“On this day in history” German submarine U-200 sunk, 1943

“On this day in history,” 24 June 1943, German Type IXD2 submarine U-200 (KrvKpt. Heinrich Schonder) sunk with depth charges by a Liberator aircraft from No. 120 Squadron, RAF Coastal Command.

Amazingly, a photograph of the attack is in the IWM archives.

Dept charge attack on U-200 (IWM C3763)

The Liberator (serial 120/H) was piloted by Flight Lieutenant Alexander Fraser, Royal Australian Air Force, operating from Reykjavik, Iceland. As you can see from the photograph, Fraser caught U-200 on the surface and his two depth charges straddled the U-boat perfectly.

Fraser was awarded a bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross for his “magnificent example of determination to destroy the enemy in the face of opposition.”

U-200 was lost with all hands. The figure of 67 dead includes not only the U-boat’s crew, but also a 7-man German special forces unit of Brandenburg commandos. The Brandenburg unit was in transit to South Africa, where they were to be landed and make contact with anti-British sympathizers in the Boer community.

 

British naval losses at Dunkirk on 30 may 1940

There were fewer losses of major vessels on 30 May compared to the previous day, due in part to the decision of Capt Wm. Tennant, SNO Dunkirk, to only allow one destroyer at a time to enter the harbour. This ensured that there was less congestion and fewer targets were presented to German aircraft.

HMS King Orry (Cdr J. Elliot, RNR), a passenger steamer from the Isle of Man Steam Packet company requisitioned by the Royal Navy for use as an Armed Boarding Vessel (ABV) in both the First and Second World War, attacked and badly damaged by German dive bombers. Scuttled clear of the harbour.

Isle of Man Steam Packet Tynwald passes wreck of sister ship King Orry at Dunkirk.

French destroyer Bourrasque struck a mine off Nieuwpoort, Beligium (ironically, a French-laid minefield). Survivors taken off by French torpedo boat Branlebas, Admiralty drifter Yorkshire Lass, and armed trawler HMT Ut Prosim.

Royal Navy battleship HMS Formidable sunk by German U-boat on 1 January 1915

HMS Formidable named and launched at Portsmouth 1898. The battleship served in the Royal Navy until 1915 when she was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat U.24 in the English Channel. Print in collection of National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Casualty and survivor lists courtesy of the incomparable naval-history.net.

OTDIH 23 October 1943

70-years ago today…

Großadmiral Karl Dönitz has 95 U-boats at sea. The Battle of the Atlantic was not over.

In the South Atlantic:

U-170, a Type IXC U-boat, KptLt Günther Pfeffer commanding, on its 2nd war patrol, torpedoed and sunk the unescorted Brazilian steam merchant Campos (4,663 GRT) 5-miles south of Alcatrazes Island, Brazil. The crew of 57 and 6 passengers took to the ship’s lifeboats, tragically two of which were struck by the ship’s screw, throwing the occupants to the water. 10 crew members and 2 passengers were lost.

SS Campos.

In the Black Sea:

U-23, a Type IIB U-boat, KptLt Rolf-Birger Wahlen commanding, on its 12th war patrol, torpedoed and sunk the Soviet motor merchant Tanais (372 GRT) anchored at Poti, Georgian SSR. The U-Boat was operating in the Black Sea with the 30th U-Boat Flotilla… having been transported overland to Konstanza, Rumania in 1942.

Type IIB coastal U-boat.

Setting a wartime record:

U-196, a Type IXD U-boat, KKpt Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat commanding, returned to Bordeaux, France… thus completing the longest patrol by any submarine during the Second World War: 256-days from 13 March to 23 October 1943.

KKpt Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat.

Attacked in the Atlantic:

U-190, a Type IXC U-boat, KptLt Max Wintermeyer commanding, on her 3rd war patrol, was surfaced ahead of convoy GUS-18 when attacked by the US Navy Gleaves-class destroyer USS Turner (DD-648). The Turner attacked the surfaced U-boat with her Mk 12 5-inch/38-caliber guns. When the U-190 submerged, the Turner attacked with depth charges… shock waves from which disabled the destroyer’s radar and sound gear. By the time Turner was able to resume her search, U-190 had escaped.

USS Turner (DD-648).

Royal Navy suffers double disaster during Operation Tunnel:

During Operation Tunnel, HMS Charybdis, a Dido-class cruiser commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1941, Captain George Arthur Wallis Voelcker, RN commanding, was sunk off north coast of Brittany, France in position 48º59’N, 03º39’W by 2 torpedoes from the German Elbing-class torpedo boats T-23 and T-27 (not MTBs, but torpedo-armed destroyers). 464 men died (including the commanding officer) and 107 survived.

HMS Charybdis.

During the same action, HMS Limbourne (L57), a Hunt-class escort destroyer, Cdr Walter John Phipps, RN commanding, was heavily damaged by German torpedo boats T-22 and T-24. Damaged beyond repair, Limbourne was sunk by gunfire from HMS Rocket (H92) and HMS Talybont (L18).

HMS Limbourne.

Interview with US Navy veteran, survivor of USS Indianapolois sinking, 30 July 1945

Witness, The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis
BBC Radio 4
15-minutes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b037gnxp
Original broadcast date: 28 July 2013

On July 30th 1945 a US warship was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Pacific. The sailors who survived the attack spent 4 days adrift in shark-infested waters. Out of 1197 men on board just 317 made it out of the water alive. The horror of their ordeal was made famous by the film ‘Jaws’. Loel Dean Cox is one of the last remaining survivors.

OTDIH October 15, 1863 the submarine H. L. Huntley sunk, killing its inventor

On October 15, 1863 the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley sank during a test dive in Charleston harbour, South Carolina, killing its inventor Horace L. Hunley and 7 crewmen. The Confederate navy salvaged the submarine and returned it to service (only to sink again in February 1864).