Acting on intelligence gathered from Enigma decrypts a U.S. Navy hunter-killer group converged in the central Atlantic almost dead center between Venezuela and Senegal to hunt for two U-boats. U-1062 was returning from Penang and was to rendezvous with U-219 to resupply and the Allies had the information on the location and the date which the boats were to meet. The rendezvous was to be on September 28, 1944.

In the morning hours of that day two hunter-killer groups were converging in the central Atlantic. One of the groups, built around USS Mission Bay CVE-59, made a surface contact and dispatched aircraft to investigate. At 1735 (U.S. Navy time) Lt. (j.g.) Willis H. Brett, USNR, of VC-26 made an attack on a submerged target. I don't know the exact nature of the attack or if any results were observed.

At 1814 two aircraft of VC-6 were launched from the escort carrier USS Tripoli CVE-64 to search for the targets. At 1940 T-12, codename Tiger, sent the following message; "Do you have any Committee away from group?", the reply came two minutes later; "Negative, Committee all in formation".

A further message from T-12 came across the air; "I've got him, I've got him. He's shooting at me--am going in to make a run". This was the last transmission from T-12. The other aircraft, piloted by Lt. (j.g.) Joseph W. Steere, observed gunfire about 20 miles off to port, he banked his Avenger and headed toward the action. As he approached the scene Steere believed that the gunfire was coming from two surfaced U-boats because the trajectory of the fire was so low, he later determined that rockets from T-12 were the source of one of the points of fire.

At first he was driven off by AA fire, but he returned and conducted a rocket attack, the results of which he could not determine. He was soon joined by Lt. (j.g.) Douglas R. Hagood who was flying CAP (Combat Air Patrol) over the task group in a Grumman FM-2 Wildcat. Hagood made a strafing run firing about 500 rounds of .50 caliber bullets at the boat, again without clear results. (Although Steere later said that the conning tower "appeared to be thoroughly covered with .50 cal. from the fighter's guns".) The AA fire from the U-boat ceased and she began to submerge.

Steere made a second attack on the boat at 1958 dropping one depth bomb (a second failed to release), the crew of Hagood's aircraft reported that the bomb exploded along the starboard quarter of the submerging submarine. Steere circled around and made a third attack, this time with a mine, which he dropped at 2000, he also dropped a sonar buoy. Picking up submarine sounds Steere directed Lt. Smith in T-3, who had just arrived, to make an attack, which he did at 2057, however the mine Smith dropped failed to detonate. At 2105 Smith and Hagood were recalled while Steere remained in the area to direct aircraft from USS Mission Bay CVE-59 and two destroyer escorts to the location of the submerged target. However the destroyers could not get a good fix on the target due to some confusion with the sonar buoy signals and no further attacks were made.

Korvettenkapitän Walter Burghagen, commanding officer of U-219 later reported that he had been attacked by Skua aircraft, perhaps he had never seen an Avenger. He also reported that when he surfaced (2200 German time) that there was an oil slick off starboard bow and to port. It is possible that the oil was from U-1062, which may have been damaged in the attack by Lt (j.g.) Brett earlier. He was still under orders to refuel U-1062 so he remained in the area until Oct. 3. He reported that U-219 was again attacked on that date and was driven under, his batteries were empty so the boat drifted with the current. He claimed to have been submerged for 68 hours before breaking the surface.

U-219, the subject of the attack, got away, but had shot down T-12, this was the only combat victory for the boat and for Burghagen. The pilot and crew of T-12 "Tiger" were all killed, they were posthumously awarded the Air Medal. U-219 ended up at Jakarta, Indonesia and after Germany's defeat in May of 1945 was taken over by the Japanese and renamed I-505, ultimately she was sunk as a target on Feb. 3, 1946.

The other boat, U-1062, is thought to have been sunk on Sept. 30 by USS Fessenden DE-142, a story we will tell two days from now. (Sept. 30, 2013 Daily Event)