- 1 week ago
When USS Borie locked onto German U-405 in a stormy North Atlantic night, a routine destroyer attack turned into one of the strangest close-quarters battles of World War II. Lieutenant Charles Hutchins ordered a ramming run, and a wave lifted the destroyer onto the submarine’s deck, trapping both crews together in a brutal fight at point-blank range.
For ten minutes, sailors on a Clemson-class destroyer and a German U-boat fought face to face with Thompson submachine guns, shotguns, pistols, knives, and even empty shell casings. The battle shows how destroyer versus submarine warfare could collapse into improvisation when depth charges, torpedoes, and doctrine all failed. It is a gripping military history story of naval combat, leadership, and survival in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Created for listeners who enjoy World War 2 stories, naval history, destroyer action, submarine warfare, and dramatic war stories with vivid frontline detail. It also fits search terms like WW2 documentary style narration, military history storytelling, and historical combat stories for background listening.
For ten minutes, sailors on a Clemson-class destroyer and a German U-boat fought face to face with Thompson submachine guns, shotguns, pistols, knives, and even empty shell casings. The battle shows how destroyer versus submarine warfare could collapse into improvisation when depth charges, torpedoes, and doctrine all failed. It is a gripping military history story of naval combat, leadership, and survival in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Created for listeners who enjoy World War 2 stories, naval history, destroyer action, submarine warfare, and dramatic war stories with vivid frontline detail. It also fits search terms like WW2 documentary style narration, military history storytelling, and historical combat stories for background listening.
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LearningTranscript
00:00At 0153 on November 1, 1943,
00:04Lieutenant Charles Hutchins stood on the bridge of USS Borey,
00:07tracking a radar contact 8,000 yards north of the Azores,
00:12watching the blip move through 15-foot seas in complete darkness.
00:1730 years old, six months as destroyer captain, zero U-boat kills.
00:23The German submarine U-405 had already sunk five Allied merchant ships
00:29and carried 49 experienced crewmen under Corvettin Capitan Rolf Heinrich Hultmann.
00:36Two years earlier, Hutchins had worked as a salesman
00:39at his father-in-law's packing company in Terre Haute, Indiana.
00:43Naval Academy graduate who resigned his commission to get married,
00:47Pearl Harbor changed everything.
00:50Now he commanded one of the oldest destroyers in the United States Navy,
00:54a Clemson-class tin can built in 1920.
00:57Most of his crew were reservists who had never fired a shot in anger.
01:03Task Group 21.14 had been hunting U-boats for three months.
01:08The escort carrier USS Card provided air cover during daylight.
01:12The destroyers hunted at night.
01:15Borey had detached from the group six hours earlier
01:18to investigate a submarine contact reported by Card aircraft.
01:21They found one U-boat and damaged it.
01:25Then radar picked up a second contact.
01:28The North Atlantic in November was brutal.
01:3144-degree water.
01:33Winds gusting to 40 knots.
01:35Visibility near zero.
01:37The kind of conditions that made depth charge attacks difficult
01:41and surface gunnery nearly impossible.
01:44But Hutchins closed the distance anyway.
01:46His radar operator lost contact at 2,800 yards.
01:50Then sonar picked up the target.
01:53Moving at six knots, trying to escape on the surface.
01:57Hutchins ordered depth charges.
01:59Every charge on one rack rolled into the water simultaneously
02:03due to mechanical failure.
02:05The massive explosion literally blew U-405 to the surface.
02:10Damaged.
02:11Unable to submerge.
02:12Hopman had no choice but to fight on the surface.
02:16Borey's 24-inch searchlight snapped on.
02:18The German submarine appeared in the beam 400 yards away.
02:23Crewmen poured from the conning tower, racing toward their deck guns.
02:26U-405 mounted one 88-millimeter cannon
02:30and four 20-millimeter autocannons in multiple mounts.
02:34Enough firepower to shred an aging destroyer at close range.
02:38Both ships opened fire.
02:40Borey's 4-inch guns barked.
02:4220-millimeter rounds from U-405 slammed into Borey's forward engine room.
02:47The German deck gun crew traversed their 88 and took aim at Borey's waterline.
02:53Then Borey's gunfire found them.
02:55Every exposed German on deck died in seconds.
02:58The 88 never fired a single shot.
03:02But Hopman was a veteran commander.
03:04Seven war patrols.
03:06He knew how to fight.
03:07U-405 began turning in tight circles.
03:10The submarine's smaller turning radius kept Borey from bringing her full broadside to bear.
03:16For 20 minutes, Hopman frustrated every attempt to line up a killing shot.
03:21The U-boat's stern torpedo tube kept pointing at Borey.
03:24One torpedo could end everything.
03:27Hutchins made a decision.
03:29He would ram.
03:30If you want to see how Hutchins' ramming decision turned out, please hit that like button.
03:35It helps us share more forgotten stories.
03:38Subscribe if you haven't already.
03:40Back to Hutchins.
03:41Borey accelerated to 25 knots.
03:44Hutchins aimed for U-405's starboard quarter.
03:47A perpendicular blow that would crush the pressure hull.
