U-Boat Name and ID Number U-74 Stachelrochen
Patrol #17
FKpt – Volkhard Schreiber
Patrol Assignment Atlantic
Successful Patrol Yes
Number of Freighters Sank 3
Number of Tankers Sank 2
Number of Capital Ships Sank 0
Total Tonnage Destroyed 38,800
Ships Damaged Cherokee, Ensis and
Empire HunterShips Destroyed British Steam Tanker of 8,200t –
T.J.Williams, British Steam Merchant of 3,700t –
Kyleglen, British Steam Merchant of 9,600t –
Protesilaus, British Steam Tanker of 10,100t –
Napier Star and American Steam Merchant of 7,200t –
William C Bryant
Refit Time Standard
Award Requests None
Crew Names: Crew Status: EliteFKpt Volkhard Schreiber
1WO Goetzpeter Staufenbiel
2WO Adam Luedtke
2WO - EXPERTLI (Eng) Reinhold Kraft
Doctor Herrmann Rieger
Doctor - ExperteU-74 (Stachelrochen) enters La Rochelle on 28th February with five victory pennants flying from her conning tower.We were the first to leave base for this patrol on the 1st February, just a few minutes into the first day of February and the crew were happy that we had left early, as this was our opportunity to trial the new torpedoes in the Atlantic. We traversed the Bay of Biscay without incident and had no contact with the enemy on transit to the patrol area.
On the morning of the 6th February we arrived at our patrol area and this winter morning met us with a less than calm sea and snow in the air.
The following morning, contact was made with an unescorted tanker, which was later identified as the
T.J.Williams. With the gun crew readied, the British Steam Tanker was attacked with the deck gun, firing a full salvo until she sank.
During the evening of the 10th there was contact made with another submarine. It was only due to the skill of our radio operator that a disaster was averted and the solution I plotted was not used, otherwise we may well have sunk one of our boats from another flotilla. I consider it a ‘
Hals und Beinbruch’ gift.
Four days later contact was made with a convoy in the early hours of the afternoon. We tracked the convoy until nightfall and made our attack. At long range, a full spread from the bow tubes was fired. One of the new G7a FaT l torpedoes missed its target and failed to hit anything else after following its pattern. One eel hit the
Kyleglen portside amidships and it sank quickly by the stern. The
Protesilaus was hit by both torpedoes, which caused it to settle by the stern and slow to a stop. With the BOLD decoy fired, the escort found it difficult to get a bearing and we remained undetected. I gave the order to follow the crippled Steam Merchant and remain at long range as it was still escorted. I fired the electric eel from the aft tube, but to no avail as we listened to the sound of silence, when there should have been contact and which was reciprocated to the escort above, as they could not find us. Once again we circled the
Protesilaus, but this time we were able to get to close range, as the escort had moved off. Once surfaced, the gun crew fired off a full salvo and whilst the first half was doing very little, the second half of the salvo finished her off.
It was just less than a week, before we made contact with another convoy. Mid morning on the 19th February a large convoy was spotted, which we stalked till evening. We got into position at long range, surfaced, fired a full spread of torpedoes, submerged and fired off the BOLD decoy. Both the
Cherokee and the
Ensis were hit with a G7a Fat l, but this caused them to slow only. The
Napier Star was hit amidships by two of the three torpedoes and quickly sank; the other was a dud. It was very close, but we managed to avoid detection and stay on the tail of the convoy.
After an hour, we had two new targets to focus upon; the small freighter was ignored. Submerged and at long range, the final four torpedoes were fired. One of two torpedoes hit the
Empire Hudson, which started listing, but it was clear it wasn’t going to sink. The brace aimed at the American Steam Merchant both hit and detonated and I saw the
William C Bryant sink beneath the waves as I gave the order to fire the last BOLD canister from our u-boat. The escorts were looking in the wrong area and we were not detected. We followed the damaged freighter hoping she would be unescorted now and be able to finish her off with the last of the ammo from the deck gun, but lady luck had decided enough was enough and the escort remained with the
Empire Hudson, which would survive to haul its cargo another day. With no means to attack, we left the convoy and headed towards our patrol departure point.
We continued with our patrol for the next few days, but there were no unescorted ships to attack.
We made no further contacts and there was no further engagement with enemy ships or planes. We continued on our way back to the Bay of Biscay.
The rest of the passage to La Rochelle was uneventful and we arrived back at base on the morning of 28th February 1943
After shore leave and re-supply, U-74 will be ready to resume patrol in April.
FKpt Volkhard Schreiber