Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Day 564 March 17, 1941

Overnight 250 miles Southeast of Iceland, U-99 & U-100 attack convoy HX-112. U-99 sinks 2 freighters & 3 tankers and damages another tanker but then withdraws, out of torpedoes. At 3.18 AM, U-100 is depth charged by destroyers HMS Walker & HMS Vanoc and then rammed and sunk by HMS Vanoc (38 dead including U-boat ace Kapitänleutnant Joachim Schepke). At 3.43 AM, HMS Walker drops 6 depth charges on U-99 which surfaces and the crew abandons ship (3 dead). 6 crewmen from U-100 and 40 from U-99, including Korvettenkapitän Otto Kretschmer (WWII’s top U-boat ace), are rescued by HMS Walker & HMS Vanoc and go into captivity.

In mid-Atlantic 1150 miles Southwest of Cape Verde Islands, German armed merchant cruiser Kormoran and U-124 meet cruiser Admiral Scheer. U-124 sends replacement quartz for the radar to Admiral Scheer but again the sea is too rough to transfer torpedoes from Kormoran to U-124.

Operation Canvas. 11th African Division captures Jijiga, Eastern Ethiopia, unopposed. They have covered 500 miles in 15 days from Mogadishu, Italian Somaliland, mainly along the Italian-built "Imperial Road".

U-106 has stalked convoy SL-68 for 2 days. At 9.07 PM 250 miles West of Dakar, Senegal, U-106 sinks British SS Andalusian (40 crew and 2 gunners reach Boa Vista, Cape Verde) and Dutch SS Tapanoeli (all 75 crew survive). U-106 & U-105 will prey on this convoy for the next 4 days.

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