03:51Hopman saw it coming and turned hard to port.
03:53Started his turn too late.
03:55Borey closed the distance.
03:57200 yards.
03:58100.
03:5950.
04:00Then a wave hit.
04:01A massive swell lifted Borey's bow up.
04:04The destroyer rose at a 30-degree angle.
04:07Her bow crashed down, not into U-405's side, but onto her foredeck.
04:13The weight of 1,100 tons of steel slammed onto the submarine.
04:17But instead of crushing through, Borey stayed there.
04:20Perched on top of U-405 like a seesaw, the two vessels locked together at a 20-degree angle.
04:26The destroyer sat on the submarine.
04:29Waves lifted both ships together, then dropped them.
04:33Metal screamed as Borey's hull plating began to part.
04:36Seams split.
04:37Water poured into compartments below the waterline.
04:40Both ships rolling in 20-foot swells, neither able to break free.
04:46Hutchins looked down from the bridge.
04:47He could see the conning tower 30 feet below.
04:51Could read the numerals painted on the side.
04:53Could see the polar bear insignia.
04:56Germans were climbing from the hatches, running toward their guns.
05:00If they reached those four 20-millimeter autocannons, every man exposed on Borey's deck would die.
05:0710 minutes.
05:08That's how long they would stay locked together.
05:1110 minutes of a kind of naval warfare that hadn't been seen in a century.
05:14No torpedoes, no depth charges, just two crews fighting face-to-face in the darkness, with whatever weapons they could
05:22find.
05:25Lieutenant Philip Brown had drilled his crew for exactly this scenario.
05:28The executive officer spent months running a boarding drill that nobody thought would ever happen.
05:34Every man except the engine room crew and gun crews knew what to do.
05:38The moment Borey locked onto U-405, they raced to grab weapons.
05:43Thompson's submachine guns came up first.
05:45Then rifles.
05:47Shotguns meant for riot control.
05:49Pistols.
05:49Even Veriflare pistols.
05:51Anything that could shoot.
05:53Brown and a signalman took position on the bridge and opened fire.
05:56The rest of the crew lined the rails.
05:59Borey's searchlight stayed locked on the submarine.
06:02Every German who emerged from a hatch appeared in brilliant white light.
06:06The Germans kept trying.
06:07They needed to reach those four 20-millimeter autocannons.
06:11Those guns could sweep Borey's exposed deck, kill dozens of Americans in seconds.
06:16But reaching them meant running across open deck under the searchlight.
06:20German after German climbed from the conning tower, ran toward the guns, died before getting there.
06:26Fireman First Class David Southwick watched a German sailor sprint toward the nearest gun mount.
06:32Southwick had no ammunition left.
06:34He pulled his sheath knife.
06:36Threw it.
06:36The blade buried itself in the German's stomach.
06:39The man fell over the side into the black water.
06:42Chief Boson's mate Walter Kurz commanded the No. 2 4-inch gun mount.
06:47His gun couldn't depress far enough to hit the submarine.
06:50Useless.
06:51But Kurz had a 4-inch shell casing, empty brass that weighed several pounds.
06:56Another German reached for a gun.
06:58Kurz threw the casing like a club.
07:00It caught the German in the chest and knocked him overboard.
07:04One German sailor took a very flare directly in the chest.
07:07The phosphorus burned straight through.
07:10He screamed once and collapsed.
07:12Another made it to a gun mount and fired three bursts before American gunfire cut him down.
07:1720-millimeter rounds punched holes in Bori's hull below the waterline.
07:22More flooding.
07:23More damage.
07:24The Germans fought back from inside the hatches.
07:27Small arms fire crackled from the darkness below.
07:30Sporadic.
07:31Desperate.
07:32A few bullets hit Bori's superstructure.
07:35Most went wide.
07:36But they kept firing anyway.
07:38Hopman's crew refused to surrender, even though surrender was the only rational choice.
07:42The waves lifted both ships together.
07:45Dropped them.
07:46Lifted them again.
07:47Metal screeched.
07:49Bori's port side crushed against U-405's hull.
07:52Plating buckled.
07:54Seams opened wider.
07:55The destroyer was being torn apart by the submarine she was trying to kill.
07:59Ten minutes felt like hours.
08:01The Americans couldn't see how many Germans remained alive below.
08:04The Germans couldn't reach their deck weapons.
08:07Both crews trapped.
08:08Both ships locked in a grinding embrace that was destroying them both.
08:13The cold Atlantic tried to pull them under with every wave.
08:17Then, Bori's hull gave enough.
08:19The ships began to separate.
08:21Slowly at first.
08:22The bow sliding off the submarine's deck.
08:25Six inches.
08:26A foot.
08:27Two feet.
08:28Then the wave action wrenched them fully apart.
08:31Bori pulled away.
08:33Free.
08:33U-405 wallowed in the swells 50 yards distant.
08:37Both vessels damaged.
08:39Both still capable of fighting.
08:41Hutchins immediately turned to pursue.
08:43U-405's tighter turning radius became a problem again.
08:47Hopman maneuvered his submarine brilliantly, despite the damage.
