Did you know about the naval battle fought with grenades and coffee mugs?
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The bow of USS Buckley, bent from ramming U-66 in one of the more bizarre battles of World War II (Photo: U.S. Navy)
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Historically, boarding action has long been an element of naval warfare. The ancient Romans, pirates, and Napoleonic ship crews have all attempted to capture a ship by subduing her crew on countless occasions.
Boarding action had largely gone out of use by World War II, since getting close enough to an enemy vessel to board her was a suicidal prospect. There were, however, a few rare exceptions, including the bizarre battle between USS Buckley and the German U-boat U-66.
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USS Buckley
(Photo: Naval History & Heritage Command)
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The destroyer escort USS Buckley, named after Aviation Ordnanceman John D. Buckley who was killed at Pearl Harbor, was the lead ship of her class. The Buckley-class was originally a compromise design that used steam turbo-electric transmissions due to a shortage of turbine gearings sets in the midst of the ship-building frenzy after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nevertheless, some 150 Buckley-class ships were built, and they took a heavy toll on the German U-boat fleet.
Her opponent, the U-66, was a Type IXC U-boat, the veteran of eight previous patrols on her ninth, and the 8th most successful boat in the German submarine force.
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U-66 (left) and U-117 under air attack
(Photo: Naval History & Heritage Command)
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The two met on May 6, 1944. Buckley was part of a hunter-killer group, a unit centered on an escort carrier that was free to roam the Atlantic and hunt U-boats without being attached to any specific Atlantic convoy. At 2:16 a.m., a Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo plane picked up U-66, travelling at a very shallow depth, on its radar. The plane radioed in the contact and Buckley was dispatched from 20 miles (32 km) away.
The Buckley made radar contact half an hour later, at the range of 7 miles (11 km). The captain, Lieutenant Commander Brent M. Abel, deployed a British-made Foxer acoustic decoy to confuse any torpedoes launched by the U-boat and continued to close in while holding fire, hoping that the Germans will mistake him for a German “milk cow” supply ship.
The ruse worked, and Oberleutnant zur See (Lieutenant Junior Grade) Gerhard Seehausen, the U-boat’s commander, allowed the ship to get closer, even launching three red flares as a recognition sign. He only recognized his mistake 10 minutes later, when the vessels were a mere 4,000 yards (3,660 m) away. He quickly launched a torpedo that missed due to a sudden course change on Buckley’s part.
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USS Buckley demonstrating her maneuverability by making a full turn at 20 knots during speed trials (Photo: Naval History & Heritage Command)
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The two combatants opened up with their guns. Most of U-66’s shots went high, but the destroyer struck true, savaging the sub’s conning tower and causing it to maneuver erratically and trying to launch a second torpedo in vain. The two started dancing around each other, soon ending up 20 yards apart on a parallel course. Buckley made a hard right turn, ramming the forward deck of U-66 and locking the vessels together.
The desperate Germans quickly organized a boarding party; not to take over the destroyer, but buy time to maneuver the U-boat free. Hand-to-hand combat broke out as the submariners climbed up the forecastle. Some Americans fired the pistols and killed several Germans, but most did not have the time to arm themselves properly. Some brawled with bare hands; one man wielded a hammer, and several others held coffee mugs. One gun crew hurled empty shell casings at the boarders. One man used a coffee pot to defend the wardroom from one intruder. Five attackers were overpowered and marched below decks, but the U-boat managed to wriggle itself free and tried to escape.
Buckley gave chase; she was about to deploy depth charges when at 3:35 a.m. U-66 made an erratic turn (either as a last-ditch maneuver or because she was out of control) and crashed into the destroyer, tearing a hole in an engine room and shearing off the starboard propeller shaft. She tried to move away again when a crewman on the Buckley tossed a hand grenade into the burning conning tower and down a hatch. The U-boat was wildly out of control and sinking. The crew escaped and she went down with her captain on board. 24 men perished but the other 36 were all picked up by the Buckley. The entire action, in which a naval battle involved coffee mugs and a hand grenade, lasted 16 minutes.
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Some of U-66’s survivors in captivity
(Photo: Naval History & Heritage Command)
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