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Re: USS Direct AM-90 vs. German U-Boat
Posted by:
BrianV
()
Date: March 22, 2006 01:15PM
Hi Craig,
I have gone over the list of British cruisers repaired in the US and can tell you that no damaged cruiser was sailing westwards in July 1943, -BUT- there were 2 sailing back to the UK after repairs: HMS Phoebe in mid month and HMS Nigeria at the end of June.
I have also checked the recorded attacks by Italian subs and none corresponds to the one you describe. It was more likely to have been an Italian sub since they had the penchant for using the deck gun a lot more than the Germans, but again, it is not the case. I am putting a query on another submarine board about this action & see if there is an answer there. It seems strange that there is no German record of a surface engagement.
The action your father describes in his letter is rather unusual, in that it goes counter all accepted tactics of ASW. He says Direct stopped dead in the water to listen for the sub - that is an open invitation to a sub commander to put a torpedo into her which may otherwise miss such a small target, also, given Direct's low max speed, catching up to the screen of the cruiser would become rather problematic after restarting.
I am going to query some other sources & get back to you as soon as I can get something positive.
regards, Brian
I have gone over the list of British cruisers repaired in the US and can tell you that no damaged cruiser was sailing westwards in July 1943, -BUT- there were 2 sailing back to the UK after repairs: HMS Phoebe in mid month and HMS Nigeria at the end of June.
I have also checked the recorded attacks by Italian subs and none corresponds to the one you describe. It was more likely to have been an Italian sub since they had the penchant for using the deck gun a lot more than the Germans, but again, it is not the case. I am putting a query on another submarine board about this action & see if there is an answer there. It seems strange that there is no German record of a surface engagement.
The action your father describes in his letter is rather unusual, in that it goes counter all accepted tactics of ASW. He says Direct stopped dead in the water to listen for the sub - that is an open invitation to a sub commander to put a torpedo into her which may otherwise miss such a small target, also, given Direct's low max speed, catching up to the screen of the cruiser would become rather problematic after restarting.
I am going to query some other sources & get back to you as soon as I can get something positive.
regards, Brian
