German submarine U-166 (1941)

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German submarine U-166 was a Type IXC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 6 December 1940 at the Seebeckwerft (part of Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG, Deschimag) at Wesermünde (modern Bremerhaven) as yard number 705, launched on 1 November 1941, and commissioned on 23 March 1942 under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Günther Kuhlmann. After training with the 4th U-boat Flotilla, U-166 was transferred to the 10th U-boat Flotilla for front-line service on 1 June 1942. The U-boat sailed on only two war patrols and sank four ships totalling Template:GRT.<ref name="uboatnet"/> She was sunk on 30 July 1942 in the Gulf of Mexico.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Design

German Type IXC submarines were slightly larger than the original Type IXBs. U-166 had a displacement of Template:Convert when at the surface and Template:Convert while submerged.Template:Sfn The U-boat had a total length of Template:Convert, a pressure hull length of Template:Convert, a beam of Template:Convert, a height of Template:Convert, and a draught of Template:Convert. The submarine was powered by two MAN M 9 V 40/46 supercharged four-stroke, nine-cylinder diesel engines producing a total of Template:Convert for use while surfaced, and two Siemens-Schuckert 2 GU 345/34 double-acting electric motors producing a total of Template:Convert for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two Template:Convert propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths down to Template:Convert.Template:Sfn

The submarine had a maximum surface speed of Template:Convert and a maximum submerged speed of Template:Convert.Template:Sfn When submerged, the boat could operate for Template:Convert at Template:Convert; when surfaced, she could travel Template:Convert at Template:Convert. U-166 was fitted with six Template:Convert torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and two at the stern), 22 torpedoes, one [[10.5 cm SK C/32 naval gun|Template:Convert SK C/32 naval gun]], 180 rounds, and a [[3.7 cm SK C/30|Template:Convert SK C/30]], as well as a [[2 cm FlaK 30|Template:Convert C/30]] antiaircraft gun. The boat had a complement of 49.Template:Sfn

Service history

First patrol

U-166 first sailed from Kiel to Kristiansand, Norway, on 30–31 May 1942.<ref name="patrols"/> The U-boat sailed on her first combat patrol, from Kristiansand on 1 June 1942, around the British Isles, and arrived at Lorient, France, 10 days later.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Second patrol

U-166 departed from Lorient on 17 June 1942, sailed across the Atlantic and into the Gulf of Mexico.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Fate

On 30 July 1942, U-166 torpedoed the passenger steamer SS Robert E. Lee, which was under escort from the United States Navy Template:Sclass PC-566<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> about Template:Convert south of the Mississippi River Delta. PC-566 immediately attacked, making her approach vector outside the view of U-166Template:'s periscope, and claimed to have sunk the U-boat with depth charges. Upon returning to port with the survivors of Robert E. Lee, the Navy did not believe the account provided by PC-566Template:'s skipper LCDR Herbert G. Claudius, USNR. Claudius' tactics were criticized, resulting in his reprimand and removal from seagoing command.

On 30 July 1942, a United States Coast Guard J4F-1 Widgeon amphibious aircraft spotted a U-boat around Template:Convert off the coast of Houma, Louisiana. The aircraft attacked and it appeared that the U-boat was hit in the attack. U-166 was reported missing in action on 30 July 1942, which coincided with the American aircraft's attack on "a U-Boat", leading to the aircraft being credited with the sinking of U-166, with the loss of all 52 crew members. Both aircraft crewmen were decorated for the action.<ref name="uscg">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Wreckage located in 2001

In 2001, when the wreck of Robert E. Lee was located in more than Template:Convert of water, the wreck of U-166 was also located, less than 2 miles from where it had attacked her. An archaeological survey of the seafloor prior to construction of a natural gas pipeline led to the discoveries by C & C Marine archaeologists Robert A. Church and Daniel J. Warren. The sonar contacts consisted of two large sections lying roughly 500 ft apart at either end of a debris field that indicated the presence of a U-boat.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Petroleum companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico's outer continental shelf are required to provide sonar data in areas that have archaeological potential. BP and Shell sponsored additional fieldwork to record detailed images, including a gun on the deck aft of the submarine's conning tower.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Charles "C.J." Christ, from Houma, spent most of his life searching for U-166 and was involved in the final identification of the U-boat.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The site where U-166 lies, at Template:Coord, has been designated a war grave because its crew of 52 is entombed there. It is protected against any future attempts to salvage it.

Oceanographer and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Robert Ballard explored and mapped the wreck in the summer of 2014 with remotely operated vehicles, where they noticed that the submarine's bow had been blown off and was found resting on the seafloor 100 feet away from the main hull. They determined that the bow of the submarine was destroyed, apparently by a depth charge that landed on the forward deck, exploded, and caused an internal detonation of the submarine's own torpedoes, which broke off the bow. If so, this would be one of the few successful submarine kills caused by direct contact from a depth charge, as typical attacks relied upon depth charges exploding a short distance away to inflict repeated hydraulic shocks that would eventually crack a submarine's pressure hull.<ref name=Boyle2015>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=PBS2015>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Initial credit for the sinking of U-166 had been given to a Grumman G-44 Widgeon, but the position of the wreck made it clear that this should have gone to the submarine chaser PC-566.<ref name="uscg"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On 16 December 2014, the Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus posthumously awarded the captain of PC-566, then-LCDR Herbert G. Claudius, USNR (later CAPT USN<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>), the Legion of Merit with a Combat "V" device for heroism in battle and credited him with the sinking of the U-boat. "Seventy years later, we now know that [Claudius's] report after the action was absolutely correct," he said. "[Claudius's ship] did sink that U-boat, and it's never too late to set the record straight."<ref>"72 Years Later, Snubbed Captain Credited With Downing German U-Boat"Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore, Brian Clark,National Geographic, Washington, D.C., 17 December 2014.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Results of a study released in February 2019 showed that the wreck of U-166 was being badly damaged because of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Seabed bacteria, feeding on the oil, were causing the damage.<ref name="Adam">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Summary of raiding history

Date	Ship Name	Nationality	Tonnage (GRT)	Fate<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Position	Deaths
11 July 1942	Carmen	Template:Flag	84	Sunk	Template:Coord	1
13 July 1942	Oneida	Template:Flag	2,309	Sunk	Template:Coord	6
16 July 1942	Gertrude	Template:Flag	16	Sunk	Template:Coord	0
30 July 1942	Robert E. Lee	Template:Flag	5,184	Sunk	Template:Coord	25

Note

• One of the foremost authorities on the subject is Charles "C.J." Christ, from Houma,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> who spent most of his life searching for U-166. His personal account about his search and the final locating and identification of the U-boat can be found in a local newspaper, The Houma Courier: C.J. Christ "WAR IN THE GULF: German submarine, U-166, found in the Gulf of Mexico" (The article can be found online as reprint by another local newspaper, The Daily Comet).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Reflist

References

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External links

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• The Story of U-166: The Gulf of Mexico's Lost U-Boat
• Photograph and sonar image of the Robert E. Lee
• The U-166 - NOAA
• WWII German UBoats
• WWII Gulf of Mexico Shipwreck Survey Expedition 2004 - NOAA