08:50Kept his stern tube pointed at Bori.
08:53That single torpedo could still sink the destroyer.
08:56Hutchins couldn't get a clean shot without exposing his ship to that stinger.
09:00The submarine tried to speed away.
09:02Made perhaps 12 knots.
09:04Hopman, hoping to escape in the darkness.
09:07Hutchins ordered the searchlight extinguished.
09:09Let U-405 think she was safe.
09:11Tracked her on radar instead.
09:13Waited for the submarine to show her broadside.
09:15It worked.
09:17U-405 increased speed to 20 knots.
09:20Tried to run.
09:21Hutchins snapped the searchlight back on.
09:23Brought Bori around.
09:24Now he could bring his 4-inch guns and depth-charge projectors to bear.
09:28But Hopman saw the trap.
09:30U-405 turned hard.
09:32Came straight at Bori.
09:33Attempting to ram the destroyer.
09:36Two damaged ships.
09:37Both bleeding.
09:38Both captains refusing to break off.
09:41About to collide again in the middle of the North Atlantic.
09:44Hutchins threw his rudder hard left.
09:47Backed full on the port engine.
09:48The stern kicked toward the submarine.
09:51Exactly what he wanted.
09:53The range closed to 6 feet.
09:56Hutchins fired every depth charge from his starboard projectors.
10:00Three charges set to detonate at 30 feet.
10:03They hit the water directly alongside U-405's conning tower.
10:07Exploded.
10:08The submarine stopped dead.
10:11Her stern 6 feet from Bori's starboard side.
10:14But U-405 wasn't finished.
10:17Neither was Hopman.
10:18The submarine still had one weapon left that could decide everything.
10:24The torpedo tube.
10:26U-405's stern tube remained operational.
10:30Hopman could still fire.
10:31At 6 feet range, a torpedo couldn't miss.
10:34Even a destroyer could dodge at 6 feet.
10:36The German commander had one shot.
10:39If he took it, he would take Bori down with him.
10:42Both crews tried to disengage.
10:44U-405 backed away.
10:46Bori pulled forward.
10:47The ship separated again.
10:4920 yards.
10:5050.
10:51But Hopman kept his stern toward Bori.
10:54That tube tracked the destroyer like a weapon sight.
10:57Hutchins had to turn away or risk everything.
10:59He turned.
11:01U-405 tried to launch a torpedo.
11:03It missed.
11:04Porpoise to the surface and ran wild.
11:07Bori fired one torpedo in return.
11:09Also missed.
11:10Both weapons wasted.
11:12Now it was guns again.
11:144-inch shells against a submarine that refused to die.
11:18Fire controlman 1st Class Bob Marr directed Bori's main battery from his station above the bridge.
11:23He had a perfect view of everything.
11:26The submarine lit by the searchlight.
11:28The bodies floating in the water.
11:30The Germans who kept fighting despite impossible odds.
11:33Marr would have nightmares about this night for months.
11:36But right now, he had a job.
11:38Keep the guns on target.
11:40Bori's shells walked up the submarine's hull.
11:43One hit near the conning tower.
11:45Another struck the pressure hull.
11:47A third found the starboard diesel exhaust.
11:49Black smoke poured from the submarine.
11:52The engine died.
11:53U-405 slowed.
11:55U-405 slowed.
11:55Lost power.
11:56Wallowed in the swells like a dying whale.
11:59The German crew knew they were finished.
12:01Some fired white Vary flares.
12:03The international signal for surrender.
12:05Others kept running for the guns.
12:07Kept firing small arms from the hatches.
12:09The submarine's crew split between those ready to quit
12:12and those determined to take more Americans with them.
12:16Hutchins ordered ceasefire.
12:17Saw the white flares.
12:18Saw Germans climbing into yellow rubber life rafts.
12:22Counted 14 survivors.
12:23But the gun captain on one of the galley deckhouse 4-inch mounts
12:27had removed his headphones.
12:29Never heard the order.
12:30His gun kept firing.
12:32One shell caught a German sailor standing on the conning tower,
12:35waving his arms.
12:36Decapitated him.
12:37The body fell into the sea.
12:40U-405 began maneuvering again.
12:42The ceasefire had been a mistake.
12:45Or maybe some Germans genuinely wanted to surrender
12:48while others didn't.
12:49Either way, the submarine wasn't done.
12:52Hopman's diesel was dead,
12:54but he still had battery power.
12:56Still had maneuverability.
12:57He used it.
12:58The submarine began sinking by the stern.
13:01Not fast.
13:02Controlled.
13:03Then an underwater explosion rattled both ships.
13:06Possibly a scuttling charge.
13:09Possibly flooding reaching the battery compartment.
13:11U-405 lifted her bow.
13:13The stern went under.
13:15Then she slid beneath the black water.
13:17Gone.
13:1849 German sailors with her.
13:20Most already dead from the gunfire.
13:22The rest drowning in the cold Atlantic.
13:25Every man on Bory's deck cheered.
13:27A yell that probably could be heard in Berlin.
13:30They had done it.
13:31Sunk a U-boat in surface combat.
