BOA Personality of the Week - Erich Topp (2 July 1914 – 26 December 2005)



From U-Boat.net:
Erich Topp began his naval career in April 1934. He served six months on the light cruiser Karlsruhe before joining the U-boat force in October 1937. A year later he became watch officer on U-46.

After four patrols with U-46, Topp took over command of U-57. With this boat he sank six ships with a total of 36,862 tons. U-57 sank on 3 September 1940 after an accident with the Norwegian ship Rona.

Topp was then given command of the VIIC boat U-552, the famous "Red Devil Boat". Topp scored most of his successes in the North Atlantic against convoys and off the North American coast. On his very successful eighth patrol in March/April 1942, he sank eight ships with a total of 45,731 tons.

In September 1942 Topp became commander of the 27th U-boat Flotilla, where new U-boat crews received their tactical training. Topp wrote the Battle Instructions for the new XXI Elektro Boat submarine in 1944, and when the war ended he was commanding one of them, U-2513, which he surrendered at Horten, Norway in May 1945.

After the war Topp worked for some months as a fisherman before he became a successful architect. In March 1958 he rejoined the Navy. He then spent four years in the USA as a staff member of the Military Committee of NATO. Later he served in several staff positions and for a month was commander of U-boats in deputize.

Konteradmiral Erich Topp retired in December 1969. He was decorated in that year with the Große Bundes-Verdienst- kreuz (Great Federal Merit Cross).

From 1970 to 1984 he worked as industrial consultant for, among others, the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft.

He died on Dec 26 2005.

BOA Weapon of the Week - Blohm and Voss Bv-138



From http://home.swipnet.se/our_stuff/Planes/BV138.htm
The Blohm und Voss BV 138 was officially named 'Seedrache' (Sea Dragon) but unofficially it was instead mostly called 'the flying clog'. It was built and used as a long-range maritime reconnaissance flying boat - often flying for hours far out over the sea in search of allied convoys and shipping. Fully loaded it could fly over 4000 kilometers and stay up for 16 hours. This range could be increased even further when using RATO packs (Rocket Assisted Take-offs) or when launched from catapults on board seaplane tenders.

The BV 138C-1 was powered by three Junkers Jumo 205D-1 diesel engines and although they were fuel efficient they made the aircraft very slow and gave it a maximum ceiling of only 5000 m (16400 ft). However, armed with 20mm cannons in two turrets and a 13mm heavy machinegun in an open position as well as an optional MG15 the BV 138 could often take care of itself when attacked. It has for example been known to shoot down a British Blenheim as well as a Catalina flying boat in air-to-air combat. And since the BV 138 could also take a lot of battle damage and keep flying, especially as the diesel fuel rarely ignited when hit by machine gun fire, she was generally well liked by her crews.

Although the BV 138 was able to carry small loads of bombs and depth-charges and thereby do attack missions such as sub-hunting, most operations were pure reconnaisance and surveillance, often working together with the german U-boats. But they were also used for convoy escort, air-sea rescue, personnel and equipment transport or as a few modified ones for mine-sweeping duties.

The BV 138 flying boats were used almost all over Europe and patrolled the North Sea, Skagerrack and Kattegatt, Baltic Sea, Arctic Ocean, Norwegian Sea, Bay of Biscay as well as the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

Personally, my favorite flying boat of the war.

Boa Personality of the Week - Admiral Sir Max Kennedy Horton GCB DSO** SGM (29 November 1883 – 30 July 1951)


From Wikipedia:

World War I - Submarine Ace

Horton joined the Royal Navy officer training ship, HMS Britannia on 15 September 1898. Whilst on HMS Duke of Edinburgh, he was involved in the rescue efforts when SS Delhi ran aground off Cape Spartel and was subsequently awarded the The Board of Trade Medal for Saving Life at Sea in silver.

The outbreak of war saw Lieutenant-Commander Horton in command of one of the first British ocean-going submarines, the 800-ton HMS E9. At dawn on 13 September 1914, he torpedoed the German light cruiser SMS Hela six miles southwest of Heligoland. Hela was hit amidships with the two torpedoes, fired from a range of 600 yards. All but two of her crew were rescued by the U-18 and another German ship. Although pursued most of the day by German naval forces, E9 managed to reach Harwich safely.[1] Entering the port, Horton initiated the tradition of British submariners of hoisting the Jolly Roger after a successful patrol.[2]

Horton (left) with Noel Laurence, commander of HMS E1 (right), while serving in the Baltic
Three weeks later, Horton sank the German destroyer S 116 off the mouth of the river Ems. For sinking the cruiser and the destroyer, Horton was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). Sent to the Baltic Sea as part of a British flotilla, Horton sank another destroyer and a number of merchant vessels and damaged the German armoured cruiser SMS Prinz Adalbert. During this period, on 31 December 1914, Horton was promoted to Commander.

In 1917, Horton was awarded the bar to his DSO for long and arduous services in command of overseas submarines. Three years later, as a captain, he was awarded a second bar to his DSO for distinguished service in command of the Baltic submarine flotilla.

World War II - Submarine Hunter

With the onset of World War II, Horton was put in command of the so-called Northern Patrol enforcing the distant maritime blockade of Germany in the seas between Orkney and the Faroes. In 1940, he was made commander of all home-seas-based submarines, even though he was far more senior in rank than the Flag Officer Submarines had traditionally been, because of a new Admiralty regulation that the Flag Officer Submarines had to be an officer who had served aboard submarines in the Great War. Horton's biographer, Rear Admiral William S. Chalmers, cites the opinion that this regulation was forced through for the sole purpose of ensuring that Horton was on a very short list of qualifiers for this post, almost ensuring his rapid transfer to Aberdour, so great was the desire of some within the Admiralty to have Horton revitalize the submarine arm.

Horton rather famously moved his headquarters from Aberdour where he was under the thumb of the fleet commanders at Scapa Flow to Northways in north London, officially because he wanted a freer hand in running his command, but purportedly because Northways was located near some of his favorite golf courses. Horton, an avid golfer, is said to have played a round of golf almost every day during the war (since most of the convoy battles took place at night), and was generously handicapped at a "financial 8".

Having been promoted to full Admiral on 9 January 1941, Horton was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Western Approaches Command on 17 November 1942. Here he instituted a series of tactical changes in the way the escort ships were to be used. In addition to the existing escort group system, in which groups of ships were assigned to defend the perimeter of convoy boxes, Horton instituted a system of support groups, who would also travel with the convoys, but have much more freedom in terms of pursuing submarines to the death, even if such action necessitated leaving the convoy for longer periods of time than were considered acceptable for escort groups. Horton's support groups proved to be decisive in the crucial spring of 1943, taking the battle to the U-boats and crushing the morale of the U-boat arm with persistent and successful counterattacks. Horton is widely credited, along with his predecessor, Admiral Sir Percy Noble, as being one of the most crucial figures in the Allied victory in the Atlantic. In August 1945, Max Horton, at his own request, was placed on the retired list in order to facilitate the promotion of younger officers. He was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

During the Second World War, an anti-submarine trawler carried the name HMS Commander Horton which was sunk by German submarine U-552 on 27 April 1941 .

BOA - Weapon of the Week - Bletchley Park



From Wikipedia
Bletchley Park, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, was the central site of the United Kingdom's Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), which during the Second World War regularly penetrated the secret communications of the Axis Powers – most importantly the German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers. The official historian of World War II British Intelligence has written that the "Ultra" intelligence produced at Bletchley shortened the war by two to four years, and that without it the outcome of the war would have been uncertain.The site is now an educational and historical attraction memorializing and celebrating those accomplishments.

Most German messages decrypted at Bletchley were produced by one or another version of the Enigma cipher machine, but an important minority were produced by the even more complicated twelve-rotor Lorenz SZ42 on-line teleprinter cipher machine.

Five weeks before the outbreak of war, in Warsaw, Poland's Cipher Bureau revealed its achievements in breaking Enigma to astonished French and British personnel. The British used the Poles' information and techniques, and the Enigma clone sent to them in August 1939, which greatly increased their (previously very limited) success in decrypting Enigma messages.

The bombe was an electromech­anical device whose function was to discover some of the daily settings of the Enigma machines on the various German military networks. Its functional design was by Alan Turing (with an important contribution from Gordon Welchman) and its engineering was by Harold 'Doc' Keen of the British Tabulating Machine Company. Each machine was about 7 feet (2.1 m) high and wide, 2 feet (0.61 m) deep and weighed about a ton.

At its peak, GC&CS was reading approximately 4,000 messages per day. As a hedge against enemy attack most bombes were dispersed to installations at Adstock and Wavendon (both later supplanted by installations at Stanmore and Eastcote), and Gayhurst.

Luftwaffe messages were the first to be read in quantity. The German navy had much tighter procedures, and the capture of code books was needed before they could be broken. When, in February 1942, the German navy introduced the four-rotor Enigma for communications with its Atlantic U-boats, this traffic became unreadable for a period of ten months. Britain produced modified bombes, but it was the success of the US Navy bombe that was the main source of reading messages from this version of Enigma for the rest of the war. Messages were sent to and fro across the Atlantic by enciphered teleprinter links.

The Lorenz messages were codenamed Tunny at Bletchley Park. They were only sent in quantity from mid-1942. The Tunny networks were used for high-level messages between German High Command and field commanders. With the help of German operator errors, the cryptanalysts in the Testery (named after Ralph Tester, its head) worked out the logical structure of the machine despite not knowing its physical form. They devised automatic machinery to help with decryption, which culminated in Colossus, the world's first programmable digital electronic computer. This was designed and built by Tommy Flowers and his team at the Post Office Research Station at Dollis Hill. The first was delivered to Bletchley Park in December 1943 and commissioned the following February. Enhancements were developed for the Mark 2 Colossus, the first of which was working at Bletchley Park on the morning of D-day in June. Flowers then produced one Colossus a month for the rest of the war, making a total of ten with an eleventh part-built. The machines were operated mainly by Wrens in a section named the Newmanry after its head Max Newman.

Bletchley's work was essential to defeating the U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic, and to the British naval victories in the Battle of Cape Matapan and the Battle of North Cape. In 1941, Ultra exerted a powerful effect on the North African desert campaign against German forces under General Erwin Rommel. General Sir Claude Auchinleck wrote that were it not for Ultra, "Rommel would have certainly got through to Cairo". While not changing the events, "Ultra" decrypts featured prominently in the story of Operation SALAM, László Almásy's daring mission across the Libyan Desert behind enemy lines in 1942. Prior to the Normandy landings on D-Day in June 1944, the Allies knew the locations of all but two of Germany's fifty-eight Western-front divisions.

BOA - Personality of the Week - Hans-Diedrich Freiherr von Tiesenhausen (22 February 1913 – 17 August 2000)



From Wikipedia:
von Tiesenhausen was a German Kapitänleutnant with the Kriegsmarine during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

Tiesenhausen sailed with the U-23 and U-331. He achieved his greatest success as a U-boat commander by sinking the British battleship HMS Barham on 25 November 1941. On his 3rd patrol U-331 returned to the Egyptian coast. On 17 November she landed seven men of the Lehrregiment Brandenburg east of Ras Gibeisa, on a mission to blow up a railway line near the coast, which failed.

