Hi Brian Your father has a remarkable memory. HMS SUNFLOWER indeed escorted the seven merchants of convoy TBC-35 from Southend to Milford Haven, arriving on 14 January 1945. The next day, she left with the six merchants forming convoy BTC-39 and heading back to Southend. At 20.02 hours on 16 January, HMS SUNFLOWER picked up an Asdic contact in position 50°21N/02°55W and subsequently carried ou
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Hi Mark Maybe the U-Bootarchiv at Cuxhaven, Germany (http://www.u-boot-archiv.net) can help you with your request.
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Hi Martine We discussed this topic already in this thread in our forum: A follow up article showed that they found nothing but sand at the site of the supposed wreck, but the "discoverer" is still convinced that something is down there buried underneath the sand:
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Hi Tara Not much is known about the loss of the US tug TURECAMO BOYS (169 grt, built 1936). She had been taken into service by the US Army in 1941 and apparently foundered while towing a fuel barge from St. John's, Newfoundland to Greenland. Her crew of nine men was lost. No U-boat reported an attack on a tug convoy during November 1941 and no U-boats operated in the area in question a
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Hi Mark The GeoMapApp is a good tool that provides high resolution of bathymetry data and it is completely free to use: The ocean is about 4800 meters deep where U-553 was last seen (approx. 48°15N/15°35W). We may never know what caused the loss of U-553, maybe the leak that made the periscope inoperable was more serious than expected and the U-boat was subsequently lost in a diving acc
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It was not unusual for a U-boat to be ordered by the BdU to head for another port when returning from a patrol if the shipyard in the home port had no dock space available for the returning U-boat. This also happened to U-553 after her 9th war patrol, that's why she was in La Pallice instead of St. Nazaire. At 18.15 hours on 16 Jan, 1943, U-553 left La Pallice together with U-262 and was
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U-553 handed over a nautical year book to U-465 in grid BE6113 at 19.00 hours on 20 Jan, 1943. The U-boat also sent her last radio message from this position and was reported missing thereafter, she was ordered to operate with wolfpack Landsknecht in grid AL90 at that time. RHS ADRIAS was escorting the combined convoy WS-26/KMF-8 when she located a U-boat by Asdic in position 46°06N/16°21W at
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Hi John It seems that U-398 and U-1017 both sent no messages after leaving Norway for their operational areas. U-857: Last message sent en route to her operational area in approx. 49°N/36°W on 7 March 1945. U-879: Last message sent en route to her operational area in approx. 48°N/42°W on 15 March 1945.
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Hi John They suggested that Sintrup was probably misspelled and the birthplace of Kptlt. Nissen was Sentrup a borough of the town Münster in Westphalia.
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The following U-boats were sent to the US/Canadian coast: January 1945: None February 1945: Five, of which four were sunk in the operational area (U-853, U-857, U-866 and U-879). Only U-190 survived and surrendered to Canadian forces when the war ended. March 1945: Eight, including the six U-boats of group Seewolf, which lost four of their numbers to Allied Hunter-Killer groups while en
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U-1226 was initially ordered to operate "off the coast of Canada", but after reporting troubles with the snorkel equipment the BdU changed this to weather reporting duties from the southern half of grid AK in the North Atlantic.
