Group monsoons

The Indian Ocean, where the monsoon submarines operate

The Monsun group was a group of German submarines sent to the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea to attack Allied ships during World War II . They operated from ports that had been occupied by Japan . Italian submarines were also used for supply purposes. The code name "Monsun" goes back to the plan to allow the submarines to reach the intended area of ​​operation towards the end of the summer monsoon rain .

Trade war in the Indian Ocean

While the Allied ships were well secured by naval forces within the framework of the established convoy or convoy system in the North Sea, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, only few forces were available to protect shipping between Africa and Australia. Therefore, there were no escort routes in these waters and the ships tried to reach their destination ports as single drivers. In addition to isolated smaller warships, only thirteen British squadrons, each with 15-25 aircraft, secured these sea areas. The operations of the Navy against Allied shipping in the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific were limited themselves to the use of so-called auxiliary cruisers like the one also ship 28 mentioned, Michel and Thor (also ship 10 ) and the auxiliary minelayer Dogger Bank , which through specially in Tankers stationed in these sea areas, such as the Charlotte Schliemann , were supplied. In 1942 and 1943 the three German ships sank a total of 11 ships with 71,975 GRT. As part of the Eisbär submarine group , four German submarines operated for the first time in the Indian Ocean at the end of 1942 and sank 25 ships with 182,075 GRT. Following boats, ex. the U-Bootgruppe Seehund , sank 43 more ships by April of the following year. These successes and the establishment of a British convoy system in the Indian Ocean at that time led to the conception of a submarine group on the German side, which would be permanently deployed in this sea area, supplied by U-tankers and operated from submarine bases: Group monsoons.

Monsoon - The "First Wave"

Initially, only large submarines of submarine class IX D , which had an appropriate range, were considered for use. After setting up a submarine base in Penang , Malaysia , it was also possible to send smaller type IX C boats to this sea area. The first boats of this monsoon group made their way to Southeast Asia between June 30 and July 7, 1943, mostly from the northern French naval base Lorient . U 188 set off on June 30, followed by U 514 one day later . On July 3, U 168 , U 183 , U 509 , U 532 and U 533 left. On July 6, U 506 and two days later U 516 left the Lorient base. The U 200 left Kiel on June 12th . The boat had on board a group of the Wehrmacht sabotage troops called "Brandenburger" , which were to be put ashore in South Africa to motivate the Boers to fight the British. Five of the boats on the march were lost long before they could cross the Atlantic: U 200 was destroyed by air raids south-east of Iceland , U 506 off Spain , U 509 near Madeira and U 514 shortly after leaving the Bay of Biscay .

care

One of the difficulties in crossing the submarines into Southeast Asian waters was, in addition to the enemy situation, above all the supply of fuel. The U-tanker U 487 and the tanker Brake , which was waiting in the Indian Ocean, were intended to supply the monsoon boats on their way to the operational area . However, U 487 was sunk on July 13 by several fighter planes belonging to the escort aircraft carrier USS Core . As an alternative, the submarine command commissioned the Type IX C-boat U 160 , which left Bordeaux at the end of June, to supply the U 509 , which had already been lost at that time, and the other monsoon boats U 532, U 533 and U 506 . Before the rendezvous of the boats, however, U 160 was sunk. The U 516 was able to compensate for the resulting shortage because the boat had to break off the approach due to technical problems and was able to transfer fuel and supplies to the U 532 and U 533 before it returned to the French base. Three other boats of the Monsun group , U 168 , U 188 and U 183 , were supplied by the auxiliary tank submarine U 155 on July 22nd .

