USS Roper and the U-85

rarely is the drum of war seem more starkly than the small ship actions of the second world wars Battle of the Atlantic where German submarines and the naval vessels built to fight them engaged in often lonely actions far out to sea where either vessel could easily be destroyed the actions were short sharp and often terrifying for their crews one such action represented a significant milestone the first time a u.s. Navy vessel sank a German submarine off the coast of the United States in the Second World War but the action was cloaked in secrecy it was surrounded by controversy and it wasn't even fully recounted until long after the war the action on April 14 1942 between the destroyer USS Roper and the German submarine u85 deserves to be remembered USS Roper was commissioned February of 1919 one of a hundred and eleven wicks class destroyers built between 1917 and 1921 the Wits class were among those called flush deck destroyers because they did not have a raised fo'c'sle like on previous classes and also called for stack destroyers for their four funnels like most vessels of the Wits class rubber came too late to participate in the Great War although she was in service soon enough to participate in post-war relief activities she also served in the Easy attic squadron before being decommissioned and placed in reserve in 1922 recommissioned in 1930 rubber served both in the Pacific in the Atlantic fleets noted science fiction author Robert Heinlein briefly served aboard Roper in 1933 in the fall of 1939 USS Roper was serving off of New England when it participated in the neutrality patrols while officially remaining neutral the ships of the neutrality patrol would patrol an area that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had designated as a protected zone that eventually went almost all the way to Iceland although at first at least the US ships wouldn't attack the German submarines they would merely report their location to British and Canadian ships at the start of the war US naval assets were spread thin and largely unprepared for the German u-boat threat notably the Navy had a significant shortage of vessels specialized for anti-submarine duties u.s. losses to German u-boats along the East Coast were extreme the first attacks in January 1942 were made by the large long-range germán type 9 u-boats those attacks were so successful in the targets so plentiful that the German Navy followed by sending smaller type 7 u-boats as well these smaller submarines weren't built to operate so far abroad they had to be literally crammed front to back with supplies news special measures even to reach the United States but still the u.s. defense measures were so haphazard that even the type seven boats found significant success off the coast of the United States by the end of March the German u-boats had sunk more than 60 vessels off the US East Coast and thousands of tons of shipping much of it in the part of North Carolina's Outer Banks ominously called torpedo alley in exchange the United States Navy was yet to sink a single German u-boat Roper having returned from escorting a convoy to Ireland was patrolling torpedo Alley the shipping lanes between Cape Hatteras and Chesapeake Bay one of the two few us vessels tried to stem the tide of the u-boat attacks she was under the command of 38 year old Lieutenant Commander Hamilton Wilcox how a 1926 graduate of the United States Naval Academy the Duty was hazardous in February the wix class destroyer Jacob Jones had been sunk by torpedoes from the u 578 only 10 members of her crew had survived Roper and had close calls in the early days of the Battle of the Atlantic she encountered a u-boat on the surface on January 19th but the ropers depth charge racket jammed and the u-boat captain had been able to escape in mars had made contact with three u-boats on the surface but the Roper was alone and only had 14 depth charges available when the u-boats pursued Roper how tried to get them to separate but when they wouldn't he was forced to outrun them rather than engage in a battle that would have been lopsided against Roper the Roper had rescued many victims of u-boat attacks including 27 survivors of the steamer SS New York in a lifeboat on March 31st a pregnant woman had given birth on the lifeboat and had given the child's the middle name Roper in recognition of the vessel that had rescued them Roper was on patrol off North Carolina's Cape Hatteras the night of April 13th the night was described as clear with many stars visible the sea was very nearly calm the water phosphorescent six minutes after midnight on the 14th she acquired a radar contact which of a type that could have been a submarine they weren't far from the coast as the light from the Bodie Island Lighthouse as well as the Bodie Island landed bell buoy number eight were discernible to the ship's starboard the radar contact was then confirmed with a sound man contact which could hear rapidly turning screws Roper could see the wake of the vessel in the phosphorescent water as Roper approached within 20 100 yards it still wasn't clear what vessel they were pursuing they said it appeared to be a small coast guard vessel but its speed indicated that it could still be a submarine and so rubber was called to General Quarters and her weapons including 30 and 50 caliber machine guns 3-inch naval guns depth charges and torpedoes were prepared for immediate action at that point the target which had apparently become aware of ropers pursuit started to turn to port Roper aware there was a danger from torpedoes move for a position on the targets starboard quarter to make torpedo attack difficult it was a good choice as they approached within 700 yards a torpedo was observed that nearly missed Roper passing close aboard down the port side the Roper now knew this was an enemy but it was not until the approach within 300 yards that the target cut sharply to starboard and ropers 24-inch searchlight illuminated it and identified as a large submarine the deck officer noted the submarine was painted with a camouflage predominantly light in color the submarine was the type 7 B u-boat u85 commissioned in June 1941 the UAV 5 was one of more than 700 type 7 u-boats that comprised the backbone of the German u-boat fleet the type 7 was the most produced submarine type in history the u85 under the command of 26-year old / lieutenant sir C Everhard gregor was on its fourth patrol and had already sunk more than 15,000 tons of Allied shipping including the Swedish freighter Christina Knudsen sunk off New Jersey April 10th gregor had the u85 on the surface likely charging his batteries when it was spotted by Roper he likely kept on the surface because the u-boat was much faster on the surface than it was submerged and he had hoped to shape the rubber but Roper had stayed on target the u85 had fired torpedo from its f2 bat Roper but when the torpedo missed it became clear that the u85 was going to have to stand in