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Re: HMS Turbulent
Posted by:
Platon Alexiades
()
Date: July 01, 2008 04:19PM
Dear Francesco,
Commander Linton was on his last patrol before returning to the United Kingdom. His initial orders gave him a very broad area to the southern approaches of Naples limited to the north by 40° latitude and to the east by the 13° Meridian. At his own request, he was allowed to expand his patrol by leaving the Naples area after the evening of 12 March and follow the Italian coast northward as far as Giglio Island and then to the east coast of Corsica and hence southward following the east coast of Sardinia.
Linton had a very forceful personality and he informed Captain Fawkes (8th Submarine Flotilla) o his intention to use all his torpedoes on this patrol. At the time it was believed that he had sunk 90,000 tons of shipping and he wanted to reach the 100,000 ton mark on his last patrol (his actual score was about half that).
The only specific order Fawkes made was that TURBULENT was to patrol during the day off Bocca Piccola (southern entrance of the Bay of Naples) during the day of 6 March. I am guessing that ULTRA had revealed a convoy about to leave Naples for Tunisia and this was INNES CORRADO and the German BALZAC and HENRY ESTIER escorted by torpedo-boats GROPPO, ORIONE, CIGNO, CASCINO and ARDITO. I have found an Ultra reference to this convoy on 6 March but I do not know if they had an earlier warning about this specific date although they knew that BALZAC was ready to sail since 28 February.
It is practically certain that SAN VINCENZO was sunk off Paola by TURBULENT and that the submarine then cleared the area probably expecting strong A/S searches and moved to Cape Tindaro (Milazzo) where she sank GESU' GUISEPPE MARIA and PIER DELLE VIGNE on 3 March as this was within her patrol area (the Ufficio Storico has attributed these losses to HMS TORBAY but this is an error, this submarine was off Bastia at the time).
It is almost certain that TURBULENT was the submarine attacked by ARDITO on 6 March since she was to be in that area on this specific day and I think there is a strong possibility that this was the fatal attack.
The arguments in favour was that TURBULENT did not fire any torpedo at this convoy which is surprising considering the aggressive mood of Linton and no other attack is reported along the Italian coast after that date. As I mentioned in an earlier post PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA was attacked by the French CASABIANCA (she was under direct orders from the French 2e Bureau and Captain Fawkes was not made aware of her whereabouts). British Intelligence had intercepted Italian signals referring to an attack on a submarine off Corsica and naturally assumed this referred to TURBULENT. CASABIANCA did not operate with the 8th Submarine Flotilla until June 1943, she had carried out three special missions for the 2e Bureau before and during these patrols she did not have a British liaison officer on board (which was common with other allied submarines).
TURBULENT could not have the submarine attacked by TETI 2 as she was to leave the Naples area only on the evening of 12 March and could not have had the time to be off Corsica on that day. If she survived the attack by ARDITO then she may have been lost on a minefield in the area but I guess this must have been very shortly after 6 March as there are no evidence of TURBULENT attacking any vessel after this date.
Cordially yours,
Platon
Commander Linton was on his last patrol before returning to the United Kingdom. His initial orders gave him a very broad area to the southern approaches of Naples limited to the north by 40° latitude and to the east by the 13° Meridian. At his own request, he was allowed to expand his patrol by leaving the Naples area after the evening of 12 March and follow the Italian coast northward as far as Giglio Island and then to the east coast of Corsica and hence southward following the east coast of Sardinia.
Linton had a very forceful personality and he informed Captain Fawkes (8th Submarine Flotilla) o his intention to use all his torpedoes on this patrol. At the time it was believed that he had sunk 90,000 tons of shipping and he wanted to reach the 100,000 ton mark on his last patrol (his actual score was about half that).
The only specific order Fawkes made was that TURBULENT was to patrol during the day off Bocca Piccola (southern entrance of the Bay of Naples) during the day of 6 March. I am guessing that ULTRA had revealed a convoy about to leave Naples for Tunisia and this was INNES CORRADO and the German BALZAC and HENRY ESTIER escorted by torpedo-boats GROPPO, ORIONE, CIGNO, CASCINO and ARDITO. I have found an Ultra reference to this convoy on 6 March but I do not know if they had an earlier warning about this specific date although they knew that BALZAC was ready to sail since 28 February.
It is practically certain that SAN VINCENZO was sunk off Paola by TURBULENT and that the submarine then cleared the area probably expecting strong A/S searches and moved to Cape Tindaro (Milazzo) where she sank GESU' GUISEPPE MARIA and PIER DELLE VIGNE on 3 March as this was within her patrol area (the Ufficio Storico has attributed these losses to HMS TORBAY but this is an error, this submarine was off Bastia at the time).
It is almost certain that TURBULENT was the submarine attacked by ARDITO on 6 March since she was to be in that area on this specific day and I think there is a strong possibility that this was the fatal attack.
The arguments in favour was that TURBULENT did not fire any torpedo at this convoy which is surprising considering the aggressive mood of Linton and no other attack is reported along the Italian coast after that date. As I mentioned in an earlier post PRINCIPESSA MAFALDA was attacked by the French CASABIANCA (she was under direct orders from the French 2e Bureau and Captain Fawkes was not made aware of her whereabouts). British Intelligence had intercepted Italian signals referring to an attack on a submarine off Corsica and naturally assumed this referred to TURBULENT. CASABIANCA did not operate with the 8th Submarine Flotilla until June 1943, she had carried out three special missions for the 2e Bureau before and during these patrols she did not have a British liaison officer on board (which was common with other allied submarines).
TURBULENT could not have the submarine attacked by TETI 2 as she was to leave the Naples area only on the evening of 12 March and could not have had the time to be off Corsica on that day. If she survived the attack by ARDITO then she may have been lost on a minefield in the area but I guess this must have been very shortly after 6 March as there are no evidence of TURBULENT attacking any vessel after this date.
Cordially yours,
Platon
