Interesting info on battle of the Atlantic

Captain F. Johnnie Walker, RN
(1896 - 1944)

In March 1941 he was given command of the 36th Escort group which consisted of 2 sloops and 6 corvettes. There he was noted for development of sophisticated group tactics.

In December 1941, while escorting convoy HG-76, Walker's group sank 4 U-boats U-131 (Baumann), U-434 (Heyda), U-574 (Gengelbach) and U-567 (Endrass) for the loss of one escort carrier and 2 ships sunk. This is considered by many to be the first real convoy escort victory of the war.

One of his tactics was to put 3 or more sloops in a line and then bombard the submerged U-boat in a similar way as artillery bombardment. This proved very effective if the U-boat was under the vessel in the middle, then his evasive action might take him under the depth charges dropped on his left or right.

uboat.net - Fighting the U-boats - Personnel - Captain F. Johnnie Walker, RN

 

Dear Erich:

In Italian language, these Fast Boats are named Motoscafo Anti Sommergibile


click in my link, please


Jan.

 

Captain Donald Macintyre, RN

Destroyer Captain and Escort Group Commander

U-boat Killer by Capt. Donald MacIntyre  U-boat book review by John Hopkin

uboat.net - Fighting the U-boats - Personnel - Captain Donald Macintyre, RN

He captured the number one German U-boat ace Otto Kretschmer (whose Zeiss binoculars he took and used for the rest of the war); in the same battle, he directed the attack that killed the second-scoring ace Joachim Schepke.

 

Admiral Karl Dönitz lost both his sons to enemy action during the war. The younger, Peter Dönitz, was killed while serving as watch officer on the U-954 when the boat was sunk with all hands in the North Atlantic on 19 May, 1943.

After that loss the older brother, Klaus, was permitted to withdraw from combat duties and started his education as a naval doctor. Klaus however kept in touch with his former comrades and on his 24th birthday on 13 May, 1944 he convinced his friends to take him along on the fast boat S-141 for an attack on the Selsey on the English coast. The S-141 was destroyed and although 6 of its crew were rescued Klaus Dönitz was not among them.

uboat.net - The Men - Karl Dönitz

 

PROBLEMS OF LEADERSHIP IN A SUBMARINE

A lecture given by the German Submarine Commander, Lt. Commander Lueth, German Navy, on 17 December 1943.

Lueth Leadership Lecture

 

That was very interesting KP ! I never realized how much thought and experience goes into working on a sub. Also all the things that can go wrong and sink you even if the enemy is not around.

 

The battle for convoy ONS-5

Ahoy - Mac's Web Log - The Battle For Convoy ONS 5. 26th.April - 6th. May 1943

This Battle for Convoy ONS 5, was a defining one in the Battle of the Atlantic, it was a major victory against the U-Boats, and a turning point, if one sought the time the Allies won THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC, it would have to be, May of 1943.

Commander Gretton wrote:

" Lieutenant Commander Sherwood RNR. in HMS Tay, had handled a very dangerous situation with ability and coolness. I consider he did exceptionally well, being ably backed up by the group."

Six boats sunk, U-638, U-192, U-125, U-531, U-630 and U-438, then on her way home a 7th, boat, U-209, previously damaged by a Catalina on the 5th. of May, sank, probably on the 7th. of May. The U-Boat arm lost 364 trained officers and men, a disaster, the declining availability of trained personnel becoming a real problem for those responsible for suppling enough trained seamen to keep the U-Boats in the fight.

On the Allies side, 13 ships were sunk, but in the main, officers and crews were rescued to once more man new ships to keep the sealanes between the Americas and Britain open.

 

uboat.net - Allied Warships - Escort carrier HMS Audacity of the Audacity class

HMS Audacity was the first of the Royal Navy escort carriers. She was launched 29 March 1939 as the North German Lloyd cargo/passenger liner MV Hannover being completed on 10 May 1939. She was caught outside home waters by the outbreak of war, and captured by the British light cruiser HMS Dunedin (Capt. C.E. Lambe, RN) and the Canadian destroyer HMCS Assiniboine (Cdr. E. Mainguy, RCN) in the West Indies on 8 March 1940 while trying to run the blockade.

HMS Audacity (Cdr. Douglas William Mackendrick, RN) was sunk at 2137hours on 21 December 1941, after being hit by three torpedoes from the German submarine U-751 about 500 miles west of Cape Finisterre.

 

If any of this Forum wish read this document in Spanish, click in this link: Discurso del Kapitän zur See Wolfgang Lüth






Jan.

 

U-182 and "Westward ho!"

