It’s the 5th of March, 1944, and in a cramped U-boat Captain Gerhard Seehausen is hunting his prey.
“Fire!”
The cargo ship erupts in a ball of flame.
It’s a hit!
This is the 4th ship they have sunk on this sortie.
The submarine is the U-66, one of the most successful U-boats of the war.
It has taken part in four wolfpacks, claiming 36 victims, and sending over 200,000 tons
worth of ships and cargo to the bottom of the sea.
The Germans buoyed by their success, plan their next hunting ground.
“I think we should hunt here.”

Cpt. Brent Abel receives a transmission

Hundreds of miles away, on the US destroyer escort the USS Buckley
Lieutenant Commander Brent Abel receives the transmission.
“Sir, orders from Block Island. U-Boat attack reported at 03.56 North – 07.36 East,
task group is ordered to sweep the area.”
“Reply, we copy. Engines full steam ahead, maintain heading 150.”
Abel in his ship forms part of a U-boat hunting party
and they’ve been given a target.
After months at sea the German supplies are getting low
and they surface at an agreed rendezvous point west of Africa.
Captain Seehausen waits impatiently at the conning tower.
“Nothing still?”
“Nothing from the lookout, sir.”
“They’re late.”
U-66 now finds itself alone, low on fuel and torpedoes,
and on the run from the skies and the seas which are smarming with American patrols.
They sail in circles, waiting for an arranged resupply.
But it’s nowhere to be seen.
As the lookout fruitlessly scans the horizon one more time,
something unexpected reaches his ears.
Looking up, he spots the last thing they want to see.
“Watch out, it’s fighter-bomber!”
“Men to battlestations! Prepare to engage!”
“Alarm!!”

Lt. Sellars spots a U-boat

Up in the distance inside an American TBM1-C bomber Lieutenant Jimmie J. Sellars scans the waters.
A dark outline sits in the waves.
It is completely unrecognizable, but Sellars knows the region.
That’s no island.
“That’s a submarine.”
“Hold fire, maybe it hasn’t seen us.”
“It saw us!”
“Hold!”
“It’s not lining up an attack run. Hold.”
“Should we submerge? It could’ve scouted us.”
Seehausen is torn.
Caution would indicate them to submerge and escape,
but they don’t have many days of diesel left and their diving equipment needs spare parts.
If they miss this ressupply there’s no guarantee they can make it home.
“We must stay surfaced to look out for the supply ship.
It’s critical.”
In the sky, Sellars flies away broadcasting every detail of the submarine.
The message is received on the USS Buckley just 20 miles away.
“They found it.
Scout describes it sailing in circles,
perhaps waiting for that other sub our boys sank the other day.”
Commander Brent Abel grins at the news.

USS Buckley starts the hunt

“Prepare for battle! Engines to flank speed!
Heading 350! Let’s make all haste.”
Just 40 minutes later the USS Buckley approaches its target,
guided along by Sellars in the sky.
“Anything on the radar?”
“Negative, sir.”
“They should be here somewhere…”
“Detection bearing 335. 14,000 yards.”
Abel scours the waves
but sees nothing but darkness.
If he can’t find it, how will his gunners hit the damn thing?
He lowers his binoculars and looks west.
The moon is big and low over the horizon, casting a long and beautiful reflection across the waves.
He gets an idea.
“Heading 340, let’s put that sub to our west.”

The destroyer escort is spotted

On the German U-boat lookouts finally notice the ship in the distance.
“Ship south!”
“What kind?”
“Unknown, too dark.”
“Should we hail them?”
“Negative, we are in no position to fight.
if they’re American. Full alert and maintain stealth,
radio silence, passive sonar only.”
Two vessels continue to get closer.
Abel watches the sea throughout,
finally managing to barely spot the shape of the submarine in the waves.
But still, he holds fire.
Meanwhile, aboard the U-66 they watch the unknown ship getting ever closer.
“They must have seen us already.”
“Launch identification flares.”
“No reply, sir.”
Chills travel down the spine of everyone gathered.
It’s clear now.
They’re not friendly.
“Heading 010. Stern torpedoes ready to fire.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Can we submerge?”
“With our sticky valves, it would take 15 minutes.”
“Then forget it. Keep the men on the guns.”
It’s a disaster, but they’re determined to fight.
Alarms blare within the U-boat.
Deep within the vessel, 21-inch torpedoes are locked and loaded.
“Fire!”
Back at USS Buckley Commander Abel finally sees his elusive prey enter the moon’s reflection,
the invisible ghost is now clear as day.
“Heading 260. Get the range.”
“Yes, sir!”
The helmsman turns hard to port,
aiming the destroyer escort straight towards the enemy.
But little does anyone in the bridge know that outside a torpedo sails right by
where the ship would’ve been if it hadn’t changed course.
“Torpedo missed!”
“Open fire with all the guns!”

U-66 starts shooting

Muzzle flashes shine from the enemy submarine. Tracers fly towards the American ship.
Without skipping a beat Commander Abel gives the order
“Open fire!”
to unleash their own guns.
20mm, 40mm and 3-inch guns open fire simultaneously,
launching a storm of lead at the Germans.

