German submarine U-843

U-843 first sailed from Kiel on 7 October 1943, arriving at Trondheim, Norway, on the 12th.[2] She commenced her first war patrol on 15 October, and headed out into the northern Atlantic. However, she had no successes, and finally arrived at Lorient, France, on 15 December after a voyage lasting 62 days.[4]

The U-boat left Lorient on 19 February 1944, bound for the Indian Ocean.[5] En route, on 8 April, she torpedoed and sank the unescorted 8,261 ton British merchant ship Nebraska, dispersed from Convoy OS-71, south-west of Ascension Island. Two crew members were lost, while the master, 55 crewmen, eight gunners, and two stowaways were rescued.[6] Oskar Herwarts surfaced U-843 and offered assistance to the three lifeboats launched from the Nebraska. This included charts torn from a chart atlas and gave position and course to steer to Brazil. Two lifeboats made landfall close to Recife months later. A third lifeboat was rescued by a British warship after several weeks.

An American B-24 bomber of US Navy Squadron VB-107 attacked the U-boat on 10 April, damaging its stern torpedo tubes. The U-boat abandoned its planned operations off Cape Town and continued into the Indian Ocean. U-843 arrived at the Japanese-controlled port of Batavia, Dutch East Indies, on 11 June after 114 days at sea.[5] The U-boat then sailed to Singapore on 13–15 June, remaining there until 1 November, before returning to Batavia.[2]

U-843 departed Batavia on 10 December 1944 with a cargo of zinc (according to a letter from Oskar Herwartz this cargo was not zinc but Wolfram),[7] On the night of 17 Dec., they were refueled by U-181.[8]^:220 They then sailed back across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape, and up through the Atlantic, arriving back in Bergen, Norway, on 3 April 1945.[9]

Leaving Bergen on 6 April 1945,[2] U-843 was sunk on 9 April, in the Kattegat, west of Gothenburg, in position 57°32′N 11°23′E, by rockets from a British Mosquito fighter-bomber of No. 235 Squadron RAF. Of the U-boat's crew of 56, only 12 survived.[1]

In 1958 the wreck was raised and transported to Moss in Norway, where it was scavenged due to its valuable contents such as tungsten in the keel, natural rubber and one metric ton of opium.[10] The wreckage was then broken up at Gothenburg.[1]

U-843 took part in five wolfpacks, namely.

• Körner (30 October – 2 November 1943)
• Tirpitz 1 (2–8 November 1943)
• Eisenhart 2 (9–15 November 1943)
• Schill 3 (18–22 November 1943)
• Weddigen (22 November – 7 December 1943)