Wolfpack Pfeil

Pfeil ("Arrow") was the name given to two U-boat "wolfpacks" of Nazi Germany during World War II.

Pfeil I (September 1942)

The first wolfpack comprised 11 U-boats and operated from 12 to 22 September 1942 against Convoy ON 129. The gruppe found the convoy but fog and resolute defence by the escorts defeated the U-boats. The fog lifted on the following day and two of the boats spotted escorts but were diverted and the convoy managed to evade the gruppe. On 18 September, Rear-Admiral Karl Dönitz, the Befehlshaber der U-Boote (BdU, Comamnder, U-boats) cancelled the operation.

U-boats involved

Pfeil I
U-boatFlagCommanderDatesNotes
U-216  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Karl-Otto Schultz 15−22 September 1942
U-221  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Hans-Hartwig Trojer 12−22 September 1942
U-258  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm von Mässenhausen 12–22 September 1942
U-356  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Georg Wallas 12–22 September 1942
U-440  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Hans Geissler 12–14 September 1942
U-595  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Jürgen Quaet-Faslem 12–22 September 1942
U-607  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Ernst Mengersen 12–22 September 1942
U-615  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Ralph Kapitzky 12–22 September 1942
U-617  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Albrecht Brandi 12–22 September 1942
U-618  Kriegsmarine Oberleutnant zur See Kurt Makowski 12–22 September 1942
U-661  Kriegsmarine Oberleutnant zur See Erich Lilienfeld 12–22 September 1942

Pfeil II (February 1943)

The second wolfpack comprised 13 U-boats and operated from 1 to 9 February 1943. This pack attacked Convoy SC 118 that had sailed from New York on 24 January 1943 for Loch Ewe in Scotland. Escort Group B2 (Commander F. B. Proudfoot) with the destroyers HMS Beverley, HMS Vanessa and HMS Vimy, the US Coast Guard cutter USCGC Bibb and the corvettes HMS Campanula and HMS Abelia with the Free French HMS Lobelia and HMS Mignonette and the convoy rescue ship Toward (1,571 GRT). On 2 February 1943, the convoy was about 500 nmi (930 km; 580 mi) to the east-north-east of Newfoundland, in a storm that had scattered the ships over 50 sq mi (130 km2). Gruppe Pfeil was in a line athwart the course of the convoy; U-230 measured a wind speed of 150 mph (240 km/h) and waves supposedly 230 ft (70 m) high. On the night of 4/5 January the convoy passed through the German patrol line unseen. At dawn, 20 nmi (37 km; 23 mi) to the east of the U-boats, someone on the Norwegian Vannik fired a snowflake flare by mistake that was seen on U-187 and reported, the U-boat getting in front of the convoy. The signal was less than twenty seconds long but that was enough for Toward and Bibb to get high-frequency direction finding (Huff-Duff) fixes.

U-boats involved

Pfeil II
U-boatFlagCommanderDatesNotes
U-89  Kriegsmarine Korvettenkapitän Dietrich Lohmann 1−9 February 1943
U-135  Kriegsmarine Oberleutnant zur See Heinz Schütt 3−8 February 1943 8 February, damaged by B-24 K 120 Squadron
U-187  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Ralph Münnich 1–4 February 1943
U-262  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Heinz Franke 1–7 February 1943 Sank 2,864 GRT merchant ship
U-266  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Ralf von Jessen 4–9 February 1943
U-267  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Otto Tinschert 17 February 1943 6 February, damaged
U-402  Kriegsmarine Korvettenkapitän Siegfried von Forstner 1–8 February 1943 7 February, sank 6 ships, 37,075 GRT
U-413  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Gustav Poel 1–9 February 1943 Sank straggler, 5,376 GRT
U-454  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Burckhard Hackländer 1–9 February 1943
U-465  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Heinz Wolf 1–8 February 1943
U-594  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Friedrich Mumm 1–9 February 1943
U-608  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Rolf Struckmeier 1–9 February 1943
U-609  Kriegsmarine Kapitänleutnant Klaus Rudloff 1–7 February 1943 6 February, sunk by HMS Lobelia

Raiding success

Pfeil II was responsible for the sinking of 11 ships (54,326 GRT), plus one ship damaged (9,272 GRT).

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Edwards 1999, p. 112.
  2. ↑ Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, p. 196; Blair 2000, pp. 32−33 35−36, 39.
  3. ↑ Edwards 1999, pp. 141−143.
  4. ↑ Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, pp. 228−229; Blair 2000, pp. 37, 180−183.

Bibliography

  • Blair, Clay (2000) [1998]. Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted 1942–1945. Vol. II (pbk. repr. ed.). London: Cassell. ISBN 0-304-35261-6.
  • Edwards, Bernard (1999) [1996]. Dönitz and the Wolf Packs: The U-boats at War (repr. Brockhampton Press, London ed.). London: Cassell Military Classics. ISBN 1-86019-927-5.
  • Rohwer, Jürgen; Hümmelchen, Gerhard (2005) [1972]. Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (3rd rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-257-3.

Further reading