U-185

The Type IXC boat U-185 left Bordeaux on 9 June 1943 under the command of Kapitanleutnant August Maus. Five days later it encountered the Type VIIC boat U-564 in the Bay of Biscay, which had been damaged the day before by Sunderland G.R.Mk.111 (DV967) of No.228 Sqd flown by Flight Lieutenant L.B.Lee from Pembroke Dock, Wales, but had succeeded in shooting down the flying boat with the loss of the crew. This damaged U-boat was being attacked by Whitley G.R.V (BD220) of No.10 Operational Training Unit, flown by Sergeant A.J.Benson from St Eval, Cornwall, but the aircraft was hit by the combined fire from the two U-boats. It turned for home but was forced to ditch; all five crew members were picked up by aFrench fishing boat and taken into captivity. U-564 sank with the loss of twenty-eight crew members, but eighteen men were rescued by U-185, including the commander, and transferred to two German destroyers. Continuing its cruise, U-185 sank five merchant vessels and damged another. On 11 August 1943 it shot down an American Liberator of Anti-submarine Squadron VP-107, while rescuing survivors from the Type VIIC Boat U-604, which had been crippled by this Liberator and an American destroyer. The end came on 24 August 1943, as shown here. It was about 800 miles south-west of the Azores when it was bombed by a TBF-1 Avenger flown by Lieutenant R.P Williams and strafed by an F4F Wildcat flown by Lieutenant M.G. O'Neill, both from Composite Squadron VC-13 based on the escort carrier USS Core commanded by Captain N.B. Greer. Twenty-nine men from U-185 and fourteen from U-604 died in this attack, and two more died among the survivors picked up by rhe USS Core. Kapitanleutnant Maus was among those who survived to become prisoners of war. Ref: ADM 199/1408