’s younger brother Arthur (who also jointed the RAAF) married Doris’ sister Irene.

Harold was discharged from the RAAF on March 12th, 1945, at which time he is assumed to have resumed his teaching career. He passed away in 2001.

The replacement for L.2158 M/204, X/204 was flown down from Gibraltar on September 2nd. As alluded earlier, unlike most of the other replacement flights which arrived unscathed after flying hours and hours over enemy held territory, X/204 had the misfortune of passing through when the French were apparently again in a sour mood and became the second No. 204 Sunderland I found that was engaged by the Vichy Air Force. As the ORB reads: “2/9/42: MOVE: Sunderland X/204 was airborne from Gibraltar at 0541 hours for Bathurst. At 0724 hours in position DTSU 5350 while flying at 900 feet, the Sunderland was attacked by three Vichy Curtis 75A fighters. One Enemy aircraft came in from the port bow, then swung away and returned to attack with two other fighters, one considered a Dewoitine 520. One enemy fighter carried out starboard beam attack opening at 500 yards, and as it turned away the Sunderland rear gunner gave two bursts of a 100 and 50 rounds which appeared to go well home, the enemy aircraft was seen to stagger and was last seen flying very low towards the coast. The other two enemy aircraft made further dummy attacks before the Sunderland managed to evade them in cloud cover. When the Sunderland was waterborne at Bathurst it was found that there were approximately 24 holes in the fuselage as a result of the combat.”

I was somewhat surprised to discover from the ORB’s  for July that there were a large number of civilian flights taking off and landing at Bathurst at this time as well. See list below.

Apparently Bathurst was a major hub for flights transiting between Europe and the African continent. Most of these were British Overseas Aircraft Corporation (BOAC) Short Empire series flying boats (Types S.26 & S.30), cousins of the Short Sunderland, but also many Boeing 314A Clipper Flying Boats provided by the Americans. You’ll note there were a couple flights by Pan American Airways Clipper flying boats as well.

Sadly, one of the Short Empire series flying boats, Clare was lost on September 14th, 1942 in transit from Bathurst, Gambia, to Britain via Lisbon, Portugal. According to Volume One of ‘For Your Tomorrow’: “S.30 Empire Flying-boat G-AFCZ (named Clare) - took off in the evening captained by Fg Off G B Musson, RAF, and little over an hour later signaled it was experiencing engine difficulties. About 20 minutes later there followed an emergency call of  “fire, fire, fire!” Clare’s fate remained unknown until the 16th, when searching Catalina G-AGDA located wreckage and six bodies floating in the water off the Senegalese coast at position 1420N:1732W. Clare’s six crew and 13 passengers all died; amongst the latter were at least eight tour-expired 37 Sqn personnel being repatriated to Britain, including a New Zealand navigator. The bodies of two RAF members of the Squadron were recovered and buried at Faraja in Gambia, the remainder of their comrades and at least five of the Clare’s crew being commemorated on the Malta Memorial. The other five passengers were apparently Army, Navy or civilian personnel. Operating at the limit of their range, with minimum safety margins, the other S.30s were promptly withdrawn from the route following Clare’s loss.”

L/204 and A/204 were sent to search for Clare, but neither were able to find any trace of her. Per the ORB Appendices: “SEARCH: Two Sunderland aircraft were detailed to search for the missing B.O.A.C. Flying Boat “CLARE” from which an S.O.S. message had been received at 2007 hours on the 14/9/42 to the effect that the aircraft was on fire.

L/204 was airborne at 2220 hours and carried out a search of area ZWMF 2910 – ZWMF 2940 – HYMF 2610 – HYMF 2640. No trace of the “CLARE” or any survivors seen. 1 M/L was seen in position ZWMF 0530 at 0038/15. The aircraft returned to Base at 0724 hours 15/9.

The second Sunderland A/204 was airborne at 0707 hours on the 15th, and searched area HYKE 4500 – HYUD 4540 – ZWUD 5040 – ZWMF 1527 – ZWKE 1500. No trace was found of the “CLARE” or any survivors. At 0752 hours 1 M/L was sighted in position ZWMF 1329. The aircraft was waterborne at 1832 hours.

                                                                                                                                   GAM/33, 38/15/9.”

In November of 1942, No. 204 Squadron Sunderland’s flew in support of Operation Torch, the allied invasion of North Africa, keeping an eye on Vichy shipping movements. Only one of these flights appears to have been challenged. On November 11th, 1942, Sunderland D/204 was one of four flying boats shadowing the Vichy shipping. They reported: “At 0945 hours one Convoy believed VICHY was seen in position QWDX 0020 – 130 – 10 knots, consisting of one merchant vessel of 12,000 tons, single fawn funnel, one goal-post mast, fore and aft, appearance similar to “Champlain”. One merchant vessel of 10,000 tons black funnel, appearance similar to “CHANTILLY”, another two merchant vessels of 6,000 and 2,000 tons respectively, also one possible escort vessel, also one Latecoere 302 aircraft.  The Convoy was inside Vichy territorial waters, showed no flags or colour. This Convoy was sighted from over 3 miles, as it [D/204] approached to investigate the Latecoere aircraft came up to 1,500 yards and D/204 sheared off, and returned to Base at 1405 hours.

                                                      GAM/076, 77, 78, 79/11/11.”  

While it would have made for an interesting dogfight, everyone behaved themselves, and in this case no shots were fired.

In all, judging by the information on the Common Wealth Graves Commission website, No. 204 Squadron appears to have lost at least 91 men during the war. I say ‘at least’ because during the course of this research I was able to identify five more men that were not correctly identified as having served with No. 204 Squadron, so there could still be more.

In addition to the 91 personnel, the squadron lost 18 Sunderland’s during the conflict:

As you can see from the list, the conditions under which they operated caused more casualties than the enemy. Of the 18 aircraft lost, 8 were lost either during take-off or landing, 5 ditched, 3 were shot down, 1 was lost to an accident while moored and 1 to unknown causes. It appears that often when the aircraft would ditch the depth charges would explode as the aircraft sank, resulting in high loss of life. Reading through the ORB’s, in the last year of the war it became standard operating procedure to jettison the depth charges and in some cases fuel on return, whether the aircraft was in distress or not, just to be on the safe side.

As noted, Sunderland N9028 KG-A, which was shot down over Norway on July 21st, 1940 included American Gerald Edwin MacDonald. MacDonald was actually born in Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada on May 5th, 1921. His father Samuel was born in Manitoba Canada and his mother Hazel was born in Bay City, MI. They had only immigrated to Washington State in July of 1939 and became U.S. Citizens, retiring to a farm outside Edmunds, WA, just North of Seattle. His father Samuel registered for the draft in April of 1942 at the age of 62, but is not believed to have been called up. Gerald’s U.S. citizenship has been called in to question as he had so recently immigrated. An official ‘REPORT OF THE DEATH OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN’ was filed (see below), and it was noted a year after he went missing that he was “Believed to be an American citizen”. His body was never recovered and sadly his parents held out hope for a year that he would be reported as a prisoner of war, until the RAF updated his status to “presumed killed in action”. Besides his parents, Gerald left behind two older brothers, Glenn and Vernon, and two sisters, Grace and Hazel.