The German U-Boat U-182

The ship's combat emblem was "Westward ho!" written in old German script on the front of the conning tower.

There were in total 4 U-boats with this old Viking slogan, which was also used by the pilgrim fathers and westward settlers in America.

The first one was U-37. After its first patrol, when U-37 entered Wilhelmshaven on 8 November 1939, the commander Werner Hartmann met Niko Clausen on the quay. Clausen at this time was commander of the minesweeper M-134. They had dinner together. Hartmann promised to request Clausen as watch officer on his U-boat. Upon their return to U-37, the crew had painted this slogan in black letters on the tower. Eventually, Clausen became commander of U-37.

Later, when Clausen commissioned U-129 he kept the same slogan. The image above is an unpublished photograph of this slogan on the conning tower of U-129.

When Hartmann commissioned U-198 on 3 November 1942, he also chose his old slogan from U-37.

 

And yes....

While on the subject of signals, Bargsten spoke of a message that Dönitz sent to Günther Prien on the occasion of the birth of Prien’s daughter. The message read, "Ein U-boot ohne Sehrohr ist heute angekommen" (A submarine without periscope arrived today).

Klaus Bargsten - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Read carefully, inside the link these pages....See Letters from Kriegsmarine Flotilla Command to a U-Boat Crewman's Family





Jan.

 

I placed a photo of Molch submarine in the Member's Gallery that I took at the Canadian War Museum in June 08.

 

The first patrol with U-196 became famous even though he sank only two ships of some 12,000 tons. But it was the longest patrol a U-boat or other submarine ever made in wartime. U-196 left Kiel on 13 March, 1943 and reached Bordeaux on 23 October, 1943, 225 days later.

uboat.net - The Men - U-boat Commanders - Korvettenkapitän Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat

 

USS Niblack

On 10 April 1941, as she was nearing the coast, the ship picked up three boatloads of survivors from a torpedoed merchantman. When a submarine was detected preparing to attack, the division commander, Denis L. Ryan, ordered a depth charge attack which drove off the U-boat. This bloodless battle apparently was the first action between American and German forces in World War II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Niblack

...on 31 October 1941, a German U-boat's torpedo struck Reuben James (DD-245) blowing her in half — the first United States naval vessel to be lost in World War II.

 

Kai which coast do you suppose ? Newfoundland's possibly ?

 

Erich, the wording was a bit difficult on several sites but found eventually:

"...the coast of Iceland..."

World War II Timeline: April 5, 1941-April 12, 1941


http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/united-states-enacts-lend-lease-bill7.htm

 

Heinrich Dammeier
Stabsobermaschinist

One of the very few NCO U-boat personnel to win the KC.

12/08/1944 : Knights Cross (116.)

uboat.net - The Men -

 

Kriegsmarine and The Honor Dagger

A small number of particularly successful V-Boat commanders received the Honor Dagger (Ehrendolch) of the Navy. This beautifully crafted weapon displayed a number of deluxe features.

The Carl Eickhorn firm in Solingen was contracted by the Kriegsmarine to produce this special dagger as a special presentation piece to be awarded by the Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine. The scabbard was richly embossed with a decorative oakleaf design and a fouled anchor between the scabbard bands. It featured a genuine ivory handle with, instead of the normal gold wire, a wrap of intricate oakleave design. The blade was crafted from genuine damascus steel and most impressivley, set within the swastika grasped by the eagle on the pommel, were 17 tiny rose-cut diamonds.

The first such dagger awarded to a U-Boat commander went to Gunther Prien. The blade ricasso featured, in raised gilded letters, the inscription "Dem UbootsiegeTiRaeder/31 December 1939." This inscription remained, with only the date of the award changing, until Raeder's resignation and his replacement by Karl Donitz. The dagger awarded by Donitz carried the inscription "Dem Tapferen U-Bootskommandant/Donitz/Date."

It is believed that only six such daggers were made for V-Boat commanders, these being:
Gunther Prien, Otto Kretschmer, Erich Topp, Reinhard Suhren, Wolfgang Luth, Albrecht Brandi, With literally only a handful ever awarded, originals of the Ehrendolch are of the utmost rarity and command huge sums on the rare occasions that one may come onto the market.

Gordon Willaimson: "Torpedo Los! The Fascinating World of U-boat Collectibles, R. James Bender Publishing, 2006

German Militaria Blog: Kriegsmarine Daggers

 

Submarine “ace” Gunther Prien was at sea when his daughter was born in 1940, prompting German U-boot service commander Carl Dönitz to send him a coded message reading, “Ein U-boot ohne Sehrohr ist heute angekommen -- A submarine without periscope arrived today.”