U-66 is hit by enemy fire

The rounds slam straight onto U-66’s deck,
Seehausen’s post is rocked by heavy fire, but the armor holds.
“We’ve been hit!”
“Get me a damage report and keep firing!”
In the air, Sellars radios updates of the battle to the battlegroup.
“Buckley has opened fire — sub is returning fire.”
“Boy, I have never before seen such concentration!
Buckley is cutting hell out of the conning tower!”
The German gunners brave the incoming shells, holding position and fighting back with all they have.
But in the dark and the chaos they aim far too high, their courage reaping no rewards.
One by one, they fall, and the guns lay quiet.
Looking on with his binoculars, Commander Abel sees the submarine about to leave the moon’s reflection.

Cpt. Abel: “Check fire”

“Check fire, check fire. Don’t waste ammunition while we can’t see.
Heading 180.”
The shelling pauses at a good time for U-66.
Injured men retreat into the hatches and are replaced by fresh crew.
This is their chance.
AA guns open up on the destroyer escort and shells streak across the sky,
The U-boat gunners try to adjust low,
but estimating the range of a dark object on a dark background proves next to impossible,
The American storm of fire resumes in full force,
the whole broadside of the destroyer escort unleashing its many guns upon the submarine.
The U-boat gun crews bravely continue to fire despite completely lacking protection,
loading and firing as bullets crash all around them.
The chaos becomes background noise as they work,
One of their rounds punches through the Buckley’s smokestack.
But Buckley’s weapons pummel the enemy into submission, the forecastle getting shredded.
All throughout Seehausen desperately calls evasive maneuvers.
The sub constantly turns left and right trying to dodge the brutal enemy fire,
but in the process they only slip further into Buckley’s grasp.
In U-66’s conning tower Captain Seehausen orders to turn around to face the enemy.
“Heading 210! Fire last torpedo!”
The torpedo launches out the tube, carrying with it the German crew’s last hope.
Commander Abel watches the submarine maneuver,
unsure of his enemy’s plan.
He shadows his every turn as his men continue to fire with exceptional marksmanship, scoring hit after hit.
Then his sonar officer calls.
“Torpedo starboard bow!”

The submarine fires a torpedo

“Rudder full starboard!”
USS Buckley turns hard to the right,
the crew on deck watching the ominous trail of bubbles coming closer.
At warship speeds the maneuver feels eternal, but they manage to escape,
the torpedo sailing harmlessly by.
“Torpedo missed!”
It’s devastating news. Their last chance is gone.
Defenseless, Seehausen sees no option but to make the dreaded order.
“Abandon ship.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Heading 030, evade enemy fire as long as we can.”
A couple of German sailors rush out of the hatches and dive into the sea, escaping the barrage of shells.
But in the dark Abel doesn’t notice and they continue mercilessly shelling the submarine.
The USS Buckley maneuvers to sail alongside the enemy as their gunners bracket it with endless gunfire.
The sub’s guns have long gone quiet.
But it still sails and as far as Abel knows
it is still trying to fight with torpedoes.
But he’s to have none of it.
“Ram it!”

Ram it!

The helmsman yanks on the wheel, turning the American destroyer escort right towards the U-boat.
On board the U-boat, the escaping crew is shocked to see 1,400 tons of ship barreling towards them.
“Evasive maneuvers! All to starboard!”
But it’s too late.
The destroyer escort slams into the submarine,
and leaning against it.
Soon after Germans emerge out of the hatches, originally intending to abandon ship as ordered,
they are shocked to find Buckley “on” their submarine.
Without orders or plan over a dozen Germans take out their personal weapons and decide to fire upon the Buckley’s crew.
Abel immediately realizes the risk they’ve put themselves into and issues an order not heard in over a century.
“Stand by to repel boarders!”
Moments later Germans start making the jump onto Buckley’s deck.

Germans board USS Buckley

The Americans immediately respond with their own sidearms, opening fire on the mass of climbing Germans.
Over a dozen Germans make it over the railing and a fistfight breaks out on deck.
Everything from spent casings to the officer’s hot coffee become weapons,
striking enemy sailors in the head and causing them to fall back.
It’s chaos.
Aware of the devolving situation Commander Abel does the only thing he can.
“Engines full reverse!”
USS Buckley starts sliding backwards across the submarine’s hull making an infernal noise.
Germans cling on to the side of Buckley and are forced to choose between dropping back onto the U-66
or being abandoned aboard the enemy ship.
An unknown sailor brings grenades and throws them at the sub.

The end of U-66

“Oh my God!”
Moments later a huge explosion rises from the sea, and everything falls silent.
USS Buckley circled the area for hours and picked up 36 survivors from the U-boat’s 62-man crew,
most of them having come out during the fight.
USS Buckley itself didn’t lose a single man, and Commander Abel would be awarded the Navy Cross for his leadership.
He survived the war.
Captain Gerhard Seehausen was never found and went down with his ship. He was just 26 years old.