The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Campbell (WPG-32) spent some exciting days as one of the escorts of convoy ONS-166 on its journey from the United Kingdom to the United States in February 1943. That story is well worth retelling in this 50th anniversary year.
By early 1943 the German U-boat campaign was seriously threatening U.S. tankers and Allied merchant and cargo ships in transatlantic sea-lanes. British and U.S. antisubmarine forces were insufficient to answer that threat, and shore-based aircraft were unable to cover a wide mid- Atlantic corridor because of their limited range. Jeep aircraft carriers were not yet ready to go. Consequently, Ocean Escort Unit A-3 was assigned to escort convoy ONS-166: 63 merchant ships scheduled to depart the British Isles on 12 February 1943, bound for U.S. ports.
In addition to the 327-foot “Secretary”-class cutter, captained by Coast Guard Commander James A. Hirshfield, were the cutter Spencer (WPG-36)—the escort flagship captained by Coast Guard Commander H. S. Berdine and hosting the escort commander. Navy Captain Paul Heineman—the Royal Navy corvette Dianthus, the Royal Canadian Navy corvettes Chilliwack, Rosthern, Trillium, and Dauphin, and the Polish destroyer Burza.
For ten days—the 12th to the 21st—the ships contended with the northwesterly gales that reduced their speed to four knots and limited their progress to a mere 1,000 miles in the first week. As the weather moderated, both the Spencer and Campbell, having high frequency direction finders (HF/DF), began intercepting radio traffic between U-boats and their home base. Commander Hirshfield was sure that the convoy had been sighted and that submarine attacks would be forthcoming. He was correct.
As a result of torpedo attacks on the 21st, the Campbell was dispatched to pick up the survivors of the Norwegian whale factory ship the Neilson Alonzo, a straggler from another convoy that had sent her SOS signal while 15 miles to the rear of ONS-166. The Campbell approached the torpedoed ship, brought 50 survivors on board, and immediately set course to rejoin the convoy, her speed about eight to nine knots faster than the convoy’s, her course a zigzag in order not to lead any submarines to it or to become a target herself.
At 1107 on 22 February, Commander Hirshfield came on the bridge and spotted a U-boat’s conning tower 100 yards away. The submarine soon dived, her whirlpool only about 50 feet away. The Campbell's executive officer, Lieutenant Commander B. H. Brallier, fired the port “K” gun and dropped two 600-pound depth charges. Contact was not reestablished, but the search continued until 1210, when the Campbell once again set course to rejoin the convoy. Ten minutes later, another contact was made. Four depth charges were dropped, with no visible results.
At 1402 another U-boat was sighted on the surface. She quickly dove as the cutter headed for her. Contact was made, depth charges were dropped, but no result was visible.
The Campbell's great moment of glory commenced when radar picked up ONS-166 at 16,000 yards at 1955 on 22 February. Just 15 minutes later, a submarine was detected by radar at 4,600 yards. The cutter altered her course to close and run down the contact. Commander Hirshfield ordered full speed ahead. At 2015 sound contact was made at 2,400 yards, narrowing to 1,700 yards, then, within three minutes, to 1,200 yards. At 2019 U-606 was sighted about 350 yards on the starboard bow. The Campbell was closing in quickly.
Commander Hirshfield told the conning officer to go full right to ram the sub. As the cutter sideswiped U-606, she dropped two 600-pound depth charges, set to go off at a shallow depth. The U-boat was lifted about four feet out of the water by the explosions when she was 100 yards astern the Campbell.
Then the cutter opened up on U-606 with 20-mm. cannon and 3-inch .50-caliber guns. The sound of the metal projectiles clanging against the conning tower reverberated in the night.
Chief Yeoman Milton Pastrich’s battle station was on the bridge, manning a Lewis .30-caliber machine gun. He was resting his gun on top of the bridge rail when Commander Hirshfield shouted: “Get your goddamn machine gun going.” Chief Pastrich started shooting, but when he opened up, his gun recoiled and slipped off its mount. A round hit the bridge wing windbreaker; the captain and Coxswain James H. Gilbert on the lower deck were sprayed with shrapnel. Commander Hirshfield was struck near his left ear and his eyelid was cut. Bleeding from his wounds, he nevertheless stayed on deck until 0200.
Gun Four, a 3-inch/.50-caliber gun on the Campbell's starboard side, soon trained on the German U-boat. The gun mount was manned by the black members of the crew. Stewards Louis Etheridge (gun captain), Raymond L. Knott (pointer), and nine mess attendants scored some damaging hits.
Throughout the engagement, U-606 was unable to fire on the Campbell. When he was satisfied that the German submarine was defeated. Commander Hirshfield ordered the gun crews to cease firing. U-606 was dead in the water. (She would sink within a couple of hours.) The Campbell's damage was then assessed. One of the struts—probably from a diving plane or a propeller-bearing support— had created a 15-foot long, 8-inch wide hole in the engine room, about three feet below the waterline, and flooding had knocked out the cutter’s power plant.
Despite her damage, the cutter rescued some of the Germans who had jumped overboard and drifted by, yelling to be saved. The Burza soon arrived to assist the Campbell, and rescued ten Germans still trapped in U-606's conning tower.
At 2035 the Campbell's crew began attempts to cover the engine room hole with a collision mat. This was a complicated process because they had to take weighted lines underneath the ship at the bow and run them back to the hole. It was necessary to clear such things as the sound dome under the bow, plus the propellers and rudder astern. The lines were then attached to the collision mat and it was hauled into place.
Many of the crew volunteered to put the mat in place, including the captain’s Filipino steward. They went over the side several times in futile attempts to get the mat in place, the ship constantly bobbing up and down. They succeeded only in shoring up the bulkhead in the fireroom, next to the engine room—now flooded with 800 tons of water.
The Campbell was stranded midway between the British Isles and Newfoundland. One-hundred-twelve junior-ranking crewmen, together with the 52 Norwegian survivors, were transferred to the Burza, which, low on fuel, departed for Newfoundland. The cutter’s staff remained on board, along with the doctor, the cooks, the mess attendants, and the German prisoners. The Coast Guardsmen were under strict instructions from the Navy Department not to interact with the prisoners before the Office of Naval Intelligence had interviewed them.
The Dauphin took over screening the Campbell after the Polish destroyer departed. She was soon joined by HMS Salisbury, an old U.S. four-pipe destroyer manned by Norwegians. She sighted and chased a submarine, but never made contact. The rest of the tow to shore was uneventful; the Tenacity, a British seagoing tug, came out to tow the Campbell to St. John’s, Newfoundland; the tugs Northwind and Schulamite ultimately towed her into the harbor at 1700 on 3 March 1943.
On St. Patrick’s Day, the sinking of U-606 made frontpage headlines across the country. It was the first good news Americans had received about victories against the Nazi U-boat menace in the North Atlantic. Commander Hirshfield was decorated with the Navy Cross. His victory at sea reminded him of an incident in 1926, when, as an ensign, he was given command of a 75-foot patrol boat to chase rumrunners. He and his crew were out between Montauk Point, Long Island, and Block Island. Along came a howling northeaster, so the young skipper decided to seek shelter. It took them four hours on that snowy, gale-swept night to go the 12 miles to shore. When they finally reached port, a machinist’s mate named Bennett went up to the pilothouse and said, “Well, sir, we certainly did have Jesus on the bow and Moses on the stern to get us through this one!” Today, Vice Admiral Hirshfield says he felt the presence of those same benefactors on 22 February 1943.