Two-Masted Schooner as a Q-Ship

[Edward L. Hsiao]

From the Marinearchiv source. I just learned that the German Naval Special Force Ops had planned to use a two masted schooner equipped with remote-controlled 'Linses' explosive boats as a Q-ship against Soviet submarines that were operated on the Baltic Sea near the Kurland area. The schooner was camouflaged as a Swedish sailing vessel. I think the name of the operation was "Capricorn". It was supposed to take place a few weeks before WWII ended for Germany in 1945. Unfortunately the KTB log doesn't have any information of the results of the operation. I think there were a couple of more German sailing vessels that were made into Q-ships with weapons by the German Naval Special Force Ops that I don't know about. How many Q-ships were made in total was unknown. Could anyone provide more information about the Q-ship sailing vessels that were operated by the Germans? The names of the Q-ship vessels were unknown.

Sincerely,


Edward L. Hsiao

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Edward,

You seem to be fishing for information speculatively without offering anything.

Can you give us some idea as to where you got this apparent information?

Cheers,

Sid.

[Edward L. Hsiao]

I'm not speculating any thing for this topic at all! I was at the Marinearchiv.com forum that is German but I used a translator so it can be English. I had came across that topic while at the Marinearchiv.com forum about the Two-Masted Schooner that was disguised as a Swedish sailing vessel and used as Q-ship to destroy Soviet submarines. No results were available. I'm trying to follow rules of this forum of obtaining a source for a particular subject!


Edward L. Hsiao

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Edward,

Thanks for clearing that up.

I presume the Marinearchiv.com forum had no more?

Do you know about the ex-French fishing boat that successfully made two round trips to South America to drop German agents?

Cheers,

Sid.

[Darius333]

Hi highly posting friends,

here´s the topic:
https://www.forum-marinearchiv.de/smf/i ... #msg349981

Regards

Darius

[Edward L. Hsiao]

I know that the Kriegsmarine had a few Q-ships during WWII. Very little information about their cruises,their fates,and their successes. Maybe they did sank a few submarines of the Royal Navy during WWII. It was unknown if the Q-ships sank any Soviet submarines in the Baltic Sea area.

Edward L. Hsiao

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Edward,

Again you are casting bread upon the waters in search of a bite without actually offering anything to go on.

It would add to the sum of knowledge here if you would tell us what little you do already know of these German Q-Ships to which you refer. Then we have something to work with.

Why do you think they may have sunk a few British submarines? Which ones are you proposing?

Likewise, is there any evidence of which you are aware that German Q-ships may have sunk any Soviet submarines? Who says it is unknown if there were such successes? Or is it simply that you yourself don't know, which is a different matter?

Cheers,

Sid.

[Felix C]

One did have success. Schiff 40 sank HMS Tarpon

[PT Dockyard]

The Germans operated schooners as Q-ships in the Aegean. One, UJ-2141 Tassia Christa, engaged a couple British subs and fought partisans. She had an 88mm, 37,mm and four 20mm along with depth charges and detection gear.

Here story is here. There is a picture in the "fotos" tab where you can see the 37mm, one of the 20mm and the top of the hidden 88mm.

https://www.historisches-marinearchiv.d ... _value=556

Dave G
The PT Dockyard

[Xavier]

I think I have saved several pics of it...or something like it

[Xavier]

will upload the rest later, definitively its a masted schooner, and had some surface gunfire action..

[Xavier]

here we can see a 88mm gun removed from a u-boat, with some damage

[Edward L. Hsiao]

I am definitely looking forward to see more pictures of German Q-ships during WWII. Thank you for your response today.

Edward L. Hsiao

[Edward L. Hsiao]

I wonder how many Q-ships (ASW) did the Kriegsmarine had during all of WWII? Converted freighters,converted trawlers,converted sailing ships,and maybe a couple of converted oil tankers. The US Navy didn't have any success in their Q-ships (ASW) during WWII.


Edward L. Hsiao

[PT Dockyard]

Here is a list but in include Auxiliary Cruiser.

http://www.navypedia.org/ships/germany/ger_conc_ssv.htm

I have a few pictures of Schiffe 19 Rila ( later UJ117) on the Black Sea. I will see if I can get them somewhere to share a link as the original source is a dead link.

Dave