HMS Torbay (N79)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
HMS Torbay (N79)
Royal Navy
HMS Torbay 1943
General data
Ship type : Submarine
Ship class : Triton class ( T class )
Navy : Royal Navy
Builder : Chatham Dockyard ( Chatham )
Keel laying : November 21, 1938
Launch : April 9, 1940
Commissioning: January 14, 1941
Whereabouts: Scrapped in 1947
Technical data
(see Triton class )

HMS Torbay (N79) was a submarine of the British Royal Navy . The warship was used in World War II and is one of the most successful submarines in the Royal Navy. On the orders of his commandant Anthony Miers (1906–1985), who received the Victoria Cross for his successes , in two incidents in 1941 his crew shot and killed shipwrecked people from previously sunk German ships in the water, which was reported by the Wehrmacht investigation agency on the basis of statements Survivor was registered as an Allied war crime .

Mission history

see also: History of the Triton class

Iron ring around Brest

The first use of the submarine, which was put into service on January 14, 1941, led to the Bay of Biscay in March 1941 , where the two German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau returning from the Berlin company were to be intercepted. The German capital ships were able to break through the British siege ring unscathed. After the unsuccessful operation, the submarine was ordered to Gibraltar .

After further patrols in the Mediterranean , the Torbay arrived on May 13, 1941 in Alexandria , where it was assigned to the First Submarine Flotilla .

First use in front of the Dardanelles

On May 28, 1941, the submarine left the Egyptian port city. The mission led to the Dardanelles . The strategic supply lines of the Axis powers ran through these waters from the Romanian oil ports on the Black Sea to southern Europe and North Africa.

On June 1, 1941, the Torbay sank a Greek quay under German control with the deck gun in the Aegean Sea , thus achieving her first combat success. The small motor sailing ship exploded after the fifth shot, suggesting that it was loaded with explosives or ammunition. Another quay was sunk two days later.

Then the submarine drove into the ordered sector in front of the Dardanelles. The use made very high technical demands. The changing currents required great navigational skills. Much more problematic were the water layers in this sea area with different salinity and temperature, which made it difficult to balance the ballast tanks when descending and surfacing, which is why Commander Anthony Miers never allowed to submerge deeper than 25 m. In addition, Miers was of the opinion that the pressure hull of submarines could withstand a depth charge at shallower depths, i.e. at lower water pressure , than at greater depths, since the external pressure in the event of an attack is the sum of the hydrostatic pressure and the detonation wave of the explosive device represents. Another advantage from Miers' point of view was that you can of course go back to periscope depth much faster and continue the attack or even start a counterattack. Miers' unconventional tactic was ultimately successful, since discontinued the different layers of water and reflected the sound, making the acoustic tracking devices the Italian and German U-hunter submarines could be regarded inaccurate and shallow diving very.

The Torbay had to let many neutral ships pass in the busy waterway until it sighted the Vichy-French tanker Alberta on June 6th and damaged it with torpedoes. The ship, which was unable to maneuver and was abandoned by the crew, was boarded the following night, but could not be sunk. On the morning of June 10, the same tanker, this time towing an ambulance, was rediscovered and attacked again with torpedoes and grenades. The British submarine broke off the attack because it had to avoid an Italian destroyer . On the same morning a small Italian convoy was attacked several times. The tanker Giuseppina Ghirardi was sunk. The British codebreakers in Bletchley Park had recently broken the Italian Navy's key , which may have been one of the reasons Commander Miers was aware of the convoy's course. After the successful attack, Miers started the journey home, during which another quay and a schooner were sunk.

