U-Boats in the Mediterranean by Lawrence Paterson

Author:Lawrence Paterson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510731677
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2019-02-20T16:00:00+00:00

Landings of strong enemy forces at many points, principally at Oran and Algiers ... Algiers apparently in enemy hands, stronger resistance at Oran. Innumerable transports, covered by aircraft carriers and battleships. Go to it! All out! Risk everything.

Confusion, however, was rife within the U-boats. Kreisch ordered several conflicting orders over the next 24 hours, including instructions that the scheduled new arrivals of the ‘Delphin’ group were to transmit the safe passage confirmation ‘Yes’ immediately after passing the 1° meridian in direct contradiction to Dönitz’s instructions that they delay this message until near Algiers for fear of betraying both their own positions and those of the following boats. Dönitz was under pressure to follow ‘Delphin’ with further transfers but forcefully argued against it, citing an inability of available dockyard space in the Mediterranean and the unsuitability of moon conditions later in November.

Kreisch continued to issue detailed routing instructions throughout 9 November, including to two ‘Delphin’ boats who had radioed the brief passage signal, U-595 and U-617. The boats at his disposal were to form two groups. The first, codenamed ‘Hai’, comprised six U-boats that were to operate off Algiers: U-77, U-205, U-331, U-431, U-561 and U-660. The second group, codenamed ‘Delphin’ was to attack Allied forces at Oran and comprised eight boats: U-73, U-81, U-458, U-565, U-593, U-595, U-605 and U-617. The boats were also given instructions to change their target priority from major warships to troop transports and freighters.

Schütze aboard U-605 was the next to attack, following the initial clashes on the day of the invasion. On 9 November he reported an escort vessel shielding the carrier HMS Furious sunk, though no confirmation of this was ever made. In fact he very nearly sank nearby U-660 which was lining up its own shot on Furious when Schütze’s four torpedoes raced by only metres above their submerged conning tower. Aboard U-660 Götz Bauer and his crew were at once terrified and furious to have come so close to oblivion at the hands of a comrade boat and later that night Bauer surfaced and sent a single word transmission to U-605– ‘Scafskopf!’ (literally meaning ‘sheep’s head’ but more colloquially ‘Fool!’). Bauer in turn was reprimanded by Kreisch in Rome who admonished him for breaking radio silence with ‘stupid remarks’.

Von Tiesenhausen’s U-331, which had just reached the area, sighted the Torch convoy northwest of Algier, in the same area as Schütze’s attack, and attacked immediately. He hit the 9,135-ton American troop transport SS Leedstown. The ship had already suffered a hit from a Luftwaffe air-dropped torpedo as well as bomb damage and lay at anchor when von Tiesenhausen’s two torpedoes hit, finally opening the ship’s hull completely as she settled on the shallow seabed, the men aboard abandoning her and successfully saving most of the cargo and equipment aboard.

Fritz Guggenberger’s U-81 was next to successfully attack, sighting a small convoy in the early hours of 10 November and hitting the 2,012-ton British SS Garlinge and sending her to the bottom, also claiming a hit on an escort vessel, though this was not confirmed.

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