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U-852
The
only U-boat in World War II whose crew is known to have killed shipwrecked
Allied survivors.
Type: IX D2
Built: A.G. Weser, Bremen
Keel laid: 15 April 1942
Launched: 28 January 1943
Commissioned: 15 June 1943
Commander: KL Heinz-Wilhelm Eck
Fate: On her only patrol, U-852 sank the Greek steamer Peleus, 13
March 1944, and her crew attempted to kill the survivors to conceal her
presence. After she proceeded into the Indian Ocean, British aircraft fatally
damaged her off the Somali coast on 2-3 May 1944, and she beached herself near
Ras Mabber, Somaliland. British forces captured her crew, and in October 1945,
a British court in Hamburg subsequently tried, condemned, and executed the
captain and two of his officers for war crimes. The court also convicted two
other crewmen and sentenced them to prison terms.
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