U-331 was sunk on 17 November 1942, north of Algiers, during "Operation Torch". She had been badly damaged after being attacked by a Lockheed Hudson bomber and signalled surrender, but was attacked and sunk by a Fairey Albacore torpedo-bomber from the British aircraft carrier HMS Formidable. Of her crew 32 were killed and 17 survived including Tiesenhausen. He was a prisoner of war in England and Canada until 1947 when he returned to Germany. He worked as a joiner, but in late 1951 he returned to Canada.

BOA - Weapon of the Week - Mines



From uboat.net:
The submarine mine during World War Two was a very efficient and dangerous weapon if properly used. Minesweeping was expensive and time-consuming for the defenders, diverting materiél from other duties.

In the period prior to WWII the German Navy developed in secrecy a series of mines that were much superior to those used in the previous conflict. They were laid in hundreds of operations although Dönitz did not favor them as they were not quite as effective as the torpedo.

Types of mines used:

TMA was a big submarine floating mine. It was redesigned as the TMC in late 1939.

TMB was designed especially for submarine use. This was an unearthed "seabed" that utilized a magnetic pistol. It was 7.5 feet long and carried an explosive charge of 1,276 pounds (567kg) which was twice that of the torpedoes of the time. It was laid on the bottom in shallow seaways and was detonated when a big ship passed over its position. Not many ships survived such a blast under their keel.

The mines were originally laid at the depth of 30m but after reliability questions and testing it was established that 25m was much more lethal depth. The mines were also overly sensitive, sinking smaller ships than intended. The U-boat crews thus started laying them in even shallower waters and de-magnetizing them to reduce their sensitivity. This improved their score.

TMC was a ground variant of the floating TMA mine. It was designed after Dönitz' worries that the 1,276 pound warhead of the TMB might not be powerful enough against really big ships, like British battleships and aircraft carriers. Unlike the torpedo directorate that acted super-slow on reliability complaints the mine designers were quite willing to imporove their work. They delivered the TMC with a massive explosive charge of 2,200 pounds believed to be lethal of up to depth of 36 meters.

This mine was probably used for the first time by U-32 in Firth of Clyde in December 1939. They were laid in a unfavorable position and failed, the commander being sacked for disobeying orders.

SMC - I have very little information on this type of mine except that it was believed to be unsuited for U-boat operations.

Mine laying operations
Mine laying could be extremely effective but it was not a popular task for the U-boat crews. Traditionally the mines were laid close to shore in very hostile waters where, if discovered, the boat was in great danger of being destroyed. Another thing was that mines did not cause any immediate damage to shipping and thus was often not credited fairly and did not give the men any feeling of achievement like torpedoes did. Many of the men also felt this was somehow "sneaky" or unfair.

The exact position of the minefield had to be charted as accurately as possible. International laws required that minefield could be located and cleared after end of hostilities and the navy laying the field could be interested in extending it thus the plotting of its position was vital.

BOA - Personality of the Week - Royal Eason Ingersoll (1883–1976)




Ingersoll was a United States Navy four-star admiral who served as Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet (CINCLANT) from January 1, 1942 to late1944; Commander, Western Sea Frontier from late 1944 to 1946; and Deputy Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet/Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (DCOMINCH/DCNO) from late 1944 to late 1945.

Ingersoll was born in Washington, D.C., on 20 June 1883. He was second in a succession of three generations of U.S. Naval officers: his father, Rear Admiral Royal R. Ingersoll - United States Naval Academy class of 1868, and his son, Lieutenant Royal Rodney Ingersoll II - USNA class of 1934, was killed in a "friendly fire" accident on board the aircraft carrier Hornet (CV-8) on 4 June 1942, during the naval Battle of Midway.

On 16 July 1938, Ingersoll took command of Cruiser Division Six of the Scouting Force, his flag in the cruiser Minneapolis (CA-36). Two years later, he returned to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations as Assistant to the Chief, and on 1 January 1942, with the rank of Vice Admiral, he was designated Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, with the Augusta as his flagship.

Ingersoll was promoted to the rank of Admiral on the following 1 July. Having organized the movements of the thousands of ships across the Atlantic in order to have men and supplies on hand at the precise hour for the North African landings in November 1942, he also had the responsibility of planning the composition of the naval escort forces which insured the troop convoys' safe arrival.

Following the African invasion, the Atlantic Fleet was employed in running troop convoys and transporting stores, munitions, and fuel to the United Kingdom and the Mediterranean. As a side issue, it ran the convoys on the coast of Brazil and continuously waged the anti-submarine war which had been a matter of primary concern since the outbreak of hostilities. Ingersoll is generally credited with solving the U-boat and Atlantic logistics problems. In addition, he had the responsibility of defense of the Western Hemisphere by U.S. naval forces and made changes in the disposition of air and surface forces stationed at various points in North and South America. For his services in this command, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and cited as a "...forceful and resolute leader under the critical conditions existing throughout a period of approximately three years...against a determined and ruthless enemy intent on world domination...."

In November 1944, he was detached from command of the Atlantic Fleet and became Commander Western Sea Frontier, with headquarters at San Francisco. In addition to commanding the naval forces engaged in protecting shipping in coastal waters, he managed the flow of supplies to the Pacific Fleet through West Coast ports. In carrying out this assignment, he had the status of a Deputy Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, and Deputy Chief of Naval Operations. After the reorganization of the Navy in October 1945, he continued to serve as Commander Western Sea Frontier until 10 April 1946, when he was relieved of all active duty pending his retirement that became official on 1 August 1946.

BOA - Weapon of the Week - Bimps



From the Defense Media Networw website:
A close-quarters slugfest between a U.S. Navy blimp and a German U-boat lit up the sea and sky off the Florida coast on the night of July 18, 1943, and produced moments of remarkable heroism by American sailors.

The German adversary was the Type VIIC U-boat U-134, a 220-foot, 769-ton (surfaced) raider that had once torpedoed a German merchant ship by mistake but was now on her seventh war patrol, with Oberleutnant Hans-Günther Brosin as captain.

Blimp crews were expected to find the foe and call for help, rather than to use this skimpy arsenal to engage the heavy anti-aircraft armament of a U-boat directly.

K-74 was the designation of the 252-foot airship, piloted and commanded by Lt. Nelson Grills, USNR, with a crew of nine: Darnley Eversley, Ensign, USNR, navigator; John Jandrowitz, Aviation Pilot First Class, USNR, co-pilot; Isadore Stessel, Aviation Machinist Mate Second Class, USNR; Jonathan L. Schmidt, Aviation Machinist Mate Third Class, USNR; Robert Herbert Bourne, Aviation Radioman Third Class, USNR; John F. Rice, Aviation Radioman Third Class, USNR; Gerrold M. Giddings, Aviation Radioman Third Class, USNR; Garnet Eckert, Aviation Ordnanceman Third Class, USNR; and John W. Kowalski, Seaman Third Class, USNR.

K-74 was operating as part of lighter-than-air patrol squadron twenty-one (ZP-21) at Naval Air Station Richmond, Fla. A K-class blimp was typically armed with four depth charges and a .50-cal. machine gun mounted in the nose of the blimp’s gondola – but blimp crews were expected to find the foe and call for help, rather than to use this skimpy arsenal to engage the heavy anti-aircraft armament of a U-boat directly.

U.S. Navy sailors arm a K-class blimp at NAS Weeksville, N.C. Normal armament was four depth charges and a .50-caliber machine gun. National Museum of Naval Aviation photo

Shortly before midnight, the submarine surfaced and the crew threw open their hatches to vent carbon dioxide and take in fresh air. German sailors clambered topside to enjoy the tropical warmth. The U-134 was now in position to intercept two Allied merchant ships nearby.

K-74′s crew initially spotted the surfaced U-boat on radar, then emerged from cloud cover and made visual contact. The German submarine was on a direct course for the nearby merchant ships, and Grills was afraid that if he didn’t attack immediately, they would be sunk by the U-boat. Grills radioed to another blimp that he was pressing the attack.


The submarine turned to port, and from the U-boat’s conning tower, 20 mm cannon fire rushed upward at K-74. The big and cumbersome blimp –readily visible in the moonlit night – initiated a bombing run at 250 feet of altitude. Aviation Machinist’s Mate Third Class Garnet Eckert fired back with the gondola-mounted machine gun.

As K-74 passed over the submarine, gunfire struck one of its engines. Grills’ radio operator got off an S.O.S. message. It appears today, in light of recovered documents, that Aviation Machinist’s Mate Second Class Isadore Stessel managed to drop two of the blimp’s depth charges.

A U.S. Navy sailor mans a machine gun in the gondola of a K-class blimp. In the battle on July 18, 1943, Aviation Machinist’s Mate Third Class Garnet Eckert engaged a U-boat with the nose-mounted machine gun. National Museum of Naval Aviation photo

The airship caught fire. The crew managed to defeat the blaze but fought to remain airborne as they slowly lost altitude, the blimp’s envelope shredded by enemy gunfire. The airship touched water in a high nose-up attitude, and the crew began to evacuate, wearing Mae West lifejackets.

Grills helped others escape, but remained behind to dump secret electronic gear and classified documents overboard. By the time he abandoned ship he had become separated from his crew. Many hours later he was rescued only when a crewmember of airship K-32 spotted him in the water, largely by chance. The remainder of the crew clung to the deflated bag of the blimp. At dawn, a J4F-2 Widgeon seaplane from ZP-21 discovered them.

Tragically, before he could be pulled from the sea, Stessel was attacked by a shark and vanished in a crimson froth.

The sea state would not permit the Widgeon to set down on water. The J4F-2 directed surface ships to a rescue. Tragically, before he could be pulled from the sea, Stessel was attacked by a shark and vanished in a crimson froth. As if in requiem, K-74′s two remaining depth charges – now underwater with most of the blimp – detonated deep below the surface. The USS Dahlgren arrived on the scene shortly after, and sailors armed with rifles and Thompson .45-caliber submachine guns fired shots to keep sharks at bay while the crew were brought aboard.

Initially, Grills and his crew faced official disapproval since they had violated standing orders in attacking the submarine, but this changed after the squadron commander interviewed them at length. It wasn’t until 1961, however, that Grills received the Distinguished Flying Cross and his crew Navy Commendation Medals, after German records revealed that K-74 had damaged the U-boat.

Mae West lifejackets are passed out in the gondola of a K-class blimp. The crew of K-74 had to take to the sea in their Mae Wests after being shot down by a German U-boat. National Museum of Naval Aviation photo

It is unknown whether the damage was severe enough to keep the U-boat from submerging, but in the hunt for U-134 after K-74 was shot down, the boat was damaged again in an air attack. It was finally sunk by a Royal Air Force bomber days later while attempting to limp home on the surface to Germany for repairs. K-74 was the only blimp downed by enemy action in World War II and Stessel the only crewmember killed by enemy action. Stessel’s family members did not receive his Purple Heart until 54 years after he died at sea.

