Prime Meridian (Kirov Series Book 33) by John Schettler

Author:John Schettler [Schettler, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: The Writing Shop Press
Published: 2017-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

Part VII

Invasion

“If D-Day failed, there would be no going back to the drawing board for the Allies. Regrouping and attempting another massive invasion of German occupied France, even a few months later in 1944, wasn’t an option.”

—Douglas Brinkley

Chapter 19

31 AUG 1943

A year ago as August came to a close in 1942, the Germans had 109 U-Boats at sea, and they had put nearly 60,000 tons of Allied shipping at the bottom of the sea that day. American steam tanker Jack Carnes went down west of Lisbon; Bronxville and Capira were picked off from convoy SC-97 by U-609. The British tanker Winnemac was torpedoed near Venezuela, and a small Dutch sailing boat, the Sande, was shelled and sunk off Cuba. On this day in 1943 a year later, only 72 boats were at sea, and not a single Allied ship fell prey to enemy U-Boat attacks.

Much had changed, largely in the rise of Allied escort carriers, the occupation of the Azores, and general improvements in both aerial reconnaissance and anti-U-Boat strikes by land based aircraft. The Bay of Biscay, once a favorite hunting ground for the Germans, was no longer safe after the Allied occupation of Portugal and Spain. It might be said that the meager German response to the Allied Torch landings at Casablanca and Lisbon had dealt a severe blow to the German U-Boat campaigns in general. Hitler would long regret not fighting for Spain, which was now teeming with Allied bombers.

After the disastrous losses in previous months, Dönitz had pulled the leash on his wolfpacks, returning them to friendly bases to regroup and rethink operational strategy in the face of increasing Allied ASW prowess. Yet the 31st of August was not entirely uneventful. Now Dönitz was scheduling the formation of Wolfpack Leuthen in the waters between Halifax and Ireland, selecting 20 boats for that assignment.

The French ports were still major base sites. 1st and 9th Flotillas operated from Brest, 2nd and 10th from Lorient, 6th and 7th from Saint Nazaire, 3rd Flotilla from La Rochelle, and the 12th Flotilla in the inland port of Bordeaux. Once they had sailed boldly into the Bay of Biscay as they left those ports, but no longer. Now they had to skulk along the French coast, until they reached the midpoint that was farthest from Allied bases in the UK and Spain before turning east into the Atlantic.

On this day, U-229 and U-341 both left La Pallice to join that wolfpack, but neither boat would return home. Two more boats were to leave Saint Nazaire for the same duty. Kapitänleutnant Horst Rentel was taking U-641 out, but developed engine trouble almost immediately, and was forced to turn about and return to port. That was good luck for him, though he thought otherwise at the time. His friend Kapitänleutnant Herbert Engel on U-666 was left to slip away alone, creeping out with orders to join the Wolfpack Leuthen on September 15, where it was once fated to find and kill the British Frigate HMS Itchen on 23 Sep 1943.

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