German submarine U - 552 German submarine " U - 552 " was a Type VIIC U - Boat built for the Nazi German Kriegsmarine for service during World War II . She was laid down on 1 December 1939 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg as ' werk ' 528 , launched on 14 September 1940 and went into service on 4 December 1940 . " U - 552 " was nicknamed the " Roter Teufel " ( " Red Devil " ) after its mascot of a grinning devil which was painted on the conning tower . She was one of the more successful of her class , operating for over three years of continual service and sinking or damaging 30 Allied ships with 164 , 276 tons sunk and 26 , 910 tons damaged . She was a member of 21 wolf pack s . " U - 552 " was involved in two controversial actions : in October 1941 she sank the USS " Reuben James " , the first US Navy warship to be lost in World War II ; this was at a time when the US was still officially neutral , and caused a diplomatic row . In April 1942 she sank the freighter SS David H . Atwater off the US seaboard in a particularly brutal attack , characterized as a naval atrocity . " U - 552 " had an unusually long service life , surviving to the end of World War II ; after evacuating from her French base during the spring of 1944 she operated on training duties in the Baltic Sea until 2 May 1945 , when her crew scuttled her to prevent her falling into enemy hands . Service history . Initial voyage to Helgoland . Following construction , which was completed on 4 December 1940 , " U - 552 " was given two months of working - up training , during which she prepared her crew and equipment for the operations ahead . She then sailed from Kiel on 13 February to Helgoland for her first official patrol , arriving there on 18 February 1941 . This port city was to remain " U - 552 " s home base until she was transferred to the occupied French port of St Nazaire in mid - March 1941 . First patrol . " U - 552 " s first official war patrol began on 18 February 1941 when she left Helgoland for a patrol in the North Sea and the North Atlantic south of Iceland . This first operation yielded one British tanker and one Icelandic trawler carrying fish . The British tanker , " Cadillac " , was sunk just north of Scotland on 1 March while the trawler was sunk just south of Iceland on 10 March . Following these victories , " U - 552 " headed back to St Nazaire . The remainder of her later patrols were all conducted from the French city , which gave her easy access to the Atlantic Ocean and allowed her more time at sea . Second patrol . " U - 552 " began her second war patrol on 7 April 1941 when she left her new home port of St Nazaire for the North Atlantic . For 30 days she searched the area of Ocean south of Iceland and West of Ireland for any Allied convoys . During this time she sank three British merchant vessels and damaged another for a total of 24 , 119 tones . Following her torpedoing of the British ship " Capulet " on 28 April , which only managed to damage the vessel , " U - 552 " was depth - charged in five separate attacks by two accompanying destroyers . After several hours , the U - boat managed to escape but was unable to pursue the convoy . After these attacks , " U - 552 " returned to St Nazaire on 6 May . Third patrol . " U - 552 " left St Nazaire for her third war patrol on 25 May 1941 . In 39 days , she travelled into the North Atlantic and sank three British vessels : the " Ainderby " on 10 June , the " Chinese Prince " on 12 June and the " Norfolk " on 18 June . During the attack on the " Norfolk " , " U - 552 " attempted to attack the remaining ships in the convoy but was forced to break off the attack due to the arrival of several of the convoy ' s escorts . All of these attacks occurred off the northwest coast of Ireland , and once " U - 552 " returned to St . Nazaire on 2 July 1941 she had amassed a total of 24 , 401 tonnes from the ships she had sunk . Fourth patrol . " U - 552 " s fourth patrol was much less successful than her previous three . Having left St Nazaire on 18 August , she preceded to head south into the waters off Portugal and Spain . It was here that she sank the Norwegian vessel , " Spind " . Following this sinking , " U - 552 " returned to St Nazaire on 26 August 1941 , after only nine days at sea . Fifth and sixth patrols . Her next two patrols all took her further into the Atlantic , where the danger was lessened , but so were the targets , with the result that she only hit three more cargo ships . This was also the time , during her final patrol of 1941 , that she sank the " Reuben James " , which was torpedoed on 30 October in controversial circumstances . Sinking of the " Reuben James " . On 31 October 1941 , the " Reuben James " was one of five destroyer s escorting convoy HX - 156 , close to the coast of Iceland , about west of the island . The " James " had just begun turning to investigate a strong direction - finder bearing when a torpedo fired from " U - 552 " struck her port side and caused an explosion in her forward magazine . The entire bow section of the destroyer was blown off as far back as the fourth funnel and sank immediately . The stern remained afloat for around five minutes before sinking ; unsecured depth charges compounded the damage , exploding as they sank and killing survivors in the water . One hundred and fifteen of her 160 - man crew were killed , including all the officers . The destroyer was the first US Navy warship to be sunk in World War II . The incident provoked a furious outburst in the United States , especially when Germany refused to apologize , instead countering that the destroyer was operating in what