Editing German submarine U-571 (section)

==Service history==

Her keel was [[Keel laying|laid down]] on 8 June 1940 by [[Blohm & Voss]] of [[Hamburg]]. She was [[Ship commissioning|commissioned]] on 22 May 1941 with ''Kapitänleutnant'' [[Helmut Möhlmann]] in command. Under his command ''U-571'' had nine successful patrols in the Arctic and in the North and Central Atlantic. In August and September 1941, ''U-571'' operated against Allied and Soviet forces, damaging the Soviet passenger vessel ''Marija Uljanova'' on 26 August.

In 1942, ''U-571'' operated off the east coast of the United States, sinking the British cargo ship {{SS|Hertford||2}} on 29 March, the [[Norway|Norwegian]] [[Tanker (ship)|tanker]] M/T&nbsp;''Koll'' on 6 April off [[Cape Hatteras]], and the [[United States|American]] freighter [[USS Margaret (ID-2510)|''Margaret'']] on April 14 after the ship left [[San Juan, Puerto Rico]]. Although ''U-571''’s log mentions that some of the 8&nbsp;officers and 21&nbsp;men managed to get into a lifeboat and onto rafts, none of ''Margaret''’s crew was ever seen again. In July 1942 the submarine operated in the Caribbean and torpedoed four ships: the [[United Kingdom|British]] freighter ''Umtata'' on 7 July, the American tanker, ''J. A. Moffett, Jr.'' on 8 July, the [[Honduras|Honduran]] freighter ''Nicholas Cuneo'' on 9 July and on 15 July the American tanker, ''Pennsylvania Sun''.[[File:Pennsylvania Sun.jpg|thumb|The tanker ''Pennsylvania Sun'', torpedoed by ''U-571'' on 15 July 1942 (was saved and returned to service in 1943)]]

The whole crew of ''J. A. Moffett, Jr.'' (35 [[United States Merchant Marine|merchant marine]] and 5&nbsp;[[United States Navy Armed Guard|Naval Armed Guard]]) abandoned ship into two lifeboats and three rafts, except for the master who was killed. The [[United States Coast Guard]] vessels ''Mary Jean'' and ''Southbound'' picked up the 39 survivors and brought them to [[Florida]]. When ''Pennsylvania Sun'' was torpedoed, two of the merchant crew died in the resulting explosion, but the rest of the 40 merchant marine crew and the 17 members of the Naval Armed Guard aboard survived after being rescued by {{USS|Dahlgren|DD-187|6}}. ''Pennsylvania Sun'' was later salvaged and returned to service, while the other three ships attacked in July were sunk.

On 22 March 1943, ''U-571'' was attacked by an aircraft in the North Atlantic and was damaged and had to return to base. In April 1943, Möhlmann claimed that he sank three additional ships but these could not be matched with records of Allied losses. On 22 April 1943, she had to return to base because the commander was badly injured in an accident on the conning tower. On 2 May 1943, Möhlmann was relieved by ''Oberleutnant zur See'' Gustav Lüssow. ''U-571'' patrolled off the west coast of Africa in July before returning to base on 1 September. Between September and December, ''U-571'' was probably being overhauled in a drydock as no mention of the boat for that time period appears in war diary kept by the German Commander in Chief, Submarines, Admiral [[Karl Dönitz]]. {{Speculation inline|date=August 2023}}

On 18 January 1944, Lüssow reported to his submarine command that he attacked and sank an unknown [[destroyer]]. This could not, however, be identified with any known Allied losses during [[World War II]].

===Fate===
On 28 January 1944 she was attacked by an Australian captained [[Short Sunderland|Sunderland]] aircraft from [[No. 461 Squadron RAAF]] west of Ireland and was destroyed by [[depth charge]]s.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MF9NAAAAMAAJ|title=German Warships of World War II|author=John Charles Taylor|year=1966|access-date=2008-06-02|publisher=Allan}}</ref> The aircraft's captain, Flight Lieutenant R. D. Lucas, reported that most of the crew successfully abandoned ship, but soon died from [[hypothermia]]. A dinghy was dropped but failed to open. ''U-571'' sank with all hands{{snd}}52 dead{{snd}}at {{coord|52|41|N|14|27|W|scale:10000000 |display=inline,title}}. She had not, until her loss, suffered any casualties to her crew during her entire career. The plane, ''EK577'' (callsign "D for Dog"), was crewed partly by [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF) personnel and was based at [[RAF Pembroke Dock]], in [[Wales]]. The crew was Lucas, Sergeant (Sgt) J. R. Brannan (RAF, a Canadian), Flight Sergeant (F/Sgt) W. J. Darcey, Sgt D. Musson (RAF), F/Sgt S. T. Burnett, Sgt D. McWalker (RAF), Flying Officer (F/O) H. D. Roberts, F/Sgt G. H. Simmonds (RAF), F/O R. H. Prentice, and F/Sgt C. D. Bremner.

===Wolfpacks===
''U-571'' took part in 14 [[Wolfpack (naval tactic)|wolfpack]]s, namely:
* Stosstrupp (30 October – 4 November 1941) 
* Raubritter (4 – 17 November 1941) 
* Störtebecker (17 – 22 November 1941) 
* Seydlitz (27 December 1941 – 16 January 1942) 
* [[Wolf pack Endrass|Endrass]] (12 – 17 June 1942) 
* Panther (10 – 20 October 1942) 
* [[Wolfpack Veilchen|Veilchen]] (20 October – 7 November 1942) 
* Delphin (26 December 1942 – 19 January 1943) 
* Landsknecht (19 – 28 January 1943) 
* Without name (27 – 30 March 1943) 
* Adler (7 – 13 April 1943) 
* Meise (13 – 25 April 1943) 
* Rügen (15 – 26 January 1944) 
* Hinein (26 – 28 January 1944)