Reaching the operational area

Of the original eleven boats in the Monsun group , only five managed to leave the Atlantic and pass the Cape of Good Hope ; the other six were sunk or broke off:

• U 200 , sunk by Liberator bombers on June 24, 1943 southwest of Iceland
• U 506 , sunk by American B-24 bombers off Vigo on July 12, 1943
• U 509 , sunk northwest of Madeira on July 15, 1943 by aircraft of the USS Santee
• U 514 , north-east of Cape Finisterre , sunk by British Liberator bombers on July 8, 1943
• U 516 , trip canceled due to technical problems, returned to August 23 Lorient back
• U 847 , movement interruption, use as a supply boat and on 27 August 1943 in the Sargasso Sea by warplanes of the USS Card sunk

On September 8, the remaining monsoon boats met with the German tanker Brake and took over fuel and supplies. On September 12, the commanders received orders to lead their boats to the patrol areas provided:

• U 168 drove to the sea area in front of Bombay and the Gulf of Cambay
• U 183 unsuccessfully searched for enemy ships in the sea area off Kenya
• U 188 patrolled the Gulf of Oman
• U 532 was ordered to the southern tip of India
• U 533 sailed the Gulf of Aden

By successfully deciphering the Enigma code used by the Navy, the US armed forces were able to trace every movement of the monsoon boats and to secure or reroute shipping traffic accordingly. As a result, the German submarines achieved very few sinkings.

Penang base

U 511 (Marco Polo) as "RO-500" after handover to Japan

With U 533 , on 16 October in the Gulf of Aden was sunk, another monsoon boat was lost. In the fall of 1943 the last four boats of the Monsun group reached the base in the port of Penang . Malaysia was conquered by Japan in the spring of 1942. A part of the port of Penang was the Navy provided hereunder secrecy an improvised submarine base instituted, carried its crew to camouflage mostly civilian clothes and in part from the former crew of the Marco Polo mentioned German submarine U 511 was that had been given to the Japanese Navy. Fritz Schneewind , the former commander of U 511 , replaced Heinrich Schäfer on U 183 , who was relieved of his command due to failure. The base in command was Lieutenant Grützmacher, a former officer on the auxiliary cruiser Michel . The "chief in the south", frigate captain Wilhelm Dommes, commander of U 178 also resided in Penang. While the boats were nominally under their home front flotillas, he was responsible for all submarine operations in the Indian Ocean and the adjacent sea areas. The small, makeshift crew at the base could not guarantee that the boats would be repaired. The plan to recruit Japanese specialists for any repairs and general overhaul of the submarines failed. The German submarine commanders used their own crews to overhaul the boats. Their shore leave, which usually lasted weeks after a patrol, was shortened accordingly to a few days. The procurement of equipment and material was also insufficiently guaranteed. Only two of the monsoon boats that made it to Penang, U 188 and U 532 , later managed to reach European waters again. The submarines of the "First Wave" of the Monsun group had sunk only six ships and six dhows with a total of 33,800 GRT in the course of their operation with great losses . Their commitment fell short of expectations and is considered a failure.

Further bases

The Japanese had given the Germans to use the following additional bases or mooring points:

• Base in Singapore
• Base in Jakarta (in Indonesia )
• Base in Surabaya (in Indonesia)
• Base in Kure (in Japan ) as a mooring point for German supply submarines.

Reinforcement - The "Second Wave"

On September 18, 1943, U 848 ran from Kiel under the command of Wilhelm Rollmann to reinforce the monsoon boats in Penang. While crossing the mid-Atlantic, Commander Rollmann decided to sink a British freighter on November 2, which alerted the US Navy bomber squadron on Ascension Island . The boat was located shortly afterwards by two B-24 bombers and sunk. Also, U 849 , the Kiel on October 2, had left with target Penang, failed to achieve the intended area of operations. The boat was also discovered and sunk by bombers from Squadron VB 107 based on Ascension. Between January and June 1944, sixteen more submarines were sent to the East Asian operational areas to bring supplies to the Penang base and to strengthen the armed forces there. At the same time, some of the boats stationed there were ordered back, also to bring essential war goods such as tin , tungsten , quinine and opium to Germany.

