The attack by U-47 on Scapa Flow is well known but I’d maintain there is a big difference in navigating narrows between block-ships and navigating one-hundred kilometres up a river (unless I seriously underestimated the size of the Churchill River)…
[COLOR=”Blue”]I completely agree – it’s highly unlikely to be a U-boat, but not entirely impossible.
The sidescan image is useless without some sort of scale – I’m not even sure which part they think is the sub!
Unlike the image of the U-550 off Massachusetts, which is obviously a sub, and like many sonar images I’ve seen, shows the pressure hull and what’s left of the conning tower quite clearly…
The attack by U-47 on Scapa Flow is well known but I’d maintain there is a big difference in navigating narrows between block-ships and navigating one-hundred kilometres up a river (unless I seriously underestimated the size of the Churchill River)…
[COLOR=”Blue”]I completely agree – it’s highly unlikely to be a U-boat, but not entirely impossible.
The sidescan image is useless without some sort of scale – I’m not even sure which part they think is the sub!
Unlike the image of the U-550 off Massachusetts, which is obviously a sub, and like many sonar images I’ve seen, shows the pressure hull and what’s left of the conning tower quite clearly…
It seems a long way from operating range, but maybe a XXIII?
Also could be other types but the wreck has a bow or stern section missing.
Operation Paukenschlag against the US coastline featured mainly type IX boats, but there were a few type VII too. It usually took around 2 weeks to get across the Atlantic, but so long as they were supported by the type XIV Milchkuh refuelling/replenishing subs they could stay out around 10 weeks in the case of the type IX, easily enough to patrol off Canada.
The type XXIII was just a small coastal electro boat, and could only carry 2 torpedoes.
Only a single type XXI (a large ocean-going electro boat) saw action at the end of WW2 in the European theatre.
…Submarines are essentially clandestine vessels; deliberately sailing one into such confined waters would seem very unlikely…
Gunter Prien took his U-47 (an ocean-going type VII) into Scapa Flow to sink the Royal Oak through what is little more than a shallow river. It’s amazing to stand on the bridge (built after his attack), look down at the shallows, and wonder just how he managed it. Even Churchill was impressed!
There were a few block ships present which he had to navigate in the sound to gain access to Scapa Flow, but these other ships were added after the event, and you can just see the present-day bridge being started, incidentally built by Italian POWs…
It seems a long way from operating range, but maybe a XXIII?
Also could be other types but the wreck has a bow or stern section missing.
Operation Paukenschlag against the US coastline featured mainly type IX boats, but there were a few type VII too. It usually took around 2 weeks to get across the Atlantic, but so long as they were supported by the type XIV Milchkuh refuelling/replenishing subs they could stay out around 10 weeks in the case of the type IX, easily enough to patrol off Canada.
The type XXIII was just a small coastal electro boat, and could only carry 2 torpedoes.
Only a single type XXI (a large ocean-going electro boat) saw action at the end of WW2 in the European theatre.
…Submarines are essentially clandestine vessels; deliberately sailing one into such confined waters would seem very unlikely…
Gunter Prien took his U-47 (an ocean-going type VII) into Scapa Flow to sink the Royal Oak through what is little more than a shallow river. It’s amazing to stand on the bridge (built after his attack), look down at the shallows, and wonder just how he managed it. Even Churchill was impressed!
There were a few block ships present which he had to navigate in the sound to gain access to Scapa Flow, but these other ships were added after the event, and you can just see the present-day bridge being started, incidentally built by Italian POWs…
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