The British HMS Ark Royal carrier earned a reputation as an unsinkable ship during
the early days of World War 2. Despite being explicitly targeted for destruction by the
Kriegsmarine and claimed sunk several times, it always came back to haunt her pursuers…
But every giant is bound to meet its match eventually.
For HMS Ark Royal, that was a young U-boat commander named Friedrich Guggenberger.
On the fateful evening of November 13, 1941,
the cunning U-boat commander spotted Task Force H off the Spanish coast and scoured
the numerous Allied ships looking for the most prestigious target, Ark Royal.
A single torpedo strike between the fuel bunkers and bomb store and directly below
the bridge island tore a colossal hole in the British carrier, shaking it to her core. As
the vessel began to sink, the crew kept fighting for the next several hours to try and save her.
Soon, Ark Royal rolled 90 degrees and finally went down. The man responsible for
sinking the prized unsinkable carrier became a national hero in Germany,
and his many exploits cemented his reputation as one of the most lethal U-boat aces in the war.
In response, the Allies would hunt him down to the farthest corners of the world…
A Rising Star
Friedrich Guggenberger was an experienced U-boat commander
known for his aggressive tactics and disregard for military decorum.
Before the United States joined World War 2, the young man had already taken over
a dozen Allied ships to the bottom of the sea, to the frustration of many competing
captains who scolded him for his long hair and unorthodox approach to command.
Nevertheless, after his role in sinking HMS Ark Royal, Guggenberger became a superstar overnight.
He was paraded across Germany, interviewed by Adolf Hitler himself, and featured as
the exemplary German sailor who would help pave the way for the Thousand-Year Reich.
As such, the Nazi leader awarded him the Knight’s Cross with oak leaves,
the highest decoration a German serviceman could earn.
After months of traveling as a war hero, Guggenberger was eager to return to the
battlefront and prove that his actions against Ark Royal had not been a fluke.
He was then appointed a modern class 9c U-boat and an inexperienced crew that he
was instructed to hone into becoming the best in the Kriegsmarine. This powerful new vessel
could operate far from shore for much longer than the conventional class 7 submarines.
For their new mission, Guggenberger and his crew were bound for a new
region of the world where they would have to face their most powerful adversary yet…
A New Front
After the sudden Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler opened a new naval front in the war.
The introduction of the United States into World War 2 was a momentous event. The German wolf
packs that had wreaked havoc in the Atlantic now faced America’s industrial and military might.
As such, they would need the most illustrious and lethal sailors to succeed against the novel foe.
Guggenberger and his men left France without knowing their destination.
It was until they were already cruising underwater that they opened the envelope
with their orders: they were headed for Brazil.
The waters there were the perfect hunting ground for an experienced commander training a new crew,
as they stood in the path of hundreds of merchant
ships carrying vital strategic resources to the Allies in North America and Europe.
The long trip to South America was completely uneventful, but the German
crew members were subjected to continuous excruciating drills that aimed to transform
them into a capable team worthy of Guggenberger’s experience and renown.
Usually, the sailors didn’t know whether they were really being attacked or it was another
brutal drill. Even so, Guggenberger pushed to submerge in increasingly
less time as diving rates were one of his submarine’s most prominent disadvantages.
By the time they reached their destination,
the crew had transformed from a group of inexperienced newcomers into a confident
and effective war machine that finally was up to the standards their commander demanded of them.
Rampage
In June of 1943, after two months at sea,
Guggenberger and his men spotted their first target: the Swedish freighter Venezia.
The crew was eager to put its training to the test, and the men immediately
concocted a plan of attack. The ship was unescorted, allowing Guggenberger
to get reasonably close before firing a torpedo. As the sound of the detonation was finally heard,
it sent every man aboard U-513 into wild euphoria. However, the celebration was short-lived, as the
Allies had a well-established anti-submarine network that was immediately put into motion.
The weather quickly devolved into a tropical storm, but the American submarine hunters
had become proficient at taking out German U-boats even amid a terrible thunderstorm.
