Thistlegorm
 At the stern of the Thistlegorm
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The Thistlegorm was a British cargo ship that was sunk by a German Air Force bomber on October 6, 1941 during World War II in the northern Red Sea near the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula and is now a popular diving spot about 40 km west of Sharm El Sheikh is.
History of the ship
The 126 m long British freighter Thistlegorm ran in Sunderland (Northern England) in April 1940 at the shipyard Joseph L. Thompson & Sons Ltd. launched for the Albyn Line shipping company . The ship's name means 'blue thistle' ( English thistle 'thistle', Irish gorm 'blue').
As a ship built during the war, it was protected by an anti-aircraft cannon and another cannon at the stern and several machine guns . On her fourth and last voyage, the Thistlegorm left Glasgow in Scotland in August 1941 . On board was a load of weapons, ammunition and equipment, including grenades of various calibres , mines , tanks , trucks , motorcycles , two locomotives, and several railroad cars . The material was intended for the British 8th Army , which was preparing a major offensive ( Operation Crusader ) against the German Africa Corps under Erwin Rommel . Due to the endangerment from German and Italian submarines and aircraft , the Thistlegorm took the longer but safer route around Africa . On September 24th, she was assigned to a convoy of 20 ships in Aden ( Yemen ) under the protection of the cruiser HMS Carlisle and sailed north through the Red Sea . Since the passage through the Suez Canal with a wreck had blocked the convoy had at anchorage ( "Safe Anchorage F") east of the southern tip of the Sinai lying riffs wait Sha'ab Ali on the release of the route.
After waiting for ten days, the convoy was discovered on the night of October 6, 1941 by a German Heinkel He 111 bomber of Group II of Kampfgeschwader 26 . Together with a second He 111, the machine, equipped with two special bombs for anti-ship combat and launched in Crete , was supposed to sink the passenger ship Queen Mary, which was used as a troop transport , but did not find it. The crew recognized the Thistlegorm as a worthwhile target and attacked it at low altitude . One or both bombs hit the ship in the rear part at the level of the fourth hold. The hit detonated part of the ammunition load and probably also the pressurized steam boiler in the engine room . A series of detonations broke off the stern and the ship sank within a few minutes. Nine crew members died in the sinking and the 30 survivors were rescued by the other ships in the convoy. The plane that sank the Thistlegorm was shot down, the bomber crew was captured by Australia and survived the war there.
The wreck
In 1956 the wreck of the Thistlegorm was discovered by the French diving pioneer Jacques-Yves Cousteau during an expedition with the Calypso . On this occasion, Cousteau's people recovered the captain's safe , but it only contained rotten ship's papers. However, since the position of the ship was not published, the wreck was forgotten and was only found again in 1991 by a group of German recreational divers after a systematic search. Since then it has been the most popular wreck in the Red Sea.
The main part of the ship lies on a level keel at a depth of 30 m on a sandy bottom, the command bridge rises up to 17 m. The front part in particular is well preserved; the railway wagons loaded as deck cargo are still in their original locations. In the two front cargo holds, which are easy to reach through the open hatches, are among other things. a. to find numerous motorbikes and trucks , some of which have been damaged by souvenir hunters . Other prominent points of the wreck are the bow with the anchor winch and the relatively intact navigation bridge, the roof of which, however, is missing.
The stern is blasted off and lies on the ground at an incline of about 45 degrees. It is badly damaged by the bomb hit and the subsequent explosions, but still carries the anti-aircraft gun and another gun with a protective shield . In the debris field between the two parts of the ship lie remains of Bedford trucks, small chain-driven armored personnel carriers of the type Bren Gun Carrier (also known as Universal Carrier ) and grenades of all sizes. Nearby is a damaged steam locomotive on the seabed. Like the wagons, it was part of the deck cargo and was thrown away from the ship by the explosions.
The coral growth on the wreck has suffered a lot from diving tourism, but is still worth seeing, especially on the less intensely dived stern section. The same applies to the abundance of fish . Overall, the Thistlegorm is an impressive biotope with numerous different species.
Although the wreck is basically easy to dive, a dive is not entirely without risks due to the depth and the sometimes strong currents . Dangers, especially for inexperienced divers, come from a deeper penetration into the wreck, as it is very large and there is a risk of getting lost. There is a risk of getting caught in the sometimes narrow spaces between the cargo and the ceiling. The swirling up of sediment in the event of a taring error can very quickly deteriorate visibility. In the long term, the railway wagons on the deck of the wreck, under whose weight the wreck has already sagged, are likely to pose a considerable risk. In view of the progressive corrosion , it must be expected that the deck parts exposed to such loads will collapse one day. In addition, some of the ammunition and explosives have not exploded and are also decomposing. As with other wrecks, it is therefore strictly forbidden to take objects with you. Allegedly there have already been a number of fatal accidents on the Thistlegorm , but official figures are not available.
According to an estimate by the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA) in 2007, there are around 96,000 dives to the wreck every year. In November and December 2007, the HEPCA therefore had a system of anchor lines installed as part of a “Saving the Red Sea Wrecks” campaign in order to prevent further damage from anchoring or tying anchor lines directly to the wreck. The lines are anchored approximately 5 m from the wreck. In addition, holes were drilled into the fuselage at selected points to allow the divers exhaled air to escape and thus prevent accelerated rusting.
The coordinates are 27 ° 48 '51 " N , 33 ° 55' 12" O . On the aerial photos you can see some boats of diving groups anchored at the wreck.
See also
literature
- Claus-Peter Stoll: Wreck diving in the Red Sea, Volume 1: SS Thistlegorm . Königswinter 2004, ISBN 3-89880-356-2 .
- Claus-Peter Stoll, Udo Kefrig, Christian Mietz: Wreck diving. The most beautiful wrecks in the Red Sea . Augsburg 1999, pp. 60-75.
- Andrea Ghisotti, Vincenzo Paolillo, Roberto Rinaldi, Kurt Amsler, Massimo Bicciato: Wrecks in the Red Sea. Dive guide . Luxor 1996, pp. 28-45.
Web links
- Website for the Thistlegorm
- Nullzeit.at: Thistlegorm
- Thistlegorm photo gallery
- Description and photos of the wreck
- Diving on the “Thistlegorm”: rush hour on the wreck , article by Linus Geschke in Spiegel Online , July 7, 2009
Footnotes
- ↑ Florian Stark: Victim of a German bomber becomes a diving paradise . In: welt.de , January 17, 2014, accessed on January 24, 2019.
- ^ Difficult beauty in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung from August 12, 2012, p. V5.