13:34A tin can destroyer built in 1920
13:37had defeated a modern German submarine in a knife fight.
13:41Hutchins allowed himself one moment of satisfaction.
13:43Then he looked at his ship.
13:45The forward engine room was flooded.
13:47Hole plating crushed along the port side.
13:50Seams opened below the water line.
13:5220-millimeter holes punched through compartments.
13:54The steering was sluggish.
13:56Power reduced.
13:58Bory was dying.
13:59Maybe not as fast as U-405, but dying.
14:02Hutchins maneuvered toward the German survivors.
14:0514 men floating in life rafts.
14:07Some wounded.
14:08Being loaded by their comrades.
14:10The Americans would rescue them.
14:12Standard procedure.
14:14Hutchins brought Bory around.
14:15Approached from the port side.
14:17Close enough to see their faces.
14:19Then the sonar operator reported a torpedo on the same bearing.
14:22Another U-boat.
14:23Had to be.
14:24Hutchins had no choice.
14:26He rang up maximum speed.
14:28Threw the rudder hard left.
14:29Bory surged forward.
14:31The torpedo passed down the port side.
14:34Missed by yards.
14:35But the destroyer's bow went directly over the life rafts.
14:38The propellers churned through yellow rubber and German sailors.
14:42None of them were seen again.
14:45Hutchins hadn't wanted that.
14:46Had tried to rescue them.
14:48But staying to pick up survivors meant dying to a torpedo.
14:52So 14 Germans drowned instead of being saved.
14:55The battle was over.
14:58U-405 gone.
15:00The German survivors gone.
15:02Now Bory had to try to survive the night.
15:05And that was going to be harder than killing a submarine.
15:10The battle had lasted 64 minutes.
15:13From first radar contact to U-405 sinking.
15:17Now came the hard part.
15:19Staying afloat.
15:20Damage reports flooded the bridge.
15:23Forward engine room completely flooded.
15:25Port side hull plating crushed and buckled below the waterline.
15:29Multiple seams opened.
15:3120mm holes punching through compartments.
15:34Water coming in faster than the pumps could handle.
15:37Steering damaged but functional.
15:39One engine still operational.
15:41Speed reduced to maybe 15 knots maximum.
15:44The seas were building.
15:46What had been 15 foot swells during the battle grew to 20 feet.
15:50Then 30.
15:52The wind increased.
15:53Visibility dropped to near zero in the darkness and blowing spray.
15:58Bory wallowed in the troughs.
16:00Climbed each wave sluggishly.
16:02The destroyer had always been tender.
16:04Top heavy.
16:05Now with flooding forward, she was even worse.
16:08Hutchins tried to rejoin task group 21.14.
16:12USS Card and the other destroyers were 40 miles north.
16:17Bory made perhaps 12 knots through the heavy seas.
16:20Every wave stressed the damaged hull.
16:23Every roll threatened to open new leaks.
16:25The crew worked the pumps continuously.
16:28Fought to keep ahead of the flooding.
16:30Lost ground slowly, but steadily.
16:33Dawn came.
16:34Gray light revealed the full extent of the damage.
16:37The port side looked like it had been hit by a giant hammer.
16:41Hull plating dished inward.
16:43Frame members bent.
16:44Paint scorched from gunfire.
16:46The forward section sat lower in the water than it should.
16:50Bory had a list to port.
16:51Not severe, but enough to worry about.
16:55USS Barry and USS Goff tried to come alongside.
16:59Attempted to pass a towing cable.
17:01The seas were too rough.
17:0340-foot swells by mid-morning.
17:05Winds gusting to 50 knots.
17:07Every time one of the destroyers approached,
17:10the wave action threatened to smash them together.
17:13After three attempts, they pulled away.
17:16Towing was impossible in these conditions.
17:19The crew began jettisoning weight.
17:20Anything to raise the bow and improve stability.
17:24Torpedoes went over the side first.
17:26Nine Mark 15 torpedoes, each weighing over 3,000 pounds.
17:31They splashed into the Atlantic one by one.
17:34Then ammunition.
17:35Cases of 4-inch shells.
17:3720-millimeter rounds.
17:39Small arms ammunition.
17:41Hundreds of pounds of brass and explosives dumped overboard.
17:45The 20-millimeter gun mounts came next.
17:47Crews unbolted them from their mounts.
17:49Man-handled them to the rail.
17:51Pushed them over.
17:52The guns disappeared into the gray water.
17:55Anything topside that could be removed went over.
17:58Depth charge racks.
17:59Empty shell casings.
18:01Spare parts.
18:02Tools.
18:03Personal gear.
18:04The crew threw away everything except what they needed to keep the ship afloat.
18:08It wasn't enough.
18:09The pumps ran continuously.
18:11The flooding continued.
18:13Water gained on them inch by inch.
18:16Hour by hour.
18:17Bori settled deeper.
18:19The list increased.
18:20By afternoon, the destroyer was clearly dying.
18:24The only question was how long she had.
18:27Hutchins requested permission to abandon ship.
18:29Captain Isbell, on USS Card, refused.
18:33Told him to keep trying.