BOA Personality of the Week - Viktor Schütze (16 February 1906 – 23 September 1950)



From uboat.net:
Captain Viktor Schütze was a Kriegsmarine U-boat ace, sinking a total of 35 allied ships totalling 180,053 tons during the Second World War. He is in fifth place on the ten Aces of the Deep. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

He started his naval career in the Reichsmarine aboard German torpedo boats in April 1925, before transferring to the new U-boat division ten years later in October 1935. There he commanded U-19 for two years, before being relieved to take destroyer training - before returning to the U-boat arm in command of U-11. When war broke out he commanded U-25, with which he sailed on three patrols, mainly in the Bay of Biscay and off the Portuguese coast.

In July 1940 he assumed command over the Type IXB U-103, and commanded for four patrols in North Atlantic and African waters. In December he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his successes. In August 1941 he retired from front service, taking up positions as Flottillenchef of 2nd U-boat Flotilla. In March 1943 he became the FdU Ausbildungsflottillen (Commander of the training flottillas in the Baltic Sea) in Flensburg-Kappeln, in which position he served until the end of the war.

He died in Frankfurt am Main in 1950.

BOA - Weapon of the Week - Prinz Eugen



Prinz Eugen was an Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser, the third member of the class of five vessels. The ship was laid down in April 1936 and launched in August 1938; Prinz Eugen entered service after the outbreak of war, in August 1940. The ship was named after Prince Eugene of Savoy, an 18th-century Austrian general.

Prinz Eugen saw extensive action during Operation Rheinübung, an attempted breakout into the Atlantic Ocean with the battleship Bismarck in May 1941. The two ships engaged the British battlecruiser Hood and battleship Prince of Wales in the Battle of Denmark Strait, during which Hood was destroyed and Prince of Wales was severely damaged. Prinz Eugen was detached from Bismarck during the operation to raid Allied merchant shipping, but this was cut short due to engine troubles. After putting into occupied France and undergoing repairs, the ship participated in Operation Cerberus, a daring daylight dash through the English Channel back to Germany. In February 1942, Prinz Eugen was deployed to Norway, although her time stationed there was cut short when she was torpedoed by the British submarine Trident days after arriving in Norwegian waters. The torpedo severely damaged the ship's stern, which necessitated repairs in Germany.

Upon returning to active service, the ship spent several months training new officer cadets in the Baltic before serving as artillery support to the retreating German Army on the Eastern Front. After the German collapse in May 1945, the ship was surrendered to the British Royal Navy before being transferred to the US Navy as a war prize. After examining the ship in the United States, the US Navy assigned the cruiser to the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll. After surviving both atomic blasts, Prinz Eugen was towed to Kwajalein Atoll where she ultimately capsized and sank in December 1946. The wreck remains partially visible above the water approximately two miles north-west of Bucholz Army Airfield, on the edge of Enubuj. One of her screws was salvaged and is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial in Germany.

Operation Rheinübung:

By 11 May, repairs to Prinz Eugen were completed. The ship, under the command of Kapitän zur See Helmuth Brinkmann, steamed to Gotenhafen, where her crew readied the ship for the sortie. On 18 May, Prinz Eugen rendezvoused with Bismarck off Cape Arkona. The two ships were escorted by three destroyers—Hans Lody, Friedrich Eckoldt, and Z23—and a flotilla of minesweepers. The Luftwaffe provided air cover during the voyage out of German waters. At around 13:00 on 20 May, the German flotilla encountered the Swedish cruiser HMS Gotland; the cruiser shadowed the Germans for two hours in the Kattegat. Gotland transmitted a report to naval headquarters, stating: "Two large ships, three destroyers, five escort vessels, and 10–12 aircraft passed Marstrand, course 205°/20'." The OKM was not concerned about the security risk posed by Gotland, though Lütjens believed operational security had been lost.[15] The report eventually made its way to Captain Henry Denham, the British naval attaché to Sweden, who transmitted the information to the Admiralty.

The code-breakers at Bletchley Park confirmed that an Atlantic raid was imminent, as they had decrypted reports that Bismarck and Prinz Eugen had taken on prize crews and requested additional navigational charts from headquarters. A pair of Supermarine Spitfires were ordered to search the Norwegian coast for the German flotilla. On the evening of 20 May, Prinz Eugen and the rest of the flotilla reached the Norwegian coast; the minesweepers were detached and the two raiders and their destroyer escorts continued north. The following morning, radio-intercept officers on board Prinz Eugen picked up a signal ordering British reconnaissance aircraft to search for two battleships and three destroyers northbound off the Norwegian coast. At 7:00 on the 21st, the Germans spotted four unidentified aircraft, though they quickly departed. Shortly after 12:00, the flotilla reached Bergen and anchored at Grimstadfjord. While there, the ships' crews painted over the Baltic camouflage with the standard "outboard gray" worn by German warships operating in the Atlantic.

While in Bergen, Prinz Eugen took on 764 t (752 long tons; 842 short tons) of fuel; Bismarck inexplicably failed to similarly refuel. At 19:30 on 21 May, Prinz Eugen, Bismarck, and the three escorting destroyers left port. By midnight, the force was in the open sea and headed toward the Arctic Ocean. At this time, Admiral Raeder finally informed Hitler of the operation, who reluctantly allowed it to continue as planned. The three escorting destroyers were detached at 04:14 on 22 May, while the force steamed off Trondheim. At around 12:00, Lütjens ordered his two ships to turn toward the Denmark Strait to attempt the breakout into the open waters of the Atlantic.


Map showing the movements of Prinz Eugen, Bismarck, and their British pursuers

By 04:00 on 23 May, Lütjens ordered Prinz Eugen and Bismarck to increase speed to 27 kn (50 km/h; 31 mph) to make the dash through the Denmark Strait. Upon entering the Strait, both ships activated their FuMo radar detection equipment sets. Bismarck led Prinz Eugen by about 700 m (2,300 ft); mist reduced visibility to 3,000 to 4,000 m (9,800 to 13,100 ft). The Germans encountered some ice at around 10:00, which necessitated a reduction in speed to 24 kn (44 km/h; 28 mph). Two hours later, the pair had reached a point north of Iceland. The ships were forced to zigzag to avoid ice floes. At 19:22, hydrophone and radar operators aboard the German warships detected the cruiser HMS Suffolk at a range of approximately 12,500 m (41,000 ft). Prinz Eugen's radio-intercept team decrypted the radio signals being sent by Suffolk and learned that their location had indeed been reported.

Admiral Lütjens gave permission for Prinz Eugen to engage Suffolk, though the captain of the German cruiser could not clearly make out his target and so held his ship's fire.[26] Suffolk quickly retreated to a safe distance and shadowed the German ships. At 20:30, the heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk joined Suffolk, but approached the German raiders too closely. Lütjens ordered his ships to engage the British cruiser; Bismarck fired five salvoes, three of which straddled Norfolk and rained shell splinters on her decks. The cruiser laid a smoke screen and fled into a fog bank, ending the brief engagement. The concussion from the 38 cm guns firing disabled Bismarck's FuMo 23 radar set; this prompted Lütjens to order Prinz Eugen to take station ahead so she could use her functioning radar to scout for the formation.

The cruisers remained in their stations through the night, continually relaying the location and bearing of the German ships. The harsh weather broke on the morning of 24 May, revealing a clear sky. At 05:07 that morning, hydrophone operators aboard Prinz Eugen detected a pair of unidentified vessels approaching the German formation at a range of 20 nmi (37 km; 23 mi), reporting "Noise of two fast-moving turbine ships at 280° relative bearing!". At 05:45, lookouts on the German ships spotted smoke on the horizon; these turned out to be from Hood and Prince of Wales, under the command of Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland. Lütjens ordered his ships' crews to battle stations. By 05:52, the range had fallen to 26,000 m (85,000 ft) and Hood opened fire, followed by Prince of Wales a minute later.[29] Hood engaged Prinz Eugen, which the British thought to be Bismarck, while Prince of Wales fired on Bismarck.

The British ships approached the German ships head on, which permitted them to use only their forward guns, while Bismarck and Prinz Eugen could fire full broadsides. Several minutes after opening fire, Holland ordered a 20° turn to port, which would allow his ships to engage with their rear gun turrets. Both German ships concentrated their fire on Hood; about a minute after opening fire, Prinz Eugen scored a hit with a high-explosive 20.3 cm (8.0 in) shell; the explosion detonated Unrotated Projectile ammunition and started a large fire, which was quickly extinguished. Holland then ordered a second 20° turn to port, to bring his ships on a parallel course with Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. By this time, Bismarck had found the range to Hood, so Lütjens ordered Prinz Eugen to shift fire and target Prince of Wales to keep both of his opponents under fire. Within a few minutes, Prinz Eugen scored a pair of hits on the battleship and reported a small fire to have been started.


Lütjens then ordered Prinz Eugen to drop behind Bismarck, so she could continue to monitor the location of Norfolk and Suffolk, which were still some 10 to 12 nmi (19 to 22 km; 12 to 14 mi) to the east. At 06:00, Hood was completing the second turn to port when Bismarck's fifth salvo hit. Two of the shells landed short, striking the water close to the ship, but at least one of the 38 cm armour-piercing shells struck Hood and penetrated her thin deck armor. The shell reached Hood's rear ammunition magazine and detonated 112 t (110 long tons; 123 short tons) of cordite propellant. The massive explosion broke the back of the ship between the main mast and the rear funnel; the forward section continued to move forward briefly before the in-rushing water caused the bow to rise into the air at a steep angle. The stern similarly rose upward as water rushed into the ripped-open compartments. In only eight minutes of firing, Hood had disappeared, taking all but three of her crew of 1,419 men with her.

After a few more minutes fighting, during which Prince of Wales scored three hits on Bismarck, the battered British battleship withdrew. The Germans ceased fire as the range widened, though Captain Ernst Lindemann, Bismarck's commander, strongly advocated chasing Prince of Wales and destroying her. Lütjens firmly rejected the request, and instead ordered Bismarck and Prinz Eugen to head for the open waters of the North Atlantic.[36] After the end of the engagement, Lütjens reported that a "Battlecruiser, probably Hood, sunk. Another battleship, King George V or Renown, turned away damaged. Two heavy cruisers maintain contact." At 08:01, he transmitted a damage report and his intentions to OKM, which were to detach Prinz Eugen for commerce raiding and to make for St. Nazaire for repairs. Shortly after 10:00, Lütjens ordered Prinz Eugen to fall behind Bismarck to discern the severity of the oil leakage from the bow hit. After confirming that "broad streams of oil on both sides of [Bismarck's] wake", Prinz Eugen returned to the forward position.

With the weather worsening, Lütjens attempted to detach Prinz Eugen at 16:40. The squall was not heavy enough to cover her withdrawal from Wake-Walker's cruisers, which continued to maintain radar contact. Prinz Eugen was therefore recalled temporarily. The cruiser was successfully detached at 18:14. Bismarck turned around to face the Wake-Walker's formation, forcing Suffolk to turn away at high speed. Prince of Wales fired twelve salvos at Bismarck, which responded with nine salvos, none of which hit. The action diverted British attention and permitted Prinz Eugen to slip away.

