Hello to all

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2. U-Flotille “Saltzwedel”.
The first round of the Battle of the Atlantic - War with Great Britain and France.
On September 19, 1939 the U 30 arrived in Reykjavik and disembarked the wounded man and the British pilots, as replacement came aboard an officer of a German merchant ship anchored in the port.
The crisis of the torpedoes and the end of the U-27.
Background.
On that very day, the U 27 began her journey back to the homeland, she had been in her patrol area much longer than expected (scheduled sailing back on 15 September). Shortly before midnight the crew on duty in the U 27's conning tower saw shadows silhouetted against the horizon which appeared to be hostile cruisers. The commander decided to attack with three torpedoes armed with magnetic fuzes graduated between 12 and 15 feet. The Commander did not know it but actually he attacked a force of seven destroyers.
Development of the drama.................
In launching the torpedoes, two exploded prematurely about 30 seconds after leaving the tubes and the third missed the target. The destroyer HMS "Fortune" heard the explosions, detected the submarine and went on the attack. Kplt Franz now correctly identified the enemy and quickly went to dive. The attack of HMS "Fortune" was vague and threw five depth charges; in a second pass the destroyer launched five other charges graduated between 30 and 45 meters.
This time the charges exploded near the U 27 causing serious damage and the curvature of the propeller shaft. However outbursts caused the echo was lost and began an arduous search. While the U 27 at a depth of 120 meters was silent and tried to track down the attackers through her hydrophones. At 1:27 hours on September 20, 1939, the HMS "Forester" carried out a charge attack on a contact but without effects. At 2:12 hours the HMS "Fortune" regained contact and launched another series of charges between 30 and 75 meters which caused further damage to the submersible.
The end of the drama .................
After assessing the damage the commander decided to emerge and escape in the surface under cover of the darkness. But the HMS "Fortune" was able to detect the U 27 and opened fire with her artillery. Franz, two officers and 16 crew members jumped overboard whereupon the HMS "Fortune" ceased fire and tried to capture the boat but failed. A British prey crew reached the U 27 but failed to penetrate into her due to gases. The U 27 sank slowly at 03:50 hours in position 58 ° 35'N - 09 ° 02'W after spending 26 days at sea. The 38 members of the crew were rescued.
Sources:
http://ktb.ubootwaffe.net/
Fotoalbum-U-Boot-Atlantikboot-Feindfahrten-FrontbootTop bei eBay_de 1918-1945 (endet 14_02_10 200556 MEZ)
http://www.uboatarchive.net/BDUKTB.htm
U-BOAT U-27 ~ 14 RARE ORIGINAL PHOTOS.
http://users.fbihome.de/~mhofmann/uboot ... title=U_27 (offline).
Cheers. Raúl M

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