No. 204 squadron was not credited with any U-Boat kills, however overall, Sunderland’s accounted for 26 U-Boats during the war. U-Boats claimed 11 Sunderland’s, although none from No. 204 squadron.

The first Sunderland C/204 was airborne at 0458 hours to carry out the escort of “SL.107”. At 0701 hours the aircraft sighted a Submarine in position, 10.15.N 18.48.W., which had submerged before the aircraft could arrive overhead. A sighting report was sent to base at 0715 hours, but by this time there was no further sign of the Submarine and a search was commenced. At 0752 hours another sighting was made with the submarine on the surface, course 010 – 8 kts., and an amplifying report was transmitted to base. At 0800 hours the aircraft advised base that it was resuming the search for the Convoy, at the same time submitting a weather report to base. Base signaled the aircraft at 0855 hours to return to the U-boat position after meeting the Convoy. At 0922 hours the Enemy Submarine was again sighted and two D.C.’s were dropped as submarine appeared to dive. Oil streaks were observed near the spot where the D.C.’s struck the surface; the course and speed of the submarine were – 290 – 8 kts., visibility  - 6/8 miles. A message was received by the aircraft from Freetown, “You will be relieved by D/95 at 1240 – return to Convoy.” C/204 replied to this message at 1010 hours with, “Have attacked U-boat – oil observed, 2 D.C. left, continuing search for Convoy.” The Convoy “SL.107” was met at 1200 hours in position, 10.00.N 19.10.W. The Convoy comprised, 29 Merchant Vessels and 2 Escort Vessels, 2 Destroyers having been detached from the Convoy to search for the U-boat. Another message was received from Freetown; “Return to U-boat position periodically until D/95 arrives.” At 1416 hours the Convoy was left in position, 10.07.N 10.32.W. – 289 – 7 ½ kts. C/204 was waterborne at base at 1648 hours.”

The U-boat that C/204 had attacked was U-505 (KrvKpt. Axel-Olaf Loewe), which was returning to its base in Lorient, occupied France after its successful second patrol, during which Loewe had sunk four vessels off Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast. The damage was termed “minor”, and the U-505 made it safely back to base on May 7th, after a patrol of 86 days.

According to an article on History.net, crewman Hans Goebeler who was aboard at the time of the attack described it as follows; “At one point, a technical failure caused the relief valve on diving tank No. 7 to stick in the closed position. The resultant imbalance of weight caused the U-boat to float on the surface with its stern sticking up into the air at a 40-degree angle. The crew experienced several anxious moments before Loewe could get the boat on an even keel and dive to escape an approaching British Short Sunderland flying boat. Loewe’s handling of the incident impressed Goebeler. ‘This was one time when a Kapitän would have been justified for yelling, but he remained cool and calm,’ Goebeler recalls. ‘We had a lot of respect for the Kapitän‘s self-control, even though our boat looked like an ostrich, with our head buried in the water and our tail up in the air!’”

Loewe made one more patrol on U-505 before being promoted off the boat to a shore position. Over his three patrols he sank seven vessels totaling 37,832 tons. He survived the war as passed away in 1984.

The U-505 (then under the command of Oblt. (R) Harald Lange) was famous for eventually being captured off Mauretania by a USN hunter-killer group two years later on June 4th, 1944 during which her four rotor enigma code machine was retrieved. Goebeler was still serving aboard the U-505 and was the man that opened the main sea valve in a desperate attempt to scuttle the U-boat before the allies could capture her. The U-505 is currently on display at Chicago’s Museum of Science andIndustry. I highly recommend a visit if you have an opportunity to do so.

The only other potential attack on a U-boat I could find in the set of records I received occurred on March 9th, 1943. The report reads: “9/3/43: BLOCKADE RUNNER: Sunderland C/204 was airborne at 0314 hrs. on BLOCKADE RUNNER SEARCH. At 1142 hrs. a Submarine on the surface was sighted, on Port Bow 2 miles distant, in position [unreadable] – 190 – 12/15 kts. The aircraft lost height preparatory to attacking but came too close and at too great an altitude to warrant a successful attack, so circled again losing height. The Submarine took no evasive action and no apparent offensive action causing doubt as to whether allied or enemy. At this point the Port outer engine failed, causing the aircraft to bank steeply to Port and preventing further investigation. Two bullet holes were subsequently found in the forward rear turret. At 1115, the aircraft maintaining height on three engines [the next two lines were typed over each other making it difficult to read, however the gist of it appears that they attempted to get in position for another attack. It continued:] Flight Engineer having remedied defects. At 1232 the French Cruiser George LEYGUES was sighted in position [unreadable] – 030 – 18kts. The Cruiser was asked by Aldis Lamp if there was a French Submarine in the area and replied “No” [The French submarine La Sultane was attacked on January 6th]. At 1240 course set to search area to extreme limit of endurance. Search concluded at 1311 hrs. and course set for base. Waterborne at 1710 hrs.”

Sunderland A/204 took off at 1410 to continue the search, but nothing was found. The Flight Engineer mentioned in C/204’s failed attack was Sergeant W. McTaggart, who received the Distinguished Flying Medal for that and two other occasions when he climbed inside the wing to affect the engine repairs in-flight. C/204 was noted as being only 100 feet above the water when “Sgt. McTaggart without hesitation succeeded in entering the Wing and repairing the engine”.

It is unclear from the ORB where C/204 was flying from, but it was sent to Port Etienne on February 16th. If from Bathurst, there were no U-boats within the nine KM grids within range. If C/204 had been detached further to the north at Port Etienne, then four U-boats were within range: U-66 (Markworth) and U-504 (Luis) in position DH71 (28°57'00"N, 022°54'00"W), and closer still, U-202 (Poser) and U-558 (Krech) in position DH77 (27°09'00"N, 022°54'00"W). Unfortunately, none of these U-boats list an air attack against them on this date in uboat.net’s summaries, nor do any of them mention it in BdU (headquarters) KTB’s for this time period.

Finally, one more notable action the ORB’s revealed occurred on August 12th and 13th of 1943 when No. 204 Squadron Sunderland’s H/204 and F/204 helped save 7 crewmembers of a German U-boat. The U-boat had been sunk by a No. 200 Squadron Liberator D/200 (they had upgraded from their Hudson’s starting in July of 1943). The Sunderland’s were actually searching for the survivors of D/200, when H/204 found a dinghy 7 hours into their patrol at 1451. They dropped two Lindholmes (self-inflating dinghies) which were picked up and they circled the dinghy for over 3-1/2 hours taking pictures. Before they left at 1835, they dropped emergency packs and two flame floats. Sunderland F/204 took off at 2323 to continue the search and rescue efforts. At 0445 they sighted the dinghy and guided the Flower Class Corvette HMS Clarkia (K 88) to the scene, which arrived at 0630 and signaled to F/204 that the survivors were German. This turned into somewhat of a blessing in disguise, as the entire crew of D/200 were lost in the attack and sinking of U-468, and the German’s were the only surviving witnesses to the battle.