18:34Keep pumping.
18:35Keep fighting.
18:36Maybe the seas would calm.
18:38Maybe they could get a tow cable across.
18:40Maybe Bori would make it to port.
18:42Hutchins kept his crew working.
18:44But he knew.
18:45They all knew.
18:46Fourteen hours after the battle ended, the situation became critical.
18:51The forward bulkhead of the flooded engine room began to give way.
18:54If it collapsed, the flooding would spread to the next compartment.
18:58Then the next.
18:59Bori would sink in minutes.
19:01No time to abandon ship properly.
19:04No time to get everyone off.
19:06The seas remained at 40 feet.
19:08USS Barry and USS Goff circled nearby, but couldn't approach.
19:13The sun was setting.
19:14In another hour, it would be completely dark.
19:17Trying to abandon ship at night in 40-foot seas was suicide.
19:21But staying aboard a sinking destroyer was also suicide.
19:24Hutchins made the decision.
19:26They would abandon ship now, while there was still light.
19:29While the destroyer still had enough buoyancy to give them a chance.
19:33While USS Barry could attempt to rescue them.
19:35It was abandoned now, or die.
19:38The crew began preparing.
19:40Breaking out life rafts, inflating life jackets, gathering on deck.
19:45Most had never practiced abandoned ship in calm seas, let alone conditions like this.
19:5140-foot waves, freezing water, a destroyer rolling 30 degrees with every swell.
19:56And they had to jump.
19:59143 men.
20:0127 would not survive the next two hours.
20:05The abandoned ship process began at 1600 hours.
20:09Two hours of daylight remaining.
20:11USS Barry positioned herself as close as she dared.
20:15300 yards.
20:16Closer meant collision.
20:17The destroyers rose and fell on opposite sides of the wave cycle.
20:21When Borey climbed a crest, Barry disappeared into a trough.
20:25When Barry rose, Borey dropped.
20:27Trying to jump between ships was impossible.
20:30The crew would have to go into the water, swim to Barry, or reach the life rafts and paddle across.
20:36In 44 degree water, that meant hypothermia in minutes.
20:40Death in perhaps 15 minutes without rescue.
20:43Every man knew the odds.
20:45They went anyway.
20:47Life rafts went over first.
20:49Yellow rubber rafts designed for calm water.
20:51They hit the surface and immediately began tumbling in the swells.
20:55Some capsized.
20:56Some broke loose from their lines and drifted away.
20:59The few that stayed upright became tiny targets in massive seas.
21:03Reaching them meant swimming through waves twice as tall as a man.
21:06The crew began jumping.
21:08Some dove.
21:09Some climbed down cargo nets and dropped from there.
21:12Others simply stepped off the rail.
21:15All hit the water hard.
21:16The cold was instant and total.
21:19Breath stealing.
21:20Muscle locking.
21:21The Atlantic in November killed fast.
21:23Men thrashed toward the life rafts.
21:26Some made it.
21:27Hauled themselves aboard.
21:29Others missed.
21:30Got swept past.
21:31Disappeared in the troughs between waves.
21:34The life jackets kept them afloat but couldn't fight the current.
21:37Couldn't overcome the exhaustion from cold.
21:40Men simply stopped swimming.
21:41Went under.
21:42Gone.
21:44USS Barry launched her motor whale boat.
21:46A small boat with an outboard engine.
21:48It crashed through the swells picking up survivors.
21:51The crew worked frantically.
21:53Hauling men aboard.
21:54Some conscious.
21:56Some already unconscious from hypothermia.
21:58Some dead but still wearing life jackets.
22:01The whale boat made trip after trip.
22:03Each time risking capsize in the massive seas.
22:06Boris' crew chief, engineer Lieutenant Morrison Brown, stayed aboard supervising the evacuation.
22:12Making sure every man got off.
22:14Checking compartments.
22:15Counting heads.
22:16He was one of the last to leave.
22:18He jumped from the stern.
22:20Hit the water.
22:21Started swimming toward a raft.
22:23Made perhaps 20 yards.
22:25Then stopped.
22:26Treaded water for a moment.
22:28Then slipped under.
22:29His body was never recovered.
22:31Seaman second class Max Blaine reached the life raft.
22:35Tried to climb aboard.
22:36The raft flipped.
22:37Threw him back in the water.
22:39He tried again.
22:40Flipped again.
22:41The third time, he didn't have the strength.
22:44The cold had taken too much.
22:46He floated face down in his life jacket.
22:49Dead at 20 years old.
22:50Ship's cook second class Warren Henderson swam toward USS Barry.
22:55Strong swimmer.
22:57Made good progress.
22:58Then a wave caught him wrong.
23:00Slammed him into debris floating in the water.
23:03Knocked him unconscious.
23:04He drowned without ever waking up.
23:06The whale boat found groups of men clinging to wreckage.
23:09Some alive.
23:10Some already gone.
23:12The crew pulled aboard everyone they could reach.
23:15Living or dead.
23:16Nobody got left behind if they could help it.
23:18But the seas were vast and the men were scattered across hundreds of yards of water.
