German submarine U-154 (1941)

German submarine U-154 was a Type IXC U-boat of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine built for service during World War II. The keel for this boat was laid down on 21 September 1940 at the AG Weser yard in Bremen, Germany as 'werk' 996. She was launched on 21 April 1941 and commissioned on 2 August under the command of Korvettenkapitän Walter Kolle.

The submarine began her service life with training as part of the 4th U-boat Flotilla; moving on to the 2nd flotilla for operations. She conducted eight patrols, sinking ten ships.

She was sunk by American destroyers in July 1944.

1st patrol
The boat's first patrol began with her departure from Kiel on 7 February 1942. She headed for the Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland via the gap between the Faroe and Shetland Islands. She docked at Lorient in occupied France, on 1 March.

2nd patrol
For her second sortie, she sailed to the Caribbean, sinking the Como Rico on 4 April 1942, about 225 mi north of St. Juan, in Puerto Rico. Her success continued with the sinking of the Catahoula, the Delvalle, the Empire Amethyst and the Vineland, all near Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

3rd, 4th and 5th patrols
Her third patrol saw her cross the Atlantic once more. She sank the Tillie Lykes on 28 June 1942, about 100 mi south of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and the Lalita, using the deck gun, in the Yucatan Channel on 6 July.

One of the boat's victims on this, her fourth patrol, was the Nurmahal. She was sunk on 9 November 1942 300 mi east of Martinique "in less than thirty seconds." Another was the Tower Grange, sunk 250 mi off Cayenne in French Guiana.

Having made the short trip from Lorient to Brest, the submarine's fifth foray was her longest (109 days) and second most successful. Amongst many others, she attacked the Florida. Although the ship had her back broken on 28 May 1943, she was eventually repaired.

6th, 7th and 8th patrols and loss
She departed on patrol number six on 2 October 1943. U-154 was attacked by an unidentified PBY Catalina flying boat on 3 November; she was also twice attacked on the 22nd. None caused any damage. The boat returned to Lorient on 20 December.

She was then attacked on 13 March 1944, possibly by the US Navy patrol boat PC 469 north of the Panama Canal; only minor damage was sustained. She returned to France, again to Lorient, on 28 April.

U-154 was sunk by the US destroyers Inch and Frost northwest of Madeira on 3 July 1944.

Postscript
Oblt Oskar-Heinz Kusch, who had commanded the boat in 1943 and the first month of 1944 and successfully attacked three ships, was court-martialled and shot in 1944, having been reported by his first officer for "Wehrkraftzersetzzung" (sedition and defeatism). It was not until the 1990s that Kusch's legal record was wiped clean and a memorial to his memory was erected.