Aquila

UIT 24, an “Aquila” boat

At the beginning of February 1943, Karl Dönitz had already spoken out to Adolf Hitler to convert Italian submarines into transport submarines, especially for the transport of goods from East Asia. Under the code name “Aquila”, some modified Italian submarines set off for East Asia, three of them reached Singapore. After Mussolini's fall , these boats were interned by the Japanese allies and handed over to the Germans. After being equipped with German crews, UIT 24 , UIT 23 and UIT 22 made their way to Europe in early 1944. The "Aquila" program was a failure and was abandoned after the failure of the boats involved: UIT 23 and UIT 22 were sunk before they could leave the Pacific and UIT 24 returned to Penang because it did not go as planned, at the German tanker Brake - the Brake had meanwhile been sunk.

Loss of supply ships

The tanker Charlotte Schliemann was to be positioned in the Indian Ocean to supply the submarines moving back and forth . By deciphering the German radio messages, the British armed forces became aware of these plans and sank the German tanker. When the boats intended for supply arrived at the agreed location, but the supply ship could not be found, the loss of the Charlotte Schliemann became apparent. The boats U 168, U 183, U 188 and U 532 were ordered to a rendezvous with the Brake . There a battle developed with US naval forces, in the course of which the Brake sank. The sinking of the two German tankers in quick succession made the submarine command suspect that the Enigma code was no longer secure. The coding was modified, which in turn had consequences for the Allies, who instructed their command centers not to initiate any more actions based on findings from the decryption of Enigma radio messages.

New boats for Penang

Many of the sixteen boats that sailed for Penang in the first half of 1944 were transporting supplies for the German base in Malaysia. Three of the new monsoon boats were heavily armed modern submarines of the Type IX C, two were torpedo supplies of the much smaller Type VII F , and one was an Italian model intended for use in the Navy as part of the "Aquila" program had been converted into a transport boat. Most of the departing submarines, however, were "long-distance submarines" of the large type IX D. One of these boats was U 852 , which left Kiel on January 18. Commander Heinz-Wilhelm Eck , who interpreted the so-called Laconia order , after a detailed discussion with the flotilla chief of the 5th U-Flotilla stationed there, to the effect that the survivors of a sinking had to be killed for the purpose of secrecy, abandoned the sinking of a Greek freighter Fire castaways. A few weeks later he set his boat, which had become unclear to diving due to combat damage, on the African coast and was taken prisoner with most of his crew. Only six of the monsoon boats of the "Second Wave" reached their destination; all the others were captured and sunk by Allied anti-submarine units.

End of the monsoons group

The sixteen submarines of the "Second Wave" and the eight returning monsoon boats sank a total of 33 ships with 191,860 GRT. In the course of the ventures, eleven submarines were sunk and two tankers, the Charlotte Schliemann and the Brake , which were indispensable for the use of German submarines in East Asian waters, were lost. Other boats had to break off their journey. In total, only eight of the 24 submarines reached their destination by the end of the war: six of them Penang and two made it to France. These two, U 178 and U 188, brought a total of around 300 t of tin, molybdenum, tungsten, rubber, quinine and opium with them to Europe. Four other transport submarines did not arrive until after the end of the war.

Sinkings

Sunk ships

All sunk ships from monsoon submarines to and from the march, as well as in the operational area.