According to uboat.net: “The B-24 pilot, Flying Officer Lloyd Trigg RNZAF, who sank U-468 but perished with his entire crew in doing so, was awarded the Victoria Cross based solely on the testimony of officers from the U-boat, including the commander, Oblt. Klemens Schamong. This was the only instance in the war of a statement from the enemy resulting in the award of such a high decoration. F/O Trigg pressed home his attack even though his aircraft was on fire and flying extremely low, an example of extraordinary bravery.” You can read more about the attack here.

No. 200 Squadron’s costly success against U-468 would be the RAF’s only success in the theater. Two more U-boats were lost off West Africa in 1943, U-105 in June and U-403 in August, both to air attacks by our new Free-French allies off Dakar.

1943 would see the shipping losses drop to twenty-four, mainly concentrated in the spring. The last allied loss in the area would be in November, when U-68 (Lauzemis) sank the French freighter Fortde Vaux off Monrovia.

Charles N. Bamforth

Bamforth’s amazing life is eloquently detailed in the book; Iron Jaw: A Skipper Tells His Story – Captain Charles N. Bamforth (1895-1975) – ISBN 0-8059-5417-1. The book was compiled and edited by his two sons, Charles A. Bamforth and Richard A. Bamforth, from incredibly detailed handwritten diaries, logs and personal letters the captain kept. This copyrighted material is used with permission of the Bamforth family. It was first published in 2002 by Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but is currently out of print. Copies can still be obtained by contacting Richard A. Bamforth at P. O. Box 5068, Augusta ME 04332 or prbamforth@gmail.com. I actually obtained my copy a few years ago when I first met former American-Hawaiian officer Rodman Dickie at one of George Duffy’s Mass Maritime Academy luncheons. Rodman asked me if I had heard of the book, which I hadn’t, and suggested I pick up a copy since I was interested in American-Hawaiian. I found a paperback copy in great shape at an on-line used book dealer I had used before. I couldn’t put it down when it finally arrived in the mail. Bamforth must have either commanded or piloted virtually every vessel in their fleet at some point over the years. The copy I had included the e-mail address for Richard Bamforth, whom I contacted soon thereafter. We’ve stayed in touch over the years, and regular visitors to the site will recognize the passages from the book that Richard and his brother Allan have allowed me to include here and there that relates to Arkansan’s story. The book is a must read for anyone interested in the Merchant Marine for the first half of the twentieth Century, including both World Wars. At 426 pages it would be impossible for me to cover everything here and do it justice, especially listing all his voyages, but instead I will hit the highlights, and recommend you get the book for yourself. Charles Nathaniel Bamforth was born in 1895 and grew up in South Lincoln, Massachusetts. He left school while in the ninth grade at the age of 15 to go to work to support the family. At the age of 18 he decided he needed to find a way to make his own way in this world. He applied for and was accepted to the newly renamed Massachusetts Nautical School in the fall of 1913. At this time the training ship was still called the Ranger, and under the command of 57-year-old retired U.S.N. Commander Charles Nelson Atwater, who had joined the school in April of 1911. According to the school’s annual report, Atwater “served on many naval training ships, and was superintendent of the Pennsylvania Nautical School, in command of the U. S. S. Saratoga and U. S. S. Adams for several years.” According to his obituary, he had entered naval service in 1873, and had been Executive Officer of the training ship Monongahela for four years. His last active duty was in the Intelligence Department of the Bureau of Navigation, which he retired from in 1905. This was a time of great change and expansion for the U.S. Merchant Marine. During Bamforth’s first year in school, three significant events occurred: July 28th, 1914 the First World War broke out in Europe, although America remained neutral at first, which caused a huge spike in demand for American ships and crews. August 15th, the Panama Canal opened, greatly increasing the number of voyages that could be made between the east and west coasts. August 18th, an amendment to the Panama Canal act became effective, allowing foreign built ships, owned by American citizens, to be admitted to American registry for deep-sea trade. This caused an increased demand for American officers. His first summer cruise, which began in May of 1914, was cut short when the Ranger’s crankshaft broke about 550 miles northeast of Bermuda. Perhaps a good thing considering what was about to happen in the Atlantic. They made it back to Boston under their own power, mostly sail, about two weeks later. The Ranger was out of commission the rest of the summer while a new crankshaft was made and installed. Their remaining training was done in port, followed by the usual winter term. Due to the war in Europe and the threat this posed to vessels in the Atlantic, the summer cruise of 1915 was changed for the first time. Rather than cruising east across the Atlantic to northern Europe or the Mediterranean, they were to cruise south through the West Indies to the Panama Canal and back up the east coast of the United States (See Map below). This modified route was maintained until 1921, when Arkansan’s Master Paul R. Jones would benefit from the resumption of the European cruise. Commander Atwater resigned at the end of April just prior to Bamforth’s 1915 cruise. He was replaced by Capt. P. W. Hourigan, U. S. N., retired. According to the school’s report, Hourigan was “the author of a manual for the handling of vessels under sail, which was adopted as a textbook by the United States Naval Academy, where he served a tour of duty as instructor in seamanship; for three years he was commanding officer at the Naval Training Station at Newport, R. I., and a large part of his twenty-two years at sea was spent on board the sailing ships "Trenton," "Enterprise," "Jamestown," "Lancaster," "Alliance" and "Kearsarge."” Bamforth graduated in the fall of 1915 at the age of 19. At the time, men had to be at least 21 to sit for officer’s exams, and since most graduates were between 18 and 20 they served as Quartermasters when they first graduated. Commander Atwater would later return when Hourigan became ill. He commanded Ranger, now re-named Nantucket, from August 14th, 1918, to April 22nd, 1919, when he died unexpectedly of a heart attack on deck. Nantucket was in port in Boston preparing for the 1919 summer cruise. Hourigan would pass away in 1920, and be replaced by Armistead Rust, who would train Jones and Bernard. In an almost ‘Forest Gump’ way, Bamforth always seemed to find himself in the middle of some historic event. His first assignment was as a Quartermaster on the small laker, George Hawley, carrying supplies to Galveston Texas shortly after a Category 4 Hurricane devastated the city. On their way back they stopped in New York and Bamforth admired the well-maintained American-Hawaiian vessels Virginian, Alaskan and Mexican. Soon thereafter he visited a couple of classmates who were serving as Quartermasters on the Montanan. That’s all it took. He applied for and soon received a position as Quartermaster on the Montanan. After several voyages to South America Bamforth earned his Second Mate’s license, but the timing was bad as American-Hawaiian had no openings for officers. Needing to find work, he briefly joined another company at the end of 1916. By the spring of 1917 American-Hawaiian had some openings and Bamforth joined the SS Californian as Third Mate and remained an American-Hawaiian man for most of his career. The day Bamforth first sailed on the