The Destruction of U971 by HMCS Haida and HMS Eskimo, 24 June 1944
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Canadian Military History Volume 10 Issue 3 Article 2 2001 “One More for Luck”: The Destruction of U971 by HMCS Haida and HMS Eskimo, 24 June 1944 Barry M. Gough Wilfrid Laurier University James A. Woods University of New Brunswick Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Gough, Barry M. and Woods, James A. "“One More for Luck”: The Destruction of U971 by HMCS Haida and HMS Eskimo, 24 June 1944." Canadian Military History 10, 3 (2001) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Gough and Woods: “One More for Luck”: The Destruction of U971 by HMCS Haida and HM ''One More for Luck'' The Destruction of U971 by HMCS Haida and HMS Eskimo, 24June 1944 Barry M. Gough and James A. Wood n the evening of 23 June 1944, HMCS Haida fitted with schnorkel equipment. in a desperate, Oand HMS Eskimo set out from Plymouth, last-ditch effort to disrupt invasion convoys. operational base of the lOth Destroyer Flotilla U971 was such a boat, and earlier in June this (lOth DF), to conduct a sweep of the Western VII-C class submarine, under the command of Approaches to the English Channel. Their role Oberleutnant zur See Walter Zeplien, had was to assist in securing these waters for the received orders to proceed from Norway to the ongoing delivery of supplies and reinforcements English Channel. It was to be U971 's first and to the Normandy bridgehead. Across the last operational mission. Plagued for the entire Channel to the southeast, American, British and journey by Allied aircraft and equipment failures, Canadian forces were now in their third week of by 24 June the beleaguered U-boat was fast fighting across the fields and hedgerows of approaching a fatal encounter with Haida and Normandy. Operation OVERLORD had been the Eskimo. That evening, the survivors of U971 largest amphibious invasion in history and, would find themselves being taken aboard the dependent as it was on the unimpeded use of Allied destroyers as prisoners of war after a the sea, required an intensive concentration of somewhat exceptional encounter: "It was rare air and naval forces to protect Allied supply for Tribals to kill U-boats. Usually it was the convoys. This naval counterpart of OVERLORD other way around." 1 was Operation NEPTUNE, and it was as part of this massive undertaking that Haida and The lOth Destroyer Flotilla Eskimo now steamed out of Plymouth. MCS Haida and HMS Eskimo were Tribal Next morning found the two Tribal-class H class destroyers: technologically some of the destroyers patrolling calm waters north of most advanced naval architecture, marine Ushant. Commander Harry DeWolf, RCN, propulsion systems and weaponry of their time. onboard Haida, a decorated veteran of several They were fast and heavily-gunned, veritable hard-fought actions in the English Channel, was pocket cruisers designed to participate in major Senior Officer of the force, while HMS Eskimo fleet engagements. Commissioned on 30 August sailed under the capable direction of 1943, Haidajoined the Home Fleet destroyers Lieutenant-CommanderE.N. Sinclair, RN. Since based at Scapa Flow in September to prepare February, the lOth DF had been engaged in a for her first operational assignment: protecting running battle with German destroyers and the Arctic convoys carrying urgently-needed torpedo boats, fighting for control of the narrow supplies to the Soviet Union. Convoy operations sea dividing Britain from Europe. Now, faced in these far northern dark, cold, stormy waters with the vastly superior forces of Operation were major fleet exercises, under constant threat NEPTUNE, Germany had turned to its U-boat of attack from German air and naval units based fleet, and more specifically those boats recently in Norway. This was work Haida was designed ©Canadian Military History, Volume 10, Number 3, Summer 2001, pp.7-22. 7 Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2001 1 Canadian Military History, Vol. 10 [2001], Iss. 3, Art. 2 Three Tribals (Haida at right) and HMS Black Prince (second from left) manoeuvre at high speed March 1944. Together, Tribals of the 1Oth DF and the cruiser Black Prince formed Force 26. for, and she won a battle honour for her part in The naval forces gathered under Plymouth the operations which witnessed the sinking of Command served as guardians of the Western the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst at the Approaches to the English Channel. In the first end of December 1943. Haida was then half of 1944, these hotly contested waters were reassigned to Plymouth Command in January the scene of countless nocturnal skirmishes 1944 to