Steel and Ice: The U-Boat Battle in the Arctic and Black Sea 1941-45 by Lawrence Paterson

Author:Lawrence Paterson [Paterson, Lawrence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780750968966
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2016-06-05T23:00:00+00:00

Fired two torpedoes at a damaged tanker in Sokhumi. Depth charges. Tanker was 7,000 GRT, loaded or flooded, sea force 1, depth-setting 5.5 meters with magnetic firing pistol. Two hits were scored and the target broke apart. Three torpedoes left, 18m³ fuel, position air grid square 0326.6

The third U-boat attempt to sink 7,886-ton Emba had been successful. The tanker had already absorbed much punishment: bombed and heavily damaged by Luftwaffe attack off Kamysh-Burun during January – the engine room was beyond repair. Towed to Sokhumi, and further damaged by mine while en route, she was anchored 300m from the coast and served as a fuel store. Emba was finally destroyed by Petersen after both U18 and U23 had failed in their attempts.

The redeployment of U24 that followed marked a shift in tactics used within the Black Sea. With little success enjoyed thus far, the tactical method of the U-boat group (famously called Wolfpacks) had been proposed by Admiral Kurt Fricke, (MGK Süd), although Kieseritzky (Admiral Black Sea) and Rosenbaum objected. A compromise was finally reached with attempts to form patrol lines rather than relying on lone-wolf sailings:

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.