Californian was April 6th, 1917, the same day America declared war on Germany and joined the fray on the side of the Allies. The Master of the Californian was a man named Curtis, perhaps Frank E. Curtis who would later be Master of Iowan in 1920. He had previously been the Master of Columbian, which was stopped and scuttled under the Prize Rules by U-49 (Richard Hartmann) on November 8th, 1916. From April 1917 to January 1918 Bamforth made three trips on the Californian between Baltimore and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On their return from his third voyage, the Army took over the ship and had them load war materials for France. Captain Curtis was reassigned to a USSB position in England, and Master Malman took over command of the Californian. They sailed for France in convoy at the end of February 1918, returning to the US in May. Bamforth left the Californian at the end of this voyage and was assigned to the new West Eagle, commanded by 46-year-old Master Maynard A. Young of Hancock, Maine, and set sail for France on May 25th. His former ship, Californian, would hit a mine and sink in the Bay of Biscay on her next voyage on June 22nd, 1918, though all crew appear to have survived. The West Eagle smoked badly and broke down several times on the way, but they finally reached France by mid-June. Several other failures occurred but they made it back home in early August. West Eagle was laid up for a month as the Navy added wooden bulkheads in an experiment to see if they could make her unsinkable. West Eagle had only been completed in March of 1918 by Ames Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. in Seattle, WA. Apparently not one of their best efforts. She was originally intended to be named War Cupid for the British, but was requisitioned by the USSB. She was eventually broken up in Philadelphia in 1924, a remarkably short career of only 6 years. In September of 1918 Bamforth became Chief Mate of the West Hampton, also under Master Young, and they sailed for France on his 3rd trip of the war to Europe. The voyage over was fairly uneventful except for briefly losing their steering gear and falling behind for a time. The real challenge was making it home. They had collided with a stone pier in France, and although temporary repairs were made, heavy weather encountered on the voyage home caused the repair to fail and her pumps couldn’t keep up with it. To make matters worse, the flooding caused their cargo of pyrite to shift, making the vessel very unstable. Bamforth was instrumental in saving the ship. They eventually limped in to Halifax, Nova Scotia. While they were struggling to keep afloat and make port the war ended. Bamforth made one more trip to Europe on West Hampton under Master Young, this time to start ferrying material back. Young transferred to the Alaskan, and Bamforth made one more trip on West Hampton. Bamforth re-joined Young on the Alaskan in October of 1919. On their voyage home in January 1920 Master Maynard Young died unexpectedly, and Chief Mate Bamforth had to assume command and get the ship home. Young was buried at sea. After Alaskan he served as Chief Mate on the passenger steamer Mount Clay, operated by United American Lines, a subsidiary of American-Hawaiian. Mount Clay had a very interesting history. She was originally launched in Stettin, Germany in 1904 as Prinz Eitel Friedrich, and served the next 10 years in Far East service with the German steamship company Norddeutsche Lloyd. She was in Tsingtao, China when the First World War broke out and quickly converted into an armed auxiliary cruiser. Her civilian Master was replaced by Korvettenkapitän Max V. Thierichens, formerly of the gunboat Luchs. She spent the next seven months working her way eastward across the Pacific, around Cape Horn and north into the Atlantic, sinking eleven vessels for a total of 33,000 gross tons in the process. Her victims included the first American flag vessel lost during the war, the schooner William P. Frye, thought to be carrying wheat to Britain. In March, low on fuel, engines in need of overhaul, and crowded with passengers from her victims she sailed into neutral Newport News and was interned. When America entered the war in 1917 she was seized, converted to a troop transport and renamed DeKalb. She carried the first U.S. troops to Europe, and over the course of eleven trans-Atlantic voyages, transported over eleven-thousand men to the war zone. See here, here and here for more information. Bamforth served as Chief Mate on Mount Clay for nearly two years, from November 1920 through June 1922, running between New York and Hamburg. Bamforth also married Dorothy Allan during this time. At the end of June, 1922 he finally became a Master, of the Nevadan at the age of 27. After Nevadan he would also command Ohioan, Dakotan, and then Arizonan. These voyages were all inter-coastal runs. In September of 1926, he was assigned to the Pennsylvanian which he commanded for 12 years, with the exception of a few temporary assignments on Ohioan, Golden Tide, and Missourian. This period included the Great Depression of 1929, and later, several remarkable months during the winter of 1936-37 when he was strikebound in Seattle and took care of the vessel by himself. His ingenuity and resourcefulness was at its peak, and well documented in the book, including a letter to President Roosevelt. The Pennsylvanian would eventually be scuttled off the coast of Normandy to reinforce the artificial breakwater after the invasion. Rodman Dickie made seven voyages on her from May 1943 to June 1944, and was Chief Mate when she was scuttled. Bamforth became a Coastal Pilot for American-Hawaiian in October 1938. Vessels he piloted during this time were the Virginian, Arkansan’s sister Alabaman, Montanan, Ohioan, Mexican, and Californian (II). During this period Germany invaded Poland, igniting the Second World War. In October of 1939 he had a trip to west coast as a relief Master of the Texan. At the beginning of 1940 he resumed his piloting with Oregonian, Missourian, Virginian, then two of Arkansan’s sister’s, Floridian, followed by Carolinian. There were likely many, many more. Rodman Dickie recalls that Bamforth piloted Arkansan for a portion of one of their voyages, though there is no mention in Bamforth’s book. On July 1st, 1941 he was asked to take over as Master of the Illinoian for a voyage to India with war materials for the British. They were in India when Arkansan was bombed in Suez. They were on their way from New Orleans to Baltimore when they received the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and our entry into the war. In January 1942 Bamforth briefly became American-Hawaiian’s Port Captain in New York, but in February had to relieve Honolulan’s Master Sutton for their fateful voyage detailed above. After repatriation there was a Coast Guard hearing over Honolulan’s loss, and Bamforth was cleared of any wrongdoing. After a few weeks of rest & relaxation, with a shortage of vessels (we had really taken a beating during the summer of ’42, and the flow of new Liberty ships had not yet caught up), Bamforth activated his Navy Reserve Commission and reported for duty. Due to a confusing misunderstanding, his assignment as Commander of the Training Ship American Seamen (a position he was ideally suited for) fell through. The Navy, in their infinite wisdom, then assigned this veteran ship’s Master Mariner to a shore position. He spent the winter of 1942-43 in Portland, Maine as Port Director, or as he referred to it, "as Stevedore". In April the Navy compounded the error when he was sent to Virginia to learn how to be a Seabee and took command of a Battalion. At the age of 48, he ran the obstacle courses with his men (most in their late teens and early twenties) during the day while studying his management and engineering at night. Keep in mind he had dropped out of school in the 9th Grade to earn money for his family, and despite a decent education at the Massachusetts Nautical School, it had been nearly 28 years since he had graduated. Simply astounding determination to overcome the physical and mental challenges.   