page_title: German submarine U-176
section_title: Sinking
hierarchical_section_title: German submarine U-176 / Service history / 3rd patrol / Sinking
caption_attribution_description: English: National Archives and Record Administration,(NARA) en Adelphi Road Washington Ship Yard Record Relating to U-boat Warfare, 1939-1945 Adelphy Road, College, Park, MD. USA
context_page_description: German submarine U-176 was a Type IXC U-boat in Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.
  Built at the DeSchiMAG AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, she was laid down on 6 February 1941, launched on 12 September and commissioned on 15 December, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Reiner Dierksen.
  U-176 served with the 4. Unterseebootsflotille while training, and from 1 August 1942 with the 10th U-boat Flotilla, a long-range operations unit. U-176 completed three patrols, sinking 11 ships totalling 53,307 gross register tons before she was sunk off Cayo Blanquizal by the Cuban Navy on 15 May 1943.
context_section_description: On 15 May, the Cuban merchant ship Camagüey, and the Honduran Hanks, both loaded with sugar, sailed from Sagua La Grande, bound for Havana, escorted by the Cuban submarine chasers CS-11, CS-12, and CS-13. At 17:15 hours, a U.S. Navy Kingfisher aircraft from squadron VS-62 operating from Cuba spotted U-176 at 23°21′N 80°18′W and dropped a smoke float to mark her position about one and a half miles astern of the convoy. CS-13 located the U-boat with her sonar, attacked with depth charges and sank U-176.
  On 7 January 1944 K.Kapt.. Reiner Dierksen was posthumously awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold.
  CS-13 was commanded by the Cuban Navy's Alférez de Fragata, Mario Ramirez Delgado commanding, the only Cuban national to sink a U-boat during World War II. In 1946, Delgado, promoted to Lieutenant, was awarded the Orden del Mérito Naval con Distantivo Rojo (Meritorious Naval Service Order with Red Badge). Rear Admiral Samuel E. Morison, official historian of the US Navy, recognized his success in his work History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, where he also praised the ability and efficiency of the Cuban seamen.
  The CS-13 patrol boat, commanded by Second Lieutenant Mario Ramirez Delgado, turned toward the gas, made good contact through the sonar and launched two perfect attacks with deep charges which annihilated the U-176. This was the only successful attack against a submarine carried out by a surface unit smaller than a PCE [Patrol Craft Escort] of 180 feet. Thus, the sinking is properly considered with great pride by the small but efficient Cuban Navy.
  Also present was Norberto Collado Abreu, who later found fame as the pilot of Granma, the yacht which brought Fidel Castro back to Cuba to restart the Cuban Revolution.
caption: US Navy report of the attack on U-176
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