On 26 May, Prinz Eugen rendezvoused with the supply ship Spichern to refill her nearly-empty fuel tanks. The ship had suffered serious defects in her propulsion system, which necessitated a return to occupied France for repairs. On 31 May, the ship was joined by an escort of destroyers off the coast of France; The following day, she put into Brest. Repairs lasted for the next eight months, during which Prinz Eugen and the other German warships in the area were repeatedly attacked by Allied bombers. On the night of 1–2 July, the ship was struck by bombs that killed or injured over 100 men.

Hadn't forgotten this week, just haven't had the time.

Will get an update done by this Sunday night.

BOA - Personality of the Week - Cyril Paul Hessler (September 7, 1915 - August 6, 1996)



From the freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com site regarding the sinking of the USS H R Mallory:
His place of entry into active service with the U.S. Naval Reserve was in St. Louis on November 2, 1942 at the age of 27. Cyril did not need to enlist, as he had a deferment due to his job at Hussmann Refrigeration. But his wife, Arleen, recalls that Cyril felt badly that so many others had joined the service, that he decided he needed to do his part.

It is believed Cyril was then sent to the Naval Operating Base at Norfolk, VA. He was rated a Shipfitter 3rd class for 20 months, and Machinist Mate Refrigeration Mechanic 3rd class for the last 5 months of his Navy career.

Cyril’s first assignment was on the merchant marine ship Henry R. Mallory, where he was one of 173 Navy personnel on board bound for Iceland when the ship departed from the Brooklyn Naval Yard on or about January 23, 1943.

While his family does not have a detailed accounting of his time on the Henry R. Mallory, they have bits and pieces as relayed to them over the years by Cyril, one of 73 Navy survivors of the sinking when the ship was torpedoed by the German U-boat U-402 on February 7, 1943 minutes before 4:00 a.m.

During the evening of February 6th, Cyril’s fellow Navy shipmate, William G. Jehling, Jr., Rank SF3, had asked Cyril if he wanted to play cards in an area of the Mallory unknown to his family. For some reason Cyril declined the invitation to play cards, and stated that had he accepted, he would have perished with his shipmate, as the torpedo struck an area of the Mallory near William, and he was killed.

When the torpedo struck, Cyril was thrown from his bunk. At first things were relatively calm, but soon there was much chaos and confusion. This transition was undoubtedly due to the fact that the Mallory sunk within a short period of time after being struck.

Cyril made it to one of the lifeboats, but experienced severe back pain and was unable to row. It is not known which lifeboat he was in. It is believed that he was in one of the lifeboats rescued by the USCGC Bibb, another part of his story that may never be resolved.

Cyril’s back was never the same after the Mallory incident. He experienced persistent back pain, which eventually led to his Honorable Discharge in 1945 from the U.S. Navy Hospital in Virginia.

It is not known for how long, but Cyril did reveal to family members that his experience on the Henry R. Mallory, and the tragic loss of his fellow shipmate, caused him to suffer recurring nightmares.

While the family does not know the specifics of Cyril’s contact with the widow of his fellow shipmate, William Jehling, Jr., who perished on board the Mallory, his family possesses a letter from William’s wife, Marjorie, to Cyril, thanking him for writing her, even though his letter brought bad news. She further stated in her letter “I have joined the women’s Marine Corp, now awaiting my call, and I hope that if Bill is above, which I know he is, that he is proud of me, and with God’s help that I do as good a job as he did”. William’s name does appear on an internet list of Navy personnel who were killed on board the Henry R. Mallory.

Cyril suffered a debilitating heart attack in 1994, and died at his home in Missouri on August 6, 1996. He donated his body to science through Washington University. He will always be remembered by his family, relatives and friends as a fun-loving guy who loved to tell a good joke, with a curious, inventive mind. Cyril spent much of his working life as a Master Plumber.

BOA - Weapon of the Week - USS Henry R. Mallory



From Wikipedia:
SS Henry R. Mallory was built by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. of Newport News, Virginia (yard no. 193), and delivered to the Mallory Steamship Line on 21 October 1916. Named for Mallory Lines president Henry R. Mallory, she operated on a New Orleans – New York route, carrying passengers and freight. She survived her service as a transport in WWI.

In the early stages of World War II for the United States, the War Shipping Administration requisitioned Henry R. Mallory for use as a civilian-manned troopship in July 1942. Remaining under the operation of her owners, Agwilines, Inc., she began operation on U.S. Army schedules in July 1942, when she sailed from New York to Belfast. After her return to New York in August, she made way to Boston from whence she sailed to Saint John, Wabana, Newfoundland; Sydney, Nova Scotia; and Halifax, before returning to New York in October.

After first sailing to Boston and Newport, Rhode Island, Henry R. Mallory departed New York as a part of Convoy SC-118 headed for Liverpool via Halifax on 24 January 1943. The crew on board Henry R. Mallory consisted of 9 officers, 68 crewmen, and 34 Naval Armed Guards (who manned the 11 guns on deck). Also on board were 383 passengers, consisting of 2 civilians, 136 from the U.S. Army, 72 from the U.S. Marine Corps, and 173 from the U.S. Navy. As the convoy, which consisted of 60 ships and 26 escorts, sailed near Iceland, a "wolfpack" of Kriegsmarine U-Boats attacked the convoy repeatedly over a four-day period. Some 20 U-boats participated, ultimately sinking 12 Allied ships, including Henry R. Mallory; three U-boats were lost.

It was at 06:59 on 7 February 1943 when, traveling in station 33 of the convoy, Henry R. Mallory was hit by one torpedo fired from German submarine U-402 around 600 nautical miles (1,100 km) south-southwest of Iceland. Hit in the number three hold on the starboard side, the ship began settling by the stern and listing to port, and sank at about 07:30. Of Henry R. Mallory's ten lifeboats, only three were successfully launched, holding 175 men. Many other men jumped overboard for rafts in the water.

None of the other ships in the convoy were aware of the Mallory's predicament. American destroyer Schenck—searching for survivors from the convoy's sunken rescue ship, SS Toward, sunk three hours earlier, also by U-402—saw lights but was denied permission to investigate. Only when survivors were found by U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bibb some four hours later was the fate of Henry R. Mallory made clear. Bibb rescued 205 men, 3 of whom later died. Another Coast Guard cutter, Ingham, rescued a further 22, of whom 2 later died. Among the 272 dead was the ship's master, 48 crewmen, 15 armed guards, and 208 passengers.

BOA - Personality of the Week - Reinhard Suhren (16 April 1916 – 25 August 1984)



From uboat.net and Wikipedia:
Commander Reinhard Johann Heinz Paul Anton Suhren was a German U-boat commander in World War II and younger brother of Korvettenkapitän (Ing.) and Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipient Gerd Suhren.

He joined the navy in 1935 and began his U-boat career in March 1938. He spent a year as 1st watch officer on U-48 where he received the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross for his contribution in the sinking of 200,000 gross register tons (GRT) of merchant shipping. In April 1941 he took command of U-564. As a commander, he is credited with the sinking of 18 merchant vessels of 95,544 gross register tons (GRT), 1 war ship of 900 metric tons (890 long tons; 990 short tons) and damaged four merchant vessels of 28,907 GRT for which he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub mit Schwertern).

Suhren left the boat and became an instructor in October 1942. He then served in the 27th U-boat Flotilla along with Korvettenkapitän Erich Topp. During the last year of the war Fregattenkapitän Suhren was the Führer der Unterseeboote Norwegen (Leader of U-boats in Norwegian waters) and from September 1944 the Commander-in-Chief of U-boats of the North Sea. After the war he worked in the petroleum industry and died of stomach cancer on 25 August 1984.

He spent one and a half years as first Watch Officer on U-48 (22 April 1939 – 9 November 1940) going on nine war patrols. Here he served under the command of Herbert Schultze on five war patrols, under Hans-Rudolf Rösing on two war patrols, and under Heinrich Bleichrodt for a further two war patrols. Otto Ites was the second Watch Officer and Horst Hofmann the coxswain on all of these patrols, and Erich Zürn was the chief engineer on all but three patrols. Suhren received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for assisting in the sinking of 200,000 GRT of allied shipping. The award had been requested by Bleichrodt on account of his Knight's Cross presentation by Dönitz. Bleichrodt expressed that he would refuse to wear his Knight's Cross if Suhren was not also honoured. He argued that the success of U-48 was more so attributed to Suhren than himself as commander. The request, with the support of Engelbert Endrass, was approved and the Knight's Cross was presented by Hans-Georg von Friedburg, the 2nd Admiral of the U-boats and responsible for staffing.

After returning from his last and longest mission, when U-564 came to the port of Brest, Suhren greeted his friend Horst Uphoff—named Hein and commander of U-84—with the words "Hein, Hein, sind die Nazis noch am Ruder?" Literally translating to "Hein, Hein, are the Nazis still at the rudder?" This made news in the entire U-Boat service.

In April 1941 he took command of U-564, a Type VIIC U-boat. Suhren's chief engineer on U-564 was Oberleutnant zur See (Ing.) Ulrich Gabler. After World War II, Gabler became one of the leading experts on conventional submarine construction and honorary professor at the University of Hamburg for shipbuilding. Suhren had recommend Gabler for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, a request that was turned down and Gabler received the German Cross in Gold on 15 October 1942. U-564 was in Gotenhafen, present-day Gdynia, when on 5 May, Adolf Hitler and Wilhelm Keitel, with a large entourage, arrived to visit the battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz, which were also in Gotenhafen at the time. Suhren, and his brother Gerd, who also happened to be in Gotenhafen at the time, both already decorated with the Knight's Cross, were invited to lunch with Hitler and his entourage.

In August 1941 he sank the British corvette HMS Zinnia. In May 1942 he sunk the Mexican oil tanker Potrero del Llano. The sinking of this ship, compounded with U-106's attack on another tank, the Faja de Oro, would bring Mexico to declare war on the Axis powers.

In October 1942 he left the boat and became an instructor. Later he served in the 27th U-boat Flotilla along with Korvettenkapitän Erich Topp. During the last year of the war the newly appointed Fregattenkapitän Suhren was Führer der Unterseeboote in Norwegian waters and from September 1944 for the North Sea.

BOA - Weapon of the Week - G7e/T4 Falke Torpedo



From uboat.net:
The T4 Model was the adjunct of the earlier T3 model in nearly every way. The T4 was not an ordinary straight-running torpedo, however; it was the world's first acoustic homing torpedo. It ran at 20 kt (37 km/h) for 7500 m and was introduced in March 1943.

Early in 1933 Germany started development and testing of acoustic homing mechanisms for torpedoes. From the outset of submarine warfare, submariners had dreamt of being able to aim and fire torpedoes without surfacing or using a periscope. The periscope gives away the location of a submarine, and a hull-penetrating periscope greatly weakens a submarine's pressure hull and limits the depths to which it can dive. U-boats also had to come to very shallow depths to use their periscopes, generally about 15 m, leaving them greatly exposed to bombing, depth charging, and even gunfire.

