U-boat refuelling

Discussions on all (non-biographical) aspects of the submarine forces of the Kriegsmarine.
Jon G.
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#16

Post by Jon G. » 14 May 2007, 08:30

Well, I confess near-total ignorance on these territories. But I do know that they weren't Canadian :)

I doubt if a German U-Boat tender ship would be able to hide away there for any amount of time - just as I doubt if these small islands would have diesel fuel by the barrel and G7 torpedoes as off-the-shelf items, to be peddled to the first submarine which happened to come by...

Andreas
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#17

Post by Andreas » 14 May 2007, 09:01

According to the Wiki article the islands declared for Vichy, but were seized by the Free French on 24 Dec. 1941 without combat. It also states that it could not even be proven that subs were getting radio support from the islands, so I highly doubt anyone is going to find proof for refuelling.

But let's not get absence of evidence in the way of an anti-French rant, shall we?

All the best

Andreas


JonS
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#18

Post by JonS » 14 May 2007, 09:30

C'mon Andreas, you know how it goes: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Or sumfink.

BTW, if you're interested in SP&M there is more here and here (#79)

Jon G.
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#19

Post by Jon G. » 15 May 2007, 11:16

German U-Boats did obtain limited use of port facilities at Dakar in May 1941. I don't know if any German subs docked in French West Africa prior to that. In return for this concession the Vichy government got permission to increase its forces in West Africa.

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kamehouse
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#20

Post by kamehouse » 15 May 2007, 20:12

Sorry I didn't reply earlier to all of you.I think the best would be for my friend to join and give more details about this canadian and irish refuelling enigma.Him being canadian I don't think he would be very proud of this so I believe he thinks it's true.
I'll see how it goes.
Best regards,
K

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#21

Post by Black Barney » 15 May 2007, 21:02

Hey all,

Yeah I'm Kamehouse's friend who was asking the original question. Him and I actively post on another thread dealing with WWII trivia and rumours of German u-boats refueling in Ireland and up the St-Lawrence river in Quebec have always fascinated me. Hatred of Imperial England back in the day knows no bounds!

Anyway, my uncle's neighbour in a former u-boat captain who told him stories of this actually happening (they were infrequent or isolated incidents). If ever I meet him, I'll interrogate him about it and hopefully I can come back here one day with perhaps his name and the designation of his U-boat as was requested by an earlier poster.

Very interesting subject matter to be sure.

JonS
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#22

Post by JonS » 16 May 2007, 00:29

Not exactly refuelling, but there is a persistent rumour that U 862 sent a small party ashore on a remote part of the NZ coast, and they took some cows milk back to the sub.

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kamehouse
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#23

Post by kamehouse » 16 May 2007, 16:27

Hey Barney,
nice to have you around.Hopefully you'll get in contact soon for more details.
Regards,
k

Jon G.
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#24

Post by Jon G. » 18 May 2007, 17:19

Black Barney wrote:Hey all,

Yeah I'm Kamehouse's friend who was asking the original question. Him and I actively post on another thread dealing with WWII trivia and rumours of German u-boats refueling in Ireland and up the St-Lawrence river in Quebec have always fascinated me. Hatred of Imperial England back in the day knows no bounds!...
That may be, but I remain sceptical of the chance of any U-Boats refuelling in Canada. Even if some Quebecois malcontents wanted to help the Germans, how would they go about circumventing Canadian officials, let alone establish contact with U-Boats and acquire torpedoes and fuel and so on?

Canada was in the war from the beginning - so any supply network would have to be in place pre-war; if the Abwehr's singularly pathetic efforts at establishing a spy network in Ireland is anything to go by, I doubt if it would have been inside the Germans' means to have the foresight to establish a covert U-Boat resupply site in Canada.

Welcome to the forum, by the way :) Perhaps you can provide a link to the other thread?
JonS wrote:Not exactly refuelling, but there is a persistent rumour that U-862 sent a small party ashore on a remote part of the NZ coast, and they took some cows milk back to the sub.
Heh, milk cow usually means something else in U-Boat terminology. The review is quite good - certainly a U-Boat trip out of the ordinary. There's a number of exotic (if not unknown) U-Boat resupply points mentioned in the review - Singapore, Batavia and Penang.

