Page 10 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 2 Winter 2013

8
MEMORIES
or three years in the 1950s, I served
on a destroyer, the USS Rodman.
Among my duties was that of
public information officer. In that role I
learned of Rodman’s tumultuous, globe-
circling World War II operations. It’s a
story worth sharing.
By 1944, the Allies had largely elimi-
nated German submarine activity in the
Atlantic. In the Mediterranean, however,
Admiral Karl D önitz, C. in C. of Hitler’s
submarine force, saw an opportunity to
counter the Allies’ offensives in North
Africa and Italy by attacking American
and British naval vessels supporting
the landings.
Between October 1941 and May 1944,
62 of D önitz’s command succeeded in
passing through the heavily defended
Straits of Gibraltar, the “Pillars of Hercules.”
In May 1943, U-616, commanded by
Oberleutnant Siegfried Koitschka, was
the 53rd to achieve safe passage.
When submerged, submarines were
powered by batteries, which needed to
be frequently re-charged. That meant sur-
facing to run diesel generators. Taking
advantage of this vulnerability, the Allied
tactic for eliminating U-boats was hot
pursuit with aircraft and destroyers, forc-
ing the enemy to remain at great depths
for long periods, which starved them of
air and battery power. When they had
no choice but to re-surface, planes and
destroyers were likely to pounce.
The German submarine force had the
highest mortality rate of any service, Allied
or Axis: 70 percent. Patrols like those con-
ducted by U-616 were essentially suicidal.
Koitschka’s eighth and last patrol
was off the coast of Algeria, where, on
May 14, 1944, he damaged two freighters
but was spotted by that convoy’s escort-
ing destroyers.
What followed was the longest pursuit
of a submarine in World War II. U-616’s
desperate objective was to cross the Medi-
terranean in order to attain the neutral
waters of Spain, where Francisco Franco
offered the German navy refuge.
Hounding Koitschka for 76 hours were
eight American destroyers, aided by British
aircraft. This posse had an ominous code
name: Operation Monstrous.
Captain Koitschka repeatedly slipped
away from his pursuers to surface, only
to be spotted and attacked before he could
re-charge batteries.
Finally, at 0715 on the morning of
May 17, its batteries exhausted, U-616
surfaced, surrounded by the destroyer
squadron of Operation Monstrous.
Koitschka decided to scuttle his boat and
abandon ship, rather than sacrifice his
command in a hopeless gun duel. USS
Rodman and USS Ellyson were closest,
and between them the entire U-616
crew was rescued. The war was over for
57 German submariners.
To quote Robert A. Bird, then a newly
minted ensign out of the Naval Academy
serving aboard Rodman: “Our com-
Preserving Outstanding
Gallantry
Naval veteran Sid Whelan shares
the story of a German U-boat crew,
the American destroyermen who put
them out of action, and mutual rec-
onciliation more than 40 years later.
By Sidney S. Whelan Jr. ’47
F
Bridge of the Rodman , sketch by Richard Van Zandt