With the introduction of Falke, U-boats could remain more deeply submerged and fire at convoys with nothing to give away their position but the noise of their screws. Rather than aiming with a periscope, the torpedo could be roughly aimed at a sound contact as detected by a U-boat's hydrophones, and the homing mechanism could be trusted to find the target without the need for precise aiming.

Falke worked much like a normal straight-running torpedo for the first 400 m of its run, after which its acoustic sensors became active and searched for a target. The sensitive sound sensing equipment in Falke required the torpedo be as quiet as possible, hence it ran at only 20 knots (37 km/h); in addition, the firing U-boat was forced to stop its motors. Falke was intended to home on merchant targets, however, so its slow speed was not a great hindrance.

Only known to have been fired in action by three U-boats, U-221, U-603 and U-758, although regarded as successful, resulting in the sinking of several merchants, and its performance rated satisfactory, Falke was rapidly phased out of service. It was replaced by the G7es/T5 "Zaunkönig" (referred to by the Allies as GNAT, for German Navy Acoustic Torpedo), which was faster and better able to home onto the sound of fast moving warships as well as merchant traffic.

Though its period of operational service was brief, Falke was a proof of concept for the acoustic homing torpedo. Its introduction occurred only two months before the U.S. Navy achieved its initial combat success with the Mark 24 FIDO "mine." FIDO was not a mine, but a passive, acoustic-homing torpedo designed for use by long-range patrol aircraft. (It was designated a mine for security reasons.) The initial success with the Mark 24 occurred on 14 May 1943, when a PBY-5 from VP-84 sank U-640 with the new weapon. Most sources indicate that the Germans' first combat success with the Zaunkönig (GNAT) did not occur until September 1943. While the Allies became aware in September 1943 that the Germans had brought GNAT into operational service, it was not until the capture of U-505 in June 1944 that they obtained reliable data on the German homing torpedo.

BOA - Personality of the Week - Sir Peter William Gretton (27 August 1912 – 11 November 1992)



From Wikipedia:
Gretton was an officer in the Royal Navy. He was active during the World War II Battle of the Atlantic, and was a successful convoy escort commander. He eventually rose to become Fifth Sea Lord and retired as a vice admiral before entering university life as a bursar and academic.

From September 1939 to April 1940, Gretton was appointed as the first lieutenant with Cossack under Philip Vian. He saw action in the Norwegian campaign and was mentioned in dispatches at the second battle of Narvik.

In 1941 he was appointed in command of the destroyer Sabre, serving in the North Atlantic with 1st Escort Group. In 1942 he was given command of Wolverine and returned to the Mediterranean. He took part in Operation Pedestal, the Malta convoy operation in August 1942, and sank the Italian submarine Dagabur by ramming; for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. This action resulted in damage to Wolverine's bow and she returned, first to Gibraltar, then Devonport, for repairs.

During this period Gretton attended the Western Approaches Tactical Unit in Liverpool for anti-submarine training, which was the basis of the Royal Navy's anti-submarine warfare in the Battle of the Atlantic. In December 1942 he was promoted to commander, and given command of Duncan, as Senior Officer Escort to Escort Group B7, based in Londonderry. His pennant was originally in Tay, moving later to Duncan after she finished refitting.

In 1943 Gretton and the B7 Group saw several quiet convoys, then a series of major convoy battles. In April 1943 convoy HX 231 saw six ships lost while two U-boats were destroyed. In April/May convoy ONS 5 saw twelve ships sunk and six U-boats destroyed, and in late May 1943 convoy SC 130 had no ships lost while three to five U-boats destroyed.

As action in the North Atlantic subsided, Gretton lobbied for B7 to function as a support group.[citation needed] He was given one patrol in October 1943, supporting convoys ON 206, ON 207 and ON 208, during which Gretton in Duncan helped to destroy two of the nine U-boats destroyed in these battles.

Gretton continued with the B7 Group until May 1944, moving to Vidette and Chelmer when Duncan was no longer serviceable. In the summer of 1944 Gretton moved to the Admiralty staff, where he remained for the rest of the war.

BOA - Weapon of the Week - HMCS St. Croix



From Naval-History.nert ad Navsource:
Ex-USS McCOOK (Type A BURNHAM-Class) built by Bethlehem Steel at Quincy. The ship was laid down on 11th September 1918 and launched on 31st January 1919. Commissioned on 30th April 1919 for US Naval Service this ship was deployed in the Atlantic until 1922 when she was laid up in Reserve at Philadelphia. In December 1939 she was brought forward for US Navy use and deployed in the Atlantic until transferred to the Royal Navy under the UK/US Lend/Lease Agreement on 3rd September 1940. Commissioned on 24th September that year this destroyer was selected for use by the Royal Canadian Navy and renamed HMCS ST CROIX at Halifax. The name like those of the other destroyers provided under this Agreement was common to places/towns in Britain or Canada and in the US.

Alone of the Canadian Towns, HMCS St Croix had an active, oceanic career and one of the saddest ends for a Canadian warship. HMCS St Croix commissioned at Halifax on 24 September 1940 and initially served as a local escort, refitting there in late October/November 1940 prior to departing to Britain and a long refit. Suffering weather damage on the way, she finally made St.Johns, NF, after a search had started, and she returned to Halifax for repairs lasting to mid-March 1941. In consequence, she never came to Britain for refit as intended but remained in Canadian waters, with NEF and then 21st Escort Group.

Her first major refit was at St Johns, NF, from September 1941 to April 1942, after which she took up duty with MOEF. While with convoy ON113 she attacked and sank U90 in the North Atlantic on 24 July 1942, the high spot of that year prior to refit at St.Johns for five weeks in November and December 1942. Sent to Britain with convoy HX222 in January 1943, HMCS St Croix worked up at Tobermory from 22 January to 17 February as part of the intensive effort to remedy training defects in the RCN escort fleet; a policy that paid off on 4 March 1943 when, as part of the escort for convoy KMS10, HMCS St Croix and the frigate HMCS Shediac sank U87. Returning from North Africa with MKS9, HMCS St Croix returned to the North Atlantic and Halifax for repair in June and July 1943.

In August 1943 HMCS St Croix transferred to Britain again to join in the Bay of Biscay A/S offensive, and she became involved in the intense actions that developed around the combined convoys ON202 and ONS18 on 19 September 1943 during which the Germans deployed the acoustic torpedo with success. Twice torpedoed by U305 on 20 September, HMCS St Croix sank and her survivors were taken aboard the frigate HMS Itchen, their misfortune being that this ship in turn was lost in the continuing action on 29 September, with very heavy loss of life. From the two sinkings, only one of HMCS St Croix's crew of 147 survived.

BOA - Personality of the Week - Karl-Friedrich Merten (August 1905 – May 1993)



From U-Boat.net and Wikipedia:
He is credited with the sinking of 27 ships for a total of 170,151 gross register tons (GRT) of allied shipping. For this achievement he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

On 11 February 1941, Merten commissioned U-68 and lead 5 successful patrols. He operated all over the world, patrolling in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Indian Ocean. U-68 was in the U-boat wolf pack Eisbär (Polar Bear Group), consisting of four submarines, U-68 (Merten), U-156 (Werner Hartenstein), U-172 (Carl Emmermann), U-504 (Hans-Georg Friedrich Poske) a fifth U-boat, U-159 (Helmut Witte) joined the group later, which in the course of a few weeks during September/October 1942, sank more than 100,000 GRT of shipping off South Africa.

On 22 September 1941 Merten torpedoed his first ship the 5,302 GRT British Steamer SS Silverbelle sailing in convoy SL-87 and on the 6 November 1942 he sunk his last ship the 8,034 GRT British Steamer SS City of Cairo. His total was 29 ships sunk at a tonnage of 170,151.

After this patrol Merten was appointed to the U-boat flotilla in Pillau, and this and other training appointments curtailed his operational career. Nevertheless, when the war ended he stood seventh in the table of U-Boat commanders in terms of tonnage sunk. After the war he made a new career (somewhat ironically) in shipbuilding, retiring in 1974.

Long after the sinking of the SS City of Cairo he was invited to a post-war reunion of survivors where one observed: "We couldn't have been sunk by a nicer man".

BOA - Weapon of the Week - U-48

From U-boat.net, Wikipedia and the Hofnaflus Teo website (http://www.iol.ie/~hofnanet/index.html)





German submarine U-48 was a Type VIIB U-boat and the most successful that was commissioned. During her two years of active service, U-48 sank 55 ships for a total of 321,000 tons; she also damaged two more for a total of 12,000 tons over twelve war patrols conducted during the opening stages of the Battle of the Atlantic.

U-48 was built at the Germaniawerft in Kiel as Werk 583 during 1938 and 1939, being completed a few months before the outbreak of war in September 1939 and given to Kapitänleutnant (Kptlt.) Herbert Schultze. When war was declared, she was already in position in the North Atlantic, and received the news via radio, allowing her to operate immediately against Allied shipping.

She was a member of two wolf packs. Seven former crew members of U-48 earned the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during their military career, these were the commanders Herbert Schultze, Hans-Rudolf Rösing and Heinrich Bleichrodt, the first watch officer Reinhard Suhren, the second watch Otto Ites, the chief engineer Erich Zürn and the coxswain Horst Hofmann.

U-48 survived most of the war and was scuttled by her own crew on 3 May 1945 off Neustadt in order to keep the submarine out of the hands of the advancing allies.

U-48 left her home port of Kiel on 19 August 1939, before World War II began, for period of 30 days. The submarine travelled north of the British Isles, into the North Atlantic and eventually into the Bay of Biscay. She then proceeded to cruise to the west of the Western Approaches, two days after Britain and France declared war on Germany. It was here that she spotted her first target, the 5,000 ton SS Royal Sceptre. U-48 attacked the merchant ship with her deck gun on 5 September 1939. All of the crew took to the lifeboats except the Radio Officer who remained transmitting "SOS". He was taken prisoner by U-48, but then released to the lifeboats as Schultze praised his courage. He verified that the lifeboats were provisioned with food and water. U-48 then stopped the SS Browning. The crew abandoned their vessel, but Schultze told them to return to their ship and pick up the crew of Royal Sceptre. However Browning was en route to Brazil, so it was not immediately realised that they had survived. Winston Churchill, then First Lord of The Admiralty, assumed the worst, that the crew and sixty passengers were lost. He declared the sinking to be

“ an odious act of bestial piracy on the high seas ”



U-48 stopped, searched and released several neutral ships before encountering and sinking Winkleigh on 8 September 1939 after her crew had taken to the lifeboats.

