Action by SM U 35 in the Gulf of Sollum
| date | November 5, 1915 |
|---|---|
| place | Gulf of Sollum |
| output | German victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Kapitänleutnant Waldemar Kophamel |
LtCol Cecil L. Snow |
| Troop strength | |
| 1 submarine | Garrison in Sollum : approx. 100 men 1 auxiliary cruiser ( HMS Tara ) with a crew of 104 men and 2 gunboats |
| losses | |
|
no |
12 dead |
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In the action of SM U 35 in the Gulf of Sollum on November 5, 1915, U 35 sank the HMS Tara and raided the port of Sollum, whereby a gunboat was sunk. The action took place after a supply transport for the Ottoman troops in Cyrenaica and was one of the events that initiated the Ottoman-Arab invasion of Egypt.
background
Ottoman military mission in Libya
At the end of October 1915, the Ottoman War Minister Ismail Enver asked the German ally to carry out supply transports by submarines for the Ottoman military mission in Libya , which has been tasked with mobilizing the Arab natives for an invasion of Egypt since the Ottoman Empire entered the First World War was. The Ottoman camp was in Bir Wa'ir (approx. 5 km west of Sollum). U 35 was the first German submarine to be commissioned to transport war materials.
Supply transportation
When U 35 was in the bay of Xeros (west of Gallipoli ) on October 25, 1915 , it received instructions to carry out a supply transport to Libya. The submarine reached Orak Island (near Bodrum ) on October 31 . There it took 10 Ottoman officers, money (120,000 francs) and ammunition (300,000 cartridges and 80 ammunition belts for machine guns) on board. Together with two schooners that were loaded with 120 Ottoman soldiers and other war materials, U 35 began its transport journey on November 1st. In the night of November 2nd to 3rd, the convoy broke up and U 35 continued the journey alone. On the morning of November 3, the depot ship HMS Woolwich was sunk south of Crete. In the night of November 4th to 5th, U 35 reached the port of Bardia (approx. 20 km north of Sollum).
Anglo-Egyptian presence in Sollum
Sollum had actually been Egyptian territory since December 22, 1911 (→ occupation of Sollum ) and formed the western border with Libya. The place was secured by troops of the Egyptian Coastguard , a division of the Coastguard Camel Corps and a division of the Egyptian Army , which occupied the fort. The commander in chief of this garrison was the officer of the Egyptian Coastguard Lieutenant Colonel Cecil Longueville Snow . On November 5, 1915, two gunboats of the Egyptian Coastguard anchored in the port of Sollum: the Abbas and the Nour al-Bahr .
The HMS Tara was originally a passenger steamer, which was requisitioned for war use in August 1914, refitted and armed with 3 light guns ( QF-6-pounder Hotchkiss ). Since October 1915, the ship was part of the North Egyptian Coast Patrol and carried out coastal patrols and ship controls on the Egyptian coast from Alexandria to Sollum. On November 3rd, Tara started its second and final patrol from Alexandria and would have reached Sollum on November 5th.
course
While U 35 was in the port of Bardia , the commander, Kapitänleutnant Kophamel , was informed that two small British warships were in the port of Sollum. Waldemar Kophamel then decided to attack the port on the morning of November 5th. Since he had no knowledge of the state of defense, he ran into the harbor submerged to sink the ships with torpedoes. However, he broke off the attack because he considered it impracticable because of the shallow water and turned away.
At 9:00 a.m. U 35 discovered the HMS Tara , which was on its way to Sollum. At 10:10 a.m. - when the tare was only about 13 km away from the target - U 35 fired a torpedo and hit the engine room. The Tara was immediately flip side . The ship sank within eight minutes. 12 of the 104-strong crew died. Those who could not find a place in the lifeboats were taken in by U 35. The 92 survivors were driven to Bardia to be handed over to the Ottomans. Once there, Kophamel was received by Nuri Killigil , the head of the Ottoman military mission in Libya , and Otto Mannesmann , who was to revolutionize the Maghreb on behalf of the Deputy General Staff . They urged Kophamel to attack the port of Sollum and assured him that the port's defense was minimal. Shortly before 4:00 p.m. U 35 left the port of Bardia in the direction of Sollum.
The garrison had not noticed the sinking of HMS Tara or the presence of U 35. At 17:15 U 35 appeared outside the port of Sollum and began firing at the gunboats lying in the port with its light gun. The Abbas was sunk and the Nour al-Bahr was badly damaged. Then the gun was aimed at buildings in the port, but could only cause minor damage. In the absence of artillery, the garrison could not repel the attack. At 6:00 p.m., U 35 ended the attack and headed north. Nobody was killed.
consequences
The attack by U 35 led to immediate action by the British to strengthen the defense of Sollum and the western Egyptian coast. On November 7th, the HMS Lunka reached Sollum. To protect the western Egyptian coast, the Emergency Squadron was formed under the command of Lieutenant Commander Charles Lister , which largely consisted of armored vehicles from the Royal Naval Amored Car Division . On November 11th, a division of the Emergency Squadron reached Sollum. The Rasheed gunboat pulled in that same day . It carried two old field cannons and a division of the Egyptian army . The incident at Sidi Barrani on November 18, however, led to the abandonment of Sollum and the retreat of the Anglo-Egyptian troops to Mersa Matruh on November 23 - shortly before the Ottoman-Arab invasion of Egypt .
The sinking of the Tara could only be confirmed by the British by finding rubble on November 10th. Through Arab informants, Cecil Snow learned that the surviving crew had been handed over to the Ottomans. On November 7, about 170 km south of Crete, U 35 sank the Indian transport ship SS Moorina . 4 crew members were captured after reaching the coast near Bardia in a lifeboat on November 11th . The prisoners of the Tara and the Moorina were deported inland to Bir Hakeim (south of Derna ) and were liberated on March 17, 1916 by the Armored Car Brigade .
See also
literature
- Russell McGuirk: The Sanusi's Little War. The Amazing Story of a Forgotten Conflict in the Western Desert, 1915-1917 . London 2007.
Experience reports
- Hans Fechter : War trips to the Senussi. In: Werner von Langsdorff: U-Boats on the enemy. 45 German submarine drivers tell the story. Gütersloh 1937, pp. 45–52.
- Rupert Stanley Gwatkin-Williams: Prisoners of the Red Desert. Being a Full and True History of the Men of the ´Tara´ . London 1919.
Individual evidence
- ^ Neulen, Hans Werner: Feldgrau in Jerusalem. The Levant Corps of Imperial Germany. Munich 1991, p. 102.
- ↑ Simon, Rachel: Libya between Ottomanism and Nationalism. The Ottoman Involvement in Libya during the War with Italy (1911-1919). Berlin 1987, p. 159.
- ^ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 127.
- ^ A b McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 131.
- ↑ McGuirk & Russell (2007), pp. 127-128.
- ^ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 128.
- ↑ McGuirk & Russell (2007), pp. 6-8.
- ^ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 126.
- ^ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 129.
- ↑ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 6.
- ↑ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 130.
- ^ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 132.
- ↑ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 8.
- ^ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 9.
- ^ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 131.
- ^ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 10.
- ^ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 135.
- ^ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 136.
- ^ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 147.
- ^ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 10.
- ^ McGuirk & Russell (2007), p. 182.