Germany:
The crew of the U-873 on the day of commissioning into the Kriegsmarine, in Bremen, March 1, 1944
Following the surrender of Germany, the
United States Navy studied
U-873 to improve United States submarine designs.
U-873 is remembered for the controversial treatment of its crew as
prisoners of war and the death of commanding officer Friedrich Steinhoff in a
Boston jail cell.
Upon completion of training on 31 January 1945
U-873 was assigned to the
33rd U-boat Flotilla at
Flensburg for war patrols to the
Atlantic Ocean.
U-873 departed from
Kiel on 17 February 1945 and arrived in
Horten Naval Base on 22 February.
U-873 sailed from Horten on 21 March 1945 and reached
Kristiansand the following day.
U-873 sailed from Kristiansand on 30 March 1945 and was proceeding to an assigned operations area in the
Caribbean Sea when Germany surrendered on 8 May. At 04:30 GMT on 11 May,
U-873 surrendered to
USS Vance of Escort Division 45 (CortDiv 45) while it was escorting
convoy UGS 90 at
35°45′N 42°31′W.
Vance placed a
prize crew aboard
U-873 and escorted the U-boat to
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on 16 May.
U-873 was placed in
dry dock for a design study of the Type IXD2 class of U-boats by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard engineers; and was later transferred to the
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Following completion of trials, the U-boat was scrapped in 1948
Possessions of the crews of the U-boat had been scattered by the prize crews in the process of searching for intelligence information and evidence of sabotage. Upon arrival at Portsmouth the U-boat crews were sent to
Portsmouth Naval Prison for interrogation by the
Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). Subsequent investigation concluded personal possessions of the U-boat crewmen were looted contrary to provisions of the
Geneva Convention.
Following interrogation at Portsmouth Naval Prison, the handcuffed crew of U-873 was pelted with insults and garbage while marching through the streets of Boston to the Suffolk County
Charles Street Jail to await transfer to a
prisoner-of-war camp in
Mississippi.
U-873 crewman Georg Seitz reported Steinhoff's (CO) face was bleeding and swollen when he returned to his cell after being questioned by a civilian ONI interrogator who ordered a husky
United States Marine Corps guard to slap the officer. On 19 May 1945 Steinhoff bled to death in his Boston jail cell from wrist wounds, possibly inflicted with the broken lens of his
sunglasses. He was buried in grave 934 at
Fort Devens.