date	Ship name	flag	GRT	Submarine	dead	Cargo and passengers	position
June 1, 1943	Salabangka	Netherlands	6,586	U 178	10		location
June 27, 1943	Sebastian Cermeno	United States	7,194	U 511	5		location
4th July 1943	Breiviken	Norway	2,669	U 178	3		location
4th July 1943	Michael Livanos	Greece	4,774	U 178	2		location
July 11, 1943	Mary Livanos	Greece	4,771	U 178	8th		location
July 17, 1943	City of Canton	United Kingdom	6,692	U 178	8th		location
September 19, 1943	Fort Longueuil	United Kingdom	7.128	U 532	57		location
September 21, 1943	Cornelia P. Spencer	United States	7.176	U 188	2		location
October 1, 1943	Tashina	United Kingdom	7,267	U 532	0		location
October 2, 1943	Haiching	United Kingdom	2,183	U 168	12		location
December 27, 1943	José Navarro	United States	7,244	U 178	0		location
January 20, 1944	Fort Buckingham	United Kingdom	7.122	U 188	38		location
January 25, 1944	Fort la Maure	United Kingdom	7.130	U 188			location
January 26, 1944	Samouri	United Kingdom		U 188	0		location
January 26, 1944	Surada	United Kingdom		U 188	0		location
January 29, 1944	Olga E. Embincos	Greece	4,677	U 188	20th		location
February 4, 1944	Chung Cheng	Taiwan	7.176	U 188	20th		location
February 9, 1944	Viva	Norway	3,798	U 188	0		location
February 29, 1944	Palma	United Kingdom		U 183	7th		location
March 13, 1944	Peleus	Greece	8,833	U 852	32		location
March 27, 1944	Tulagi	United Kingdom	2,281	U 532	47		location
April 1, 1944	Dahomian	United Kingdom	5,277	U 852	2		location
June 5, 1944	Helen Moller	United Kingdom		U 183	4th		location
July 25, 1944	Robin Goodfellow	United States	6,885	U 862	68	8602 tons of chrome	location
August 13, 1944	Radbury	United Kingdom	3,614	U 862	23	4,000-5,000 tons of coal	location
August 16, 1944	Empire Lancer	United Kingdom	7,037	U 862	42		location
August 18, 1944	Nairung	United Kingdom	5,414	U 862	92		location
August 19, 1944	Wayfarer	United Kingdom	5,068	U 862	51		location
December 24, 1944	Robert J. Walker	United States	7.180	U 862	2	ballast	location
February 6, 1945	Peter New Years Eve	United States	7.176	U 862	33	2700 t US Army equipment 317 mules 107 soldiers	location
March 10, 1945	Baron Jedburgh	United Kingdom	3,656	U 532	1		location
March 28, 1945	Oklahoma	United States	9,298	U 532	50		location

Sunk submarines

All sunk monsoon submarines marching there and back, as well as in the operational area.

date	Submarine	dead	position
June 24, 1943	U 200	68	location
July 12, 1943	U 506	48	location
July 15, 1943	U 509	54	location
October 16, 1943	U 533	52	location
November 5, 1943	U 848	63	location
November 25, 1943	U 849	63	location
May 3, 1944	U 852	7th	location
October 5, 1944	U 168	23	location
April 23, 1945	U 183	54	location

Web links

• Bernhard Zand: Downfall before the Orient . one day , December 18, 2009; accessed on June 15, 2014.

literature

• Jochen Brennecke: Sharks in Paradise. The German submarine war in Asia's waters 1943–1945 . Special edition. 3. Edition. Koehler, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-7822-0855-2 .

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 , pp. 475-479.
2. ↑ See e.g. B. HX convoys .
3. ^ ^{A b} Elmar B. Potter, Chester W. Nimitz : Seemacht. A history of naval warfare from antiquity to the present. License issue. Manfred Pawlak, Herrsching 1982, ISBN 3-88199-082-8 , p. 855.
4. ↑ U 533 had to break off the voyage shortly after leaving the port, returned to Lorient and ran out again on July 5th.
5. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , p. 455 ff.
6. ↑ Clay Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 , p. 427.
7. ↑ U 847 , which left Kiel on July 6 , broke off the approach after a collision with an iceberg in the Denmark Strait and was henceforth used as a supply boat.
8. ↑ The U-tanker U 462 originally planned for supplying it could not perform its supply tasks due to combat damage.
9. ^ Structure of the management of the submarines in the so-called "southern area".
10. ↑ https://books.google.de/books?id=NJZ7mImJkUYC&pg=PA74&lpg=PA74&dq=deutsche+u+boot+basen+indischer+ozean&source=bl&ots=0h3gjAuD6W&sig=PtACg0SaUwgBL41g1SBHVO26Hx4&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQ5eW_3ZfeAhWIM-wKHY44AUAQ6AEwDXoECAAQAQ#v=onepage&q = German% 20u% 20boot% 20basen% 20indischer% 20ozean & f = false
11. ^ ^{A b} Eberhard Rössler: History of the German submarine building. Volume 2. 2nd edition. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-86047-153-8 , p. 314 ff.
12. ↑ Clay Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 , p. 621.

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