Thomas L. "Red" Groot
Boatswain's Mate, 1st class,  USS Corry (DD-463)
 
(email: t l g 5 7 1 9 @ s h e n t e l . n e t )   

German Submarine Fires Torpedoes at USS Corry
Sinking of U-801

As Observed by the NO.3, 5-inch Gun Captain
Thomas “Red” Groot BM1c     March 17, 1944

“Submarine Off the Starboard Quarter!”

     The USS Corry was hunting a German sub near the Cape Verde Islands that was first sighted in the area by a plane from the USS Block Island (CVE-21), [Task Force 'TO 21.16'],  a baby carrier. The plane had spotted a submarine below the surface and dropped a smoke marker to spot the sub’s location. After reporting the sighting to his carrier operating base on the USS Block Island, the destroyer Corry and a destroyer-escort Bronstein, operating in the area with the task force were dispatched to the marked sub’s location.

When we arrived at the scene, the USS Bronstein was there and had already dropped her smaller charges on her. Then the Corry took over. She located the sub, dropped charges on her, relocated it and dropped more charges. After the second run of charges an oil slick and some trash surfaced. But Captain Hoffman thought it was a trick of the sub to make us think we had sunk them. He wasn’t fooled by their stunt; they were known for tricks of that type.

The Captain, not convinced she was sunk, kept searching for her. She succeeded in eluding us for the rest of the day. Using his skill in maneuvering with an ever-widening search, we picked up a sonar contact on the sub early in the morning the next day.  General Quarters was sounded and the crew went to battle stations. This time the Captain tried a different approach on dropping the cans on the sub. Steering in the direction of the sonar bearings to the sub, taking ranges and plotting her course and speed, the Captain maneuvered the Corry directly over it matching her speed.  The depth finder reported its depth and position being over the sub. The charges for a full pattern were set to that depth. The Captain brought the ship to a full stop over her, ordered ”Fire depth charges” and at the same time ordered “Flank speed ahead” to get away from the shock-wave and surface eruption from the exploding charges before they went off.  Our ship still took quite a shock from the explosions, but no damage was reported. The Captain turned back to search the area. The sonar was a little erratic at the site where the charges exploded but no definite contact was made for some time after that.

I imagined that the sub skipper was desperate by now; he fired two torpedoes at the Corry. The Ocean was dead calm and the ship wasn’t making any headway at that time.  With my head phones on, I had left my gun mount and was standing at the safety rail to starboard on the after deck house to search the water for anything floating. It was several minutes after we had dropped the last depth charge pattern on her. I was looking straight out on the beam and saw these two porpoises! At least that is what I thought I saw. It seems the two of them broke the surface about seventy yards out on the beam. Seeing wakes following them I instantly knew then that they were torpedoes coming straight at the ship, directly where I was standing on the after deckhouse. As I watched the wakes on the surface of the torpedoes, coming at me, I was thinking RUN but knew it wouldn’t do any good so I leaned over the rail to watch them go off when they hit the ship’s side exactly under me. I was expecting a flash and explosion but nothing! What a rush hit me – I was still alive. As if from a distance, I could hear myself hollering. They had run directly under the ship where I was standing and when I turned to the port side of the ship I saw them going away from the ship on the other side. Unbelievable! Talk about sitting ducks.

If the torpedoes had hit the ship at that point it would have blown up the magazines of Guns 3 and 4, taking the whole after section of the ship with it and no doubt about it we would have been sunk.  

Then I heard Dom Banuelos, a signalman, standing out on the wing of the bridge waving his arms and hollering down to me, “Did you see the torpedoes go under the ship?” He was probably trying to warn me before that, but I had frozen watching them and didn’t hear anything else but the swish of the wakes. I could see the air froth coming off the torpedo propellers turning into wakes on the surface. Did I actually see the torpedoes? No, but I saw two dark shadows moving fast, side by side, a six or eight foot spread between them producing a wake. I knew they were torpedoes.

Later, after the sub was sunk, I talked to several shipmates about why or how the torpedoes did not find their target. I talked to Matt Jayich, the Gun Captain of Gun 2 mount, which is higher up and forward on the ship. He told me he saw the torpedoes pass under the ship at about where the Quarterdeck is located (Amidships). The Number 4 Gun Captain, BC Mills, saw them go under the ship at his gun mount. It seems to me that the torpedoes must have gone under the ship a little forward of his gun mount or he was standing on the main deck directly below me and we both saw the torpedoes pass under the ship below us. If either were the case, the angle of the two sightings of those torpedoes would have them intersect approximately at a 17-foot depth. The Corry’s draft is 15 foot 8 inches, which would mean that the torpedoes likely cleared our bottom by 16 inches, directly under gun mounts Number 3 and 4 magazines. It’s a good thing the Corry was dead in the water at the time, pardon the pun; if she had been under way she would have been down by the stern. Then there would have been - "POOF" a lot of smoke and a big glory hole in the ocean.

