U-boats sunk by RAF

hasn’t Norman Franks written a book about this unfortuately not in my collection

Try over at

www.uboat.net

I think there is a separate section for boats sunk by aircraft. Also a highly-searchable database, can search by a/c type IIRC.

Yes I was going to say uboat.net but also for a ‘quick’ answer try this one – they reckon 212 boats sunk…although its never usually as simple as that 😀

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=20&ved=0CCgQFjAJOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.absoluteastronomy.com%2Ftopics%2FRAF_Coastal_Command&rct=j&q=raf+coastal+command&ei=MjpKS9GdH4WI0wTq7ajwAQ&usg=AFQjCNFvOxnUeJCqOOaOFXBQnRw-nO4RXg

In 1941 U570 was captured by an RAF Hudson based in Iceland dropping a perfect pattern of depth charges.
U570 was recovered and went to sea as HMS Graph for a few years

QI bit…
Hms Graph was wrecked on the North West coast of Islay.

My Dads lot (36sqn) dropped one on U616, combined effort though by all accounts.

http://www.uboat.net/boats/u616.htm

Does anyone know if there is a list of u-boats sunk by Coastal command which would include details on the aircraft and crew involved?

As suggested the book by Norman Franks is the excellent ‘Search, Find and Kill’ which list every U-boat sunk by aircraft under RAF command together with aircraft, squadron and crew details.

I have a copy if there is any particular incident that you are interested in.

I remember having a conversation with an elderly customer at work a few years ago – he had brought his caterpillar club badge in to show me and we got talking – seems towards the end of the war he was on Lancasters and they were assigned to try to stop several U-boats leaving their base in Norway? by bombing it. However, it seems that the Germans got wind that they were on their way and two of the boats attempted to put to sea and were spotted trying to make their way out of the fjord on the surface. His aircraft was assigned to break away from the main force and to try to bomb one of them – an almost impossible task he admitted and sure enough it got away, though he reckoned they got a couple pretty near to it. It all sounded reasonably feasible and then he showed me a recent invitation he had received from a German U-boat veterans association – it seems that a couple of years before, they had tracked him down and invited him to their annual dinner as guest of honour to thank him for missing them! I admit I have never researched this incident, but the chap was definitely wartime aircrew and certainly had nothing to gain from the story and it was all told in the self-effacing manner typical of the many veterans I have spoken to….

Also there is U boat Vs Aircraft by Norman Franks and Eric Zimmerman. This book is U boat claims against aircraft.

Thanks guys – very helpful as always. I’ve ordered Norman Franks’ book from amazon and had a look at u-boat net as well – looks like all the info is there but takes a little while to trawl through it….

Thanks very much

Good story also Nick! Wonder what the ORB says?

That’ll be the name of the pub then. Well done for filling in a lost afternoon!

HMS Graph might be the U-boat that was under tow in bad weather and sank off Islay. Went there on a scuba diving holiday in 1990 but the weather was too rough for a dive. Went to the pub instead, where some small parts, valve control wheels etc. were displayed. Can’t remember the name of the pub though. That seems to happen occasionaly.

Indeed HMS Graph was on the way to the scrapyard. a couple of local divers did very well by salvaging large amounts of scrap battery parts. It ran aground very close to the site of a Highball Mosquito crash location.

Type VII U-570/HMS Graph ran aground at Caul Point on Islay. At one time, if memory serves me right, it was owned by Tim Epps of the Port Charlotte Hotel, but the U-boat was partially salvaged of its phosphour-bronze torpedo tubes by thieves. The wire hawsers used to haul the tubes ashore used to be prominent on the beach, but I’m not sure how much of the boat is still extant.
Some good photos and news stories here…
http://www.oca.269squadron.btinternet.co.uk/photo_gallery/u-570/U-570.htm

Anybody see last weeks QI, there was a story of a U-boat caused to come to the surface when an overflowing toilet reacted with the batteries, filling it with Clorine gas.
The U-boat was then sunk by an aircraft.
Its a great program, for all the jokes there is usually hard facts behind them. They did mention names and the number but I can not remember.
Anybody know this story.

U-461

One interesting aspect of the U Boat war was that U-461 was sunk on 30 July 1943 in the Bay of Biscay by Australian Sunderland ‘U’ of 461 Squadron (U/461) !!

Try over at

www.uboat.net

I think there is a separate section for boats sunk by aircraft. Also a highly-searchable database, can search by a/c type IIRC.

this^^^^^
great website!

Indeed HMS Graph was on the way to the scrapyard. a couple of local divers did very well by salvaging large amounts of scrap battery parts. It ran aground very close to the site of a Highball Mosquito crash location.

HMS Graph

HMS Graph might be the U-boat that was under tow in bad weather and sank off Islay. Went there on a scuba diving holiday in 1990 but the weather was too rough for a dive. Went to the pub instead, where some small parts, valve control wheels etc. were displayed. Can’t remember the name of the pub though. That seems to happen occasionaly.