General Discussions  
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII. 
Re: attacks on Uboats 1942 confirmed ? "Racer" case
Posted by: Rainer ()
Date: August 23, 2017 02:35PM

23 June 1942: U-172, minor damage

12 July 1942: Non-sub, aircraft attacked a moving oil slick that was investigated the next day by USS PC-458 and USS LANSDOWNE. The latter dropped a pattern of depth charges that brought more oil to the surface and claimed the destruction of a U-boat damaged by air attack. After the war the destroyer was wrongly credited with the sinking of U-153, but it is more likely that the oil slick came from the wreck of the British tanker MOTOREX which had been sunk in this area by U-172 on 18 June 1942.

About RACER: On 26 June 1942 a PBY from VP-32 (pilot Lt. J. Gruber) spotted the Honduran schooner RACER and suspected her of aiding Axis submarines. A boarding party of two officers and ten ratings from the seaplane tender USS GOLDSBOROUGH was flown to the ship by PBYs and they took her to Belize for inspection, but nothing was found. Lt. H.G. Skelly had indeed boarded a schooner himself, but this happened the day before, on 25 June 1942 and the vessel was the Honduran LAGUNA. He found a radio, fuel drums and Mr. George Gough, reputedly leader of a subversive group, aboard. The schooner was also taken to Belize for inspection and searched with negative results.

George Gough was British and led his own shipping company with a fleet of schooners trading in the Caribbean. The authorities suspected him of being part of a Nazi spy ring and he was taken to a prison on Jamaica, but eventually freed for lack of evidence in April 1943. There is no proof that U-boats were ever supplied by such vessels at all.

Best regards
Rainer

Crew member of uboat.net

Options: ReplyQuote


Subject Written By Posted
attacks on Uboats 1942 confirmed ? "Racer" case TF 08/21/2017 12:36AM
Re: attacks on Uboats 1942 confirmed ? "Racer" case Mark McShane 08/23/2017 02:17PM
Re: attacks on Uboats 1942 confirmed ? "Racer" case Rainer 08/23/2017 02:35PM
Re: attacks on Uboats 1942 confirmed ? "Racer" case T. f 08/28/2017 01:07AM


Your Name: 
Your Email: 
Subject: 
Spam prevention:
Please, enter the code that you see below in the input field. This is for blocking bots that try to post this form automatically.
  *******   **     **  ********  **     **  **     ** 
 **     **   **   **   **        **     **  ***   *** 
        **    ** **    **        **     **  **** **** 
  *******      ***     ******    **     **  ** *** ** 
        **    ** **    **        **     **  **     ** 
 **     **   **   **   **        **     **  **     ** 
  *******   **     **  **         *******   **     **