The Corry kicked up speed and went after the sub; establishing a good sonar bearing and laying a depth charge pattern of several 600 pounders over the suspected sub’s position as the Corry charged over the contact. Then nothing, and a long wait. (Sonar 60/65 years ago wasn't what it is today) The Captain secured from G.Q. and the condition watch was set. That put me on my watch at the helm on the bridge. The Captain wasn’t through looking for the sub; he was giving different courses for me to steer: We continued to search in circles and back over the location where the last depth charges were laid down. The Captain sat in his chair and took up the course that the ship was on at the last time the charges were dropped over the sub. After a few moments and holding it steady on that course, someone on the starboard wing of the bridge called out “there is a whale off the starboard quarter.” I heard another man yell in a more excited manner, “That’s not a whale, it’s a submarine,” and at the same time I heard sonar getting strong return pings. As I remember, sonar was hollering “Contact, bearing 150 degrees.” Things move into action now. The captain swings out of his chair calling for “General Quarters” and “Man your battle stations.” G.Q. is sounded throughout the ship and at the same time the helm is given orders, “Right full rudder.” All this takes place in seconds. The Captain is making a dash for the starboard wing. I answered back, "Aye aye sir, right full rudder," turning the wheel at the same time, hard to starboard. Everett Howard, the quartermaster, takes over the helm—that’s his G.Q. station. I didn’t have to relay my last orders to him. He was standing right in back of me and said, "I got it." I made a dash to my G.Q. station, Gun-mount 3, down the ladders from the bridge, two decks down and aft along the main deck. I could see the sub’s bow a little abaft the starboard beam now, cutting the water as it is surfacing. It’s on the same course the Corry was on. I’m at my Gun 3 now on the after deckhouse. My gun crew is already there and I’m putting on my headset as the word comes over them, “Action starboard,” and “Fire when ready” is given. I give the orders to my gun crew, “Load, match up and shift to automatic.” My gun crew managed to get off three 5-inch rounds at the sub before the gun trained to the stops, due to the ship turning, that stopped the gun from firing. All this happened from the time I left the bridge after giving the wheel that full right rudder.  Before, the ship, in its swing toward the sub, put my gun in a position against the stops as the sub passed in front of our bow. That stopped my gun from further firing. Now that’s how fast our Corry gun crews act going into action. When our gun was firing I saw a large hole appear in the bow of the sub. You could see daylight through it. The conning tower was also being hit as the Germans came spewing up out of her and jumping overboard. That was BC Mills’, Gun Captain of Gun 4, that hit the conning tower. They never had a chance to man their guns. That’s something the Corry wasn’t going to let happen. We couldn’t have taken the chance for them to get to their deck guns. Guns 1 and 2 had been firing rapidly but had to check firing when the Corry got too close for the 5-inch guns to train and fire on the sub. Still, the small arms fire from our ship raked her. The Corry, still swinging around, must have virtually passed over the sub’s stern. The right turn we were making took us away from the sub. Continuing the turn opened the distance to the sub to where all our guns could train on it again. We then commenced firing from starboard, hitting it continually. If it wasn’t damaged enough by our depth charges to sink it, the shellfire did the job. To make sure it was going down Captain Hoffman was going to ram it. He had a collision course set for the ram but the sub slipped back under the surface; her bow rose straight up out of the water and settled stern first with fountains of water and air bellowing up from her bow. She was sinking. The Corry charged right over the top of her as she went down. There were some quiet comments made about the ramming thing by some officers.

There were a string of men floating in her wake where she was surfacing. So that sub, the U-801, was apparently damaged enough by our depth charges to sink her. Or, they had had enough and she was making a run to the surface. Her men were abandoning the sub as she rose, using escape hatches before she broke the surface. We picked up 47 men, now German POW’s. Her Captain and several others were killed when the conning tower was hit by shellfire from the Corry. 

By questioning some of the POW’s it was determined that their Captain thought that the Corry was a US cruiser and set the depth on the torpedoes accordingly. There were four DE’s with us that made him think that the Corry was a Light Cruiser. Immediately after firing them he knew he had misjudged setting the depth of the torpedoes, realizing too late that it was a US destroyer.

The POWs were aboard for several hours before they were turned over to the USS Block Island (CVE-21). They were treated well while on board the Corry. They were given clothing and ate in our mess compartment. Most were very young men; blond headed with long hair and they all wanted combs. There were older crewmembers and officers that were kept under guard separated from the younger group. Captain Hoffman believed they might try to cause trouble on board our ship if kept together. The young ones thought their sub was in the Pacific Ocean and were surprised to find out they were in the Atlantic. Later the Corry pulled up to the Block Island to take on fuel and more depth charges. We transferred the prisoners over to the Block Island by makeshift breaches buoys made out of US Mailbags.  We saw several of the younger German prisoners later on, aboard the Carrier when we were along side of her. They all had their heads cut in a GI hair cut and were dressed in POW uniforms. They seemed happy though the war was over for them, especially after the horror experienced of two days of being depth charged by us, thinking their sub would be their tomb. Before transferring them, the Corry held a burial service at sea for their dead, for their Captain and some others killed that we had picked up from the sea, their bodies weighted and sewn up in canvas, slid off into the sea with prayer and under the German flag. The prisoners were all present for this service.

USS Block Island (CVE–21) was an old transport ship converted to a small aircraft carrier (baby carrier) with a dozen or more planes assigned to it. The USS Corry joined with her and the four DE’s at Casablanca. That comprised a Submarine Hunter Killer Task Force TO 21.16. We were at sea for six months without seeing land with this force. This Task Force was credited with sinking seven submarines in that six-month period.

U-801 was sunk by the USS Corry (DD-463), by shellfire, March 17, 1944.

USS Corry (DD-463) was sunk by shellfire from a German 210-mm shore battery in the Normandy Invasion, Utah Beach at 0633, June 6, 1944.

USS Block Island (CVE–21) was sunk after being torpedoed by a German submarine U-549 northwest of the Canary Islands, 29th of May 1944. Ironically, that is in the same area from where the USS Corry sank the U-801 while operating with her just three months and twelve days earlier from June 6, 1944.


    Thomas “Red “ Groot BM1c  

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                                       © T.L.Groot 2006