06-05-07, 09:12 PM
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#5
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Subsim Aviator
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Texas
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Pablo
Quote:
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Originally Posted by GoldenRivet
there is a brutal account of the engagement and sinking of U-85 by the USS Roper off he east coast of the USA in Homer H. Hickman's book "U-boat war off America's East Coast, 1942 TORPEDO JUNCTION" a great read!
In this particular event, U-85 was attacked while submerged and then she surfaced in the shallow waters to surrender the U-boat.
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Hi!
According to Clay Blair ( Hitler's U-boat War: The Hunters), U-85 was on the surface the whole time until she was scuttled, and had fired a torpedo at the destroyer just before abandoning ship (p. 542).
Quote:
Just after midnight, April 14 [1942], while southbound off Bodie Island, Roper got a radar contact at 2,700 yards...The radar contact was U-85. Trapped by a destroyer in water only 100 feet deep, Greger [the U-boat commander] had two choices: to dive and possibly be pounded to pieces by depth charges, or to run at full speed on the surface to depe water....Greger chose to run...but he did not know the destroyer had radar.
Chasing at 20 knots, Roper gradually overhauled U-85. In a last but futile effort to rid himself of the pursuer, Greger fired his stern tube at 700 yards. The torpedo missed, running close down Roper's port side. When Roper closed to 300 yards, and appeared to be coming in to ram, Greger gave the order to scuttle and abandon ship. To facilitate this final, depserate act and get out of Roper's way, Greger abruptly turned hard to starboard.
When U-85 turned, Roper switched on her 24" searchlight and opened fire at point blank range. Seeing the Germans running on deck to abandon ship, the excided Americans, they said later, concluded they had come up to man U-85's deck gun to shoot it out....
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Pablo |
Pablo, you are correct... i did not read the full text before quoting it as i was in a hurry to reply, but they were on the surface throughout the engagement until they decided to jump ship and it sank.
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