Bismarck Sea, October 1st, 1944:
U-183 under Kapitänleutnant Fritz Schneewind had left Penang for patrol approximately two weeks ago.
He had received orders to patrol just as refuelling at Manila was complete. The orders were to patrol the Bismarck Sea, then the Coral Sea and lastly the area off the eastern coast of Australia, the Tasman Sea before returning to Penang.
The boat was considered a dinosaur within the German navy. Most type VII and IX boats had been decommissioned, as they were regarded to be obsolete. In the Black Sea, the Type II boats were still used with some success, but they were about to be replaced by Type XXIII boats as well. Here, on the other side of the world, such a replacement was not possible so the crews had to rely on the boats already present. They were U-168, U-183, U-188, U-510 and U-532 of the first wave and U-181, U-196, U-198, U-537, U-859, U-860, U-1064 and U-843 of the second wave. U-490 had been recalled.
Boats already en route had been given strict orders not to use Enigma and to avoid all contact with enemy warships. Although not forbidden it was clear, the boats should not attack merchant convoys or escorted vessels. These measures led them safely to the Indian Ocean, where they finally, after great difficulties, were able to rendezvous with the German supply ships Bogota and Quito. These supply difficulties were later solved by regular drops from UT German long range transport aircraft.
UT Germany had decided to assist the Japanese thus decided to upgrade the boats of Gruppe Monsun. U-183 under Schneewind was the first boat to sortie. It had upgraded radar, sonar and had Stinger SAMs onboard for air defence.
So far they had encountered little in way of enemy activity, no vessels were spotted, except for two small sailing vessels. When he was about to give the order to continue to the Coral Sea, he received news that a ship was detected on their radar. He immediately made his way to the bridge and gave orders to intercept the detected vessel.
It was the SS Robert J. Walker, carrying ammunition for the US fleet to Eniwetok atoll. Engine troubles had led the master to miss the escorts. He had been ordered to go ahead alone.
For Schneewind the ship was an ideal and easy target. A ship sailing at 8 knots in a straight unadjusted course, no escorts, no aircraft in sight. He did have suspicions of this being a trap. Taking the plunge he nevertheless had four torpedoes fired at the ship and then dived. After three minutes he heard a torpedo hit and then felt the submarine shudder from a tremendous explosion. He didn't dare look at the aftermath, the ship was likely destroyed. U-183 quickly left the area after that.
The next day a PBY Catalina flying boat spotted the debris of a ship. Eventually, the USS Fletcher arrived to only find debris that they thought to be that of the SS Robert J. Walker. As there were no signs of an attack or break up due to weather, they considered the loss to be a tragic accident with the ship's cargo.
U-183 avoided detection once more and moved on to patrol the Coral Sea a few days later. As there were no suitable targets available Schneewind continued onwards to waters off the Eastern Coast of Australia, where he finally detected a group of warships. His boat carried four DM2A3 Seehecht torpedoes, he fired two of them on the cruiser, which was escorted by about six destroyers. As the torpedoes were wire-guided, they hit HMAS Australia, which was underway to join the Allied fleet at Eniwetok. Both torpedoes exploded below the rump of the ship. This caused her to literally jump out of the water and then break in three soon after. The escorts looked for a submarine in the vicinity but found none. U-183 was too far out and had already changed course.
As the Australian waters had become a bit too "hot", Schneewind decided to patrol off New Zealand. There he met a small convoy off Auckland. He fired a single T-11 homing torpedo at the single escort, HMNZS Arabis, and then three at the three escorted ships. The corvette sank quickly and so did one of the freighters, but the others were still afloat. So he turned and used his aft tubes to fire a coup de grâce at both. Both hit and he left again. All three freighters were sunk.
Schneewind turned west and went back to the Tasman Sea area. There he sank three further ships. He narrowly avoided detection several times and finally arrived at Penang the day before Christmas.
This was the first and most successful sortie of a Uboat into the Pacific Ocean in 1944. The other, by U-860, was less successful, with two ships sunk, the boat detected and eventually sunk. No casualties with all the crew escaping safely and becoming prisoners of war.