In October of 1943 Bamforth and his Battalion was sent to the Pacific theater and served the next six months of the war in a muddy, back-water supply depot on Banika Island in the Russells. In the spring of 1944 he was assigned to several camps in California to train for amphibious landings. In September of 1944 he was finally recognized for his leadership on the Honolulan and awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. By October 18th, 1944 the Navy finally got it right and he reported for Duty at Pearl Harbor as a port pilot, where he spent the remainder of the war. He would pilot dozens if not hundreds of vessels in and out of port during this period. Likely the most interesting vessel Bamforth ever piloted was the behemoth Imperial Japanese submarine I-401, at the time along with her sister I-400, the largest submarine in the world. Essentially a submersible aircraft carrier with three tandem seat aircraft, she had been surrendered at the end of the war and taken to Pearl for evaluation at the beginning of 1946. Bamforth piloted her into the harbor and then later back out (not an easy job with her off-set bridge) before she was sunk during weapons tests off the coast of Kalaeloa. See here and here for more information. He left the Navy in June of 1946 and returned to the states, restarting his American-Hawaiian civilian career. His first assignment was Mount Tamalpais under subsidiary Mount Steamship Company. After several interesting voyages to the Black Sea port of Odessa and later to Belgium, he left in August 1947 to become a company Coastal Pilot again. He was eventually federally licensed for all waterways from Maine to Virginia. He served in that capacity for the next five years until April 23rd of 1953 when American-Hawaiian finally ceased operations. He had spent thirty-seven years with American-Hawaiian. Luckily he was quickly able to find a position as a Coastal Pilot with Waterman Steamship Company. Waterman was taken over in 1955, however, and Bamforth next joined an independent Pilot’s agency. By 1956, at the age of 60 he was in business for himself and working as hard as he ever did. He would pilot over 1,500 vessels between 1957 and 1975. His health failing, he allowed his license to expire in the spring of 1975. Captain Charles Nathaniel Bamforth passed away in November of 1975 at the age of 80. True to form, he was working on a house repair at the time. An amazingly full and active life.  U-582 and Werner Schulte According to Uboat.net, Werner Schulte was born in Kiel, Germany on November 7th, 1912 (the year before Bamforth started his training). Kiel is located in the North of Germany on the Baltic Sea, and was one of the major naval bases and shipbuilding centers of the Third Reich. As such, it suffered heavily from Allied bombing raids during the war. Schulte joined the Kriegsmarine in the spring of 1937 at the age of 24, and graduated with Crew 37a. His classmates included Siegfried Kietz, who was in command of Arkansan’s U-126 when she was lost with all hands, and Oskar-Heinz Kusch of U-154 that witnessed the loss. From March 1938 to April 1940 he served as Gunnery and Divisional Officer on the light cruiser Köningsberg. During this time he was promoted to Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant-Commander). He then served on the staff of Naval Commander at Bergen, Norway (which had just been taken by the German’s that summer) until October 1940 when he joined the U-Boat force. His U-Boat training lasted from October 1940 to March 1941 when he began his U-Boat Commander training with the 24th flotilla at Memel, finishing the course in April. In May Schulte was sent as ‘Commander in Training’ on one patrol on the U-98 (Robert Gysae), patrolling southeast of Cape Farewell, Greenland. They sank the British Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Salopian (F 94), and the British steamers Rothermere and Marconi over the course of eight days for a total of over 23,000 GRT. Schulte was then sent to U-boat familiarization (Baubelehrung) in July before taking command of his own boat, the new Type VIIC U-582, commissioned in Hamburg on August 7th, 1941. U-582 was attached to the 5th flotilla (Training) at Kiel upon commissioning and began tactical exercises. During this time period Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese and America entered the war. According to post-war allied interrogation reports, during U-582’s tactical exercises she was rammed by U-503 (Otto Gericke) and sustained slight damage. About this same time she helped search for survivors from U-583 (Heinrich Ratsch) which had been rammed and sunk by U-153 (Wilfried Reichmann). U-583 was lost with all hands. First Patrol U-582 left Kiel for its first war patrol on December 20th, 1941 proceeding through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, into the North Atlantic. The next several days they proceeded tight along the coast of Norway and on Christmas Eve made their turn west. On Christmas morning, U-582 was about 120 miles NNE of the Shetlands when they were ordered to proceed to Trondheim, Norway at once in order to “replace stud-bolts of exhaust valves”. Schulte had his mechanics check the bolts and they appeared fine, which confused them, but they reversed course and headed for Trondheim that afternoon. They planned to arrive there about 4:00pm the following day. On their way they ran into a ferocious winter storm, at the top of the wind and sea scales. It wasn’t until late morning on December 27th that they were able to meet their escort trawler at the entrance to the fjord. Before they could even reach Trondheim, however, they were ordered to turn around again and head south with U-135 (Friedrich-Hermann Prätorius), U-156 (Werner Hartenstein), and U-87 (Joachim Berger) towards Ålesund, Norway where the British had launched a surprise commando raid called Operation Archery. They ran into bad weather again, and by the time they neared the area the British had already withdrawn. Around mid-day on the 28th they were ordered back to Trondheim to affect repairs. The other U-Boats were ordered to proceed into the Atlantic on their patrols and report fuel amounts. U-582 entered Trondheim fjord around 9:00pm that evening. After about 2 hours they decided to anchor in the fjord due to bad visibility. They finally reached Trondheim the following afternoon. U-582 was tied up alongside the maintenance ship Huascaran from December 30th through January 2nd where a team from Blohm & Voss exchanged the stud-bolts on the exhaust valves. U-582 departed Trondheim around mid-day on January 3rd, clearing the fjord later that evening on a course of 255° to resume their patrol. Schulte was assigned to Wolfpack Ziethen (named for former Calvary officer) along with ten other U-Boats to operate off Newfoundland from January 15th to the 22nd. On January 26th they sank the British tanker Refast south of St. Johns. They also sighted neutral Swedish, Portuguese, and Red Cross vessels, but claimed no further successes. On January 29th they head for their new home in Brest, occupied France. During their return on February 2nd they were tasked with performing search and rescue operations to the west and north of the area were the German blockade runner Spreewald was accidentally sunk by U-333 (Peter-Erich Cremer). On February 4th U-582 had to resume her homeward voyage due to lack of fuel. They arrived in Brest on February 7th, 1942, the same day Bamforth and the Honolulan left New York on their last voyage. Second Patrol Schulte and U-582 left Brest on March 19th, 1942 for their second war patrol, and were part of the second wave of attacks on the American east coast. This would turn out to be a particularly frustrating