On a few occasions Japanese submarines visited German-held ports on the Atlantic coast:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=88580

EDIT, oh, here's a YouTube clip showing, amongst other things, a Japanese submarine visiting Lorient.

manofmyword
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Re: U-boat refuelling

#25

Post by manofmyword » 05 Dec 2010, 06:47

This is a duplicitous question guys, the poster or his "friend" is just trying to formulate a link on the internet for reference, to deceive browsers looking to discredit claims of such a collusion between NAZIs and IRA sympathisers during War with BRITAIN.I have researched this too and found no such occurrence.
The background to the posters deceit is down to anti Catholic Blogs pertaining to 2 Soccer teams in SCOTLAND, the predominantly Protestant supported ,GLASGOW RANGERS F.C., a team which you may know for RIOTING during a 2008 UEFA CUP FINAL IN MANCHESTER www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-11166917, and the predominantly Catholic, of Irish decent, supported GLASGOW CELTIC.
This has gone on for years and it would be very helpful if anyone on this site was able to provide information to fully refute this abhorrent allegation, not only for Irish families but for the name of Celtic fans too , thank you, in advance, for your co-operation and help on this matter

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Re: U-boat refuelling

#26

Post by David Thompson » 05 Dec 2010, 19:07

manofmyword -- :welcome: The topic is U-boat refuelling, not soccer game riots or anti-Irish sites. Please address the subject being discussed, rather than trying to change it to something else.

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Re: U-boat refuelling

#27

Post by manofmyword » 10 Dec 2010, 02:33

But David, the OP was intending to create a silly link by posting a comment or a link for browsers looking for an answer to a frequently flown lie, so if you wish this forum to be used for carrying petty lies and to be seen as the originator of such silliness, as it will make a mockery of every good and true post herein, then thats fine ,but im only trying to make you aware of some bigots trying to HIJACK a serious forum to prove mendacious and petty lies

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phylo_roadking
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Re: U-boat refuelling

#28

Post by phylo_roadking » 10 Dec 2010, 19:37

IIRC There's the best part of a chapter of Robert Fisk's In Time of War given over to the subject of uboats refuelling in Ireland.

1/ The RN mounted several covert operations arund the Irish coast within the Irish Three Mile Limit in 1940 and 1941; a "fishing boat" of the Royal Naval Patrol Service stooged at various times in places likely to attract uboats, or in areas where repute had them calling regularly....with an RN submarine very close by or in cable contact with the trawler. Absolutely nothing was ever found.

2/ The RN as part of this covert activity spent a lot of time themselves tying up in and and doing business with small fishing ports and harbours the length of the west coast of Ireland; in none of those communities - some of them barely able to sustain themselves - was there ANY sign of ANY contact with uboats. Not the slightest sign of any extra money, any German goods or even social contact of any form. Not a scrap of rope or a fragment of German newspaper....NOTHING.

3/ the Irish Coastwatching Service reported to London in parallel with Dublin IIRC.

4/ Remember the problems the Abwher had getting agents ashore/landed in Ireland....! :lol:

5/ if there WAS any contact with uboats - it didn't happen in harbours; there may have been locals prepared to rendezvous at sea with fresh water etc....but you have to realise that in WWII the west coast of Ireland was almost THE poorest place in Western Europe; the KM submariners, in their pigboats, had FAR better lives than the locals! The local fishing communities had absolutely nothing they could spare for them...

Think of the West Coast fishing village community portrayed in "Ryan's Daughter"....THEN add twenty+ years of absolutely NO social or financial investment at all in the area....THEN add the effects of the British embargo on imports to Ireland starting in 1941! The poverty in these fishing communites was heartbreaking - and people expect communities dying on their feet like that to be able to resupply and refuel submarines??? 8O
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lebel
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Re: U-boat refuelling

#29

Post by lebel » 11 Dec 2010, 00:13

I heard of the mayor of a little island of french antillas , who did active business with germans , supplying goods and refueling U Boats

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phylo_roadking
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Re: U-boat refuelling

#30

Post by phylo_roadking » 11 Dec 2010, 00:29

Uboats could certainly call in Neutral ports....IF they wanted to risk being observed by any one of tens of thousands of eyes LOL In one case, a German submarine docked somewhere in Central America - can't remember where offhand - to send its 2-i-c to hospital. He had been seriously injured in an attempt to shell Aruba when the uboat's deck gun was fired without the tompion being removed!
Twenty years ago we had Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Steve Jobs. Now we have no Cash, no Hope and no Jobs....
Lord, please keep Kevin Bacon alive...

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