Quote:
Originally Posted by Contact
Could you please give us a link to this fact where german u-boats were attacked by friendly fire ?
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Ive been reading the book "The Underwater War 1939-1945" by Commander Richard Compton-Hall MBE, RN (Ret'd) 1st published in 1982. I bought it from a second hand book shop.
It mentions the following:-
In 1939 HMS
Triton and HMS
Oxley encountered each other off Oprestad with the result that
Oxley was sunk.
4/5/1943 U-439 and U-659 collided while pursuing a convoy and both sunk.
Jan 1945 HNMS
Dolfijn was fired on by an RAF Mosquito ending the war for her.
11/11/1942 HMS
Unbeaton sunk by RAF aircraft.
HMS
Unison fired on by a "friendly" ship while travelling in convoy.
29/5/1958 USS
Stickleback rammed and sunk by USS
Silversteen
"Submarines of World War Two" by Erminio Bagnasco published 1972 lists the following as sunk by "friendly" forces
Germany
Type VII U-235 Baltic 1945
French
Perle Atlantic 1944
Great Britain
O Class HMS
Oxley N Sea 1939
U Class HMS
Umpire N Sea 1941
U Class HMS
Unbeaton Atlantic 1942
Italian 600 class
Topazio Mediterranian 1943
Italian Perla Class
Gemma Med 1940
USA
R 19 (as P514) Atlantic 1942
S 25 (as Polish
jastrzab)Atlantic 1942
Sargo Class
Seawolf Pacific 1944
The list above shows the subs final fate and does not take into account the number of "friendly" fire incidents which did not result in a sinking.
All in all Germany did pretty well in respect to "friendly" fire. The Brits had more aircraft (fewer subs), the Germans more U-boats, so it was not surprising that the RAF mistook submarines, most of the subs that they saw would be U-boats.
"Friendly" fire incidents perhaps should be modelled if SH5 includes British subs but is not as much an issue for U-boats.