U-Boats off the Outer Banks: Shadows in the Moonlight (Military) by Jim Bunch

Author:Jim Bunch [Bunch, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2017-07-10T04:00:00+00:00

BYRON D. BENSON

On the night of April 4, a newcomer to the area, Captain Erich Topp, brought his Type VIIC U-552 to the surface just south of Currituck light and waited. He was only seven miles offshore and could see the lights of Nags Head and Manteo in the distance. It was early evening, and he had all night to hunt.

It wasn’t long before his conning tower watch officer called, “Captain to the con.” He had spotted what appeared to him to be a convoy of ships heading north and less than three miles away.

What he saw steaming toward him was the eight-thousand-ton tanker Byron Benson accompanied by two armed escorts: the USS Hamilton and the HMS Norwich City. Another tanker, the Gulf of Mexico, had also pulled up from behind and joined the group. The Benson would be the prize Topp would attack. The ship was an easy target: 465 feet long, carrying 100,000 barrels of crude oil and only making eight knots.

Topp got his boat in position outside the Benson and fired one torpedo into its starboard side. The explosion that resulted was extremely loud, and the flames that rose three hundred feet in the air could easily be seen from Duck all the way to Nags Head.

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