German submarine U-552 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during World War II. She was laid down on 1 December 1939 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg as yard number 528, launched on 14 September 1940, and went into service on 4 December 1940. U-552 was nicknamed the Roter Teufel after her mascot of a grinning devil, which was painted on the conning tower. She was one of the more successful of her class, operating for over three years of continual service and sinking or damaging 35 Allied ships with 164,276 GRT and 1,190 tons sunk and 26,910 GRT damaged. She was a member of 21 wolf packs.
The Second Happy Time was a phase in the Battle of the Atlantic during which Axis submarines attacked merchant shipping and Allied naval vessels along the east coast of North America. The First Happy Time was in 1940–1941 in the North Atlantic and North Sea. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini declared war on the United States on 11 December 1941, and as a result their navies could begin the Second Happy Time.
MV San Demetrio was a British motor tanker, notable for her service during the Second World War. She was built in 1938 for the Eagle Oil and Shipping Company. In 1940 she was damaged by enemy action in mid-Atlantic, abandoned by her crew but later re-boarded and successfully brought into harbour. She was the subject of a 1943 feature film, San Demetrio London, one of the few films that recognised the heroism of the UK Merchant Navy crews during the War.
German submarine U-511 was a Type IXC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 21 February 1941 at the Deutsche Werft yard in Hamburg as yard number 307, launched on 22 September 1941 and commissioned on 8 December 1941 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Friedrich Steinhoff.
German submarine U-96 was a Type VIIC U-boat of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) during World War II. It was made famous after the war in Lothar-Günther Buchheim's 1973 bestselling novel Das Boot and the 1981 Oscar-nominated film adaptation of the same name, both based on his experience on the submarine as a war correspondent in 1941.
German submarine U-515 was a Type IXC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine built for service during World War II. She was commissioned on 21 February 1942 and sunk on 9 April 1944. U-515 completed seven operational patrols and sank 23 ships, badly damaged two ships which later sank, and damaged two additional ships.
MV Atheltemplar was a motor tanker built by Lithgows, Port Glasgow. She was launched on 15 April 1930, registered in Liverpool and operated by the United Molasses Co Ltd of London. She was transferred to Athel Lines on 1 January 1940.
SS British Consul was a tanker built by Sir James Laing & Sons Ltd., Sunderland in 1924 and operated by the British Tanker Company.
MV British Prudence was a tanker built by Sir James Laing & Sons Ltd. of Sunderland in 1939 and operated by the British Tanker Company. A U-boat sank her in 1942 off the coast of Newfoundland. She was a victim of the Second Happy Time: the Kriegsmarine's Operation Drumbeat to sink Allied merchant shipping in the Western Atlantic
An Empire ship is a merchant ship that was given a name beginning with "Empire" in the service of the Government of the United Kingdom during and after World War II. Most were used by the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT), which owned them and contracted their operation to various shipping companies of the British Merchant Navy.
German submarine U-203 was a German Type VIIC submarine U-boat built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during World War II.
Below is the timeline of maritime events during the Emergency,. This period was referred to as The Long Watch by Irish Mariners. This list is of events which affected the Irish Mercantile Marine, other ships carrying Irish exports or imports, and events near the Irish coast.
The Torpedo Alley, or Torpedo Junction, off North Carolina, is one of the graveyards of the Atlantic Ocean, named for the high number of attacks on Allied shipping by German U-boats in World War II. Almost 400 ships were sunk, mostly during the Second Happy Time in 1942, and over 5,000 people were killed, many of whom were civilians and merchant sailors. Torpedo Alley encompassed the area surrounding the Outer Banks, including Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras.
British Corporal was a 6,972 GRT tanker that was built in 1922 by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow, Northumberland, United Kingdom. She was built for the British Tanker Company.
German submarine U-87 was a Type VIIB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 18 April 1940 at the Flender Werke (yard) at Lübeck as yard number 283 and launched on 21 June 1941. She was commissioned on 21 June under the command of Kapitänleutnant Joachim Berger. U-87 trained with 6th U-boat Flotilla until 1 December 1941, when she was put on front-line service.
Eagle Oil and Shipping Company was a United Kingdom merchant shipping company that operated oil tankers between the Gulf of Mexico and the UK. Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray founded it as the Eagle Oil Transport Company in 1912 and sold it to Royal Dutch Shell in 1919. It was renamed Eagle Oil and Shipping Company in about 1930, and remained a separate company within the Royal Dutch Shell group until it was absorbed in 1959.
Convoy TM 1 was the code name for an Allied convoy during the Second World War. Nine tankers, escorted by Royal Navy warships, attempted to reach Gibraltar from Trinidad. The convoy was attacked by a U-boat wolf pack in the central Atlantic Ocean, and most of the merchant vessels were sunk. This was one of the most successful attacks on Allied supply convoys throughout the entire war. The convoy was defended by the destroyer HMS Havelock, and three Flower-class corvettes, HMS Godetia, HMS Pimpernel and HMS Saxifrage. Seven tankers were sunk during the attacks, two surviving to reach Gibraltar. Two U-boats were damaged during the attacks.
MV B. P. Newton was a Norwegian tanker built in 1940, and sunk by German submarine off South America in July 1943.
MV Imperial Transport was an oil tanker built in the early 1930s for the Houlder Line. During World War II, the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine in early 1940 and broke in half. The stern section was saved and a new forward half was built and mated to the ship, which returned to service in 1941. Imperial Transport was torpedoed again in early 1942, but her crew was able to get her back to port. She was repaired in the United States and was back in service by early 1943. The ship was sold to a Norwegian company in 1947, sold again two years later and finally scrapped, in 1958.
Byron D. Benson was a steam tanker built in 1920–1921 by Oscar Daniels Shipbuilding Co. of Tampa for Tide Water Oil Co., a subsidiary of Standard Oil, with intention of operating between New York and oil-producing ports of the southern United States and Mexico. The ship was named after Byron D. Benson, founder of Tide Water Pipe Co.
