trajan Posted 6 August , 2020 Share Posted 6 August , 2020 I can't find any other report on this posted on GWF so thought I'd post it: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/ww1-german-submarine-uc47-navy-flamborough-head-yorkshire-north-sea-archaeology-history-a9655336.html Great sonar imagery of this relic and war grave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falloden Posted 6 August , 2020 Share Posted 6 August , 2020 An interesting story. Thanks for posting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talesofaseadog Posted 6 August , 2020 Share Posted 6 August , 2020 An interesting story especially as they have a picture of UC-44 that I have not seen before. I am interested in this because I have written a book which features UC-44 and the recovery of many documents from it. This is the link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1070501239 Maybe they will find something in the German archives but I wonder if our secret service in Room 40 under the guidance of Blinker Hall were trying to confuse the Germans with the depth charge ploy, they got all the documents they needed from UC-44, just an idea. I live near Southampton and will try to get in touch. Sonar was my speciality in the RN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajan Posted 8 August , 2020 Author Share Posted 8 August , 2020 Yes, certainly interesting! Submarines are not my thing, but I knew nothing about the UC 44 before. Thanks for the link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talesofaseadog Posted 8 August , 2020 Share Posted 8 August , 2020 I have managed to contact the archaeologist mentioned in the article at Southampton university, he is going to investigate my information which is good. Good job the article was posted. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falloden Posted 8 August , 2020 Share Posted 8 August , 2020 (edited) Another interesting development with the link to the story of UC 44. Was there any useful intelligence or documents recovered from U48 after she was stranded and abandoned on the Goodwin Sands in late 1917 ? Edited 8 August , 2020 by Falloden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talesofaseadog Posted 8 August , 2020 Share Posted 8 August , 2020 24 minutes ago, Falloden said: Another interesting development with the link to the story of UC 44. Was there any useful intelligence or documents recovered from U48 after she was stranded and abandoned on the Goodwin Sands in late 1917 ? The problem with a U-boat being abandoned like that was that the crew would destroy all the important documentation. This was done either by sinking it with weights at sea or they would use an incendiary device that they carried which allowed them to sprinkle burning fuel over the documents. There is one of these in the IWM from UC-44. As regards U48 itself I don't have any information about any documents. Certainly she would be inspected though to see if there is any intelligence to be gathered about her equipment. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Lowrey Posted 8 August , 2020 Share Posted 8 August , 2020 Per the German official history, the documents the Germans believed the Royal Navy had recovered from UC 47 were maps showing where the U-boat had laid maps off Guernsey on July 16, 1917 and off Cherbourg on September 24, 1917. Those would be significant intelligence gains, but nowhere near as important as what was recovered from UC 44. Also, obviously, those mine maps aren't documents that UC 44 would have been carrying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talesofaseadog Posted 8 August , 2020 Share Posted 8 August , 2020 6 minutes ago, Michael Lowrey said: Per the German official history, the documents the Germans believed the Royal Navy had recovered from UC 47 were maps showing where the U-boat had laid maps off Guernsey on July 16, 1917 and off Cherbourg on September 24, 1917. Those would be significant intelligence gains, but nowhere near as important as what was recovered from UC 44. Also, obviously, those mine maps aren't documents that UC 44 would have been carrying. That's very interesting and I will pass the info on to Southampton University. No doubt each vessel had its own log, as did UC-44, and that is the information that the German's thought we had recovered. By the time of her sinking we were decoding all of their signal traffic and Room 40 would want the German's to think that was where the information came from. Maybe we did recover the info by depth charging or maybe this was just a cover story, I doubt we will ever really know the full truth but excellent information, thank you. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Lowrey Posted 8 August , 2020 Share Posted 8 August , 2020 Not sure I buy a Room 40 link. The RN was decoding signals, but that only helps if there are signals to decode. Flanders-based U-boats didn't radio very much if at all, which is why the RN had trouble tracking those boats and why their attribution for those losses was often wrong. What is clear — and quite strange — is that the RN was not immediately aware of the identity of the U-boat P 57 had sunk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talesofaseadog Posted 8 August , 2020 Share Posted 8 August , 2020 If we did not know which U-boat P 57 had sunk then it is likely that there was no radio traffic. I agree that the Flanders based U-boats transmitted considerably less than the others. German historians according to the article believe that divers got the information and there was a team doing such work but the depth was too great for even these experienced men. What I have yet to see is any evidence that P 57 recovered any documents, only evidence that they tried. The plot thickens. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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