Captain Harro Schacht (1907-1943) of U-507 Schacht received the Knight's Cross ofthe Iron Cross for his successful campaigns. He is credited with the sinking of 19 ships, totalling more than 77, 143 tons.
The commander decided to take action. He ordered his crew to submerge and bring the sub close to the tanker. When they were approximately 400 yards away, directly in the ship's wake, the U-boat surfaced, water cascading off its grey hull. As soon as the conning rower broke the surface, crewmen sprang through the hatch to the deck gun. Schacht was going to try to sink the Federal without firing a single torpedo! The men opened fire with the four-inch cannon. In Schacht's U-boat log, also known as his War Diary (Kriegstagebuch or KTB), he wrote, "After the first shot the bridge was hit, after which the steamer turned toward land; however, after the second hit (third shot) stopped and set out boats." Four sailors were killed almost instantly and the rest managed to climb in a lifeboat before the tanker sank a short time later. Schacht stayed on the surface to make sure the Federal sank, but he understood that doing so put them at risk: "My presence is also known, as the sinking took place
within sight of the coast." Moving westward, another ship came into view, but this time he had to submerge, noting in the log: "Crash dive for flying boat type Consolidated range 3,000 meters." U-507 continued west and entered the Gulf of Mexico to prowl around the area of the Dry Torrugas. In his log, Schacht wrote, "The Tortugas navigational lights burn as though it were peacetime." On 4 May, Schacht found his next target eighty miles west of the Tortugas, a small merchant freighter, the Norlindo. The unarmed ship and her crew of twenty-eight were steaming from Mobile, Alabama, to Havana, Cuba, and proved to be another sitting duck for U-507. Schacht ordered the firing of a single torpedo, which found its target. The ship heeled to starboard and within minutes was swallowed by the sea. Schacht recorded in his log that the ship "goes down right away at the stern, and in three minutes stands vertical," before sinking.Twenty-three of the crew managed to jump overboard and climb into rafts.
U-Boat 507 Commander Harro Schacht passed between Cuba and Florida on 30 April 1942, the first U-boat to penetrate the Gulf of Mexico. Not Jar behind was U-506 under the command of Erich Wiirdemann . Together they would catch American freighters and tankers unawares and wreak havoc on shipping in the Gulf
Mobile
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New Orleans
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Houstone
Galveston
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Corpus Christi
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Heredia
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a,,, Alt::oa Puritan
Guff of Mexico
Joseph M.Cudahy
"1.Munger T. Ball Norlindo. /
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Dry Torgugas
CUBA
SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016
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