The ugly side of submarine warfare

[Clay Fever]

Probably the Worst Attack on a Passenger carrying Ship in WW2
Was Acctually against the M.S. WILHELM GUSTLOFF a german ship ship in early 1945. Over 9000 people were crammed into a ship built to hold 1500 trying to escape the wraith of the advanceing Soviet forces. Of the refugees, a staggering four thousand are infants, children and youths on their way to promising safety in the West.
It was Topedoed by the S-13 a Soviet Submarine.


http://www.wilhelmgustloff.com/sinking.htm

[martes86]

Originally Posted by pampanito

OPORTO - Liverpool/Sevilla - Sulphate copper and seeds - 43 lost (4 survivors)

Just curious, do you have further details on this one?

CityOfBenares

Read the last part of the text...scary...

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by martes86

Just curious, do you have further details on this one?

From uboat.net:

Name: Oporto
Type: Steam merchant
Tonnage: 2.352 tons
Completed: 1928 - Ramage & Ferguson Ltd, Leith
Owner: Ellerman & Papayanni Lines Ltd, Liverpool
Homeport: Liverpool
Date of attack: 13 Mar, 1943 Nationality: British

Fate: Sunk by U-107 (Harald Gelhaus)
Position: 42.45N, 13.31W - Grid CG 1218
- See location on a map -
Complement: 47 (43 dead and 4 survivors).
Convoy: OS-44
Route: Liverpool - Seville
Cargo: 1500 tons of sulphate of copper, 413 tons of seed, potatoes and mail
History:

Notes on loss: At 05.30 hours on 13 Mar, 1943, U-107 attacked the convoy OS-44 190 miles west of Cape Finisterre and reported hits on three ships. In fact, four ships were hit, the Clan Alpine, Marcella, Oporto and Sembilangan.
The master, 35 crew members and seven gunners from the Oporto (Master Fred Bird) were lost. Four crew members were picked up by the HMS Spiraea (K 08) (Lt A.H. Pierce OBE), transferred to HMS Gentian (K 90) (LtCdr H.H. Russell DSC) and landed at Gibraltar.

[Type941]

Still, I always get the feel that being at sea and sea warfare in general was always more noble than fighting in trenches and being under the flamethrowers of marching SS armies. As in sailors still had some honour code and respected the opposition, unlike what's been going on on land, a total bloodbath, especially on the eastern front where I feel it was even more ruthless and without any types of rules of engagements.

[joea]

Originally Posted by Nippelspanner

CityOfBenares

Read the last part of the text...scary...

Hmm I get:

Warning: mysql_result(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/www/gummi/html/about/members/ships_demo.html on line 38
Ships Attacked demo
Sorry but this vessel you're looking for does not appear to be listed in our databases.

??? :hmm:

[Abraham]

The same here...

[DirtyHarry3033]

Originally Posted by joea

Hmm I get:

??? :hmm:

I believe that's a subscription-only area of uboat.net, "The Conning Tower". Have to pay an annual subscription fee and get a user id/password to be able to access the listing of ships that were sunk. Lots of other info that can be looked up as well.

Here's a couple of other links with info on City Of Benares:

http://college.hmco.com/history/read...tyofbenare.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/north..._benares.shtml

[Farside]

if this isn't nasty, i dunno what is...


23 Oct 1941
An incredibly sad event befell U-106 on this date. When the replacement watch opened the tower hatch in rough seas they found out that the entire previous tower watch of 4 men had been washed overboard. [Oberleutnant zur See Werner Grüneberg, Fähnrich zur See Herbert von Bruchhausen, Oberbootsmannmaat Karl Heemann, Matrose Ewald Brühl]

[pampanito]

Originally Posted by martes86

Just curious, do you have further details on this one?

Little can be added to the excellent reply by Iambecomelife. Just a few details:
At the moment of the attack, OS-44 comprised 46 ships in 11 columns. The four torpedoed ships were in convoy positions 64 (MARCELLA), 84 (CLAN ALPINE), 85 (OPORTO) and 92 (SEMBILANGAN), i.e. mostly in the rear positions except SEMBILANGAN, which blew up (apparently ammunition was included in her 4,657 tons of stores and general cargo). Protecting OS-44 was Escort Group 39 with three sloops (ROCHESTER, SCARBOROUGH and FLEETWOOD) and four Flower corvettes (BALSAM, COLTSFOOT, SPIREA and MIGNONETTE).
Gelhaus fired a salvo of six bow torpedoes (it would be interesting to know if they were standard type or loop-running FAT) and claimed six hits. Next day he tried a second approach, but was driven off by the escort.
This was one of the rare occasions in which reports from a Fw-200 'Kondor' recce aircraft allowed a successful convoy interception.