General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Re: Attack on HG-73, 26th September 1941
Posted by:
Rainer
()
Date: May 10, 2009 12:50PM
Hi Mark
By chance I am working on a re-assessment for convoy HG-73 after John brought it to my attention that MoD was looking at the case. Do you have the cruising order (A1 form) for this convoy?
Only two U-boats reported successful attacks on the convoy HG-73 in the night of 25/26 September 1941, but when Rohwer made the assessments he had the problem that the Allied report mention two ships (VARANGBERG, AVOCETA) hit in the first attack (U-203) and three ships (CORTES, PETREL, LAPWING) hit in the second attack (U-124), but U-124 only fired two torpedoes so he concluded that one of the three ships had been hit in the attack of U-203 and was later finished off by this U-boat at 06.34 hours.
Successful U-boat attacks during this night:
26/0031 U-203 fired a spread of 4 torpedoes into the convoy and heard 4 hits - no observations.
26/0232 U-124 fired 1 torpedo at a freighter - hit aft and sinking by the stern observed
26/0234 U-124 fired 1 torpedo at a freighter - hit amidships and sinking by the bow observed
26/0634 U-203 fired 1 torpedo at a stopped tanker - hit amidships and sinking observed after 3 minutes
VARANGBERG and AVOCETA were certainly hit by U-203 in the first attack.
Rohwer thought that CORTES had been hit by U-203 and was later finished off by this U-boat, which reported an apparently damaged and stopped tanker sunk. But this ship was a coaster of the C7 standard type with the engine amidships so this can not be the "tanker" reported by U-203. PETREL and LAPWING were sister ships and as coasters with the engine aft could easily be misidentified as tanker.
Your explanation of LAPWING picking up the survivors from CORTES and PETREL would explain why she laid stopped. Did you find this information in the survivors reports of LAPWING and PETREL?
At the moment I try to find answers to the following questions:
Was AVOCETA hit by one or two torpedoes?
Which corvette picked up the survivors of VARANGBERG?
I will then collect all available informations and send it to Dr. Rohwer for confirmation of our re-assessment.
Best regards
Rainer
Crew member of uboat.net
By chance I am working on a re-assessment for convoy HG-73 after John brought it to my attention that MoD was looking at the case. Do you have the cruising order (A1 form) for this convoy?
Only two U-boats reported successful attacks on the convoy HG-73 in the night of 25/26 September 1941, but when Rohwer made the assessments he had the problem that the Allied report mention two ships (VARANGBERG, AVOCETA) hit in the first attack (U-203) and three ships (CORTES, PETREL, LAPWING) hit in the second attack (U-124), but U-124 only fired two torpedoes so he concluded that one of the three ships had been hit in the attack of U-203 and was later finished off by this U-boat at 06.34 hours.
Successful U-boat attacks during this night:
26/0031 U-203 fired a spread of 4 torpedoes into the convoy and heard 4 hits - no observations.
26/0232 U-124 fired 1 torpedo at a freighter - hit aft and sinking by the stern observed
26/0234 U-124 fired 1 torpedo at a freighter - hit amidships and sinking by the bow observed
26/0634 U-203 fired 1 torpedo at a stopped tanker - hit amidships and sinking observed after 3 minutes
VARANGBERG and AVOCETA were certainly hit by U-203 in the first attack.
Rohwer thought that CORTES had been hit by U-203 and was later finished off by this U-boat, which reported an apparently damaged and stopped tanker sunk. But this ship was a coaster of the C7 standard type with the engine amidships so this can not be the "tanker" reported by U-203. PETREL and LAPWING were sister ships and as coasters with the engine aft could easily be misidentified as tanker.
Your explanation of LAPWING picking up the survivors from CORTES and PETREL would explain why she laid stopped. Did you find this information in the survivors reports of LAPWING and PETREL?
At the moment I try to find answers to the following questions:
Was AVOCETA hit by one or two torpedoes?
Which corvette picked up the survivors of VARANGBERG?
I will then collect all available informations and send it to Dr. Rohwer for confirmation of our re-assessment.
Best regards
Rainer
Crew member of uboat.net
