USS Gustafson (DE-182) - Sinking of U-Boat U-857

Sinking of U-Boat U-857

Gustafson departed New York on 22 January 1945 for anti-submarine warfare refresher training out of Key West, Florida. From there she proceeded in the escort of a slow convoy to Trinidad and ports of South America. She returned north in March and was stationed at Casco Bay as German submarine U-857 apparently moved into the Gulf of Maine. A torpedo attack that damaged the tanker Template:SS Atlantic States just north of Cape Cod on 5 April 1945 alerted the U.S. Navy that a U-boat was operating in American waters (the attack was later attributed to the U-857). Units of Escort Division 30, under the command of Commander Ralph R. Curry, USCG, had been undergoing refresher training at Casco Bay when Allied warships were ordered to form a "hunter-killer" group to search for the U-boat that made the attack on the tanker.

The hunter-killer group consisted of the U.S. Coast Guard-manned frigate USS Knoxville, from which Curry flew his pennant, along with another Coast Guard-manned frigate, Eugene, and two destroyer escorts, Gustafson and Micka (DE-176). The Gustafson located a sonar contact in the waters northeast of Cape Cod in the early morning of 7 April, and she attacked the target with hedgehogs, but these failed to produce an explosion. She then attacked again, and this time at least one charge was heard to explode on contact with a submerged object. Gustafson then launched four more hedgehog attacks without achieving any further explosions. Once daylight arrived, Gustafson's crew sighted a large oil slick.

After the end of World War II, the U.S. Navy reviewed captured German records and compared them with the reports of attacks conducted by Allied warships on possible German submarine contacts. The U-857 was reported missing by the German U-boat Command in April in the area of the attack by Gustafson. The U.S. Navy then gave credit for the sinking of U-857 to Gustafson. This sinking credit was included on this list because the Gustafson was part of a task force that was commanded by a U.S. Coast Guard officer.

However, the Foreign Documents Section of the Naval Historical Branch of the U.K. Ministry of Defense revoked this credit in April 1994, surmising that the Gustafson attack was "very probably directed against a nonsub target." Axel Niestlé, in his 'German U-boat Losses During World War II: Details of Destruction' (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1998) claims that "There is presently no known explanation for U-857's loss." Both citations are from Niestlé's U-boat Losses, page 238, note 145.

Gustafson trained out of New London, Connecticut, with submarines until 18 May 1945 when she put to sea as a unit of the escort for a convoy bound to Oran, Algeria. She returned to Charleston, South Carolina on 13 June 1945 and thence to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for refresher training.