On 11 September U-48 sank the Firby. Some of the crew required medical attention following the sinking. U-48 provisioned the lifeboats, gave medical assistance and radioed:

“ Transmit to Mr Churchill. I have sunk the British steamer Firby. Posit 59°40'N 13°50'W. Save the crew if you please. German submarine ”

Churchill, wrongly, told the House of Commons that the U-boat captain who had sent the message had been captured. After 30 days at sea, U-48 returned to Kiel on 17 September 1939. During her first war patrol, she sank three ships for a total of 14,777 tons.

2nd patrol (4–25 October 1939)
U-48's second patrol was even more successful. Having left Kiel on 4 October, she proceeded to follow the same course as her previous voyage. During her second patrol, U-48 sank a total of five enemy ships, including the large French tanker SS Emile Miguet on 12 October, Heronspool and Louisiane on 13 October, Sneaton on 14 October and Clan Chisholm on 17 October. Following the sinking of the Clan Chisholm, U-48 attacked the British steamer Rockpool with fire from her deck gun on 19 October at 1:32 pm. However, the steamer returned fire. In order to avoid being hit, U-48 crash-dived. She subsequently re-surfaced and attempted to sink the steamer again when an Allied destroyer came upon the engagement. U-48 then broke off the fight with the Rockpool and submerged once more to leave the area. Following the sinking of five enemy merchant ships for a total of 37,153 tons as well as the engagement with the Rockpool, U-48 returned to the safety of Kiel on 25 October 1939 after spending 22 days at sea.

3rd patrol (20 November – 20 December 1939)
U-48 left Kiel for her third patrol on 20 November 1939. During this voyage, she sank a total of four vessels including two merchant ships from neutral nations. The first ship to fall victim to the U-boat was the 6,336-ton neutral Swedish motor tanker MT Gustaf E. Reuter. She was attacked by U-48 on 27 November 14 nautical miles (26 km; 16 mi) west-northwest of Fair Isle. The wreck was later sunk by an escort vessel. One person died, 33 of her crew survived. The tug HMS St. Mellons attempted to salvage her, however the Gustaf E. Reuter eventually had to be sent to the bottom by HMS Kingston Beryl on 28 November. Following the sinking of the Gustaf E. Reuter, U-48 sank the British freighter Brandon on 8 December off the southern coast of Ireland. The next day, she attacked the British tanker San Alberto. The ship was so badly damaged that she had to be sunk by HMS Mackay. Finally on 15 December 1939 U-48 stopped the neutral Greek freighter Germaine which had been chartered by Ireland and was also neutral, to carry maize to Cork. Schultze maintained that she was going to England, so he sank her. U-48 returned to Kiel on 20 December 1939 after sinking a total of 25,618 tons and spent a total of 31 days at sea.

4th patrol (24 January – 26 February 1940)
After a break over the Christmas period, the boat put to sea again, sinking the British Blue Star Line liner SS Sultan Star in the Western Approaches, it was only carrying freight. She laid a string of mines off St Abb's Head which failed to have any effect, but two neutral Dutch ships were added to her tally shortly afterwards, as well as a Finnish ship, all of them operating in the North Atlantic in cooperation with the Allied convoy system.

5th and 6th patrols (April 1940 and June 1940)
Her fifth patrol, in June 1940 was one of her most successful, making full use of the situation in Europe following the Fall of France. U-48 was commanded by Hans Rudolf Rösing, as Herbert Schultze was hospitalised with a kidney and stomach complaint. She attacked three ships off the Donegal coast; the Stancor carrying fish from Iceland, the Eros carrying 200 tons of small arms from America and the Frances Massey with iron ore. 34 sailors lost their lives on the Frances Massey. The cargo on the Eros was particularly important following the losses at Dunkirk. The badly damaged Eros was taken in tow by HMS Berkeley, assisted by HMS Bandit and Volunteer and headed to the Irish coast, where the Muirchú and Fort Rannoch were waiting for them. The Eros was beached on Errarooey strand. While she was being repaired, Irish troops guarded the site.

Germany learned that a troop convoy, including RMS Queen Mary and Mauretania were bringing 25,000 Australian soldiers to Britain. U-48 was ordered to Cape Finisterre where a U-boat 'wolf pack' was being assembled to intercept the convoy. However the U-boats attacked other ships in the vicinity, alerting the convoy to their presence, so they altered direction, avoiding the 'wolf pack'. On 19 June 1940, Convoy HG-34 was attacked. U-48 sank SS Baron Loudoun (three died), SS British Monarch (all 40 on board died) and MV Tudor (one death). Convoy HX-49 dispersed; U-48 sank Moordrecht which had been in that convoy; 25 died. Ireland had chartered neutral Greek ships; U-48 sank Violando N. Goulandris (six died) while U-28 sank Adamandios Georgandis (one death). Ireland sought an explanation from Germany "... steamships, the entire cargoes of which comprised grain for exclusive consumption in Éire were sunk by unidentified submarines ..."

U-48 was enjoying an extended patrol, thanks to the newly established refuelling facilities available at Trondheim in Norway. In all, she claimed eight ships from the convoys in the Eastern Atlantic on this cruise and bagged five more on her sixth patrol in August, which finished with her stationed at Lorient on the French Atlantic coast, greatly extending her raiding abilities.

7th and 8th patrols (August 1940 and September 1940)
In September, on her seventh patrol she shocked the world by sinking the SS City of Benares, one of eight ships in six days from Convoys SC-3 and OB-213. Benares was a refugee ship, carrying children from Britain to Canada to keep them safe from the 'Blitz' on Britain's cities. 258 people, including 77 children, died. Among the other sinkings was the British frigate HMS Dundee. The U-boat's eighth patrol was also highly successful, sinking seven ships out of Atlantic convoys, including one from SC-7. The operating zone for both these patrols was far to the north of her previous areas, being south of Greenland.

9th, 10th, 11th and 12th patrols (October 1940, February 1941, March 1941 and June 1941)
On her ninth and tenth patrols, U-48 claimed two and five victims respectively, but she was clearly becoming obsolete in the face of improving technology on both sides, despite a winter refit. Her range and torpedo capacity were too small for the widening nature of the sea war, and she would be a risk to her crew and other U-boats if she continued much longer in the main battlefield of the North Atlantic. On her final patrol she sank five more ships, the boat was also boosted by the award of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross to Erich Zürn, the boat's executive officer, for his success and judgement during the ship's career.

Retirement and fate
U-48 returned to Kiel on 22 June 1941, where her crew disembarked and she was transferred to a training flotilla operating exclusively in the Baltic Sea. Unlike many of her contemporaries, U-48 never sailed on patrols against Soviet targets following Operation Barbarossa the following month. In 1943 she was deemed unfit even for this reduced service, being laid up at Neustadt in Holstein with only a skeleton crew performing minor maintenance. It was there that she remained for the next two years, until the maintenance crew, realising that the war was ending and the boat would be captured, scuttled her in the Bay of Lübeck on 3 May 1945, where she remains.

The sinking of the City of Benares
In the late hours of the 17 September 1940, U-48, commanded by Kptlt. Heinrich Bleichrodt, put a single torpedo into the 11,000 ton liner SS City of Benares, flagship of Convoy OB-213, as she was silhouetted against the moonlight in mid-Atlantic. On board the liner were 90 children being evacuated to Canada under the Children's Overseas Reception Board's initiative.

The sinking ship took on an immediate list, thus preventing the launching of many of the life-rafts and trapping numerous crew and passengers below decks. As a result, many of the 400 people on board were unable to escape. As hundreds of survivors struggled in the water, the U-boat's powerful searchlight swept once over the chaotic scene, before she left the area. The survivors in the boats were not rescued for nearly 24 hours. In that time dozens of children and adults died from exposure or drowned, leaving only 148 survivors. One boat was not recovered for a further eight days. In total 258 people, including 77 of the evacuees, died in the disaster, which effectively ended the overseas evacuation programme.

The controversy of the City of Benares disaster has been debated ever since. It has been suggested that had the British openly declared that the ship was carrying evacuees, then the Germans would have taken pains not to sink it, recognising the potential for a propaganda crisis, which indeed occurred. However, the ship was not only travelling unlit at night in an allied convoy, but it was also the flagship of Rear-Admiral Edmund Mackinnon, the convoy commander. Other historians have argued that the Germans would have attacked any large liners at the time, no matter what cargo was being carried or who was on the passenger list.

BOA - Personality of the Week - Edward Sidney Palmer, BEM - (Febuary 1904 - 4 January 1980)




From the http://homepage.ntlworld.com/e.j.palmer/ website, an excerpt from his memoirs:

"Work was very hard to come by back in
those days. [The late 1920's] 24/- a week to live on, 1/- for each child.if I could have gone back to sea deep water, that was only £9 per month, andI now wanted a job, here out of Weymouth on the Cross Channelships, running to the Channel Islands.

After a lot of returning and messing around, I was taking on permanently. I signed on those ships until 1934, I then bought myself a fishing boat to work for myself, making all my own trawl nets in the winter time when the weather was to bad to put to sea. I also joined the Weymouth Lifeboat and I was with them right up to the 2nd World War. It was hard work mostly night time trawling and not a lot of money for it, but we got by with a struggle. Well in November 1939 the 2nd Engineer of the Lifeboat told me there was a coxswain job going in the Naval Harbourmasters launch at Portland. Things were bad with the fishing at this time of the year. Well I apply for the job. After proving I was capable I got the job as Coxswain. Pay £2 14s per week. My job was to run liberty men to and from the ships in the harbour and outside in the Wey Bay back into the Dockyard, in between there was three launches to do shift work for patrol work in the harbour. It was a weeks wages coming in an at the time that was what mattered. All fishing was stopped because of the was closing in on us. Come June 4th the evacuation of Dunkirk, all harbours were closed, all fishing boats and small craft had to be taken out of the water and engines dismantled with the threat of enemy invasion. I was told to stay where I was by the Kings Harbour master at Naval Base Portland, an thats how I came to work in the Naval Dockyard for the next 24 years. Well things were beginning to happen, fast motor boats coming and going Navel ships moving at all hours of the night. Ships being sunk out in the Channel, warnings of enemy planes and so on at the Eastern End of the Harbour in line with the Southern entrance they had moored a large ship. She had once been a grain carrier and turned her into a guard ship with anti aircraft guns. Her name Foyle Bank.

She used to fly a yellow flag when enemy planes were reported, a red flag when planes were approaching Portland. She also was the quarters of the Reserve Naval ratings. Well on June 4th I was proceeding down the inside harbour at about 08.30 in the morning, a lovely day, a normal day. I noticed the guard ship was flying the yellow flag, but did not take much notice, for she had been flying that on a number of days lately. When out of the sum they came, enemy dive bombers. Diving straight down onto the guard ship, machine gunning and bombing. Hell let loose, about 20 planes, they appeared to have caught us napping. I immediately told my crew that we were going in to pick up the hands and ratings who were jumping and being blown into the water alongside of her. There was a barge with work people alongside of Foyle, a bomb dropped alongside the barge turning it upside down. We got in alongside started to pick up the survivors and dive bombers kept coming machine gunning and bombing, lifting the launch almost out of the water. Well we loaded the hands on board until we could not carry any more and made for the nearest jetty. Some of the poor fellows were in a sad mess. We landed as quickly as we could and went back for more. By this time the enemy dive bombers had done what they had come to do, the Foyle Bank was on fire and sinking. She went down later in the day. The Lord looked after us that day.

