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Originally Posted by Abraham
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Originally Posted by iambecomelife
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Originally Posted by pampanito
If anyone wants to check the terrible price paid by crews of torpedoed ships, just look at this example of a successful attack by U-107 (Gelhaus) against convoy OS-44, 05:30Z / 13 March 1943 which sank four ships:
MARCELLA - Manchester/Freetown - General cargo - 44 lost (no survivors)
OPORTO - Liverpool/Sevilla - Sulphate copper and seeds - 43 lost (4 survivors)
CLAN ALPINE - Liverpool/Sudan - General cargo - 26 lost (68 survivors)
SEMBILANGAN - Liverpool/AlejandrÃa - General cargo - 86 lost (1 survivor)
199 lives taken by one torpedo salvo...
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Given that the attack occurred in 1943 - by which time rescue equipment had improved - and that it was against vessels carrying mainly nonhazardous cargoes, the reason for the loss of life was probably bad weather. Rough seas could make it almost impossible to abandon ship even if there were enough rafts and boats. Then there was the problem of finding survivors in the limited visibility, even if they DID abandon ship successfully. OTOH, if the weather was good and you were sailing in convoy I'd assume your chances of getting picked up would be fairly good - as long as your ship wasn't carrying iron ore, aviation fuel, etc |
It was also almost impossible to rescue sailors during night attacks. |
Yep. IIRC Gunther Prein once sank three ships in a convoy at night so quickly that the other ships didnt'e even miss them - the "Neptunian", "Gro" , and "Jose de Larrinaga". Two sank with no survivors and one lost about 1/3 of its crew. The survivors were forced to leave behind two men who abandoned ship too late; eventually both of their bodies were picked up after floating for almost a month. It couldn't have been a pretty sight...
09-16-05, 07:07 PM
Re: The ugly side of submarine warfare
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