IRL (dumb?) question

[Morts]

Originally Posted by kurtz

Thanks to that superb anthology 'Destroyer' (edited by Ian Hawkins) I have an answer;
on the 9th May U101 (Kapitanleutnant Julius Kemp of the Athenia infamy) was brought to the surface by HMS Bulldog and boarded by a party led by Sub-Lieutenant Balme RN. This was the truning point in the Altlantic war as an enigma machine and 6 week's worth of settings was captured... any way from Balme's report, "one tommy gun was found in officers clothes drawer, another was found in the lower control tower with an anti tank type of rifle."

The tommy gun may have been a schmeiser/MP40 or perhaps less likely that rather nice assault rifle some german units had (can't remember the name I'll repost when I do) and as for the anti tank rifle I've no idea perhaps for disposing of mines? however the RN used Lee-enfield .303s for this.

Hope this helps a bit the original document as well as being in the above book is also in HM's Public records office ref ADM/1/1113377151 and has apparently only been declassified comparatively recently.

Mike

it was U-110 and fritz-julius Lemp not kemp

i couldn resist correcting it:rotfl: