Interesting info on battle of the Atlantic

and just to add slightly the use of the 20mm or mgs by the lower 2 gunners on the merchant ship did some damage though slight. Straddling seem to be the constant norm even with He 111's and Ju 88A's in anti-shipping, and if early enough in the wr with out high Allied fighter protection a go around was done as much as possible until the ship was so damaged or sunk

TA that weird colour ink really psyches the eyes

 

German Navy in the Arctic :

Intelligence and sighting reports were not always accurate and the most notorius error came shortly after PQ 17. A false alarm on 1 August of a new and mammoth ship concentration at Hvalfjord, followed by three days later by another report that the fjord was empty, deceived the Germans into thinking that another big convoy was on the way. " For two weeks every reconnaissance squadron of Luftlotte 5 was kept busy searching every corner of the arctic circle." writes Cajur Bekker in the Luftwaffe War Diaries. " The result was completely nil...The convoy appeared to have evaporated into thin air. Only on the 17th, after 140 sorties lasting 1,600 hours and costing nearly a quarter of a milliom gallons of high octane fuel, was the two weeks´search finally broken off."

Also from " Hurricats " by Ralph Barker

 

also you need to note that after PQ 17 the Allies and Soviets had to revise their thinking of how to purpose the merchant ship fleets on the water. escorts by water or now and also the useage of a long range Allied escort fighter(s), I have found some material on the Golden Zange finally though brief....
ands too further add that the convoys were going to take alternative an longer routes from Murmansk the LW had to improvise by installing the long range FuG 200 H radars to their torpedo/recon craft.

 

" If a submarine sinks two 6,000 ton ships and one 3,000 ton tanker, here is a typical account of what we have totally lost: 42 tanks, 8 six-inch howitzers, 88 25-pound guns, 40 two-pound guns, 24 armored cars, 50 bren carriers, 5,210 tons of ammunition, 600 rifles, 428 tons of tank supplies, 2,000 tons of stores and 1,000 tanks of gasoline...In order to knock the same amount of equipment by air bombing ( if all this material were on land and normally dispersed ) the enemy would have to make three thousand successful bombing sorties..."

From " The secret in building 26 " by DeBrosse and Burke

 

From " Hurricats" By R Barker

" Air Ministry set in motion an investigation into the practicability of a waterproof suit;but for the next few months at least, the pilots would have to sail without one. " In view of the foregoing ", the Director of Fighter Operations told Sholto Douglas, " It is thought that if a pilot is instructed to adjust his flying clothing to keep the cold water from his body for as long as possible, the risk he is called upon to take may be considered an acceptable one." This evaluation, which presupposed that the period of immersion would be under fifteen minutes, was translated by the pilots into a familiar admonition: " Please adjust your dress before leaving."

 

Some kinda record, perhaps?

Poon Lim - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Poon Lim (March 8, 1918 – January 4, 1991) was a Chinese sailor who survived 133 days alone in the South Atlantic.

King George VI bestowed a British Empire Medal on him, and the British Navy incorporated his tale into manuals of survival techniques.

 

V/KG 40, latterly I and III/ZG 1 in its two year existence shot down 109 allied planes, the majority of which were engaged in anti-submarine operations. Accordingly, the Allies had no alternative but to divert other aircraft to counter this " Junkers menace", particularly RAF night fighters which could have been better employed shooting down German bombers attacking Britain.

From "Bloody Biscay" by Chris Goss
( The history of VGruppe/Kampfgeschwader 40 )

 

Well there was the "voyage" of Captain Bligh" and the crew that remained loyal after the Bounty mutuny of almost 2000 miles of open ocean in row boats.....

 

Read the book T.A.?

I guess i am missing the point ( or maybe not ) but anyway flying in a plane searching for U-boats and always facing a group of eight (!) Junkers 88´s ( if I met enemy fighters ) over the sea would make me feel a bit scared...

 

Amazon.co.uk: Reviews for Bloody Biscay: The Story of the Luftwaffe's Only Long Range Maritime Fighter Unit, V Gruppe/Kampfgeschwaber 40 and Its Adversaries, 1942-1944: Chris Goss: Books

Loads of excellent photos of battles and dropped enemy planes.

Second World War Books: Review

 

In the beginning of the war U-boats had little to fear from allied aircraft. Only 2 U-boats were lost to aircraft during 1939-1941 but in 1942 alone 31 boats were lost to them. A sign of things to come.

The aircraft eventually drove the U-boats submerged and forced them to stay there for extended periods of time thus greatly reducing their operational efficiency.

This strategic victory was not without loss as can be seen in the table here below; more than 120 aircraft and hundreds of men were lost in the fierce battles between the U-boats and their pursuing aircraft. In a number of cases there were no survivors from either the aircraft or the U-boat.

uboat.net - History - U-boat Successes against aircraft

 

That was really interesting about the blimp that got shot down by a sub.