patrol for Schulte and his crew, especially since this was a period of great success for the U-Boat forces. U-582 was out nine days before they received their orders. This may have partially been because BdU was considering moving their headquarters further inland where it would be safer, a point reinforced by the British commando raid on St. Nazaire on March 27th. On the 28th U-582 was ordered to escort the blockade runner Rio Grande through the Bay of Biscay, but waited in vain several days because Rio Grande decided to continue alone to Bordeaux. U-582 then crossed the Atlantic to her first patrol area north of Bermuda and only spotted a neutral Portuguese steamer before they had to leave to refuel from U-459. The refueling itself was delayed due to other U-Boats and rough seas. When U-582 finally arrived in the patrol area off Cape Hatteras in early May 1942 it was discovered that the boat had received provisions for only about 9 days and not for 18 as expected. U-582 could only operate in the patrol area for a few days before they had to leave for their return voyage. This may have been compounded by it being a full moon period when they were there, which would have limited their ability to surface at night during their prime hunting time. On the whole patrol U-582 only encountered enemy ships twice: a failed triple shot at a fast passenger ship and an encounter with a convoy while returning on May 15th, but Schulte was ordered by BdU not to attack. They arrived back at Brest empty handed on May 24th after nine and a half weeks on patrol. Honolulan was anchored off of Bombay at this time. BdU mentioned in his commentary about the unsuccessful patrol of U-582 that they were simply unlucky and it wasn't the fault of Schulte that the boat returned without success. While U-582 was in port preparing for their next patrol, and Honolulan was preparing to sail for Cape Town, SKL (High Command of the Kriegsmarine), issued the following order, which was radioed by BdU to all U-Boats on June 5th, 1942: “Captains of all ships sunk are to be taken on board as prisoners, with the ship's papers, provided getting them aboard does not endanger the boat or reduce her fighting power by raising the consumption of provisions.” Third Patrol U-582 left Brest on her third war patrol on June 22nd, 1942, the day after Honolulan entered the Mozambique Channel. Schulte’s First Watch Officer Hermann Rossmann left the U-582 prior to this patrol for commander training and was replaced by Wilhelm von Trotha. Rossmann would be killed later in the war, 18 days into his first patrol in command of U-273. This would prove to be Schulte’s most successful patrol. As mentioned in ‘The Attack’ section above, U-582 was assigned to Wolfpack Hai (Shark) and operated off the west coast of Africa, sinking the British Port Hunter (which was carrying the patrol craft HMNZS ML-1090) on July 12th and Empire Attendant on July 15th. The two steamers were both carrying ammunition and suffered very high casualties. Port Hunter was initially missed by a spread of two torpedoes. Schulte fired another spread, and one of these hit forward where her ammunition was stored. 88 of her crew were lost in the resulting explosions and the only 3 survivors were men that were sleeping on deck at the time and were blown overboard.  Empire Attendant was initially hit between the stack and aft mast by one of two torpedoes bringing her to a stop. It is assumed that the crew abandoned ship but were not yet a safe distance away when Schulte fired a coup de grace thirty minutes later. This hit forward, igniting her ammunition and killing the entire crew of 59. Prior to the attack on Honolulan BdU had ordered U-582 to refuel from U-116 and to get provisions for 4 weeks, so luckily for Bamforth, Schulte probably avoided taking prisoners as he expected to be on patrol for several more weeks. The space aboard a VIIC was tight with the standard crew and was even more limited with the war correspondent aboard. They had used up 11 of their 12 internal torpedoes by this stage. On the 23rd they brought down one of their two G7a torpedoes from the exterior storage container into the bow torpedo room. On the evening of the 25th, Schulte fired a single torpedo from tube IV at small freighter (described as "type Baron Blythswood") and missed, course 300°, speed 10 knots, in Grid ES 5419. Schulte decided not to press the attack, and proceeded to the rendezvous. That evening while they were waiting for U-116 they brought their last externally stored G7a down to the aft torpedo room. They don't spot U-116 until the following evening, July 26th, and spend about 5 1/2 hours taking on fuel and provisions. Schulte make a point of noting that the process goes a lot smoother that their re-supply from U-459 on their previous patrol. Schulte’s next victim would not be so lucky. Just 5 days after the Honolulan, on July 27th U-582 attacked the American steamer Stella Lykes. The Stella Lykes (picture) was a new C1-B that had been delivered about a year earlier. She was fast too, at 14 knots. U-582 spotted her shadow before dawn. Schulte was down to his last two remaining torpedoes. The first shot was fired from Tube I at 925 meters and brought Stella Lykes to a stop. One man, oiler Max Korb, was killed while on-duty in the engine room. The remaining crew abandoned ship about thirty minutes later. The second shot was fired from Tube V about 30 minutes after that from 500 meters. The U-582 surfaced, and circling the ship, fired 161 rounds of from their 88mm from a distance of between 1,000 and 3,000 meters, until the weapon became unusable. This still failed to sink the Stella Lykes. Eventually, the Germans sent over a boarding crew in one of their inflatable rafts consisting of Oblt.z.S. Rüdiger Beichhold and Mech.Mt.(T) Gericke. They set 7 scuttling charges, which finally did the job. They took the Stars and Stripes from the Stella Lykes home as a trophy. In the photo below you can see the flag displayed on the conning tower of the U-582 as her crew pose with a piece of the Port Hunter. Since the U-582 was out of torpedoes and therefore needed to return to France, they also took Stella Lykes’ Master, S. Charles Wallace and Chief Engineer Walter Morrison prisoner. Cigarettes, first aid supplies and the course to the nearest land were given to the remaining survivors. The 50 survivors crowded into the single lifeboat under the command of their Chief Mate, Russian-American Peter Okkelman, and made landfall after 12 days on August 8th, 1942 at Cacheu, Portuguese Guinea (present day Guinea-Bissau). Using the name of the lone casualty, oiler Max Korb, I was able to search on Ancestry.com and find a partial crew list for Stella Lykes from their arrival in Boston on their previous voyage. Using other names from this list, I was able to determine that the survivors were picked up in Freetown, Sierra Leone by the Navy transport USS Chateau Thierry (AP-31). They sailed on August 19th along with the survivor’s from another Lykes’ vessel, SS Cripple Creek. They made another stop in Bathurst, Gambia, finally sailing for New York on August 21st. Schulte missed with 8 of his 14 torpedoes on this patrol, but it was still very successful with 30,690 tons sunk. U-582 returned to Brest on August 11th, 1942. Master Sylvester Charles Wallace and Chief Engineer Walter Morrison were transferred to the prisoner-of-war camp Milag Nord, 10 miles north of Bremen, and spent the remainder of the war there. They were eventually repatriated on February 21st, 1945 aboard the Swedish M/S Gripsholm. Fourth Patrol U-582 left on her fourth and final patrol on September 14th, 1942. Von Trotha left the boat prior to this patrol for commander training and was replaced by Schulte’s classmate Oberleutnant zur See (Lieutenant) Albert Laenebach. Von Trotha would be killed later in the war while in command of the U-745. Kriegsberichter Arnold Prokop also left U-582 after this