23:24Hutchins was among the last to leave.
23:26He stood on the bridge watching his crew abandon his ship.
23:2923 years old when she was built.
23:31Served in the Black Sea, the Pacific, the Caribbean.
23:35Survived 23 years of peace and 3 years of war.
23:39Now dying because she killed a submarine.
23:41Hutchins climbed down to the main deck.
23:44Walked to the rail.
23:45Jumped.
23:45He swam to a raft.
23:47Pulled himself aboard.
23:48Watched USS Barry's crew work.
23:51Watched his own men fight for their lives in the freezing water.
23:54Watched some of them lose.
23:56By 1800 hours, most of the survivors were aboard Barry.
24:01116 men rescued.
24:02Cold.
24:03Exhausted.
24:04Some injured.
24:05But alive.
24:0627 men were still in the water.
24:09Most already dead.
24:10Some unconscious.
24:12A few still fighting.
24:13Barry's searchlights swept the area.
24:15The whale boat made one last sweep.
24:17Found three more men.
24:19Pulled them aboard.
24:20That left 24.
24:22Darkness fell.
24:23The searchlight could only cover so much ocean.
24:2740-foot seas made it impossible to see into the troughs.
24:30The missing men were scattered.
24:32Dying.
24:33Or already dead.
24:35Barry searched for another hour.
24:37Found no one else.
24:38Captain Hutchins gave the order.
24:40Stop searching.
24:42Save the men they had.
24:43Twenty-seven sailors lost.
24:46Twenty-seven men who survived the battle with U-405, only to die in the Atlantic.
24:52USS Bori remained afloat.
24:54Empty.
24:55Abandoned.
24:56Rolling in the massive swells.
24:58She refused to sink.
25:02USS Bori stayed afloat through the night.
25:05The forward section sat low in the water.
25:07The list increased to 15 degrees, but she wouldn't go down.
25:12The Clemson-class destroyers were tough.
25:14Built with multiple watertight compartments, designed to take damage and survive.
25:18Even gutted and abandoned, Bori clung to life.
25:22By dawn on November 2nd, the situation was clear.
25:26The destroyer could not be saved.
25:28Could not be towed.
25:29The seas remained too rough.
25:31The damage too extensive.
25:33Bori would eventually sink.
25:35But if left alone, she might drift for days.
25:38Become a hazard to navigation.
25:40Or worse, the Germans might find her.
25:43Salvage equipment?
25:44Intelligence documents?
25:46Code books?
25:47Captain Isbell on USS Card made the decision.
25:50USS Bori would sink her.
25:52Put Bori down cleanly.
25:54Make sure she went to the bottom in deep water, where nobody could reach her.
25:58It was the last service one warship could provide another.
26:02USS Bori positioned herself 1,200 yards away.
26:05The gunnery officer selected his target points.
26:08Where to hit to ensure Bori sank quickly.
26:11The waterline amidships.
26:12The remaining engine room.
26:14The forward magazines.
26:16Shells that would open her hull to the sea and finish what U-405 had started.
26:21The 4-inch guns opened fire.
26:23The first shell hit Bori amidships, punched through the thin hull plating, exploded inside.
26:29The second hit forward.
26:31The third aft.
26:32One shell after another.
26:34Each opening new holes, each letting in more water.
26:38Bori shuddered with every impact.
26:40Rolled with the explosions.
26:42Began settling faster.
26:4420 minutes of sustained fire.
26:4640 shells.
26:47Maybe more.
26:48Bori's hull was Swiss cheese.
26:50Compartments flooded rapidly now.
26:52The list increased to 30 degrees.
26:55The bow went under.
26:56Then the forward section.
26:58Water poured into spaces that had stayed dry during the battle.
27:01Spaces that survived 23 years at sea, now flooding in minutes.
27:06The stern rose.
27:08Bori's propellers lifted clear of the water.
27:10The destroyer hung there for a moment.
27:12Bow down.
27:13Stern up.
27:14Silhouetted against the gray Atlantic sky.
27:17Then she slid under.
27:19Stern first.
27:20Going down in the same waters that took U-405.
27:24Two warships, built by different nations, designed to kill each other, now resting on the same piece of ocean floor,
27:31forever.
27:33USS Barry's crew stood silent, watching a sister ship die.
27:37Hutchins stood on Barry's deck with his survivors, watching his command disappear.
27:42The ship he had captained for five months.
27:45The ship that made him the youngest destroyer commander in the United States Navy.
27:50The ship that killed a U-boat and died doing it.
27:53Gone.
27:5549 degrees north, 31 degrees west.
27:58Three miles deep.
27:59The survivors returned to the United States aboard USS Card.
28:04116 men.
28:05Cold.
28:06Exhausted.
28:07Some with injuries.
28:09All grieving 27 shipmates who didn't make it.
28:12They reached port in mid-November.
28:15Debriefed.
28:16Evaluated.
28:17Then awarded.
28:18Lieutenant Charles Hutchins received the Navy Cross.
28:21For extraordinary heroism in action against an enemy submarine.
28:25For commanding his ship with skill and courage.