I have not heard of that before !

 

They may have said that, but then the scuttled their ship only damaging another british ship!

 

Blockade runner Doggerbank

U-43 under Oberleutnant Schwandtke was part of the Tümmler-wolfpack, deployed near the Canaries. In the evening of March 3, 1943, Schwandtke torpedoed a ship which he identified as a Dunedin Star-type ship. He could not suspect he had sunk the Doggerbank, close to completing her journey through the Indian Ocean and Atlantic. Doggerbank had left Yokohama on December 17 1942, and she was steaming about 1000 miles west of the Canaries, when she was hit by three torpedoes. Only fifteen of the crew made it to a small boat, without water or food. On March 29, the Spanish tanker Campoamor found the boat after 26 days with only one remaining survivor, Fritz Kürt. He was taken aboard and brought to Aruba, where he told about the tragic fate of Doggerbank and her crew.

The story of the minelayer Doggerbank

 

Enjoy:

The U-Boat Chronicles. pictures from military photos on webshots

 

A tidbit for perhaps the Canadian readers....do most people know that at the end of WW2, Canada had the third largest navy in the world...behind the USA, and Great Britian, and the fourth largest air-force, behind the USA, Great Britian, and Soviet Union...my how days have changed...but i guess free health care, etc.blah,blah,blah have a cost...

bf109 Emil

 

I guess 60 odd years ago, we had the need for such a large military force, to defeat the nazis. And now we don't.

As for your comment about "free health care " it is not free, BUT it is universal, as in everyone is covered, and no one is denied medical treatment.

Canadians all pay equally for the upkeep of our national medical care system thru personal income taxes and consumption taxes on such things as fuel, tobacco and alcohol. It is considered one of the most important safeguards of our nation , along with education and social support programs.

Bankruptcies due to medical bills are unknown in Canada, and no one is begging the public for money, so their child can have a kidney transplant operation. Annual hospital insurance for my wife and myself costs us a total of one thousand four hundred dollars a year, which covers us for ALL medical services of any kind. Any Doctor, any hospital, at any time, any where in Canada. That premuim is the SAME for all couples, with or without childern, while single people pay LESS than that per year. NO co-pays, no denials, no hassles .

Jim B. Toronto. .

 

Second World War Books: Review

Claasen charts the growing German strength, the increasingly effective air-naval cooperation, and even such issues as air-sea rescue services in the attacks on PQ13, PQ14, PQ15, and PQ16. Of course, his main emphasis falls on the destruction of PQ17. From the high point of German success against that convoy, the saga continues with the successful but costly attack against PQ18.


At the conclusion of the operation, the Luftwaffe, in over 330 sorties, had contributed to the sinking of thirteen ships, of which ten were direct victims of air action. The cost had been extremely high. During the entire operation against PQ 18, Luftflotte 5 lost forty-four aircraft, of which thirty-eight were torpedo bombers. As the RAF's postwar analysis of the operation concluded, the British escorts had proved more than a match for the Luftwaffe: "It was found that not only was it impossible to approach the carrier to launch an effective attack—on account of fighters—but that a wide screen of warships made the launching of torpedoes against the inner merchant vessels an extremely hazardous undertaking." Nevertheless, despite these losses, the experiences of KG 26 in Norway had confirmed the effectiveness of aerial torpedoes in maritime warfare. Ten of the thirteen ships destroyed were the victims of torpedoes delivered by KG 26. Of the 860 sorties flown by Stumpff's aircraft against PQs 16, 17, and 18, over 340 were made by torpedo bombers. German assessments of these operations confirmed that the torpedo bomber was the most efficient means of knocking out enemy merchantmen. The Luftwaffe's 8th Abteilung calculated that while only one vessel was sunk for every 19 bombing sorties undertaken, torpedo missions sank an Allied vessel every 8 sorties; that is, they were on average twice as effective as high-level or dive-bombing attacks, and one-quarter of all the torpedoes launched struck home.

 

Italian submarines and the Atlantic

From the autumn of 1940 Bordeaux had been the base for the Italian Betasom submarine flotilla. The first 3 Italian submarines entered the base in September, 1940. On October 9, 1940 the first Italian submarine Malaspina left the base for a Atlantic patrol and few days later operated against the convoy OB-229.

Roughly 25 Italian submarines were attached to the flotilla at one time or another, but attempts to stage an effective cooperation with the German wolf pack attacks failed for the most part and sinkings for the Italian boats were much lower than of their German allies.


uboat.net - Boats - Flotillas - Bases - Bordeaux, France

Italian Transport Submarines - Aquila and Merkator Boats

Italian submarine Barbarigo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ships Attacked by the Italian Submarine Leonardo da Vinci

 

how about finding something on the Italien S-Boots in the MTO Kai ? some of them actually formed the cadre with regular KM S-Booten for a time in a Flottille that was short lived ~