Well things were happening from that day on, more bombing in Portland and Weymouth. We lived at Chapelhay back in those days, and we got a bashing. Ask your father he was there. Well on the 28th April 1941 I received a letter from Admiralty, Whitehall stating

"Sir,
I am commanded by My Lords Commissions of the Admiralty to inform you that they have learning with great satisfaction that on their recommendation the Prime Minister has obtained the Kings approval for the award to you of the Medal of the Order of the British Empire, Civil Division, for meritorious service in H M Dockyard, Portland, during enemy air attacks."


Well on March 24 1942 I took you Grandmother to Buckingham Palace where she watched in the Music Room, to see myself and others that day, shake hands and receive the medal from King George VI. It made us both feel proud that day. Lots of things happened. Portland played a lot in the landings in France on D Day. I could write a book about that alone."

BOA - Weapon of the Week - ORP Dragon




From Wikipedia and U-boat.net
HMS Dragon, also known in Polish service as ORP Dragon (Polish: dragoon), was a D- or Danae-class cruiser built for the Royal Navy. She was launched in Glasgow, in December 1917, and scuttled in July 1944 off the Normandy beaches as part of the Arromanches Breakwater.

During World War II the ship was initially attached to the 7th Cruiser Squadron of the Northern Patrol operating against German U-boats in the Shetland area.[13] In November she took part in pursuit of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee. In February, HMS Dragon crossed the Mediterranean and returned to the Atlantic. On 16 September 1940 she scored her first victory after capturing the French destroyer Touareg. On 23 September of the same year she reached the area of the port of Dakar, where she took part in Operation Menace against the French fleet stationed there. Together with HMS Inglefield and Foresight she sank the French submarine Persée and took part in shelling the port itself. After the action she was moved to Freetown, from where she operated against the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer in December.

Until November 1941 Dragon served as an escort ship of various convoys in the Atlantic, after which she was moved to Asia. Following commencement of hostilities with Japan, she served with the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command forces, escorting convoys to Singapore. On 20 January 1942, following the fall of Singapore, she was attached to the Western task force operating in the Java Sea, which included HMAS Hobart, HMS Danae, HMS Tenedos and HMS Scout. After the fall of Java she joined with HMS Caledon and the Dutch cruiser HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerk and operated from Ceylon. In May she was moved to Madagascar. The following month the crew of the ship was landed and moved to other units, while the Dragon started her voyage back to Britain for refurbishment. Since the rump crew could not operate the ship independently, she had to be attached to various convoys and it took almost half a year before she finally reached Liverpool via Cape Town, Chatham and Durban.

Transferred to the Polish Navy:
On 15 January 1943 she was handed over to the Polish Navy, renamed ORP Dragon and manned by a Polish crew. While the name of the ship remained the same it took on a new meaning. Dragon in Polish is smok, while "dragon" in Polish means dragoon (a mounted infantry soldier) although the latter still comes in a roundabout way from dragon. Modernized in the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, she was refitted with new electric plant and installation, radar and armament. The refurbishment was finished on 23 August 1943 and the ship was moved to Scapa Flow. From there she operated as part of various convoy escorts. On 20 February 1944 she was joined by Berwick and Jamaica and escorted the JW.57 convoy to Murmansk. On a return trip the ship escorted the RA.57 convoy. Upon her return she was attached to various larger ships for training of sea to land operations before the Battle of Normandy. Finally on 2 June she was attached to a flotilla composed of HMS Ramillies, Warspite, Mauritius, Frobisher, Arethusa, Danae and 24 smaller vessels and headed for Normandy.

The ship saw action at the Normandy Landings as part of Operation Neptune, shelling German shore batteries at Colleville-sur-Orne and at Trouville (Sword Beach) from a distance of four kilometres. A near miss by a German 105 mm (4 in) shore battery gun wounded three sailors. She withdrew under cover of Ramillies and Roberts, whose fire destroyed the battery. In the evening of D-Day she moved to Juno Beach sector, to support the advancing Allied troops. The following day the ship shelled German positions in and around the town of Caen. However, on 8 June a communication systems failure prevented the ship from further bombardment and it was not until late at night that she again opened fire against the German 21st Panzer Division near Varaville. The following day she took part in an artillery duel with a shore battery at Houlgate, after which she returned to Portsmouth for refuelling and supplies. Between 12 June and 17 June she again shelled German positions near Caen, Gouneville, Lébisey and Varaville. During that time she also evaded a torpedo attack by an unknown submarine. On 18 June she was bound for Portsmouth escorting Nelson which had been struck by a mine.

Damage and scuttling:
On 7 July 1944 Dragon returned to the area off Caen where she was to take part in the final artillery preparations for capturing the city after a month long siege. The following day, at 5:40 am, while waiting for the order to open fire at 49°22′N 0°21′W, the Dragon was hit by a German Neger manned torpedo piloted by Walther Gerhold with the loss of 26 men.

A book published in London by William Kimber in 1955 provides a different pilot responsible for the attack. According to "K-Men: The Story of the German Frogmen and Midget Submarines" (author C.D. Bekker, with a preface by Hellmuth Heye, formerly Admiral of the K-Force), the pilot was Midshipman Potthast. Potthast's first person account of the attack on Dragon is described. On 13 June, a week after the Normandy landings, 40 Negers and their personnel, many new recruits, began a journey from Italy to Normandy. They travelled to Paris by train and then road to Normandy. Allied fighter bomber activity made it difficult to travel during daylight hours and the flotilla leader, Lieutenant Johann-Otto Krieg, was seriously wounded in one attack. Potthast, as the next most experienced pilot, took command and they finally met with Captain Friedrich Böhme, a former destroyer commander, who had been sent ahead to the Bay of the Seine to make facilities for the K-flotilla's arrival.

According to Potthast's report, 20 negers set sail in the early hours of 7 July. (Potthast had aborted a mission two nights previously due to mechanical problems.) At 03:00 a line of small patrol vessels passed by Potthast but "I had no intention of wasting my torpedo on them." Some 45 minutes later he let merchant ships pass as "I was determined to bag a warship". Around 04:00 he sighted a Hunt-class destroyer, but she turned away when some 500 yards from him so he was forced to wait. In the moonlight he then saw several warships in quarter-line formation crossing his path and he steered to attack the rear ship, which seemed larger than the others. At a distance of 300 yards Potthast pulled the torpedo firing lever and he actioned a post-attack escape. The explosion, so close by, almost "hurled" his neger out of the water. "A sheet of flame shot upwards from the stricken ship. Almost at once I was enveloped in thick smoke and I lost all sense of direction. When the smoke cleared I saw that the warship's stern had been blown away." Other vessels counterattacked, firing wildly as they could not see Potthast, but he managed to evade them. Later, two frigates passed close by Potthast but they did not spot him. After more than six hours in a cramped cockpit Potthast was severely fatigued. He eventually dozed and in the morning light a corvette attacked with gunfire from around 100 yards off. Potthast managed to get out of the neger as the gunfire disabled the craft. With blood pouring from an arm wound he collapsed, but the corvette crew rescued him with a boathook and rope looped under his arms. He was taken to the sick-bay and given tea and biscuits. Later flown to an English hospital, Potthast was interrogated by military intelligence and although confronted with maps and details of K-flotilla deployments he refused to confirm or deny anything. "After six weeks they gave up, then suddenly told him that he had himself been responsible for the sinking of the 5,000-ton cruiser Dragon. ...All this cheered up the prisoner, who felt that his arduous training had not been wasted after all," wrote Bekker.

The explosion caused a fire in the 3rd magazine, which had to be filled with water. Also, the 3rd engine was hit, and the ship started to sink on her port side. The angle of list reached 9°, but the situation was stabilized by the captain, who ordered all the turrets to train their barrels to the starboard. Although an additional 11 sailors died of wounds, the situation was stabilized, and the ship was moved to a shallow where she was to await the ebb tide. After the water was pumped out of the flooded engine room it was discovered that the hull was pierced across two sections and the hole was approximately 5 metres (16 ft) by 15 metres (49 ft).

Although still afloat and repairable, it was decided that the ship be abandoned. On 10 July, the USS LST-494 aided the Dragon by transporting 17 of her officers and 320 of her enlisted men from Normandy to England. Until 15 July the remaining rump crew dismantled the armament. An additional two bodies were found in the ship, and the dead were buried at sea. On 16 July she was decommissioned and she was then towed to Mulberry "B", where on 20 July she was scuttled to form part of the artificial breakwater near Courseulles. On 4 October 1944 she was replaced in Polish service with the ORP Conrad, formerly HMS Dragon's sister ship HMS Danae.

BOA - Personality of the Week - Peter-Erich Cremer (25 March 1911 – 5 July 1992)


From Wikipedia:
Peter-Erich Cremer was a German U-boat commander during the Second World War. He was half-English on his mother's side. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

After high school, Cremer enlisted in the Reichsmarine in 1932. After serving on cruisers and destroyers, Cremer became captain in February 1940. He received the Iron Cross 2nd class. On August 1940, Cremer was promoted to the rank of commander of submarine. After a perilous sea trip, his crew gave him the nickname "Ali". After this epic trip, "Ali" Cremer commanded the U-152. Then, Cremer commanded the U-333 from 25 August 1941 to 6 October 1942 and again from 18 May 1943, to 19 July 1944. On 31 January 1942 he mistakenly attacked and sunk the SS Spreewald. Subsequently he was court-martialed and found not guilty.

After several victorious trips, he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 5 June 1942. The same year, Cremer was severely wounded. He sailed again from 1943 until July 1944, before giving his boat to his lieutenant. On November 1944, Cremer, now Lieutenant Commander, aimed to convey the new submarine U-2519 Class XXI. Citing "several design flaws", Cremer scuttled the submarine at Kiel, on May 1945. As the War drew to a close, he was attached to the personal security unit of Karl Dönitz. In this role he was involved in the incident in which Kapitän zur See Wolfgang Lüth was shot to death by a German sentry.

Peter-Erich Cremer appeared in the British television documentary, "World at War" in the early 1970s. Later he recounted his life in his books "U-333: The story of a u-boat ace" and "U-Boat Commander: a periscope view of the Battle of the Atlantic.". He died at Hamburg on 5 July 1992.

BOA – Weapon of the Week - Focke Achgelis Fa 330 Bachstelze (Wagtail)




From Wikipedia and U-Boat.net:
The Focke-Achgelis FA 330 Bachstelze (Wagtail in English) was a type of rotary-wing kite, known as a gyroglider or rotor kite. They were towed behind German U-boats during World War II to allow a lookout to see farther.

As Allied air cover in other theatres of the war was considered too much of a threat, only U-boats operating in the far southern parts of the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean used the FA 330. Despite its advantages, the use of the FA 330 only resulted in a single sinking when U-177 used one to spot, intercept and sink the Greek steamer Efthalia Mari on 6 August 1943.

