U-172 - Commander Carl Emmermann in the Caribbean, at the Cape and at Rio

When U-172, commanded by Carl Emmermann, left the port of Kiel on 22 April 1942, the second golden period of the German submarine arm was drawing to a close with the introduction of convoy systems by the Americans along their coastline.
Since the start of the conflict, the anti-submarine countermeasures put in place by the Allies had grown considerably: development of shipborne radar, multiplication of escort vessels and aircraft, decryption of U-boat radio messages… As a result, combat conditions had seriously deteriorated on the German side…

Yet in only four combat patrols, from May 1942 to September 1943, Carl Emmermann's U-172 would sink 26 vessels, surpassing 150,000 tons of Allied shipping destroyed.

U-172 thus ranks 15th among the U-boats with the highest number of confirmed results — an exceptional tally for that stage of the conflict. First and foremost because this submarine operated in particularly remote sectors where successes were still possible: the Caribbean for the first mission; the Cape in South Africa for the second, where it took part in a surprise attack in a zone where no U-boat had ventured before; the central Atlantic for the third mission, where two convoys were hunted in wolf-pack formation all the way to the African coast; and the coast of Brazil for the fourth, from which it was the only one of 7 U-boats engaged to return…

Furthermore, the commander was effective and greatly admired by his men: a crew bound closely to their leader, whom he carefully kept together from one mission to the next. At the end of his 4th combat mission, Carl Emmermann became the 25th commander of the submarine arm to be decorated with the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves.
He accepted a shore posting and became commander of the 6th Flotilla at Saint-Nazaire in early November 1943. U-172, which had already survived 12 air or sea attacks, set out on its 6th and final patrol…

The author, a specialist in U-boats, was granted access to the photographs of Commander Emmermann held at the U-Boot Archiv and to several photographs taken by war correspondent Helmut Berndt, enabling him to illustrate this remarkable commander's career with 250 exceptional, previously unpublished images. Drawing on the translation of his war diary, Commander Emmermann's own account and patrol sketches, follow U-172 on its missions in distant oceans…