War on Kaiks

The next patrol in the Mediterranean began on June 27, 1941 and led again into the Aegean. On board were two commandos from the recently newly formed Special Boat Section . On July 2, the Torbay discovered a small Italian convoy and sank a freighter. Two days later a quay and a schooner with artillery on board were sunk. Both sailing ships sailed under the German flag and were loaded with troops. After the artillery attack, Commander Miers fired the two Lewis machine guns at the survivors floating in the water until he was sure no one was alive. Commander Miers noted in the logbook: “ Everything and everyone was destroyed by some kind of gunfire. "

Over the next four days, an Italian submarine and another schooner were sunk. In the early morning hours of July 9, 1941, north of Andikythira, in the bright moonlight , the submarine discovered a small group of ships heading north. The convoy consisted of four quays and a schooner. The unarmed motor gliders were laden with gasoline, ammunition and food. There were also German mountain troops on board who were on their way home on leave from the front. The Torbay appeared and sank a quay with the deck gun in a very short time, killing all of the crew. When the submarine turned towards the next sailing ship, its captain Fritz Ehlebracht (1919–2012) jumped off board with part of the crew, while the rest of the rest of the group raised their hands and shouted: “The captain is a Greek! We surrender! “Since the ammunition was running low, Commander Miers had the sailing ship boarded. The boarding party was led by Corporal George Bremner, one of the two commando soldiers. Bremner shot a German who was trying to throw a hand grenade. Another German soldier was killed when he raised his rifle. Bremner disarmed and captured seven survivors. When he tried to lead them to the submarine, Commander Miers angrily snapped at him: “ Submarines never take prisoners! “As a result of the commandant's statement, Bremner tried to find a life raft for the prisoners of war. Since he did not find any on deck, he continued his search below deck. When Bremner reappeared on deck, the prisoners had disappeared. When he asked, he was told that they had been shot in the water. Since the further statements of the witnesses and those involved contradict each other, the further course of the events has not been fully clarified. The German captain Ehlebracht, floating in sight in the water, later reported that the men had climbed into a rubber dinghy and were then shot at, with two killed and three others seriously wounded. According to other Torbay crew members , the men were pushed overboard. Miers would have ordered them to be shot afterwards. Two British soldiers refused to give the order. The commander could only have enforced his killing order when he threatened another British sailor with immediate shooting. According to Ehlebracht's statement, the submarine circled the people floating in the water twice, during which they were shot at with a machine gun, but then released the castaways in order to pursue the other transport ships. Ehlebracht and other German survivors were able to hold onto floating debris and were later rescued. After these operations, the Torbay sank two more motor gliders in the convoy. A transport ship escaped. After the sinking of an Italian tanker, the submarine returned to Egypt.

Miers saw himself in the right and had no reason to cover up the killing of the prisoners of war, which is why he noted in the logbook: “The submarine was detached and the soldiers in the dinghy were fired with the Lewis machine gun to prevent them from holding their ship . "The Commander-in-Chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Cunningham, remarked," An excellent patrol. Lieutenant Commander Miers is an excellent commanding officer. “At first, nobody seemed to be bothered by the violations of the Hague Convention and the traditional generosity in victory in the British Navy since Horatio Nelson . Admiral Horten in London did not ignore the offenses, saying: “ As far as I know, the enemy has not usually fired at people in the water or on life rafts, even if they were part of the armed forces. After the events mentioned in the Torbay report, he might feel entitled to do so. “Horten was one of the most experienced and successful British submarine commanders during the First World War . As a result of Horten's objection, the Admiralty ordered Miers to refrain from such actions in the future.

Operation Flipper

On November 10, 1941, the Torbay left Alexandria together with her sister boat Talisman . There were 59 commandos on board the two submarines . The aim of the special company, known as Operation Flipper , was to capture the commander-in-chief of the German Africa Corps, General Erwin Rommel . The secret company served the direct preparation of the British counter-offensive, known as Operation Crusader , in November / December 1941. The commando was deployed on the coast of Cyrenaica . The loss-making attack on the night of 17/18 November 1941 on the supposed enemy headquarters in Beda Littoria failed. Due to a storm, the commandos did not reach the submarines again and were largely taken into German captivity. Only two men were able to get through the desert to the British lines.

