The Attack of K-74 - WDS Wolfpack

17 July, 1943: (From Wikipedia): American 250-foot long, Goodyear-built ZPK-class USN Airship K-74, became the only blimp shot down in the war when destroyed by U-134. K-74 detected U-134 on RADAR in the Straits of Florida at 23:40 18 July 1943. United States Navy doctrine required blimps to stay out of range of surfaced submarines and guide aircraft or ships to attack. Blimp pilot LT Nelson C. Grills USNR disregarded doctrine in an attempt to prevent U-134 from reaching a tanker and freighter ahead of the submarine. K-74 was hit by U-134's 2-cm machine gun fire during its 55-knot approach. K-74 returned 100 rounds of .50 caliber (12.7 mm) fire before the machine gun was unable to depress sufficiently as the blimp passed over U-134 on its bombing run. K-74's two Mark XVII depth charges failed to release as the blimp passed over U-134, lost control, and slowly fell tail-first into the sea. None of the ten-man blimp crew was injured, and all moved away from K-74 to avoid anticipated depth charge detonations when it sank. K-74 remained afloat for 8 hours, however, and U-134 pulled part of the wreckage aboard for photographs and evaluation. All but one of K-74's crew were rescued the following day by submarine chaser USS SC-657 and the destroyer USS Dahlgren (DD-187). Aviation machinist's mate second class Isadore Stressel drowned minutes before rescue, and became the only United States Navy airshipman to die as a result of enemy action.