German submarine U-175

Unterseeboot 175 was a German Type IXC U-Boat of the Kriegsmarine. Her keel was laid down on 30 January 1941 at the AG Weser shipyard of Bremen, and commissioned on 5 December 1941 with Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Bruns in command. She was sunk on 17 April 1943, south-west of Ireland, at position 47°53′N 22°04′W, by depth charges and gunfire from the United States Coast Guard cutter USS Spencer. 13 of her crew were killed; there were 41 survivors.

She conducted 3 Patrols:

• 5 December 1941 - 31 August 1942 4. Flottille (training)
• 1 September 1942 - 17 April 1943 10. Flottille

She sank 10 ships for a total of 40,603 GRT.

Career

• At 11.11 hours on 4 October, 1942, when the merchant ship Caribstar was steaming a zigzag course off the mouth of the Orinoco River, she was sunk by U-175.

• 
  Coast Guardsmen on the deck of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Spencer watch the explosion of a depth charge which blasted U-175's hope of breaking into the center of a large convoy.
• 
  The damaged U-175 on the surface shortly before sinking.
• 
  Description: This sailor was identified as Obersteurmann Helmut Klotzch. Some of the U-175's crew later joked that while still aboard the U-boat Klotzch ordered the men not to call out for assistance once they entered the water. Klotzch was rescued by Spencer.
• 
  Survivors from U-175 after being sunk by USS Spencer, April 17, 1943.

References

• uboat.net webpage for U-175