fight Gregor was turning the submarine in order to bring her deck gun to bear the submarine had a tighter turning radius and was turning sharply to starboard while the searchlight kept the submarine illuminated ropers guns went into action first the machine guns and then the 3-inch battery forced into a fight the submarine crew were rushing for their deck guy but were cut down by the machine gun fire a three inch gun of the command of Coxon Harry Haman fired for its first time in combat scored a hit on the conning tower at the waterline puncturing the submarines pressure hull and the submarine began to sink Stern first how ordered torpedo attack but the submarine disappeared before it was fired despite seeing approximately 40 members of the submarines crew of the water Roper fired a barrage of eleven depth charges over the submarines location in the darkness they could not see wreckage at the time wrote for make no attempt to rescue the crew of the u85 how noted that the Roper at least twice came near survivors from the submarine Cox and Heron who had fired the shot that crippled the u-boat recalled in the journal hearing the German shouting comrade indicating surrender but Hughes considered rescue attempts to be too dangerous at night because submarines were known to operate in pairs as Heron noted you were like a sitting duck every time you stopped to pick up survivors instead Roper waited until morning when a Catalina PBY operated by the Naval Reserve arrived and could watch over the area by then it was 7 a.m. the people who I noted suspicious oil 6 and debris the plane dropped a depth charge on one potential target and Roper dropped two more more planes start to arrive and one drop markers called smoke floats near what appeared to be bodies in the water Roper none of the protection of aircraft placed two boats in the water as they searched an airship arrived as well began patrolling for evidence of more submarines in all Roper noted seven aircraft arrived on scene at 10 till 8 the first boat came back to Roper with five bodies none of the u-boat crew were found alive and now we're later as the ship was recovering bodies the ship made another sonar contact and dropped four more depth charges observed one large air bubble and one small air bubble in addition to fresh oil the airship whose great advantage was the ability to stay on target for longer than an airplane kept watching the spot and other the bubbles continued to come up a marking boy was dropped on the location which in view of the proximity of the bodies and debris the sharp sound contact of an object which remains stationary and large air bubbles which persisted how assumed was the location the sunken submarine in all roper retrieved 29 bodies including those of two officers two more bodies were allowed to sink and 15 empty life vests were found six escaped lungs were also recovered and at least two of the bodies had mouthpiece tubing in their mouths indicating they'd escaped after the submarine sank curiously some of the bodies were wearing civilian clothes and carrying wallets with the United States currency and identification cards suggesting that part of the und Five's mission was drop off spies while destroying the first u-boat off the u.s. East Coast since u.s. entered the war was significant the u.s. is more interested in gaining intelligence from the u85 and in keeping the German Navy in the dark as to what happened to the boat the victory by Roper was not reported in the news the bodies of the crew members were taken to Norfolk Naval Air Station to gather what intelligence they could find and then were photographed fingerprinted and buried with honors after dusk on April 15th at Hampton National Cemetery the coffins were carried by an honor guard more than a dozen officers participated in the funeral final rites were said by both Catholic and Protestant chaplains 24 sailors for the three volley salute as a bugler played taps but the civilians standing outside the cemetery had no idea who was being buried the headstones on the included names not ranks nor service brands nor date of death a short statement was released in July describing the burial rites but did not include the name of the submarine the vessel that sank it nor the date of its sinking the full story was not released till after the war House decision to forego any rescue attempt for more than seven hours after the vessel sank and to drop depth charges of the water despite knowing that there were survivors in the water is controversial to this day but historian play Farrington of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum notes that you can't Monday Morning Quarterback this sort of thing they didn't call them wolf packs for nothing there might have been another u-boat in the water waiting to take its shot moreover Harrington noted that they would have known that the crew were intelligence assets the rubberwood preferred to have taken them alive if they could have the u85 sank in 110 feet of water when the weeks after it's sinking US Navy divers attempted to enter the wreck and see if they recover the submarines Enigma code machine but they were unsuccessful the submarine rescue vehicle you Falkon also arrived and tried to salvage the u85 but the damage to the pressure hole was too significant and they were unable to refloat the submarine Lieutenant Commander Hao was awarded the Navy Cross for the action and Coxson Haman was awarded the Silver Star how later to the rank of Rear Admiral like many poor stackers Roper was later converted into a high-speed transport she served in the Mediterranean and then in the Pacific a may 25th 1945 she was struck by kamikaze off of Okinawa the war ended before repairs could be completed and she was finally scrapped December 1946 USS Rovers anchor is on display at the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the wreck of the u85 is a popular diving destination and while the Coast Guard is moving to protect the wreck several items have been recovered from the wreckage by divers including a silver tea set and the missing enigma code machine which is now on display at the graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras North Carolina I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets have forgotten history between ten and fifteen minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section I will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on facebook instagram twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring comm and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 292,753

Rating: 4.9714165 out of 5

Keywords: history, the history guy, wwii, battle of the atlantic, us navy, us history, north carolina, torpedo alley, USS Roper, history guy

Id: soELSCW6oMw

Length: 12min 41sec (761 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 03 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/JonathanJONeill]

Correction: The first submarine destroyed after the US formally entered WWII