Further use in the Mediterranean

The boat operated in the Mediterranean until the summer of 1942 and was sunk by transport ships on the Axis. In March 1942 Miers followed an enemy convoy to a port in Corfu and sank several ships. For this operation Commander Miers received the Victoria Cross . In the summer, the Torbay returned to Great Britain for an overhaul. In February 1943, the submarine returned to the Mediterranean war zone under the new commandant Clutterbuck, where it was used until early 1944 and was able to achieve further sinkings.

Asian theater of war

In May 1945 the Torbay reached under the new commander Lt. Norman visited the Asian theater of war, where she sank two Japanese sailing ships and a coaster until the end of the war .

Whereabouts

The Torbay was decommissioned after the end of the war and sold for scrapping on December 19, 1945. The submarine was scrapped in Briton Ferry (Wales) in March 1947 .

Commanders

Battle successes (selection)

see also: Detailed history of the T-Class

date
June 1, 1941 A Greek sailing ship with artillery is sunk in Doro Strait between Andros and Euboea .
June 3, 1941 A sailing ship with the deck gun is sunk off Mytilene .
June 6, 1941 The Vichy-French tanker Alberta (6131 GRT) is damaged by the on-board gun off Cape Hellas .
June 10, 1941 An Italian convoy is attacked three times off the Dardanelles. The first attack is started at 9:40 a.m. and is unsuccessful. The second attack was carried out at 10:43 a.m., whereby the tanker Utilitas (5342 BRT) was hit but the detonator of the torpedo did not go off. During the third attack at 12:08 p.m. the tanker Giuseppina Ghirardi (3319 GRT) was sunk eight nautical miles from Cape Hellas by a torpedo hit.
June 11, 1941 15 nautical miles south of Mytilene, a Greek freighter is rammed and sunk.
June 12, 1941 Northwest of Scyros at 39 ° 10 '  N , 25 ° 20'  O is the Italian Sailboat Gesu E Maria sunk with the deck gun (238 BRT).
June 30, 1941 A sailing ship with artillery is sunk off Cape Malea .
July 2, 1941 A small Italian convoy is attacked northwest of Kea at 37 ° 41 ′  N , 24 ° 15 ′  E. The transporter Citta di Tripoli (2933 GRT) is sunk. The second transport ship can avoid the torpedoes.
4th July 1941 Two German sailing ships with the deck gun are sunk in Doro Strasse. Commander Anthony Miers has the castaways drifting in the water shot.
July 5, 1941 South of Mykonos at 37 ° 21 '  N , 25 ° 20'  O is the Italian submarine Jantina (599 ts) torpedoes and sunk.
July 8, 1941 The German schooner L XIV with the deck gun is sunk east of Kythira .
July 9, 1941 The German sailing ships L V , L VI and L XII are sunk 10 nautical miles north of Andikythira . The ships are partially boarded and destroyed with explosive charges. Commandant Miers orders the prisoners of war to be shot. A few hours later at 37 ° 30 '  N , 24 ° 16'  O Italian tanker Strombo (5232 BRT) torpedoes. The tanker was declared a total loss on August 23, 1941.
August 12, 1941 Four nautical miles west of Benghazi , an Italian convoy is attacked with four torpedoes. The attacked transport ships Bosforo (3648 GRT) and Iseo (2366 GRT) are missed. The submarine is then attacked with depth charges by the torpedo boat Partenope .
August 16, 1941 The sailing ship Evangelista (28 GRT) is sunk with explosive charges off Cape Tenaro .
September 10, 1941 The German freighter Norburg (2392 GRT) is torpedoed in the port of Heraklion . The ship ran aground, but was later repaired.
December 11, 1941 The Greek sailing ship Sofia (800 GRT) with the deck gun is sunk northwest of Souda Bay ( Crete ) .
December 12, 1941 The Greek sailing ship P III with the deck gun is sunk northwest of Souda Bay .
December 15, 1941 Three Greek sailing ships with artillery are sunk off Cape Methene.
December 22, 1941 A Greek sailing ship with artillery is sunk off Cape Methene.
December 23, 1941 The destroyer Aviere (1645 ts) lying on the bottom is torpedoed in the port of Pylos . The Italian warship was hit and damaged on November 19, 1941 by the Polish submarine ORP Sokół . The aviere is then repaired. She was sunk by HMS Splendid on December 17, 1942 off Bizerta (Tunisia) .
