U-176: mystery in the Caribbean Sea
⌛ Reading time: 9 minutes
Throughout the World War II there were many submarines sunk, some from the allied side, others from the opposite one. The truth is that the use of this submarine weapon became a milestone that revolutionized the way of waging war at sea...sometimes for bad...
From all the submarines used and sunk in 2nd World War, German submarines are the most mysterious of all. Allied submarines were sunk by hundreds but you will never find the same amount of written material all over the Internet referencing to Allied submarines than German submarines: they were hated at 1000% and considered as a trophy to be taken or sunk. The truth is German submarines were advanced for their time and what some of those submarines sometimes carried, in addition to the crew, is considered a mystery even today: from special electronic equipment to gold, silver, jewlery, artworks and radioactive material even....many things lie down at the bottom of the ocean yet to be discovered.
U-176 was a Type IXC (large ocean-going submarine for sustained operations far from the home support facilities) U-boat in Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. According to Wikipedia it was built at the DeSchiMAG AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, was laid down on 6 February 1941, launched on 12 September and commissioned on 15 December, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Reiner Dierksen. It completed three patrols, sinking 11 ships totalling 53,307 gross register tons. It took part on several raids in the Caribbean Sea as part of the widely known “Wolfpacks” that so many damage inflicted to supply oceanic lines between America and Europe by sinking thousands of ships with ten of thousands of lives lost.
Fig 1. *U-176 sails from the French port of Lorient on what would be his last voyage (http://u-boatsenelmarcaribe.blogspot.com)*
It was a regular submarine with a regular sunk history...so what is so curious about it?
U-176: the only German submarine sunk by a Latin American Navy
Less than two years from beign commissioned, U-176 submarine sank into the waters of the Caribbean Sea reached by a depth charge thrown from the Cuban submarine chaser CS-13. This history is widely known and covered in many websites dedicated to U-Boats on the Internet.
U-176 participated in two Wolfpacks Operations before being sunk, and was actively operating in waters between northern Cuba and The Florida Keys. By that time many cuban freighters and tankers were sunk by the action of Nazi submarines. Just for you, dear reader to have an idea: the freighters “Manzanillo”, “Santiago de Cuba” and “Libertad”, the tanker “Mambí”, the sailboat “24 de Febrero”, the motor ships “Mínima” and “Nicolás Cuneo” and the fishing boat “Lalita”, were sunk by Nazi submarines in less than two years. 79 cuban sailors lost their lives and only 8 dead bodys were recovered from the jaws of the sea.
Fig 2. Another picture of Nazi Submarine U-176 sailing on surface
*(http://u-boatsenelmarcaribe.blogspot.com)*
As the German submarines action increases, USA realized that Cuban support was going to be vital to face those Nazi Wolfpacks surrounding by the Caribbean Sea waters. That´s why on September 7, 1942 USA and Cuba sign an agreement under supported by the Lend-Lease Act(stating that the U.S. government could lend or lease -rather than sell- war supplies to any nation deemed “vital to the defense of the United States.”). Due to this agreement Cuban Navy was given many modern aircrafts and ships. Among those modern ships, US governement lease to Cuban government 12 83-foot submarine fighters...one of those would stand out among all the others for being the only ship in whole Latin America sinking a Nazi submarine: the CS-13.
Fig 3. The Cuban submarine chaser CS-13
*(http://u-boatsenelmarcaribe.blogspot.com)*
On May 15th 1943, the Cuban merchant ship “Camaguey” and the Honduran Hanks (both loaded with sugar) sailed from Sagua La Grande and were escorted by the Cuban submarine chasers CS-11, CS-12 and CS-13. U-176 was lurking as always but this time the story would be written differently. An U.S. Navy kingfisher aircraft operating from Cuba spotted the U-176. They decided to drop smoke float to mark them the position of the Nazi submarine. The CS-13 then located the U-Boat with its sonar, and without hesitating they attacked with 3 depth charges and the last one did the unbelievable: sank the U-176! The crew of 53 mens inside the submarine were given as lost in combat and the cuban sailors, once in land, were awarded with different distinctions.
This was the only time a German Nazi submarine was sunk by a ship belonging to any of the Latin American Navies.
Later history ... awards, final destiny, the impossibility of exploring the wreckage and a project to refloat the remains.
