German submarine U-156 (1941)

Unterseeboot 156 or U-Boat 156, A Type IXC class of German Type IX submarine. The keel for this boat was laid October 11, 1940 at the AG Weser, Bremen, Germany. She was commissioned on September 4, 1941 under the command of Capt. Werner Hartenstein (Knights Cross) and took part in 5 patrols which included the attack on shipping and the refinery on the island of Aruba as well as the sinking of the ocean liner RMS Laconia (1921) west of Africa.

During 5 patrols U-156 sank 20 ships for a total of 97,205 tons, 3 ships were damaged for a total of 18,811 tons and one warship was damaged for a total of 1,190 tons. Only one crewman was lost due to action with the enemy. He was Matrosengefreiter (translated as "Seaman Corporal", and equivalent to an Able Seaman or Leading Seaman) Heinrich Bussinger. He was killed when the deck cannon he was manning exploded. This explosion occurred because the cap in the end of the gun, that prevented water from entering the barrel, was not removed before the gun was fired, thus causing the gun barrel to explode. This occurred at the beginning of the attack on the Lago Oil & Transport Co. Ltd. refinery in Aruba. It was this freak accident that saved what was then the world’s largest refinery. Gunnery Officer Dietrich von dem Borne lost his right leg in the explosion. He was taken below; the boat submerged and left the waters off the coast of Aruba. Von dem Borne was put ashore on the island of Martinique for medical treatment and survived the war. U-156 was sunk east of the island of Barbados by depth charges dropped from a PBY Catalina (VP-53/P-1) on March 6, 1943. All 53 hands were lost.