Orkney Habitat Survey Finds Wartime Shipwreck

"Scientists carrying out a survey of deep sea habitats off the Northern Isles may have sighted the wreck of a ship sunk by a German U-boat in 1940.
The vessel is believed to be the Lagaholm, a cargo ship from Sweden, a neutral country during World War Two.
It was sunk by gunfire from a submarine off North Ronaldsay in Orkney. One crew member died in the attack.
The wreck appeared in a scan during a new survey of the West Shetland Shelf Marine Protected Area.
A previous study of the West Shetland Shelf led to the discovery of a new species of worm which has eyes in its head and also in its bottom.
The Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Marine Scotland Science and Historic Environment Scotland are examining data to confirm the identity of the wreck."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-49661134

Here's more on the Lagaholm-
Lagaholm (Swedish Motor merchant) - Ships hit by German U-boats during WWII - uboat.net

 

Are they sure it doesn't just have its head up its..........

 

Steady!

 

.....sunk by sub gunfire!--''not easy'' to do? ..sub guns not that big/etc ..however it was a merchant and not a warship.....I'm not familiar with merchant ship engineering....can they be sunk easily with a ''small'' gun.....I see it did catch fire ..40 rounds.....
...also, no air/etc shows up in that amount of time?

 

Tended to be common practice in the days before unrestricted submarine warfare. A U-boat would surface, hail a ship and order it's crew to surrender and abandon ship, after handing over any documentation. In the case of smaller vessels like fishing boats, the gun crew would then use it for target practice to save torpedoes.
Unrestricted submarine warfare - Wikipedia

 

..I see it was early in the war, yes ...but you would have to hit it at a very ''precise'' point....? too high--useless...too low, hits the water ...?

 

Pretty close to -or on the waterline would do it. I wouldn't think it would be particularly easy to do though.

 

...depends how close to the target and how accurate their guns were?...I would think just 1 foot [ ? ] above the water line would be useless and/or would take a '''long'''' time for water to enter the ship
--that's just it--they would have to be ''close'' to the waterline---how close?
about a 3.5 inch gun?
..this is very interesting as I would like to know how accurate those guns were while the ship is ''moving'' [they weren't like the big guns, were they? ]..I've read much on the Pacific war subs but not much on the European War subs....with guns used to sink/destroy the smaller ships/boats
8.8 cm SK C/35 naval gun - Wikipedia

 

It would depend how good the guncrew was as well.

 

IMO, the Germans were good at weapons/etc as their culture was conducive to training soldiers at it = discipline
.....I think I mentioned it long ago on this or another forum that my uncle never talked much about the war, but one of the very few things he said was that the Germans were good [ accurate ] with their mortars
...I never shot a weapon before I went into the USMC, but I was always one of the best in my company....some people think it's so easy to shoot--you just line up the sights--right?? no--it takes discipline

.....in the Solomon Islands ''big'' naval battles, the guns usually destroyed the ship--with the big guns.......but did not directly sink it...the torpedoes were the killers........granted they were not doing target practice like this Unterseeboot did ......

 

...I guess it helped the war effort --

 

That was U-35...Neither of future admirals are associated with the incident, which was filmed.

 

The deck guns had a counter weight system that kept them (relatively) still whilst firing, coupled with a well drilled team and plenty of ammo...the gun crew would aim for the water line, they could also aim for the engine or fuel tanks.

 

Film here. The schooner sinking and turtles being hauled on deck is on "Reel 2"

THE EXPLOITS OF A GERMAN SUBMARINE (U-35) OPERATING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN [Main Title]