Please help: Point of the 'Coup de Grace'

There were (are) Ocean Going Tugs just for that purpose. It happened fairly often during the war, where merchants were struck by U boats, abandoned but, didnt sink and later got salvaged. There was movie in the 50s with William Holden and Sophia Loren, called The Key, Holden's character plays a Salvage Tug Captain that does just this.

I used to have a USN Salvage Manual that mentions how many vessels were salvaged afloat during WW2, the numbers were in the high hundreds, though not all were necessarily abandoned due to U Boat damage, most were.

I would add, its also very bad luck. Some old school trains of thought think it a curse. In the Age of Sail you either sank your opponent or you took the vessel as a prize. Leaving it adrift, was akin to creating a ghost that would always follow you and give bad luck or worse. In the 19th and even into the early 20th Century, there were literally hundred of derelicts floating around the Atlantic alone. Why did they let them just keep drifting? Well there were of course efforts to salvage them, not only for safety but for profit. But most people didnt want to touch them, because they considered ghost ships.

The cases you are referring to where the Crew used their 88... Was on ships that were independent steaming, not part of an escorted convoy. Also the ships were generally smaller. Even though a merchant vessel and not up to military specs for damage control etc... it takes a lot of deck gun fire to sink a large vessel.

This vessel was part of a Convoy. It may have been abandoned and left behind... it may be that the convoy sailed on to clear the danger area and once past that, an escort or two may double back to look for survivors. Not likely but the U-boat crew has no way of knowing. Using the Deck gun Means an extended and vulnerable time on the surface where they would be announcing their position to any escorts that might be nearby with every shot they take.

A single torpedo in this case is the safer bet, especially considering that so far they have had few opportunities to be expending any eels otherwise.


I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water!

Give a bit of way for the film media to 'the truth'
A torpedo-blast looks much better on film than than that from a lousy 88-mm shell. I don't know how much explosives a 88-mm shell contained. But certainly much less than the torpedoes (appr. 280 kgs).
The 'Special Effects Manager had wanted a big blast for a relatively small sum. And they tell that he used a big portion of the money for blasts in that scene.
Whether it is likely or not that they would use a torpedo to sink a severely damaged ship - that blast really looks magnificent. A bit like the end scene of Leone's Duck You, Sucker.

Hardegen started his career as a Pilot in training but a crash cut short his flying days. He transfered to Submarines where he was able to slip past the medical boards, Hardegen was medically unfit for subs from day 1 but he managed to get by time after time. He had an enternal bleed from some wound that never quite healed right.

Hardegens unfit for U-Boat duty caugh up with him right about the time of America's entry into the war and Doenitz needed experianced commanders. His final two patrols to American waters as part of operation Drumbeat was his send off.

Hadegen was not afraid to speak his mind at all. After his U-boat days were over he was invided to dine (along with another U-Boat ace, Erich Topp) with not other than Der Fuhrer himself. Hardegen spoke long and loud over Hitler's not giving enough importance and priority to the U-boat arm. Adolf was livid red with anger. Hardegen recieve a reprimand from Jodl, Hitler's Chief of Staff. Hardegen replied, "The Fuhrer has a right to hear the truth, and I have a duty to speak it."

Drumbeat, by Michael Gannon, is an excellent read on operation Paukenschlag. It goes into great detail not only about the operation as a whole, but much of it is a war diary of Hardegen and U-Eins Zwei Drei's (U-123) two Drumbeat patrols.

I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water!

Did you bother to read any of the following replies to the OP or did you just post your own straight away after reading the OP?

I don't think a U-boat captain ever fired a torpedo at a tanker that was not only fully engulfed with fire, but clearly had a broken keel and was completely unsalvageable.

And your blue text doesn't exactly settle the matter.

I've seen things that would make you want to write a book on how to puke.

The German Kriegsmarine had a standing order to sink tankers at any cost, as they were considered high priority targets.
If a UBoat commander would find a tanker which was crippled by him or an other Uboat before he surely would give it the coup de grace or Fangschuss (the German Naval term for it).
A few examples:
During the attack on Convoy ON 127 a tanker was crippled by U 659 and and about 5 hrs later sunk by Fangschuss from U 584 while u 659 was chased and depth charged by the convoys escorts, forcing u 659 to leave the scene heavily damaged.

Also during the attack on convoy SL 127 a tanker crippeld by U 659 was sunk roughly 90 minutes later by two torpedoes from U 409.

Also the coup de grace was used against targets of opportunity like troop transports as the mostly were targets of high tonnage.
Again some examples: At 08.44 hours on 14 Nov 1942 the troop transport Warwick Castle (20107 GRT) in convoy MKF-1X was hit by one of two torpedoes from U-413 about 200 miles northwest of Cape Espichel, Portugal. The U-boat hit her with two coups de grace at 08.57 hours, that caused the ship to sink about one hour later.

On 26 Oct 1940 the unescorted Empress of Britain (42,348 GRT) was struck by two 250kg bombs from a German Fw200 Condor aircraft of the 2./KG 40 about 70 miles northwest of Aran Island, County Donegal, Ireland.
Most of the crew and passengers abandoned ship, leaving only a skeleton crew on board and were picked up by HMS Echo, the armed trawler HMS Cape Arcona and the polish destroyer ORP Burza, which took the ship in tow until she was relieved by HMS Marauder and HMS Thames on passage to the Clyde. Later the tugs HMS Seaman and HMS Raider also participated in the salvage operation.

The salvage convoy, making roughly four knots, was escorted by HMS Broke and HMS Sardonyx and had air cover from Sunderland flying boats during daylight. On 2.05am, 28 October, 1940 two of three torpedoes fired by U-32 which followed the convoy for almost 24 hours, struck the Empress of Britain and sank her northwest of Bloody Foreland, County Donegal, Ireland.
U-32 was hunted by Royal Navy Destroyers for two days and sunk after severe depth chargings on 30th October 1942 with 9 men KIA and 33 becoming POW.





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