February 27, 1942 The Italian transport ship Lido (1243 GRT) is sunk with torpedoes 15 nautical miles south of Antipaxe (Corfu) .
March 5, 1942 The Italian transport ship Maddalena G. (5212 GRT) is torpedoed and sunk off Corfu .
April 9, 1942 The Italian auxiliary patrol boat R113 / Avanguardista (34 BRT) is sunk with the deck gun off Patras .
April 11, 1942 The Italian sailing ship Gesu Crocifisso (137 GRT) with the on-board gun is sunk northwest of Corfu .
April 18, 1942 50 nautical miles east-south-east of Cape Colonna at 38 ° 52 '  N , 18 ° 15'  O is the German military transport Bellona torpediert (1297 BRT) and sunk.
April 19, 1942 North of Crete at 36 ° 36 '  N , 24 ° 15'  O the German will auxiliary U-Hunter 19 V 2 / Delpa II (170 BRT) sunk with the deck gun.
February 11, 1943 The Danish merchant ship Grete (1563 GRT) sunk off Cape Oropesa .
February 25, 1943 The Italian auxiliary minesweeper Monte Argentario (80 GRT) is damaged by the deck gun off Ajaccio .
February 26, 1943 The Spanish freighter Juan de Astigarraga (3561 GRT) is torpedoed and sunk off Sanremo . On the same day, the French freighter Oasis (1327 GRT) was sunk 30 nautical miles south of Cape Mele at 43 ° 27 '  N , 8 ° 8'  E.
February 27, 1943 35 nautical miles south west of La Spezia at 43 ° 37 '  N , 9 ° 25'  O is the Italian auxiliary patrol boat V 276 / Baicin (173 BRT) sunk with board artillery.
February 28, 1943 The Italian transport ship Ischia (5101 GRT) is sunk with torpedoes off Portofino .
March 3, 1943 The Italian sailing ship Gesù Giuseppe E Maria (64 GRT) is sunk with the on-board gun off Milazzo .
March 28, 1943 Before Cape Scalea (Italy) at 39 ° 5 '  N , 15 ° 46'  O French freighter Lillios (3680 BRT) torpedoes and sunk.
April 1, 1943 Before Licosa at 40 ° 15 '  N , 14 ° 54'  O Italian fishing vehicle is Madonna di Porto Salvo (21 BRT) sunk with the deck gun.
July 17, 1943 The Italian sailing ship Pozzalo (127 GRT) is sunk five nautical miles west of Civitavecchia .
July 18, 1943 The Italian auxiliary patrol boat V 90 / San Girolamo (109 GRT) is sunk with the deck gun southeast of the island of Giglio .
July 23, 1943 Before Civitavecchia at 42 ° 4 '  N , 11 ° 47'  O is the Italian ship Aderno (2609 BRT, ex British ardeola torpediert) and sunk.
August 31, 1943 The Italian sailing ship Columbo (15 GRT) with the deck gun is sunk 15 nautical miles west of Kos .
September 2, 1943 Before Paros at 37 ° 11 '  N , 25 ° 20'  O Italian transporter is Versilia (591 BRT) torpedoes and sunk.
October 15, 1943 The Italian freighter Tarquinia (749 GRT) is sunk with torpedoes off Kalymnos and a Greek fishing vessel with the deck gun is sunk off Leros . After these attacks, the German submarine GA 45 attacked the submarine with five depth charges. Commander Clutterbuck lets the Torbay appear to attack the attacker with artillery, but this fails because the German ship also uses its on-board gun.
October 16, 1943 East of Naxos at 36 ° 59 ′  N , 26 ° 10 ′  E , the German troop transporter Kari (1925 BRT) and the Italian transporter Trapani (1855 BRT) are torpedoed. 180 German soldiers died on the Kari while 320 were rescued. The Kari (ex French Ste. Collette , ex Norwegian Kari ) is sunk, the Trapani damaged. The Trapani had been attacked and damaged the night before by the British destroyer HMS Hursley and the Greek destroyer escort Miaoulis . The ship is sunk the following night by the British destroyers HMS Penn and HMS Jervis .
November 21, 1943 West of Psathoura at 39 ° 30 '  N , 24 ° 10'  O a Greek sailing ship is sunk.
November 22, 1943 North of Skiathos at 39 ° 24 '  N , 23 ° 24'  O a German is Floating torpedoes and sunk.
November 27, 1943 Before Karlovasi at 37 ° 47 '  N , 26 ° 38'  O the German troop transport is Palma (2609 BRT) torpedoes and sunk.
January 31, 1944 A Greek sailing ship with the deck gun is sunk south of Limnos .
March 16, 1945 A Japanese coaster is damaged with the deck gun off the west coast of Siam .
June 24, 1945 A Japanese coaster with the deck gun is sunk off Sabang ( Dutch East Indies ).
June 30, 1945 Two Japanese sailing ships are sunk with explosive charges in the Strait of Malacca .

