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Submarine warfare in the Baltic 1939. Pre-war deployment!
Due to Case White, the small German submarines type II A/B U 5, U 6, U 7, U 14, U 18 and U 22 were deployed to the Baltic; of these U 14, U 18 and U 22 as part of "Transportübung Lubeck" sailed from Kiel to Memel on August 23, 1939. The U boats type II C of the newly created Emsmann Flotilla U 56, U 57, U 58 and U 59 would operate against the Polish coast as part of Unternehmen "Gustav"; later however these crafts would be transferred to the west. On August 26, 1939 the three Polish minelayer submarines ORP Sep, Rys and Zbik had moved to Hela, the boats carryied 20 mines each, half of her capacity.
On August 30, 1939 at midnight the Type IIA U boat U-6 (kplt. Joachim Matz, IWOLt.z.S. Klaus Bargsten) sailed from Kiel together with her twin U 5 (Kapitänleutnant Günter Kutschmann) and the Type IIB U 7 (Oberleutnant zur See Werner Heidel). The mission of these U boats was to patrol the waters of the Kattegat and monitor the maritime traffic out of the Baltic. The conning tower of U 6 only had room for three men, hence were there the Kaleun and two observers to monitor the maneuvers of the other two units. The U 5 is diving told a lookout, Matz looked in that direction and saw the small submarine slowly disappearing beneath the surface, for a moment he saw the conning tower and then it was lost beneath the waves of the Baltic. The kaleun called the lookouts, one last sweep of the horizon, then he ordered dive down. On this day also sailed from Memel the U 14 and U 18.
Kattegat August 31, 1939.
The U 6 was patrolling in Grid AO 4577 as stated in her orders without detecting anything unusual when multiple propellers at high speed were detected, surely warships. The Kaleun ordered to periscope depth to verify, it was around 08:00 hours in the morning. After a sweep to the horizon, Kapitänleutnant Joachim Matz could observe three Polish destroyers sailing at high speed. In effect they were the ORP Blyskawica, Burza, Grom running Operation "Peking" (escape to Britain). But hostilities had not yet opened between Poles and Germans so the potential preys proceed their way and soon the contact was lost. It was the last sighting of the Polish ships by a boat of the Kriegsmarine. The U 5 also detected the Polish ships at 07:40 hours. The war was coming..........................
Sources: http://modelwork.pl/viewtopic.php?f=194 ... 6d7ff9476a
http://www.ubootarchiv.de/ubootwiki/index.php/1939
Vom_Original_Zum_Modell_-_Uboottyp_II
Cheers. Raúl M
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