1943
The war is turning to the allies side. Less merchant shipping is being sunk, and more escorts are becoming available. So much, that, Anerican shipyards were building ships faster than the Germans could sink them. Two Liberty ships in a dock on the east coast took just four days from keel to complete. Somewhere, 300 miles off Newfoundland, Canada, German Submarine U-53 was lurking. A few days later, a Canadian merchantman stumbled upon her and was attacked. U-53 surfaced and manned the deck gun. But her captain made a fatal mistake: He thought this merchantman was an actual merchant : in reality, it was an armed tugboat. And it was not Canadian. U-53s men could make out the titles of the ship: USS Apache. She was so close to the submarine she had no time to dive. Apache goes in for a ram, but at the last second U-53's skipper orders hard to port and just misses Apaches dangerous spinning propeller. Apache fires a single shot from her 3/50" gun before U-53 crash dives. Apache makes a hasty run for it, and radios in that a German sub is near her position. 3 days later, a task group containing USS Bogue rushes in. A routine F4F wildcat patrol is launched to search for anything. It spots nothing. An hour later, it's deployed again to where they think the uboat may be hiding. The wildcats catch a glimpse of what looked like a metal broom bobbing up and down. The wildcats zoom in, fire their guns, and drop 100 lb bombs. This does nothing to the object. There is silence for another 3 hours. U-53 surfaces and sees 3 small flat tops dead ahead.
The battle is about to begin.
U-53 fires a spread of 4 torpedoes at the lead flattop: the famous USS Bogue. The experienced watchman onboard Bogue spot the torpedo trail and take evasive action.
Canadian escort HMCS Acanthus spots the scope and fires. The Germans now catch the attention of the escort. The escorts just 1000 meters away. But the skipper, wants to see his torpedoes hit home.
Only one of the four torpedoes fired hits the Bogue, but it's enough to have the crew working day and night to patch it up. The angry Americans now launch all their bombs with an assortment of mixed wildcat fighters as well.
One TBM avenger pinpoints the location of the uboat and drops its depth charges. Unfortunately they all miss.
Another avenger sweeps in, dempth charges ready. The pilot drops, and, sure enough, they hit and penetrate the thin hull of the submarine.
U-53 shudders, then her hull implodes with water, killing all men onboard.
The task force returns home for repairs, having claimed their 6th uboat kill.
