Blücher was a wolfpack of German

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 U-boat

U-boat

U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

s that operated during the World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 Battle of the Atlantic from 13 July to 1 August 1942. They attacked the Freetown

Freetown

Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...

, Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...

 to Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 convoys SL-118 and SL-119, and sank six ships for a total of , and damaged one . The group was named after Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt , Graf , later elevated to Fürst von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall who led his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 with the Duke of Wellington.He is...

 (1742–1819), a Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

n Generalfeldmarschall

Generalfeldmarschall

Field Marshal or Generalfeldmarschall in German, was a rank in the armies of several German states and the Holy Roman Empire; in the Austrian Empire, the rank Feldmarschall was used...

in the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

.

U-boats, commanders and dates

, Peter-Erich Cremer

Peter-Erich Cremer

Peter-Erich Cremer was a German U-boat commander during the Second World War. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...

, 14–18 August, Gerhard Feiler, 14–18 August, Heinrich Müller-Edzards, 14–20 August, Günther Reeder, 14–28 August, Horst Dieterichs, 14–28 August, Gerhard Remus, 14–28 August, Friedrich Mumm, 14–28 August, Harald Gelhaus

Harald Gelhaus

Harald Gelhaus was a German U-boat commander in World War II and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...

, 23–28 August

Triton

U-566 struck first, while north-east of the Azores

Azores

The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...

. At 17:56 on 17 August 1942, she fired three torpedoes at Convoy SL-118, hitting the 6,607 ton Norwegian merchant ship Triton twice and sinking her. The Master, 39 crewmen, two gunners and one passenger abandoned ship, and were picked up by the British merchantman Baron Dunmore.

Cheshire, Hatarana and Balingkar

At 18.52 hours on 18 August, U-214 fired four single torpedoes at Convoy SL-118; and hit three ships. One torpedo damaged the 10,552 ton armed merchant cruiser , which was towed back to England for repairs. Another damaged the 7,522 ton British merchant ship Hatarana so badly that she was abandoned by her crew of 108 and was scuttled by gunfire from the corvette . The final two torpedoes struck the 6,318 ton Dutch cargo ship Balingkar, sinking her within 15 minutes with the loss of two men from her crew of 93.

City of Manila

The next day, 19 August, at 16:22 U-406 torpedoed the 7,452 ton British merchantman City of Manila, which was then abandoned by her crew. The next day, the vessel was reboarded by a number of her crew. Later the ship broke in two, was abandoned again, and then sank. One crew member was lost. The Master, 83 crewmen and 11 gunners were rescued.

City of Cardiff and Zuiderkerk

At 19:08 on 28 August U-566 fired a spread of three torpedoes at Convoy SL-119 west-north-west of Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

and hit two ships; the 5,661 ton British merchant ship City of Cardiff and the 8,424 ton Dutch merchant ship Zuiderkerk.

The Zuiderkerk was hit in the bows and was forced to stop to inspect the damage. She then managed to rejoin the convoy, but flooding in her holds forced the 56 crew and 12 passengers to abandon ship early on 29 August. The ship was then sunk with depth charges by . Meanwhile, the badly damaged City of Cardiff remained afloat, but foundered two days later with the loss of 21 crew.