A sunken submarine in UAE: How this World War II U-boat got near Fujairah shores

She lies upright in 100 metres of water in the Gulf of Oman, approximately 40 kilometres from the coast of the Emirate of Fujairah. On October 16, 1943, German submarine U-533 met its watery grave. The story of this U-boat from the Kriegsmarine (German Navy, 1939-1945) has been recounted numerous times, focusing on the divers who discovered it and continue to explore its sinking. However, what remains largely untold is a detailed account of this overlooked episode of a Second World War submarine that appeared near our shores, and an investigation into how it got there.

In his memoirs, Winston Churchill claimed that the only thing that truly frightened him during the war was the U-boat peril. Allied shipping, vital for supporting the war effort in Europe via the Atlantic Ocean corridors, suffered severe disruption from the hidden “wolf packs” of U-boats. These merchant naval vessels, carrying essential materials, were, whenever possible, escorted by naval destroyers and aircraft in convoys. Similarly, in the Indian Ocean, the movement of men and materials from India bound for North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East was also threatened by U-Boats, leading them to move in convoy systems protected by allied air cover.

The U-boats operating in the Indian Ocean were part of the Monsun Gruppe or the Monsoon group, which sailed from Nazi-occupied France, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and established patrols near Madagascar, Somalia, Aden, the Emirates, Pakistan, and India. Their mission was to disrupt allied supply lines in these areas and, at the end of their patrol, make their way to Penang in Malaysia, which was under Japanese control. There, they would bring back much-needed materials, such as rubber and timber to Germany, as well as share information with their Axis partners.

The U-533 set sail in July 1943 from the U-boat pens in Lorient, Nazi-occupied France, with a crew of 53 sailors, including 29-year-old Captain Helmut Hennig. Penang, Malaysia, was its final destination, but during the journey, it patrolled several areas before reaching the city. While sailing down the west coast of Africa, it spotted and fired upon several merchant ships, primarily carrying petrol, which made for easy targets. Reports suggest that they managed to sink a few before moving on. Rounding the Cape of Good Hope and refuelling with a returning U-boat near Madagascar, she made her way near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden, where they expected to find individual merchant ships. Instead, what they found was encountered convoys of merchant vessels under the protection of allied naval ships.

Unbeknownst to the U-533’s crew, a team of codebreakers at Bletchley Park, the top-secret principal codebreaking centre for the Allies in the United Kingdom (UK), had managed to decrypt the German Naval Enigma code a few years earlier. This enabled them to discern all Axis naval activity, including their plans in the Indian Ocean. Based on this information, the Royal Air Force (RAF) strategically positioned several squadrons around the region. One of these, Squadron 244, was based out of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This squadron operated from what is now Al Mahatta Museum and its surrounding area. Equipped with Bristol Blenheim bomber aircraft, these planes were often described as “truly appalling” by their commanding officers, as they barely managed to stay in the air. Several crashes and fatalities occurred. They were equipped with depth charges to target submarines and patrolled the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, providing air cover for merchant convoys, keeping an eye out for submarines.

Continuing its patrol up the Gulf of Aden, the U-533, disappointed at the chance of acquiring targets and observing only convoy traffic, moved its patrol to the mouth of the Arabian Gulf by October 6, 1943, hoping to find more allied ships moving in and out. On October 16, around midday, Sergeant Lewis William Chapman, an airman who had recently been assigned to the Sharjah squadron, spotted the U-boat on the surface and immediately altered course for a textbook attack. The U-533’s crew, as reports suggest, had no idea of nearby allied air cover. Some accounts even suggest that the crew were sunbathing on the deck when the aircraft appeared.

Captain Hennig of the U-533 ordered an immediate crash dive as the aircraft was sighted, and the U-boat began to submerge. However, Sergeant Chapman released his salvo of four depth charges into the swirl as the U-boat dived. One of these depth charges struck the sweet spot near the stern at a depth of 22 metres, causing immediate flooding. Captain Hennig ordered an immediate blow of all tanks to surface the boat, but it was too late as another depth charge damaged the hydroplanes, rendering the submarine as unmanoeuvrable. At this point, the captain ordered all hands to don their escape gear to exit the sub, but this order came too late.

The only two members of the U-533’s crew, Lieutenant Paschen and crew member Gunther Schmidt, who were near the conning tower hatch, managed to open it once the pressure of the boat equalised, after which they ascended to the surface. Schmidt found Paschen unconscious, holding onto him for an hour before reluctantly letting him go, as he believed Paschen was dead. Of the 53 men on board the U-533, Schmidt was the sole survivor. He began swimming west, knowing that’s where the land would be. Once captured, he was debriefed by the British and stated that he had been in the water for 28 hours before being picked up by the Royal Navy and brought to the RAF base at Sharjah.

Schmidt received a warm reception from the RAF at Sharjah, celebrating both his survival and the sinking of a U-boat. This incident demonstrated that they, too, were part of the same war as their comrades in Europe, North Africa, and the Far East, boosting their morale.

Schmidt was eventually sent to a prisoner-of-war camp and returned to Germany after the war’s end. Sergeant William Chapman was posthumously awarded the DFM (Distinguished Flying Medal) for sinking the U-boat. Though, unfortunately, he did not survive to see the end of the war, as he was killed while travelling as a passenger in a Dakota aircraft during a landing in Salalah, Oman, in July, 1944. He is commemorated on the El Alamein Memorial to the fallen, in Egypt.

Today, the U-533 remains where it settled 80 years ago, concealed by fishing nets and a multitude of sea life, with its deck gun still in place, as if to deter anyone approaching.

The year 1943, when this episode occurred, was far from being a time when the fate of the war was sealed. Despite the Allies delivering significant blows to the Nazis and Italians earlier in North Africa and at Stalingrad, the invasion of continental Europe that would ultimately bring an end to the Nazi war machine was still months away. In May of that year, the famous “dam buster” raid had targeted the all-important dams in the German industrial heartland of the Ruhr. The war at this time was very much ongoing.

While the Emirates was not directly affected by the war, there are many stories from the region waiting to be discovered. These stories include accounts of crashed Allied airmen who received assistance from Emiratis. There is also the tale of another submarine that met a similar fate, sinking near the mouth of the Arabian Gulf. Unfortunately, these smaller anecdotes of World War II often tend to be overlooked, particularly those that took place away from the major contours of the conflict. And even though, for us here in the Emirates, eighty years have passed since that autumn in 1943, we know that not far from our eastern shores, a significant episode of the Second World War remains silently submerged beneath the sea.

With research published in several publications, including the academic journal Tribulus, Ali Chaudhry is an independent researcher and historian based in Dubai, with a passion for the history of the UAE.

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