U-333 survives attack by Walker's group

21st March 1944: U-Boat commander Peter Cremer has yet another narrow escape

A U-boat at speed on the surface.

Peter Cremer was a lucky man. As a U-boat commander he defied the odds to survive a series of very close encounters with the US Navy and Royal Navy. In 1942 he had been badly wounded in an engagement with HMS Crocus in October 1942. After recovering from his wounds, he returned to command U-333.

Peter Cremer, a poster boy for the Nazis.

On U-333's 10th patrol they came up against a formidable adversary - the 2nd Escort Group under the command of Captain Walker, the most successful of all the U-boat hunters in the war. Walker's group of ships was returning to port when they were alerted to a possible U-boat spotted by an aircraft. After the war the Royal Navy examined the records of the Kriegsmarine and speculated that the 2nd Escort Group might have attacked U-333. Cremer¹ was able to set the record straight in his memoir:

In English opinion ‘the move could well have taken the Group across the path of U 333, to which I can only say ‘it certainly did’, for our courses definitely crossed.

After the reconnaissance plane had observed and reported me in the early morning of 21 March, at about 1100 strong propeller noises were heard approaching in a broad spectrum extending from west to south.