U 85
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U
85 was laid down at Flender Werke in Lübeck i 1939, and
put in service under Oberleutnant Eberhard Greger in
October 1941 in 3.Unterseeboot Flotille. She was ordered
to participate in operation Pauchenslag, assault on
merchant shipping on the American east coast. U 85 got the
doubtful honor of being the first uboat sunk in this area
when she came under fire from the destroyer USS Roper
14.April 1942. USS Roper attacked her on the surface which
was heavily damaged from battle earlier, and the crew
started to abandon ship. The destroyer continued the
shooting despite this with machine-guns and depth charges
even after she was starting to sink. When they returned
the following morning, they found only dead Germans
floating in the water. The wreck rest on a depth of 25 to
30 meter with the conning tower as the shallowest part
approx four nautical miles outside the coast, east of Nags
Head.
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| 35°54'48.28" N 75°17'12.98" W  Picture of U48, type VIIB: Courtesy of uboat.net  Interested in uboats and their commanders? Visit this great site Uboat Net
"From
28 August, the gruppe Markgraf is deployed SW of Iceland
on the North Atlantic convoy route. The deployment is
known to the Allied by Ultra and the following convoys
are re-routed around the U-boat concentration : ON-10,
ON-11, SC-41, HX-146 and HX-147. While the patrol line
does not seem to find any convoy, the BdU decides to
disperse the patrol line over a larger area. This order
is decoded by Ultra, but the exact positions of the
U-boats are not known. The convoys ON-12, HX-148 and
SC-43 can make a much wider detour but SC-42 is trapped
by a storm and the ice barrier and can not avoid being
detected by U-85. U-85 attacks at once but has no
success. Other boats come up and attack at night. U-81,
U-82 and U-432 sink one ship each, U-652 damages two
ships, one of which is finished off by U-372" |
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