28:28For ramming U-405 when ramming was the only option.
28:32For fighting a surface battle against impossible odds.
28:36For saving 116 men while losing 27.
28:41Engineer Lieutenant Morrison Brown received the posthumous Navy Cross.
28:45For staying aboard to the end.
28:47For ensuring every man got off before him.
28:50For dying in the water trying to reach safety.
28:5327 other men received no medals.
28:56Just graves in the Atlantic.
28:58Task Group 21.14 received the Presidential Unit Citation.
29:03For extraordinary performance in operations against enemy submarines.
29:08The group sank eight U-boats between July and November 1943.
29:13Bori's kill of U-405 was the last.
29:16And the most costly.
29:17But also the most remarkable.
29:20The battle became famous immediately.
29:22Press coverage appeared within days.
29:25Life magazine featured Hutchins.
29:27The Navy released paintings of the action.
29:29Artists depicted the moment when Bori rode on top of U-405.
29:33The two ships locked together.
29:35Crews fighting face to face.
29:37It looked like something from the Age of Sail.
29:40John Paul Jones and wooden ships.
29:42Not 1943 and steel destroyers.
29:45But it happened.
29:46Documented in action reports.
29:48Confirmed by survivors.
29:50Witnessed by USS Barry and USS Goff.
29:53Recorded in German naval archives after the war.
29:56U-405 lost with all hands.
29:5849 men.
30:00Corvette and Capitan Rolf Heinrich Hopmann among them.
30:03A skilled commander who fought brilliantly until the end.
30:06The question remained.
30:07Why did this battle matter?
30:09Two ships sank.
30:1176 men died.
30:12What changed?
30:13The answer lay not in what happened that night.
30:16But in what it represented about naval warfare itself.
30:21The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous campaign of World War II.
30:261939 to 1945.
30:28Six years of submarines hunting convoys.
30:31Destroyers hunting submarines.
30:33Thousands of ships sank.
30:35Tens of thousands of men died.
30:37Most battles followed the same pattern.
30:40U-boats attacked with torpedoes from underwater.
30:42Destroyers responded with depth charges.
30:45Ships rarely saw each other.
30:47Combat happened through sonar contacts and underwater explosions.
30:51USS Bori versus U-405 broke every rule.
30:55Surface combat.
30:56Ramming.
30:57Small arms fire.
30:58Hand-to-hand range.
31:00Weapons that included knives and shell casings.
31:02Naval warfare that looked more like 1800 than 1943.
31:07It shouldn't have happened.
31:08By all modern naval doctrine, it was impossible.
31:12But it did happen.
31:13And that made it significant.
31:15Ramming was the oldest naval tactic in existence.
31:18Ancient galleys rammed each other.
31:20Viking longships rammed enemy vessels.
31:23Age-of-sale warships occasionally rammed as a last resort.
31:26But by World War II, ramming was considered obsolete.
31:30Suicidal.
31:31Torpedoes and gunfire made it unnecessary.
31:34Why risk your ship when you could sink the enemy from distance?
31:37Hutchins had no choice.
31:39U-405's tight turning radius prevented effective gunnery.
31:42The submarine's stern torpedo tube remained a threat.
31:45Depth charges worked only if the submarine was underwater.
31:48On the surface, in heavy seas with limited visibility, ramming became the only option.
31:54The last resort became the only resort.
31:56The ramming itself failed.
31:58The wave lifted Bori onto U-405 instead of driving through her hull.
32:03Pure chance.
32:04Random ocean mechanics that nobody could predict or control.
32:07But that accident created something unprecedented.
32:10Two modern warships stuck together.
32:13Unable to use their primary weapons, forced to fight with whatever they could reach.
32:17The Germans fought harder than they had to.
32:20Hopman could have surrendered immediately after the ramming.
32:23His submarine couldn't submerge.
32:25Couldn't escape.
32:26Couldn't win.
32:27Surrender was the rational choice.
32:30But his crew kept fighting.
32:32Kept trying to reach their guns.
32:33Kept firing from the hatches.
32:35They knew they were dead, but fought anyway.
32:39That kind of courage existed on both sides.
32:41The Americans throwing knives and shell casings.
32:44The Germans running into searchlight beams knowing they would die.
32:48Neither crew quit.
32:49Neither crew broke.
32:51Both sides fought with everything available until one side literally sank.
32:56That level of determination was rare even in World War II.
33:00The technological mismatch made it stranger.
33:04Bori was built in 1920.
33:0623 years old.
33:08Ancient by naval standards.
33:09Obsolete design.
33:11Weak armor.
33:12Limited weapons.
33:13She should have been scrapped years earlier.
33:16U-405 was built in 1941.
33:19Modern submarine.
33:21Advanced torpedoes.
33:22Experienced crew.
33:23By every measure, the U-boat was superior.
33:27But age didn't matter in that fight.
33:29Technology didn't matter.
33:31What mattered was seamanship.
33:33Leadership.
33:34The willingness to close with the enemy regardless of cost.
33:39Hutchins commanded a tin-can destroyer with a crew of reservists.
33:42Most had never seen combat.