patrol, and was later lost with all hands on U-847. On September 21st, U-582 was assigned a temporary attack area about 700 miles due west of Limerick, Ireland and was assigned to Wolfpack Blitz the following day. On September 23rd, 1942 Schulte sank the Norwegian M/S Vibran in position 42°45’ N, 42° 45’ W. There were no survivors among her 37 crew and 11 passengers. U-582 made contact with a convoy further north which the Germans designated Convoy 55, on or about September 25th, but lost them in the bad weather. The following day U-582 was transferred to Wolfpack Tiger until September 30th. That day U-582 reported they had chased the Norwegian M/S Oregon Express further west, course 240°, 15 knots, but were forced to break off the attack. Oregon Express’ Second Mate/Radio Operator Birger Lunde described the encounter, which you can read here. Later that day, Schulte was actually ordered to head for the area between Greenland and Iceland at ‘economical cruising speed’ for an intended attack on another convoy. On October 1st, U-582 is assigned to Wolfpack “Luchs” (Lynx) to attack convoy HX-209 bound for Liverpool, England from New York. Schulte spotted the convoy on October 4th, but couldn’t get into position due to Allied air cover and severe weather (described by the Germans as “northwest 8, high swell, hailstorms and moderate visibility”). There was some controversy whether U-582 might have later sunk the American tanker Robert H Colley of HX-209 on October 4th. Some sources state the Robert H Colley broke in two after being hit amidships from a torpedoed fired by U-582. However, U-582 sent a report after this and did not mention the success. Eyewitness accounts from nearby vessels state that there was no explosion, and that the Robert H Colley simply broke in two due to extremely heavy seas, described as 80 foot waves. The following morning, October 5th, 1942, U-582 was heading north, getting into position east of convoy HX-209. The North Atlantic southwest of Iceland in October is never that great, but was unseasonable bad this year. Seas were rough and there were frequent sleet and snow showers. Cloud ceiling was at 2,000 feet and visibility was 8-10 miles. Chief Aviation Pilot (CAP) Manuel “Manny” Luke and his crew of Squadron VP-73 had taken off from their base at FAB Iceland (known as Camp Kwitcherbelliakin) at 7:07am that morning. The aircraft was a Consolidated PBY5A “Catalina”, No. 73-P-9 (BuNo 02459) and was painted non-specular blue and gray. Luke's crew consisted of: Aviation Pilot R.L. Craben – 2nd Pilot Ensign L.D. Poland – Navigator ARM2c E.G. Sutherland – Blister AMM1c J.H. Stewart – Blister AMM3c L.L. Staffenberg – Tower AMM3c R. Pope Jr. – Blister ARM2c Grant Patton – Radio ARM2c H.W. Hoopengardner – Blister According to the narrative of Luke’s report: “A/C [Aircraft] had just contacted convoy and was on a course of 130° T, altitude 2000 ft., cutting across the path of convoy when a disturbance was seen bearing 350°, 10 miles. Leading D/R [Destroyer] was directly ahead of convoy and on A/C’s starboard beam. Immediately started run on sighted object which was immediately discovered to be U/B [U-Boat]. U/B was on starboard of convoy immediately ahead of outboard ship and about 15 miles ahead. Attack was made directly down path of U/B – D/B’s [Depth Bombs] were released while U/B was still on surface and perfectly straddled hull. As plume from D/B’s settled U/B disappeared in plume. Conning tower was visible at time of explosion. Oil patches definitely indicate damage to U/B but extent is unknown.” The disturbance they reported was noted later as being “water breaking over decks and conning tower”. The PBY had been traveling at 2,000 feet at a speed of 105 knots (121mph). As they dove their speed increased to 160 knots (184mph) until they released the depth bombs at an altitude of 75 feet. They did not use radar and appear to have caught the U-582 completely by surprise and there was no return fire or attempt to maneuver, they just attempted to crash dive at the last moment. One man was still visible in the conning tower and the bow was still exposed at the time of the drop. Four Mark 29 650lb. depth bombs with Mark 24 hydrostatic fuses set for 25 feet were dropped in a stick with 40 foot spacing. Numbers 1 and 3 exploded to the port side of U-582 and numbers 2 and 4 exploded to starboard, with number 3 noted as being opposite conning tower. Later that day, BdU instructed the U-Boats to break off the attack on HX-209 and form a new patrol line further east. U-582 did not confirm the instructions. After first light on the 6th the convoy attack was finally broken off. U-619, U-620, U-582, U-602, U-662 and U-382, which had not yet reported were told to make their positions. All boats eventually reported in during the course of the day except U-582 and U-619. Schulte had reported trouble with his transmitter before the attack and BdU thought they possibly could not get a report through on her emergency transmitter in the bad weather. U-619 (Kurt Makowski) was sunk with the loss of all hands on October 5th by an RAF Hudson of No. 269 squadron. Instructions continued to be sent to U-582 for several days as the boats re-grouped as Wolfpack Panther. On October 9th BdU noted: “U-582 was also shadowing Convoy No. 57 [HX-209] and reported at 1016/5/10 that her transmitter was out of action. As the boat may not, for this reason, have been able to radio, she is not yet regarded as missing.” Finally on October 13th BdU noted: “No radio message has yet been received from U-582. If the boat's transmitter had been completely out of action she would certainly have tried to reach another nearby boat. She must be presumed lost.” U-582 was removed from the list of operational boats on October 14th. On November 1st BdU summarized the losses for October, and noted for U-582: “Schulte W., experienced boat, last report 5 October (transmitter break-down) possibly by N. Atlantic convoy.” Kapitänleutnant Werner Schulte died along with his entire crew of 46 men (average age 23) when the U-582 was sunk in position 58°41'N, 22°58'W by Luke’s PBY. Schulte was posthumously promoted to Korvettenkapitän (Commander) with seniority from October 1st, 1942. On four patrols with the U-582, Schulte sank 6 ships for 38,872 gross tons in his short career. According to author Ragnar J. Ragnarsson who wrote ‘US Navy PBY Catalina Units of the Atlantic War’ Osprey Publishing, Limited November 2006, ISBN: 184176910X; “While there was every reason to believe that the attack delivered by CAP Luke resulted in the destruction of the U-boat, for some reason this was apparently overlooked when U-boat attacks were assessed after the war, and the credit for sinking U-582 was given to a Hudson of 269 squadron RAF, which it turned out sank another U-boat on this day in the same area (U-619). In his book, "Cats over the Atlantic: VPB-73 in World War II", Robert L. Carlisle gives credit for the sinking of U-582 to another VP-73 plane, 73-P-12 (#02974), flown by Ensign William R. Huey. This is not correct and the War Diary of U-257 confirms it was the boat attacked by Ensign Huey, from which it narrowly escaped with heavy damage. Manuel Luke didn’t receive the DFC [Distinguished Flying Cross] for this attack until in 1998 – 56 years after it took place!” Commander Manuel Luke, USN (Retired) passed away in 2004 at the age of 91. Remarkably, the PBY survived the war and after changing hands several times over the years it was fully restored in 2004 in the Netherlands and was still flying as of 2009. See here, here, and here for more information. Epilogue One interesting result of this research was the discovery that for many years the wrong symbol has been associated with U-582. The majority of U-Boats, but not all, had some 'artwork' painted on the sides or front of the conning tower to personalize them. Similar to how American aircraft typically had 'nose art' during the war. Georg