After the sunk, the story of a small cuban submarine chaser sinking a big oceanic Nazi submarine quickly found its place in newspapers by that time. The crew of the CS-13 cuban chaser was recognized and awarded with the highest decorations of the Cuban navy at that time. The US government also recognized the acting of the Cuban Navy through their Naval Attaché in Cuba: in his report of May 16, 1943, just 24 hours after the encounter the officer recognized the success of the cuban crew on sinking the German submarine.
One month later on June 1943, Cuban President Fulgencio Batista made public recognition of the sinking of a Nazi submarine by a small cuban submarine chaser and thanked the crew for their services. The CS-13 ship continued to patrol cuban periferical waters for almost one more year and in 1944 was sent back to the USA Navy to be replaced for new ships, technologically more advanced than the CS-13 type and capable to continue the war efforts in a more effective way. In 1945 one of the crew members recognized the old CS-13 ship, now at the service of the Peruvian Navy, when the ship where he was and the old CS-13 (now called CS-5) were docked together in a docker of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. By 1993 the old CS-13 was still rendering his services to the Naval School of the Peruvian Navy.
The German Submarine Command on May 21, 1943 recognized that the U-176 did not respond to an order placed on May 16 to report his position. According to an intercepted message by US Navy, a submarine attack was sighted on May 15 in a location near cuban north coast, so the German Submarine Command acept the fact that the U-176 could have been destroyed in this attack and should be considered lost.
The Korvettenkapitänt, Reiner Dierksen, commander in chief of that submarine, was recognized with the German Gold Cross after death.
Fig 4. *Reiner Dierksen the commander of the German submarine U-176 sunk in Cuban waters (https://www.thecubanhistory.com)*
In 1997, the son of the Commander of U-176 wrote a letter to the Office of the City Historian Eusebio Leal Spengler, inquiring if U-176 had been recovered. That letter was transferred to Cuban Navy Vice-Admiral but was never answered; at least no public records are kept or news regarding an answer to that letter have been found.
By the year 2005 a project supported by the “Association for Research and Dissemination of the Naval History of Cuba” launched an extensive research trying to find the exact location of the wreck of the U-176. The project was actively supported by people with personal interest in the finding of the exact location like Mr. Alfred Eick former Commander of U-510 and former 1st. U-176 Officer, Oswald Kulik former Head of Communications for the “Aviso Grille” (Adolf Hitler's personal yacht) and Oswald Dankward Merdert, nephew of U-176 Engineer Officer Hartwig Freiherr von MaltzanKulik, however Cuban government did not respond to several collaboration requests made by the association while was looking for appropriate permissions and trying to raise funds to carry out the task of locate the wreck.
It is curious that the suposed place where the remains of the U-176 rest has not been declared as a War Grave by Cuban government, hence you can dive freely in the place, however to explore such a deep place (800-900 mts deep) in search for the wreck, the explorer will need to use a ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) with deep-sea video equipment which only companies and institutions can afford and use, and to use them to explore, it is needed a permission from the Cuban government who has totally disengaged from the matter maybe because the achievement of the sinking belong to the Republican Navy (before the triumph of Cuban Revolution in 1959) and not to the Revolutionary Navy(after 1959).
Fig 5. *23.21N, 80.18W....the position where U-176 was sunk by deep charges launched from a cuban submarine chaser in 1943. (https://uboat.net)*
Officially at the beginning of the year 2000 was stated that an international joint exploration looking for Spanish galleons accidentally discovered the wreck of U-176 and even international press released some articles telling the story of a Chilean diver who, participating in an international diving competition, saw the remains of this Nazi submarine: all news were later denied by official means of the Republic of Cuba.
The truth is that officially has not been received a formal petition from the German government regarding this wreck. There has been many associations, universities and even TV channels interested in the history, willing to finance and conduct a deep research on this matter but at the end the support of Cuban government is vital and it has not been granted at all....the final destiny of U-176 is not yet known exactly, maybe one day it will be known.
Final thougths...by now
The history of German submarines operating in the Caribbean Sea is quite interesting and very attractive not only for historians but for TV channels, conspiracy theories enthusiats, Universities and even for bounty hunters who always see in those wrecks the opportunity to find something valuable.
The history of the death match between CS-13 and U-176 is as incredible as true and has, without any doubt, a halo of mystery covering those past events back in dark days of War War II especially because of refusal of the Cuban government to take any type of action by giving permission or collaborating in the joint effors trying to locate the wreck. Until then this history will continue to amaze us day by day and perhaps, by the time the wreck is located, the halo of mystery has faded a little, bringing some light to those souls that still lie unidentified at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea.
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