Qualla: German Submarine U-759

German Submarine U-759: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Forty-seven men sailed out of Lorient, France, on June 7, 1943, and none of them came home. Their submarine, U-759, was a Type VIIC U-boat—the workhorse of the German Kriegsmarine—and their mission took them across the Atlantic to the warm, deceptively calm waters of the Caribbean Sea. For five weeks, they stalked Allied convoys in the shipping lanes between Haiti and Jamaica. They sank two merchant ships and escaped a pursuing American destroyer. Then, on July 15, their luck ran out somewhere northwest of Haiti, and U-759 went to the bottom with her entire crew.

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German Submarine U-759: Built for the Atlantic War

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

U-759 was laid down on November 15, 1940, at the Kriegsmarinewerft shipyard in Wilhelmshaven, one of hundreds of Type VIIC boats rolling off German production lines as the Battle of the Atlantic intensified. She was launched on May 30, 1942, and commissioned on August 15 of that ...

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German Submarine U-759: Caribbean Hunting Ground

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

U-759 left the submarine base at Lorient on June 7, 1943, heading west across the Atlantic toward the Caribbean. The warm waters around Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba were a favored hunting ground for German submarines—merchant convoys funneled through narrow passages, and the islands ...

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German Submarine U-759: Two Ships in Two Days

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Two days later, on July 7, U-759 struck again. This time the target was the Dutch cargo ship Poelau Roebiah, a much larger vessel at 9,251 gross register tons, traveling in convoy TAG-70 east of Jamaica. Friedrich's torpedo found its mark, and the Poelau Roebiah began to sink. Of...

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German Submarine U-759: Lost with All Hands

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

That luck did not hold. On July 15, 1943, barely a week after sinking the Poelau Roebiah, U-759 was caught on the surface by an American PBM Mariner patrol aircraft from Squadron VP-32. The flying boat attacked with depth charges in the waters northwest of Haiti, at approximately...

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