A s k y o u r s e a- related QUESTION

A mine salvaged from S M UC-61 (Chatelle & Tison, 1927)

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WHAT DO THE BELGIAN CAVALRY, A GERMAN U-BOAT AND THE VAN DEUREN MORTAR HAVE IN COMMON?

German U-boat UC-61 captured by Belgian cavalrymen at Wissant (Chatelle & Tison 1927) Sometimes events can take an unexpected turn. Take the following example: the story of the Belgian cavalry, a German U-boat and theT h e Be l g ia n c a v a l r y p l a y s French transport ships, operators needed inventor o f the Van Deuren mortar. A LEADING PART accurate directions and firing tables. The Belgian Ministry of War allowed Van Deuren’s T h e t r a g ic fate o f a G e r m a n Captain Gerth knew that it would not workshop to complete the order as soon as SUBMARINE IN WlSSANT take long for the conning tower to come possible. In the meantime, the weapon had to the surface due to the falling tide. His been considerably improved thanks to tests The captains of the small German U-boatsonly option was to abandon ship, destroyat sea carried out from the base in Calais. were all too aware of the unpredictability her and surrender to the enemy. But a fewBut it remained uncertain how an enemy of the sea between the northern French French customs officers stationed at Wissantsubmarine would behave when mortar and British coasts with its powerful tides. heard strange noises in the pitch-darknessrounds came down and exploded. This could They operated from Zeebrugge and Ostendof night. They alerted the nearest military now be tested in September 1917 thanks to with submarines specially designed for thisforce, namely the 5th regiment of lancers, the German U-boat that was stranded near region. Captain Georg Gerth, commander a Belgian cavalry unit. Several dozens of Wissant. As SM UC-61 was 4-5 metres under of SM UC-61, experienced this personally cavalrymen rushed to the scene and saw water at high tide, it was possible to examine when he carried out his fifth combat missionthe German crew making frantic efforts to the effects of explosions on a submerged on 25 July 1917. SMUC-61 was a mine- destroy SMUC-61 in the bay of Wissant. U-boat. First fire was opened on the target laying submarine with a length of about 50They managed to break the U-boat in halffrom the beach. The projectiles landed metres, had a crew of 25 men and had beenwith a heavy explosion. Fire broke out but perfectlyit in the immediate vicinity. commissioned on 13 December 1916. She was fairly quickly put out with seawater. The The fifteenth mortar round even fell had a deck gun and three torpedo tubesBelgian and cavalrymen stood by and looked onso close to the target that the shock of carried 18 naval mines. in amazement. The German crew was orderedthe explosion set offa dozen naval mines The mission’s objective was to break to walk to Calais escorted by the mounted in the bow in a chain reaction. The entire through the French-British Dover Barrage lancers. The wreck stayed behind with bow was destroyed. The French evaluation and then lay mines on the shipping routesseveral to unexploded naval mines on board.commission was impressed. the ports of Boulogne and Le Flavre. Captain Gerth tried to navigate close to the coast Luc Vandeweyer between Cap Blanc Nez and Cap Gris Nez. Va n D e u r e n a n d h is m o r t a r Flowever, he had overestimated the depth of the water along the route. Suddenly, the In Calais, Belgian engineer Pierre Van crew heard the keel grating on the sand. DeurenThe heard the story about the German U-boat was stranded on a sandbank andU-boat crew taken prisoner. Fie was testing irretrievably lost. the recently designed trench mortar named after him, and investigating the possibility of deploying this weapon - mounted on the forward deck or afterdeck of a ship - against submarines. Now that Paris had given permission to install this Belgian weapon on

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