Högel, a former U-boat sailor who saw service in World War II, wrote 'Embleme, Wappen, Malings deutscher U- Boote 1939 - 1945', ISBN 076430724X, which details the various emblems, coats of arms and markings that were used. His book is considered the "Bible" on the topic, and many dependable sites such as uboat.net have relied on his research. The specific type of symbol he had associated with U-582 was called a 'Wappen', German for 'Coat of Arms'. Wappens were one of the more popular themes used and often were determined by the city or town that sponsored the building of a particular boat. In the case of U-582, Hogel had associated a wappen consisting of a shield with a large key on it and the number "807". I spent a fair amount of time looking into this and re-created the wappen in color for use on this page (see image to the right). I used Hogel's original black and white sketch and a photo I had seen on this Spanish language U-Boat site. I believe the shield with the key was from the German city of Bremen. I then began to investigate the significance of this wappen. I couldn't find a link between Bremen and U-582, which was built in Hamburg, or to Werner Schulte, who was born in Kiel. I was also at a loss for the number "807". It didn't appear to have any connection with any numbers associated with U-582 (i.e.; yard number, etc...), or any significance as a date in history. I made a few inquiries which went nowhere, then I posted the question on the ubootwaffe.net forum. It wasn't too long before Dr. Axel Niestlé, an authority on U-Boats, responded. He informed me that the symbol was actually associated with U-84, an entirely different kind of U-Boat and had pictures to prove it. Some additional pictures he also provided of U-582 also show that there were no markings on the side of U-582's conning tower either. Unfortunately, since all the known photos of U-582 show her with the flag from Stella Lykes draped across the front of the conning tower, there is no way to know whether U-582 may have had something painted on the front of the conning tower or not. For now it is not known if U-582 had any symbol at any point in her career. The only thing that is certain, is that the symbol previously associated with her is incorrect and belongs to U-84.  Sources Ancestry.com for crew lists and biographical information on various people related to this story. Åkerberg, Dani for his help with the U-582 Wappen correction through the ubootwaffe.net forum and his own site at www.u-historia.com. Australian War Memorial website for information and photos on H.V. Horner and RAAF personnel lost while serving with RAF No. 204 Squadron. Aviation Safety Network for information on Sunderland losses. Ball, Stephen for the use of the images from his copy of Hamburger Illustrierte. The Bamforth Family, specifically Allan, Dick & his wife Pat for allowing me to use passages from their book: Iron Jaw: A Skipper Tells His Story – Captain Charles N. Bamforth (1895-1975) – ISBN 0-8059-5417. This copyrighted material is used with permission of the Bamforth family. Boone, Dave - (tugboatpainter.net) artist who provided the photo of Nevadan from his private collection from the 1930's originally taken by Francis Palmer. Carey, Richard for information on his father, Harold Carey, RAF. cieldegloire.com for information on Georges Lemare. Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for information on No. 204 Squadron losses during WWII. Dickie, Captain Rodman L. for information about his time on the Pennsylvanian, and his recollections about Charles Bamforth and for recommending his book. Evans, John for his book: 'The Sunderland Flying-Boat Queen, Volumes 1 &2 (Paterchurch Publications, ISBN: 1870745035, 9781870745031). Fold3.com for military reports relating to this story. Forum.12oclockhigh.net for information on actions between No. 128 squadron and Vichy French aircraft. Freetranslation.com for help with initial German to English KTB & Torpedo Report translations. GenealogyBank.com for information on "Red" Sutton. Gerhardt, Frank A. at US Maritime Commission website for link to photo page of Stella Lykes. Hackett, Bob and Kingsepp Sander for their website: ‘SENSUIKAN! - Stories and Battle Histories of the IJN's Submarines’ for information on I-401. Imperial War Museum for various photos and information relating to this story. Ketly, Barry for his book: ‘French Aces of World War 2’ (Osprey Publishing, 1999, ISBN-13: 9781855328983) for cover art. Kolbicz, Rainer for his help with U-582 history and capture order from High Command through the uboat.net forum. Lake, Jon for his book: ‘Sunderland Squadrons of World War 2’ (Osprey Publishing, 2000, ISBN-13: 9781841760247) for information on No. 204 Squadron. Lawson, Siri at warsailors.com for information on the Oregon Express, Robert H. Colley, Tankexpress and convoy HX-209. Library of Contemporary History in Stuttgart, Germany for U-582/Honolulan Torpedo Reports. The Mariner's Museum at Newport News, Virginia for photo of first Honolulan and Golden Hind. Mason, Jerry and Charla for U-582 KTB excerpts, BdU KTB's, technical/glossary information from their uboatarchive.net site, assistance with translations and PBY report. McNeil, Ross for various details relating to Sunderland's of RAF No. 204 Squadron and personnel. Moore, Capt. Arthur R. for "A careless word...A NEEDLESS SINKING". Eighth Printing - 2006. Published and distributed by the Dennis A. Roland Chapter of the American Merchant Marine Veterans, Midland Park, NJ. Printed by Reed Hann, Williamsport, PA. for sinking details on the Honolulan. National Archives for numerous pieces of documentation relating to this story. National Archive of the U.K. for No. 204 Squadron Operational Record Books. Naval Grid Calculator for excellent on-line tool to convert German Kriegsmarine Grids into Longitude/Latitude coordinates. NavSource Naval History for images and data on US Navy ships via: http://www.navsource.org/. Neilson, Larz F. for providing article and photo’s relating to his father, Captain Larz D. Neilson's  time aboard the Honolulan. Niestlé,  Axel (Dr. ) for information on U-582's wappen, or lack thereof, and for pictures of U-582. postedeschoufs.com for information on Vichy Naval Aviation actions with RAF No. 128 Squadron. Ragnarsson, Ragnar J. for information on CAP Manuel Luke. Ribbans, Bryan for his 'The Flying Boat Forum' at www.seawings.co.uk, which was of great help in identifying the RAF Sunderlands that assisted the Honolulan survivors - specifically forum member Richard (aka "sunderlandnut"). Roberts, Captain Stephen S. USNR (Retired) on his site shipscribe.com for information on Honolulan origin from the article by Norman L. McKellar  - Steel Shipbuilding under the U. S. Shipping Board, 1917-1921, in ‘The Belgian Shiplover, No. 87 May/June 1962. Rohwer, Jurgen for information on Japanese activity in Indian Ocean from his book Axis Submarine Successes 1939-1945, Naval Institute Press - Annapolis, Maryland ISBN 0-87021-082-3. Small, Captain Harold for his recollections of Honolulan and American-Hawaiian. Thomas, Andrew for his book: ‘Hurricane Aces 1941-45’ (Osprey Publishing, 2013, ISBN: 1472801709, 9781472801708) for information on No. 128 Squadron. U.S. Coast Guard National Maritime Center, 100 Forbes Drive, Martinsburg, WV 25404 for Merchant Marine career information on Charles Bamforth. U.S. Merchant Marine Organization (usmm.org) for information on Honolulan medal recipients and Milag Nord. Uboat.net for information on Schulte, U-582, their victims, and for information on other U-boats related to this story. Ubootwaffe.net site and forum for information on U-582 and her crew. Unfortunately, in January 2013, the site's creator and editor, Howard Cock, decided to indefinitely suspend the ubootwaffe.net website for personal reasons, so I have disabled the hyperlink. Wikipedia free on-line encyclopedia for summaries on miscellaneous topics related to this story.