Sub Hunters' Return

Although the U.S. public had never heard of the 480th Anti-Submarine Group, the Germans knew them well. Last week the 480th was home for good, and the Army Air Forces told some of the stories behind the silhouettes and swastikas painted on their specially equipped Liberators.

The 480th met the Germans most often at "Coffin Corner," 700 miles off the coast of Spain, where the U-boats surfaced to charge their batteries. The A.A.F. and their comrades of the R.A.F. Coastal Command believed in hitting the sea wolves before they ganged up in packs. At Coffin Corner the 480th fought Germans under the sea and on the surface, also had to fight them in the air. For Junkers 88s and Focke-Wulf 200s patrolled the hunting grounds, first in pairs, finally in formations of eight and ten.

Tall, Georgia-born Colonel Jack Roberts, 31-year-old Group Commander, told newsmen about his men and their work. More than half the 480th combat strength were casualties. Although outnumbered 3-to-1 in the air, the 480th knocked down two German planes for every Liberator lost. Best measure of its effectiveness against subs was the drop in shipping losses--one ship in five months.

Death at Coffin Corner. Happiest hunting was in July, when the Germans struggled to halt the flow of reinforcements for the invasion of Sicily. In nine days at Coffin Corner, twelve attacks on submarines were made, three in a single day. Eight U-boats were sunk or damaged.

In one hair-raising run, a Liberator was flying above a 200-ft. ceiling when his special equipment indicated the presence of the enemy. Instantly, the plane started down, burst out of the overcast barely above the water. Dead ahead was a big ocean-going German submarine.

The turret gunner fired directly into the conning tower of the sub, killing its anti-aircraft gunners. The bombardier released his depth charges, which straddled the sub, sinking it in half a minute. The survivors, stunned by the swift attack, were picked up later by a destroyer.

The sub hunters flew alone, and they flew far: sometimes 1,250 miles out over the Atlantic. Said Colonel Roberts: "These boys took an awful beating. They averaged twelve or 15 hours of flying every three days. The bombers average about seven. . . . Just try locking yourself in a closet for 15 hours with somebody giving you a sandwich once in a while and you'll have a pretty good idea of what it was like."

The men of the 480th were glad to get home. They had done much of the pioneering; they would not have to go back to sea. While they and many another outfit were at work, the U.S. Navy had asserted one of its favorite doctrines: that only Navymen should patrol the seas. In planes taken over from the Army, new Navy crews are now at work against German subs. The Army, which was on the job when the going was hottest, will hunt them no more.

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