prowl the English Channel. between Allied naval forces, including the lOth DF, and surface vessels of the German Haida's sister Tribal HMS Eskimo had a Kriegsmarine operating out of French ports. At more storied wartime career. Built in 1937, she the same time, the great invasion to open a front saw action from the earliest days of the war, in northwest Europe was scheduled for the scoring her first kill on 17 October 1939 by spring of 1944. "When planning the Normandy shooting down a German aircraft. She went on invasion," remarks Michael Whitby, a noted to spend the first winter of the war on convoy authority on the lOth DF, "Allied naval escort duties, and she later played a role in the commanders recognized that although highly successful Second Battle ofNarvik on 13 Kriegsmarine surface forces represented only a April 1940. Here, Eskimo took part in the limited threat to the beachhead, powerful complete destruction of an eight-ship German destroyers based in Bay of Biscay ports could destroyer flotilla, though in exchange she wreak havoc on vulnerable build-up convoys sustained severe torpedo damage to her bow. crossing the Channel. "2 To meet this danger, After repairs were completed, the veteran Tribal Plymouth Command gathered the toughest was redeployed to escort duties with the Home destroyers they could find, among them all the Fleet and later went on to help screen the Allied Tribals in Canadian service. landings in North Africa and Sicily. Struck by fire from a German dive-bomber in this last During the spring of 1944 the lOth DF operation, Eskimo returned to England for prowled the night waters of the Channel, repairs and subsequently joined the 1Oth DF on harrying German shipping and seeking battle 26 May 1944. with enemy surface forces in offensive sweeps, 8 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol10/iss3/2 2 Gough and Woods: “One More for Luck”: The Destruction of U971 by HMCS Haida and HM Haida and Athabaskan conducting high speed tactical exercises in the English Channel. The 1Oth DF sank 35 surface ships, a submarine, and damaged 14 ships at the cost of losing Athabaskan on 29 April1944 and covering Allied minelaying operations along The First Patrol of U971 the French coast.3 In both cases, explains Whitby, "the 'main objective' was to search out and ~ough commissioned over a year earlier on destroy the enemy. The captains of the flotilla ~ 1 April 1943, at the time of the Allied took [this] to heart, and this certainly landings in Normandy U971 was still considered contributed to the aggressiveness, at times a new boat, having yet to set out on its first verging on recklessness, that characterized the operational patrol. Built in Hamburg by Blohm flotilla's subsequent operations. "4 This was & Voss, U971 was a VII-C class U-boat, an Tribal warfare at its best, and Haida excelled at exceptionally seaworthy, maneuverable, and it. In her first direct encounter with the enemy reliable craft. Like all VII-C U-boats, U971 was on the night of 25-26 April 1944 Haida and built to be a workhorse, with a range of 8,500 HMCS Athabaskan shared in the destruction miles at 10 knots on the surface. Originally of the small destroyer T-29: the first enemy designed to accommodate a crew of 44, U971 surface vessel sunk by the Royal Canadian Navy. 5 was considerably more crowded in June 1944, having brought additional men onboard to The Germans got revenge a few nights later service new anti-aircraft (AA) guns that were when, in pursuit of two other Elbing class installed on all VII-C boats in the later stages of destroyers, Athabaskan was rocked by "two the war. The average age of the crewmen was definite explosions, one light, one heavy- almost approximately 21, and most of the men were simultaneously"6 and sunk. Losing sight of one inexperienced submariners. 7 The captain of Elbing, Haida turned her guns against the U971, Oberleutnant zur See Walter Zeplien, was second. With rounds impacting along the length 25 years old. Under different circumstances, his ofT-27, a fire broke out behind the forward gun, first set of orders would likely have sent him off blinding the bridge. Ablaze, and with few options to join the wolfpacks in the North Atlantic. As it remaining, T-27 was run hard aground to avoid happened, in the spring of 1944 U971 sailed sinking: Haida's second victory. Harry DeWolf from Kiel to Kristiansand, at the southern tip of was awarded the Distinguished Service Order Norway, there to be held in readiness against for gallantry in action and in recognition of the the possibility of an Allied invasion of that fact that in two consecutive actions, Haida had country. The deception of Operation destroyed an enemy destroyer.