The Allies came into possession of an FA 330 in May 1944 when they captured the submarine U-852 intact. After the war, the British government did successful experiments towing FA 330s behind ships and jeeps, but the development of the helicopter quickly occupied the attention of the military.

U-boats that deployed FA 330 kites included at least U-177, U-181, and U-852.

BOA - Personality of the Week - Sir Anthony Cecil Capel Miers (11 November 1906 – 30 June 1985)





From Wikipedia:
Miers was a Royal Navy officer, who served in the submarine service during the Second World War.

In November 1940 he was given command of HM Submarine Torbay. While working up, Torbay collided with the British tanker Vancouver in Loch Long though no serious damage was caused.

Torbay began its first patrol in March 1941. The submarine left at very short notice, with half the crew on leave and replaced by members of the spare crew of the depot ship, the reason being that the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, had arrived at Brest and needed to be shadowed in case they sailed for the Atlantic sea lanes. The submarine later continued to Gibraltar, then Alexandria to join the 1st Submarine Flotilla.

On 27 April 1941 while on patrol off Cape Ferrato Miers attacked a two-masted single-funnelled merchant ship of about 4000 GRT. Torbay fired two torpedoes but both missed.

Torbay's 3rd war patrol was in the northern Aegean Sea. On 28 May 1941, Torbay sank two Greek caiques with gunfire, then torpedoed and damaged the Vichy French tanker Alberta off Cape Hellas.

In 1989 former Royal Naval Officer and broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy published his autobiography, in which he devoted several pages to "a submarine atrocity" on the night of 9 July 1941 which gave rise to the accusation of 'war crimes'.[1] According to the accounts, on two separate occasions, Miers ordered the machine-gunning of several shipwrecked German soldiers in rafts who had jumped overboard when their vessels were sunk by the Torbay. These events were witnessed and reported by acting First Lieutenant Paul Chapman who reported "everything and everybody was destroyed by one sort of gunfire or another".[2] Miers also made no attempt to conceal his actions, his patrol log recording: "Submarine cast off, and with the Lewis gun accounted for the soldiers in the rubber raft to prevent them from regaining their ship..." When informed of Miers's actions, Flag Officer Submarines Admiral Horton wrote to the Admiralty about the possibility of German reprisals: "As far as I am aware, the enemy has not made a habit of firing on personnel in the water or on rafts even when such personnel were members of the fighting services; since the incidents referred to in Torbay's report, he may feel justified in doing so." The Admiralty then sent a strongly worded letter to Miers advising him not to repeat the practices of his last patrol.

He had already carried out nine successful patrols in HMS Torbay in the Mediterranean theatre before the patrol in March 1942 which saw the incident which earned him the VC. The citation read:

"Lieutenant Commander Anthony Cecil Chapel Miers DSO Royal Navy Whilst on patrol in HM Submarine Torbay off the Greek coast on the 4th March 1942.
Lieutenant Commander Miers sighted a northbound convoy of four troopships entering the South Corfu Channel and since they had been too far distant for him to attack initially, he decided to follow in the hope of catching them in Corfu Harbour. During the night 4/5 March, Torbay approached undetected up the channel and remained on the surface charging her battery. Unfortunately the convoy passed straight through the channel but on the morning of the 5th March, in glassy sea conditions, Miers successfully attacked two store ships present in the roadstead and then brought Torbay safely back to the open sea. The submarine endured 40 depth charges and had been in closely patrolled enemy waters for seventeen hours."

His VC is on display in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum, London.

BOA - Weapond of the Week - FFNF Surcouf



Most from Wikipedia:
Perhaps the Battle of the Atlantic vessel with the most mystery surrounding it, the Surcouf, a French submarine, had a short wartime career that was marked with controversy and conspiracy theories with questions regarding its loyalties to the allied cause that persist to today. Built in December 1927, launched on 18 October 1929, and commissioned in May 1934, Surcouf – named after the French privateer Robert Surcouf – was the largest submarine ever built until surpassed by the first Japanese I-400-class submarine in 1943. She was classified as an "undersea cruiser" by sources of her time.

In 1940, Surcouf was based in Cherbourg, but in May, when the Germans invaded, she was being refitted in Brest. With only one engine functioning and with a jammed rudder, she limped across the English Channel and sought refuge in Plymouth.

On 3 July, the British, concerned that the French Fleet would be taken over by the German Kriegsmarine at the French armistice, executed Operation Catapult. The Royal Navy blockaded the harbors where French warships were anchored and delivered an ultimatum: re-join the fight against Germany, be put out of reach of the Germans or scuttle the ships. Most accepted willingly, with two notable exceptions: the North African fleet at Mers-el-Kebir and the ships based at Dakar (West Africa). These condemned the British "treachery" and (in the former instance) suffered hundreds of casualties when the British attacked to put the ships out of action.

French ships lying at ports in Britain and Canada were also boarded by armed marines, sailors and soldiers, and the only serious incident took place at Plymouth aboard Surcouf on 3 July, when two Royal Navy submarine officers, Cdr Denis 'Lofty' Sprague, captain of HMS Thames and Lt Griffiths of HMS Rorqual, and French warrant officer mechanic Yves Daniel were fatally wounded, and a British seaman, LS Webb was shot dead by the submarine's doctor.

The acrimony between the British and French caused by these actions escalated when the British attempted to repatriate the captured French sailors: the British hospital ship that was carrying them back to France was sunk by the Germans, and many of the French blamed the British for the deaths.

Free French naval forces:
By August 1940, the British completed Surcouf's refit and turned her over to the Free French Navy (Forces Navales Françaises Libres, FNFL) for convoy patrol. The only officer not repatriated from the original crew, Capitaine de frégate (Commander) Georges Louis Blaison, became the new commanding officer. Because of the British-French tensions with regard to the submarine, accusations were made by each side that the other was spying for Vichy France; the British also claimed that Surcouf was attacking British ships. Later, a British officer and two sailors were put on board for "liaison" purposes. One real drawback of this submarine was that it required a crew of 110–130 men, which represented three crews of more conventional submarines. This led to Royal Navy reluctance to recommission her.

Surcouf then went to the Canadian base at Halifax, Nova Scotia and escorted trans-Atlantic convoys. In April 1941, she was damaged by a German plane at Devonport;[6] on 28 July, Surcouf went to the United States Naval Shipyard at Portsmouth, New Hampshire for a three-month refit.[2] After leaving the shipyard, Surcouf went to New London, Connecticut. The U.S. was maintaining neutrality by being willing to repair ships under any flag, including a new flag which the U.S. did not recognise at the time (i.e. Free France). Surcouf left New London on 27 November to return to Halifax.

In December 1941, Surcouf carried the Free French Admiral Émile Muselier to Canada, putting in to Quebec City. While the Admiral was in Ottawa, conferring with the Canadian government, Surcouf's captain was approached by New York Times reporter Ira Wolfert and questioned about the rumours that the submarine would liberate Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (a French archipelago 10 kilometres from Newfoundland) for Free France from Vichy control. Wolfert accompanied the submarine to Halifax, Nova Scotia where, on 20 December, they joined the Free French corvettes Mimosa, Aconit, and Alysse, and on 24 December took control of the islands for Free France without resistance.

United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull had just concluded an agreement with the Vichy government for the neutrality of French possessions in the Western hemisphere, and he threatened to resign unless President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt demanded a restoration of the status quo. Roosevelt did so, but when Charles de Gaulle refused, he dropped the matter. Ira Wolfert's stories – very favourable to the Free French (and bearing no sign of kidnapping or other duress) – helped swing American popular opinion away from Vichy.

Later that January the Free French decided to send Surcouf to the Pacific theatre of war after she resupplied at Bermuda. Her movement south triggered rumours that she was going to liberate Martinique for the Free French from Vichy.

After the outbreak of war with Japan, Surcouf was ordered to Sydney, Australia via Tahiti. She departed Halifax on 2 February for Bermuda, which she left on 12 February, bound for the Panama Canal.

Fate:
Surcouf may have been sunk on 18 February 1942 about 80 mi (70 nmi; 130 km) north of Cristóbal, Colón, while en route for Tahiti via the Panama Canal. The American freighter Thompson Lykes, steaming alone from Guantanamo Bay on what was a very dark night, reported hitting and running down a partially submerged object which scraped along her side and keel. Her lookouts heard people in the water but the freighter carried on its course without stopping, as they thought that they had struck a German U-boat, though cries for help were heard in English. A signal was sent to Panama describing the incident. The loss of Surcouf was announced by the Free French Headquarters in London on 18 April 1942.

Inquiries into the incident were haphazard and late, while a later French inquiry supported the idea that the sinking had been due to "friendly fire"; this conclusion was supported by Rear Admiral Auphan in his book The French Navy in World War II in which he states: "for reasons which appear to have been primarily political, she was rammed at night in the Caribbean by an American freighter." Charles de Gaulle stated in his memoirs that Surcouf "had sunk with all hands".

As no one has officially dived or verified the wreck of the Surcouf, its location is unknown. If one assumes the Thompson Lykes incident was indeed the event of the Surcouf's sinking, then the wreck would lie 3,000 m (9,800 ft) deep at 10°40′N 79°32′WCoordinates: 10°40′N 79°32′W.

There is a memorial to Surcouf in Cherbourg harbor.

Theories
As there is no conclusive confirmation that Thompson Lykes collided with Surcouf and her wreck has yet to be discovered, there are alternative stories of her fate.

Disregarding the predictable story about her being swallowed by the Bermuda Triangle, one of the most popular is that she was caught in Long Island Sound refuelling a German U-boat, and both submarines were sunk, either by the American submarines USS Mackerel and Marlin, or a United States Coast Guard blimp.

In response to the above theory, Captain Julius Grigore, Jr., USNR (Retired) has offered a one million dollar prize to anyone who can prove that the Surcouf engaged in activities which were detrimental to the Allied cause. The prize has yet to be claimed.

Many stories add that much of the gold from the French Treasury was in Surcouf's large cargo compartment, and that the wreck was found and entered in 1967 by Jacques Cousteau. This story was debunked by Captain Grigore when he wrote to Cousteau asking if Cousteau's diving saucer could be used to search for Surcouf. Cousteau replied that the depth of Surcouf's presumed location is beyond the test depth of the diving saucer.

Diver Lee Prettyman reported finding the wreck of Surcouf in Long Island Sound in the 1960s (1967?) and there was a newspaper article about it with his picture in the Hartford Courant newspaper. It was later retracted after threats were reportedly made. As there are several submarine wrecks in Long Island Sound, it is quite possible that Prettyman discovered the wreck of a submarine other than Surcouf.

James Rusbridger examined some of the theories in his book Who Sank Surcouf?, finding them all easily dismissed except one: the records of the 6th Heavy Bomber Group operating out of Panama show them sinking a large submarine the morning of 19 February. Since no German submarine was lost in the area on that date, it could only have been Surcouf. He suggested that the collision had damaged Surcouf's radio and the stricken boat limped towards Panama hoping for the best.