Not a well documented subject, probably due to the shortness and area in which it was carried out, plus U-boats were doing something they were not designed to do. There, nevertheless of the U-boat participation of this operation details of a enormous undertaking. Of the recorded 62 U-boats, which carried out 78 sailings plus UD4 which had one. And that seeing the Russians had almost complete control of air and to a lesser extent their own submarines within the Baltic during the evacuations only two U-boats, U3520 and U923 were lost enroute and these both to mining.

One puzzling sailing, however I found, U3027 sailed from Travemunde on April 1st with sixty refugees on board but headed ENE, where the aim was to get as many westwards, to Ronne on the island of Bornholm where she arrived on the 4th.She remained there, sailing on the 9th, first to Stettin and finally back to Travemunde. What happened to the sixty?, there were of course many sailings from Ronne later that month as the war situation deteriorated. The rationale for this voyage at this moment in time would be interesting to know.

There is however, a even stranger fact, what is not recorded is during the same period January to April 1945 there were a further 155 U-boats, several making more than one a total of 233 sailings. It seems beyond belief that Doenitz would knowingly allow these boats to sail with just crews on board at this time critical period. John