Did you know ?

[Venatore]

I'm currenlty reading the book "Donitz and the Wolf Packs - The U-boats at War" by Bernard Edwards and on page 59 I read the most amazing entry;

November 1st 1941
Convoy SC 52 consisting of 40 merchant ships and two Canadian destoryers and seven corvettes was sighted by U 374 (Oberleutnant Unno von Fischel) 135 miles north-east of New Foundland. This convoy was bound from Nova Scotia to the UK.

U 374 now shadowing the convoy transmitted to nearby U-boats to form a wolfpack.
When the wolves arrived the battle commenced lasting for eighteen hours. So fierce was the engagement the SC 52 finally reversed course and ran for shelter in the Belle Isle Strait.

Convoy SC 52 earned itself the distinction of being the only Allied convoy ever to be turned back by the U-Boats.:lurk:

[bookworm_020]

I wonder how the convoy commander expained that one when he got ashore (that's if he made it) This was before PQ17, so he couldn't say it was that bad.

[AVGWarhawk]

If the captains of those corvettes were German they would have been shot for "yellow in the face of the enemy." Donitz had an Italian skipper shot for the same thing to set an example for the other skippers.:o

[LZ_Baker]

Did it say how many U-Boats were involved? I can't imagine that there were that many just waiting off the coast of Canada.

[mookiemookie]

NINE escorts!? And they couldn't hold off a wolfpack? And as LZ_Baker said, if it was off the coast of Canada, I'd imagine there couldn't have been any more than 3 or 4 U-boats involved. And they turned the convoy BACK instead of scattering it and pressing on?

Man, what a bunch of yellow cowards. There has to be more to that story.

[Moody]

According to http://uboat.net/ops/convoys/sc.htm

Convoy SC-52 was attacked by Wolf pack of 13 U-boats and 5 Merchants were sunk

[mookiemookie]

Well, that certainly changes things a bit then. I think it's still a pretty bad ratio of attacking u-boats to ships sunk though. Hrm. Interesting!:hmm:

[AirborneTD]

The ships that aborted, were quickly back to sea with convoys SC 53 and 54.

[LZ_Baker]

13 Boats!!! Was every U-Boat in the Western Atlantic waiting for this convoy?

[Dowly]

You gotta remember that some of the wolfpack attacks were actually a series of invidual attacks by invidual uboats. While the destroyers were chasing the first attacker, a second uboat attacked, escorts split up and were now hunting two uboats. A little while later third uboat would attack the convoy, maybe even at the same time with the fourth uboat.

The convoy escorts had no idea how many attackers there was, so it made the job harder. Nine escorts put against 13 uboats attacking either in group or as lonely wolves, it´s no surprise that the convoy decided to turn back. Heck, maybe they though that they were attacked by 4-6 boats and were worried that more would join in soon.

[AirborneTD]

I wonder how the convoy commander expained that one when he got ashore (that's if he made it) This was before PQ17, so he couldn't say it was that bad.

According to Blair's "Hitler's U-Boat War" (Vol I), the Admiralty decided to abort it.

[Venatore]

Same book now on page 87 and it states that U39 was the first U-Boat to be sunk during the second world war (the crew and captain "Glattessz") abandoned the U-Boat prior. She was caught by depth charges from the destoryers Faulkner, Foxhound and Firedrake.

The amazing thing is the U39 fired a spread of two torps at the 22,000 ton British aircraft carrier "Ark Royal"who was only 900 yards away......but both exploded prematurely which in-turn brought the three destorys hurtling towards U39.

[LZ_Baker]

That sucks.



I wonder if Bernard was involved....