The weeks passed quickly as U-505’s engines were overhauled and a fresh supply of torpedoes loaded on board. The crew, proud of their sub’s successful maiden voyage, was eager for more action. Admiral Donitz himself had visited U-505 upon her return and written in her war diary, ‘First mission of Captain with new boat, well and thoughtfully carried out.’ But he had also felt compelled to add, ‘Despite long time in operations area, lack of traffic did not permit greater success.’

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in World War II magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

For the next war patrol of U-505, lack of traffic was not expected to be a problem; Donitz had decided to send the boat to the fertile hunting grounds of the Caribbean. On June 7, 1942, exactly one month after her return from her first patrol, U-505 slipped out of port, bound for American waters. Loewe raced across the Atlantic, running almost the entire trip on the surface, using the diesel engines. Allied escort carriers had not been deployed yet, and the crew felt safe enough to lounge topside, sunning themselves. At one point they even set up a mess table on deck and enjoyed lunch alfresco.

As they approached the Caribbean, however, the war once again intruded. On June 28, the crew’s afternoon sunbathing was interrupted by the sighting of a large American freighter. Loewe maneuvered in front of the zigzagging 6,900-ton ship and fired two torpedoes into her. It was typical of Loewe’s sense of honor and humanity that he waited a full hour, to allow the ship’s crew to board lifeboats, before sinking her with a third torpedo. U-505’s luck continued the next day — the crew sighted another American freighter, the 7,400-ton Thomas McKean. Once again, Loewe fired a double shot of torpedoes to stop the ship and allowed the crew to escape before finishing her off, this time with deck-gun fire.

For Goebeler, the attack on Thomas McKean remains one of the incidents of the war that he remembers with great emotion. ‘Some of the freighter’s crew were hurt, so we gave them medicine and directions where to row to safety,’ Goebeler recalls. ‘A lot of people think German U-boat men sank ships without mercy, but if we had a chance, we always tried to help their crews. After all, they are humans, too. It was only later in the war, when the airplanes were attacking, that we couldn’t wait around after firing torpedoes. Since the end of the war, I’ve attended some reunions with former enemies. We all cried and hugged each other like brothers. We never hated the Americans; we were just doing our duty, just like the boys on the ships hunting us.’

U-505’s double success seemed to have frightened away all other shipping in the area. For the next month, the sub spotted nothing but Allied aircraft. She had to crash-dive an average of more than once per day to avoid attack. Then, on July 22, a seemingly insignificant incident spelled the end of Axel Loewe’s tenure as captain of U-505. ‘We spotted a three-masted schooner flying no flag that was making violent zigzags back and forth,’ Goebeler remembers. ‘Not the kind of zigzags a sailing ship makes to move across the wind, but the kind a ship makes to avoid torpedoes. This made us suspicious, so we surfaced, and the Kapitän ordered a shot to be fired across her bow. Well, the deck officer must have misunderstood his order because the first shot took off the ship’s mainmast, and that ship wasn’t a sailing ship any more! We couldn’t leave the evidence floating around, so we sank her with the deck gun.

‘The boat turned out to be the property of a Colombian diplomat, and the incident caused Colombia to declare war against Germany! Well, at that point in the war, having Colombia declare war against Germany was like a dog howling at the moon; it doesn’t matter to the moon at all. But Kapitän Loewe blamed himself. We finally had to stop our patrol and return to Lorient earlier than planned. Loewe was having very bad trouble with his appendix, but I think his worry over the sailing ship was the main problem.’

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to