U-582
The Type VIIC boat U-582 was only brought into the region for a day by its commander, Kapitänleutnant Werner Schulte. The incursion took place just southeast of Bermuda on the 28th of April 1942 and was completed the following day. The chart of this portion of the patrol looks like a <. Schulte merely stuck his toe into the area south of Bermuda en route home, perhaps hoping to catch vessels which still used the island and lighthouses of Bermuda as waypoints to verify their navigation.
Having begun its patrol on the 19thof March intending to escort the German blockade-runner Rio Grande from Japan into Europe, the boat instead patrolled to the west. Towards the end of April U-582 was refueled by U-459 roughly 500 miles northeast of Bermuda, which would explain its proximity to that island. There were no ships struck by Schulte on this patrol, which ended in Brest on the 24th of May 1942 (Wynn, Vol. 2, p.54).
U-582 sailed from and two Brest, where it was based with the First Flotilla. Its only commander was Korvettenkapitän Schulte, whose career total was six ships sunk for 38,826 GRT and one 46-ton warship lost aboard a transport ship sunk. Schulte was not able to engage any Allied ships during this 67-day patrol, which ranged from off Nova Scotia to Cape Hatteras south to Bermuda.
Werner Schulte was born in Kiel on 7 November 1912 and joined the Kriegsmainein 1937 as the A Crew of that year. After serving on the Köningsberg he moved ashore to a staff position in Norway. He joined U-boats in October 1940. As part of his training he served under Robert Gysae on U-98. He took the sub on four patrols and sank six ships with her. His promotion from Kapitänleutnantto Korvettenkapitän was posthumous, as Schulte was killed with 46 others when U-582 was found and sunk by Catalina aircraft on the 5th of October 1942 off the southwest of Iceland (Niestle, 1988).
SOURCES: Gudmundur Helgason, Rainer Kolbicz, www.uboat.net, 2011, Kenneth Wynn, U-boat Operations of the Second World War, Volume 1 and Volume 2, 1997