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We will probably never know what exactly happened to U-867 as there were no survivors, but sabotage is not very likely as the commander would have certainly mentioned this in the distress signals if he would have suspected something like this. There were several other cases in which U-boats damaged their engines in bad weather, the worst being U-284 which had both electrical engines disabled duri
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In my opinion the discovery of this "U-boat wreck" in the Churchill River is very far-fetched. It is reportedly found one kilometer downstream of the Muskrat Falls and has a length of 30 meters, far too short even for the type VIIC. Is the Churchill River even navigable for a vessel of that size at all? There was a similar case this year that turned out to be an illusion:
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Hi On 9 Sep, 1944, U-855 transferred surplus fuel to U-516 which was returning from a patrol in the Carribean about 400 miles east-southeast of Cape Farewell. The BdU then ordered U-855 to return to Kristiansand in Norway as her supplies were exhausted and was reported missing after sending a last wireless message southeast of Iceland on 11 September. The BdU assumed that this U-boat was lo
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Hi Mark I updated our page about JANNA today:
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Hi Felix A little statistical analysis of the 40 U-boats lost in May 1943 shows: 10 boats were lost on the 1st war patrol of their commander 8 boats were lost on the 2nd war patrol of their commander But the commanders of the remaining 22 boats were experienced with three or more war patrols, among them were three commanders who had been awarded the Knights Cross and a fourth that got thi
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More information and the latest news about this salvage operation can be found on the homepage of Odyssey Marine Exploration:
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Hi Mark Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I will look into the details you mentioned and correct our entry about this vessel accordingly as soon as possible. Just one quick answer about the correct identity of LOOE. This was the nom de guerre of the decoy ship HMS BEAULY and I have a copy of the RoP of this patrol (can be found in ADM 199/150) which confirms that she was the vessel that pic
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The attack of this Liberator (206 Sqn RAF/S) that was earlier credited with the sinking of U-865, but a later investigation of this attack showed that the aircraft had attacked U-858. More details about this attack can be found under "Attacks on this boat" on our page about U-858:
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Hi Mark I was looking into the case of CATHRINE recently because the sinking position given by the survivors (350 miles southwest of Cape Clear) is too far from the position reported by U-43. You were probably checking the wrong area because the actual sinking position was about 600 miles west of Cape Clear. U-43 did not identify its victim, but U-204 identified a lifeboat and a raft encoun
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I concur with Mark's opinion, the photos most likely shows the sinking of POLYPHEMUS. Furthermore the photos posted by Akerberg do not show the sinking of EFFNA. Some time ago I did some research on those photos after being asked by Billy McGhee to ID them. In my opinion they are from U-108, but were taken during the second war patrol and show two different events: the sinking of NICOLAS
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Hi John Hmm, it could be that NORDMARK was disguised as DIXIE and that it really was EGERLAND that carried the name PRAIRIE on her side. Is it possible for you to send me scans of the photos you mentioned? It seems that the only occasion where three U-boats met a supply tanker on the same day was on 16 May 1941, when U-38, U-103 and U-106 were present at EGERLAND.
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Hi John EGERLAND supplied the following U-boats during May 1941: 10 May: U-107 17 May: U-38, U-103 and U-106 19 May: U-69 28 May: UA NORDMARK was disguised as PRAIRIE and supplied U-105 and U-107 on 3/4 May 1941.
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Hi John Initially it was thought that U-65 was lost in a depth charge attack by HMS GLADIOLUS after an attack on convoy HX-121 and was also credited with the sinking of PORT HARDY because U-96 had only heard a torpedo detonation after missing the intended target without making any observations. FDS/NHB made a reassessment of the case after it became clear that the attack of HMS GLADIOLUS wa
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Hi John Most of the U-boats you mentioned left port independent, but U-51 sailed together with UA from Kiel and U-25, U-30 and U-65 left Wilhelmshaven at the same time.
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Hi Stiggy More pieces for the puzzle: No Italian submarines operated in the Western Mediterranean on 27 Dec, 1942. Of the three German U-boats in the area, only U-73 reported air attacks on that day and both attackers are known (Wellington LA971 and Hudson AM638). So it is unlikely that any Axis submarine was involved in the loss of Hudson FH426 or Hudson AM689. The naval war diary for o
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Hi Stiggy Well, sometimes I should read our own pages. The aircraft that carried out the first attack on U-73 that day was already identified as Wellington LA971 (179 Sqn RAF/T) and the second attack was the Hudson flown by P/O Pugh. However, we still don't know if FH426 really transmitted a message that they were about to attack a submarine and when this was sent. Can you ask Ross McN
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Hi Stiggy I already did some research about the aircraft lost on A/S patrols in the Western Mediterranean on 27 Dec, 1942. We know that three Hudson aircraft were lost on that day: Aircraft: Hudson Mk. V AM638 (500 Sqn RAF/M) Crew: P/O Pugh, Sgt Broomfield, Sgt Wilkins, Sgt Emberson (all survived) Op: A/S patrol, took off from Bilda at 06:04 and was ditched at 08:15 after being hit by AA
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Hi Stiggy A difficult case you have here. The source for the serial AM689 mentioned on our page about U-73 is the book "U-boat versus Aircraft" written by Norman Franks and Eric Zimmerman. Ross McNeill identifies the aircraft involved in this incident as AM698 in the rafcommands.com forum and judging on the detailed research he has done on the RAF Coastal Command losses from prima
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Sub Sea Research LLC announced the discovery of PORT NICHOLSON already two years ago (see for example ) and we discussed the case in our forum: The post written by Paul Lawton about the earlier claims made by this company is of interest here: I doubt that an old tramp steamer like PORT NICHOLSON would have been the vessel choosen to carry such a valuable cargo across the North Atlantic di
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