See also

  • HMS Torbay (other British ships of the same name)

Web links

Commons : Triton class  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Erminio Bagnasco: Submarines in World War II , Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart, 5th edition 1996, ISBN 3-613-01252-9
  • Robert Hutchinson: KAMPF UNDER WASSER - Submarines from 1776 to today , Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart, 1st edition 2006, ISBN 3-613-02585-X
  • Peter Padfield: The Submarine War 1939-1945 . Ullstein Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-548-24766-0

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hutchinson and Bagnasco do not provide any information on the launching of the T-class submarines. The information on launch runs comes from uboat.net .
  2. ^ John B. Hattendorf: Maritime Conflict . In: Michael Howard, George J. Andreopoulos, Mark R. Shulman, Michael Eliot Howard (Eds.): The Laws of War: Constraints on Warfare in the Western World . Yele University Press, New Haven 1994, pp. 98-115, here 113.
  3. ↑ James D. Morrow: Order within Anarchy: The Laws of War as an International Institution . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2014, p. 263.
  4. ^ Alfred de Zayas : The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1945 . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (Nebraska) 1989. pp. 254-257.
  5. ↑ a b Peter Padfield: "The Submarine War 1939-1945", p. 201
  6. ↑ a b c d War crimes against castaways at www.wlb-stuttgart.de
  7. ↑ Name and identity with date of birth and death according to two obituaries for Fritz Ehlebracht in the Mindener Tageblatt of April 11 and 12, 2012.
  8. ^ Fritz Ehlebracht: A German Odyssey: German Marines in the Aegean Sea. Self-published, 1995.
  9. ↑ a b Peter Padfield: The U-Boat War 1939-1945, pp. 202-203
  10. ↑ Peter Padfield: The U-Boat War 1939-1945, pp. 204-206
  11. ↑ Janusz Piekałkiewicz : The Second World War, Komet, Cologne, ISBN 978-3-89836-472-0 , p. 417
  12. ↑ www.royal-navy.mod.uk ( Memento of the original from October 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.royal-navy.mod.uk
  13. ↑ Anthony Cecil Capel Miers in uboat.net (English)
  14. ↑ Robert Julian Clutterbuck in uboat.net (English)
  15. ↑ Compton Patrick Norman in uboat.net (English)
  16. ↑ www.regiamarina.net ( Memento of the original from September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.regiamarina.net
  17. ↑ Sea War in July 1941 at www.wlb-stuttgart.de.
  18. ↑ Kari at www.warsailors.com/homefleet. (English)
  19. ^ Rohwer: Sea War. November 5-11, 1943, Aegean Sea.

Remarks

  1. ↑ HMS is the abbreviation for His / Her Majesty's Ship and the name prefix of British ships. HMS means His / Her Majesty's Ship . Torbay is a local authority in south west England.