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German submarines, called untersee (undersea) boats or U-boats for short, wreaked havoc on shipping in the North Atlantic, sending many Allied vessels to the bottom, especially in the earlier years of the war. However, from mid-1943 onward, Hitler was losing a significant number of his U-boats every month. The United States Navy developed hunter-killer teams consisting of baby aircraft carriers and destroyers. One of the USS Corry’s principal jobs as a destroyer was to attack and sink U-boats. On March 17, 1944, during hunter-killer patrol with the aircraft carrier USS Block Island (CVE-21), off northwest Africa near the Cape Verde Islands, USS Corry and USS Bronstein (DE-189) pursued the German submarine U-801. When the USS Corry's depth charges forced the U-801 to the surface the sub was fired on and sunk by USS Corry. This sinking was the result of a two-day pursuit that began with a strafing of U-801 by Block Island aircraft, an excellent example of the hunter-killer teams in action against Hitler's U-boats. Forty-seven U-801 survivors were taken as prisoners of war. Both American and German accounts of the battle and official action reports can be seen below. |
