'Hecht' (ii) was a U-boat wolfpack operation in the Atlantic against five convoys of the 'ON' series (8 May/18 June 1942).

The wolfpack comprised U-94, U-96, U-116, U-124, U-404, U-406, U-569, U-578 and U-590, and its operation represented the first attempt by Vizeadmiral Karl Dönitz, the Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote, to effect a planned rather than extemporised wolfpack operation in the Atlantic.

On 11 May, while on passage to the first patrol line, U-569 spotted the ONS.92 convoy of 41 ships supported by Commander Paul R. Heineman’s US Escort Group A3 (US Coast Guard cutter Ingham, US destroyer Gleaves, Canadian corvettes Algoma, Arvida, Bittersweet and Shediac, and rescue ship Bury equipped with HF/DF).

During the night of 11/12 May Korvettenkapitän Johann Mohr’s U-124 made two approaches and sank the 5,389-ton British Cristales, 7,065-ton British Empire Dell, 4,959-ton British Llanover and 4,371-ton Greek Mount Parnes, Oberleutnant Hans Johannsen’s U-569 possibly scored a single hit on a disabled ship, and Oberleutnant Otto Ites’s U-94 sank the 5,630-ton Panamanian Cocle.

On the following night U-406 missed a corvette as a result of torpedo failure but Ites’s U-94 sank the 4,399-ton British Batna and 4,471-ton Swedish Tolken.

The wolfpack then lost contact in bad weather. The failure of the escorts lay in part with their inability to use the HF/DF bearings supplied by Bury. In the afternoon of 20 May U-406 spotted the ONS.94 convoy, which was supported by the British Escort Group B7 (destroyers Churchill and Firedrake, and corvettes Dianella, Kingcup, Loosestrife and Free French Roselys), but the U-boat was driven off after four hours by a destroyer and aircraft, and the other boats fail to arrive in this area over the Newfoundland Bank.

After being replenished by U-116 on 25/27 May, the 'Hecht' (ii) boats once more established a patrol line off the Newfoundland Bank. On 1 June U-590 sighted the ONS.96 convoy, which was supported by the British Escort Group B1 (destroyers Hurricane and Rockingham, and corvettes Anchusa, Dahlia and Monkshood) during a heavy storm and on a moonlit night. Because of the weather and the fact that Newfoundland was very close, the operation was broken off on 2 June.

In the evening of 8 June Mohr’s U-124 sighted the ONS.100 convoy of 37 ships supported by Lieutenant Commander J. H. Stubbs’s Canadian Escort Group C1 (destroyer Assiniboine, British corvettes Dianthus and Nasturtium, Free French corvettes Aconit and Mimose, and rescue ship Gothland). U-124 sank Mimose in its first attack.

On 9 June all six boats of the 'Hecht' (ii) wolfpack established contact but U-96, U-406 and U-590 remained behind because of problems with their Diesel fuel. Ites’s U-94 sank the 6,147-ton British Empire Clough and 4,855-ton British Ramsay during the night of 9/10 June. The U-boats then lost contact as the visibility deteriorated. On 11 June U-96 sighted the convoy once again. Ites’s U-94 and Johanssen’s U-569 were delayed by the straggling 4,458-ton British Pontypridd, which they sank only after several approaches.

At this stage the escort was strengthened by the arrival of the Canadian corvettes Chambly and Orillia. During the morning of 12 June U-124 made another approach, sinking the 4,093-ton British Dartford. On 13 June the corvettes Bittersweet and Primrose arrived as a further strengthening of the escort.

During the morning of 16 June U-94 sighted the ONS.102 convoy of 48 ships supported by the US Escort Group A3 (US Coast Guard cutters Campbell and Ingham, destroyers Leary and Canadian Restigouche, and Canadian corvettes Collingwood, Rosthern, Mayflower and Agassiz). The contact report signals from U-94, U-406, U-96, U-124 and U-569 were located by Restigouche, which was equipped with HF/DF, and the escorts drove off the U-boats, among which U-94 and U-590 were depth-charged and damaged. U-406 missed Leary with five torpedoes during the morning of 17 June.

After breaking off the operation on 18 June, Mohr’s U-124 encountered the convoy once more and sank the 5,627-ton US Seattle Spirit in a submerged attack.

By 21 June the boats of the 'Hecht' (ii) wolfpack had started to return to base after sinking 12 ships (61,464 tons) and one corvette for the loss of none of their own number, but in an act of technical blindness with unfortunate consequences for its boats, the U-boat command refused to believe that the Allies had a new location system (HF/DF), and instead insisted that the boats had been detected by radar.