The Germans had to dive as quickly and as deeply as possible, and they rushed
and yelled frantically as knobs were turned and valves released. The massive ship began
to sink into the ocean just as Allied patrols spotted the smoke from the sinking Venezia.
Complete silence followed; everyone aboard U-513 had to remain perfectly
quiet if they wanted to stay undetected. But the American vessels were not easily
fooled and soon identified where the attack came from. Within minutes,
they began dropping depth charges in an unrelenting barrage of underwater destruction.
Guggenberger didn’t have many options. If they tried to escape, they would give away
their position, so they waited patiently, praying none of the explosives would land a lethal hit.
After what seemed like an eternity, the hunters withdrew, and U-513 survived to fight another day.
A couple of weeks later, U-513 terrorized the Brazilian coast,
hunting down Allied vessels and escaping every attempt at retaliation.
Guggenberger managed to deliver lethal blows to five Allied ships, including two American
ones. The feat made him the most destructive U-boat commander at that point in the war.
It also made him a prime target for the Allies…
A Mistake
In mid-July, Guggenberger ordered his radio officer to send a message home;
the deed was highly unconventional, as the radio signal could easily be used by enemy
forces to pinpoint the approximate location of the German submarine.
The action was so unorthodox that many still question the rationale behind the decision;
some historians even suggest Guggenberger sent the radio message knowing it would
attract enemy attention, as he was eager to sink additional ships.
Regardless, the radio signal attracted a much more dangerous foe than any Allied ship,
and soon, an American PBM Mariner flying boat was on the Germans’ trail. At the time,
if one of those formidable U-boat hunters caught a submarine on the surface, it was game over.
The Mariner spotted Guggenberger’s vessel on July 19 as she surfaced, unaware of enemy presence. The
American aircraft was heavily armed with machine guns and a sizable supply of depth charges.
As the warbird began to descend upon its target, the men aboard U-513 sounded the alarm and
manned their battle stations. Guggenberger knew it was too late to attempt to dive,
and their only option now was to fight and hope for the best.
The submarine was not ideally armed to counter an aircraft attack, and things turned from bad
to worse when her main deck gun jammed just as the American flying boat swooped in to finish her off.
The Mariner dropped several depth charges all around the surfaced submarine,
each explosion sending a violent shockwave through her metal structure.
Suddenly, one of the explosives hit the boat from below and ruptured her outer hull.
The water began pouring into the ship at dramatic rates, and the men rushed to the
escape hatches. However, the U-boat was quickly plummeting to the depths.
Only seven sailors survived. Friedrich Guggenberger was one of them.
Master of Escape
Guggenberger and the other survivors remained aboard an inflatable raft for over a day,
but the U-boat skipper was severely wounded and had trouble controlling the bleeding.
They were then rescued by an American warship, and the U-boat commander
was taken to a local hospital for emergency surgery. After the operation,
the now prisoner of war was transferred to Fort Hunt and then to a camp at Crossville.
In late January of 1944, Guggenberger was moved to the Papago Park camp near Phoenix,
Arizona, a base known to be inescapable due to its remote position in the middle
of the desert and the rugged granite soil it was built on.
However, less than a month into his incarceration, Guggenberger teamed with four U-boat captains
and executed a daring escape, making it all the way to Tucson before being recaptured.
Guggenberger would try to flee again as part of the Great Papago Escape,
the most incredible POW escape on American soil during World War 2,
also labeled by the press as the greatest manhunt in Arizona history.
Even so, Guggenberger was recaptured two weeks later at a mere ten miles
from the border of neutral Mexico. He was then sent to a POW camp in New York,
where he would spend the rest of the war before being sent back to Germany.
Disappearance
Guggenberger was not willing to retire from military duty after World War 2 was over;
instead, he enlisted in the newly established Bundesmarine in 1956 and
quickly rose to the ranks to become Deputy Chief of Staff in the NATO command AFNORTH.
The legendary commander would continue to serve Germany and NATO until his retirement.
In May of 1988, after suffering from the onset symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease,
he left his home for a stroll in the woods and never returned.
His body was found two years later, leaving behind an impressive legacy
after being credited with sinking 17 ships and damaging another 6,000 gross register tonnage.
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