Germany considered to be a war zone and had suffered the consequences . The sinking of the " Reuben James " did not lead the US to declare war on Germany ; it did , however , provide a pretext to officially transfer the US Coast Guard from its peacetime role as an arm of the US Treasury Department to a wartime function as part of the US Navy . Congress also amended the Neutrality Act to permit the arming of US - registered merchant ships and authorized them to enter European waters for the first time since 1939 . Second happy time . In 1942 , again commanded by Erich Topp ( who would later become an admiral in the post - war Bundesmarine ) , " U - 552 " participated in the " Second Happy Time " ( Operation " Drumbeat " or " Paukenschlag " ) , during which German submarines had great success against unescorted American merchantmen sailing alone along the eastern seaboard of the US . " U - 552 " was particularly successful during this period , sinking 13 ships and damaging another in just three patrols in the first six months of 1942 . Two further patrols under Topp during the summer netted four more ships . However , in an attack against Convoy ON - 155 on 3 August 1942 , the boat was nearly sunk when she was caught on the surface by the Canadian corvette HMCS " Sackville " . The corvette machine - gunned the submarine and hit the conning tower with a four inch shell , causing severe damage and forcing Topp to return to base for repairs . " U - 552 " was badly damaged by heavy seas during another patrol and was put into port for repairs , during which Topp was promoted and replaced by a more cautious commander , Klaus Popp . Sinking of the " David H . Atwater " . The destruction of the SS " David H . Atwater " , in the Atlantic Ocean off Chincoteague , Virginia , was one of the more controversial actions of the Kriegsmarine during the Second World War , primarily due to the manner of the sinking . On the night of 2 April 1942 , at the height of the U - boat offensive against US shipping known as the ' Second Happy Time , the unarmed coastal steamer " David H . Atwater " was en route from Norfolk , Virginia to Fall River , Massachusetts , with a full load of 4 , 000 tons of coal . Around 21 : 00 , between Cape Charles and Cape Henlopen , the ship was ambushed by " U - 552 " , which had followed her submerged . The submarine surfaced about from the freighter and opened fire with her 88mm deck gun and machine guns without warning , one of her first shells destroying the bridge and killing all of the officers . In all , 93 rounds were fired from the deck gun , with 50 hits being recorded on the small freighter , which rapidly began to sink . As it did so , Topp directed his crewmen to continue firing , striking the " Atwater " s crewmen as they tried to man the lifeboats . When Captain Webster was hit , the crew abandoned attempts to launch the lifeboats and leapt into the sea . The first ship to arrive on the scene was the small Coast Guard Patrol Boat USS " CG - 218 " , which found a lifeboat holding three survivors and three bodies ; the survivors reported that they had dived overboard and swum to the boat . Next on the scene was the Coast Guard cutter USCGC " Legare " ( WPC - 144 ) , which had heard the gunfire and arrived just fifteen minutes later . The " Legare " found a second lifeboat with a body aboard ; the boat was discovered to have been riddled by gunfire , and lent strength to the widespread belief at the time that U - boats were deliberately murdering the survivors of ships they had sunk . The " Legare " landed the three survivors and four bodies at Chincoteague Island Coastguard Station , then returned to sea to search further . The destroyers USS " Noa " and " Herbert " were directed to the scene at 21 : 22 and arrived at 24 : 00 , but " U - 552 " had by then escaped the scene , going on to sink other vessels . Whether the attack on the liferafts was deliberate , or an unfortunate and unintended consequence of a nighttime attack has been heavily debated . Some of the crew of " U - 552 " survived the war , and her captain , Erich Topp , later became an Admiral in the post - war Bundesmarine . No charges were brought against Topp , as happened to Helmuth von Ruckteschell , captain of the raider " Widder " for a similar offence . Later patrols . " U - 552 " had less success in later years , as did the U - boat force in general , as U - boats failed to keep ahead of the rapidly increasing numbers and capabilities of Allied anti - submarine efforts . She was transferred to operations off the Spanish , Portuguese and African coasts , which were nearer to base and less dangerous than the newly reorganized defenses of the United States , where she attempted to sink troopships during Operation Torch . Whilst on this duty , Topp sank a small British minesweeper and later a cargo ship , but failed to enter the Straits of Gibraltar or seriously threaten the landings . During 1943 , " U - 552 " was increasingly unable to serve effectively against the well - prepared and organized Allied convoy system , a fact reflected by her failure to sink a single ship during her two patrols into the North Atlantic Ocean . During one of these , a Royal Air Force B - 24 Liberator aircraft spotted her and she was seriously damaged by depth charges , which necessitated four months ' repairs . In 1944 she had a single patrol , but was unable to close with or threaten any Allied convoys , and so was withdrawn to Germany in April 1944 for use as a training vessl in the 22nd U - boat Flotilla , a role she fulfilled until 2 May 1945 , when her crew scuttled her in Wilhelmshaven bay to prevent her capture .