General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Re: Is this an attack on U-106 on 01/08/1943?
Posted by:
Rainer
()
Date: June 13, 2015 08:47PM
Hi Lorenzo
The ORBs only contain shortened versions of the actions, a complete description of each air attack on U-boats were forwarded to the U-boat Assessment Committee for analysis.
The full details for the attack of Liberator K/59 are not included in the assessment made by the Committee because it was in the category "No damage", but the position is given as 46.44N/11.26W. This position is also confirmed by a radio message mentioned in the Admiralty War Diary on 1 August 1943: "U-boat previously reported course 180° speed 10 knots when first sighted in 46.49N/11.26W" sent by aircraft 59 Sqdn, Duty K, 012040B to 19 Group.
Unfortunately the aircraft crews were as bad in the recognition of the U-boat types as the U-boat crews were in aircraft type recognition. There will always be some differences in such details when comparing the Allied and German reports of the same attack. The date/time and position in the reports made by Liberator K/59 and the survivors of U-106 correspond well, but also their descriptions of the attack in general are similar: aircraft approached from ahead and was strafing the U-boat, which returned fire with its AA guns and the depth charges dropped exploded off the bow. However, the crew of U-106 identified the aircraft as a Sunderland while the crew of the Liberator reported the U-boat wrongly as one of the type VIIC. The following morning U-106 was again reported as being of the type VIIC when attacked by Wellington C/407 which was in turn identified as Mosquito.
Best regards
Rainer
Crew member of uboat.net
The ORBs only contain shortened versions of the actions, a complete description of each air attack on U-boats were forwarded to the U-boat Assessment Committee for analysis.
The full details for the attack of Liberator K/59 are not included in the assessment made by the Committee because it was in the category "No damage", but the position is given as 46.44N/11.26W. This position is also confirmed by a radio message mentioned in the Admiralty War Diary on 1 August 1943: "U-boat previously reported course 180° speed 10 knots when first sighted in 46.49N/11.26W" sent by aircraft 59 Sqdn, Duty K, 012040B to 19 Group.
Unfortunately the aircraft crews were as bad in the recognition of the U-boat types as the U-boat crews were in aircraft type recognition. There will always be some differences in such details when comparing the Allied and German reports of the same attack. The date/time and position in the reports made by Liberator K/59 and the survivors of U-106 correspond well, but also their descriptions of the attack in general are similar: aircraft approached from ahead and was strafing the U-boat, which returned fire with its AA guns and the depth charges dropped exploded off the bow. However, the crew of U-106 identified the aircraft as a Sunderland while the crew of the Liberator reported the U-boat wrongly as one of the type VIIC. The following morning U-106 was again reported as being of the type VIIC when attacked by Wellington C/407 which was in turn identified as Mosquito.
Best regards
Rainer
Crew member of uboat.net