33:45He himself had been a salesman two years earlier.
33:48None of that mattered when the shooting started.
33:50The battle lasted 64 minutes.
33:53In that time, both ships fired everything they had, expended every weapon, used every tactic.
34:01When the guns couldn't reach, they threw things.
34:03When ammunition ran out, they threw empty brass.
34:07When brass ran out, they threw knives.
34:10The fighting continued until one ship sank and the other was too damaged to continue.
34:15Seventy-six men died total.
34:18Twenty-seven Americans.
34:20Forty-nine Germans.
34:22Two ships lost.
34:23One submarine.
34:24One destroyer.
34:26The cost was enormous for a single U-boat kill.
34:30Other destroyers sank submarines with depth charges and lost nobody.
34:33Bori paid in blood for a victory that could have been achieved more efficiently.
34:39But efficiency wasn't the point.
34:41The battle proved something that naval planners had forgotten.
34:44That ships are commanded by men.
34:47That courage and determination could overcome technological advantage.
34:50That sometimes, the oldest tactic was still effective.
34:54That ramming still worked if you were willing to pay the price.
34:58The Battle of the Atlantic continued for another 18 months after Bori sank.
35:02Hundreds more U-boats were destroyed.
35:05Thousands more merchant ships were lost.
35:07But no other battle looked like this one.
35:09No other destroyer rode on top of a submarine.
35:12No other crew fought with knives at sea.
35:15This battle was unique.
35:16And that's why these men deserve to be remembered.
35:20Lieutenant Charles Hutchins returned to Terre Haute after the war.
35:24Went back to civilian life.
35:26Married Anne McCormick in 1946.
35:28Worked at Wabash Fiber Box until he retired in 1964.
35:33Lived quietly.
35:34Rarely talked about that night in the North Atlantic.
35:37The Navy Cross sat in a drawer.
35:39The memories stayed private.
35:41But the battle stayed famous.
35:43Naval historians studied it.
35:45The ramming became a case study at Annapolis.
35:47How two ships could end up locked together.
35:50How surface combat evolved when primary weapons couldn't engage.
35:54How crews improvised when doctrine failed.
35:57The battle that shouldn't have happened became required reading for destroyer captains.
36:01The wreckage of USS Bori remains on the ocean floor.
36:0549 degrees north.
36:0731 degrees west.
36:08Three miles down.
36:10Too deep for salvage.
36:11Too deep for divers.
36:12She sits in darkness with U-405 somewhere nearby.
36:16Two enemies.
36:17Forever linked by one night of combat.
36:20The cold Atlantic is their monument.
36:22The 27 men who died during the abandoned ship have no graves.
36:26Their names are listed on tablets at sea, remembered in naval records.
36:30But the ocean took them and never gave them back.
36:33Morrison Brown.
36:35Max Blaine.
36:36Warren Henderson.
36:3724 others.
36:38They survived the battle, killed a submarine, then drowned in the aftermath.
36:43Their sacrifice was complete, even if their victory was temporary.
36:47The 49 Germans aboard U-405 are also listed only in records.
36:52Corvette and Capitan Rolf Heinrich Hopmann.
36:55His entire crew.
36:56They fought a hopeless battle and fought it well.
36:59Refused to surrender even when surrender made sense.
37:02Went down with their submarine in water too cold and too deep to survive.
37:06The enemy, but also sailors who died doing their duty.
37:11116 survivors carried the story forward.
37:13Most returned to civilian life after the war.
37:16Some stayed in the Navy.
37:18All remembered that night.
37:19The destroyer riding on a submarine.
37:22The Germans climbing toward their guns.
37:24The knives and shell casings.
37:25The men who didn't make it.
37:27They told their families.
37:28Their children.
37:30Their grandchildren.
37:31Kept the memory alive when the official history moved on to bigger battles.
37:35Bob Marr wrote a memoir decades later.
37:37Fire Controlman First Class.
37:39The man who had a box seat for the entire fight.
37:42His account preserved details that official reports missed.
37:46The sounds.
37:47The chaos.
37:48The nightmares afterward.
37:49His writing ensured the human cost wasn't forgotten when historians focused on tactics and technology.
37:55The battle proved one final thing.
37:57That in war, ships don't fight.
37:59Men do.
38:01Bori was steel and rivets.
38:03U-405 was welded plates and diesel engines.
38:06Neither ship decided to fight.
38:08Neither ship chose courage over surrender.
38:10The men made those choices.
38:12Hutchins deciding to ram.
38:14Hopman deciding to fight on the surface.
38:16The crews on both sides refusing to quit.
38:19Modern naval warfare has moved beyond this kind of combat.
38:22Missiles engage from over the horizon.
38:24Submarines launch torpedoes from miles away.
38:27Ships rarely see each other.
38:29The age of surface combat ended decades ago.
38:32No crew will ever ride on top of an enemy submarine again.
38:35No sailors will throw knives in a naval battle.
38:38That era is gone.
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38:54Stories about sailors and destroyer crews who fought with knives and courage and determination.
39:00Real people.
39:01Real heroism.
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39:31These men deserve to be remembered.
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