6163
November 16th, 1942
South of Imbros, 07:20 (GMT+ 2) - The second half of November is going to be very agitated in what the Italians, after the ancient Greeks, call the Archipelago*.
According to a rhythm now well established, the Aegean will see passing first a "descending" convoy BA, n° 5, of the ships returning from the Black Sea: cargo ships loaded with non-ferrous ores and tin and improvised troop transports on which the Soviets have embarked several thousands of liberated Polish prisoners, delighted by the prospect of resuming the fight alongside the West. The sea route has indeed become much more convenient and especially cheap than the trans-Iranian route for this rather special export. In the last days of the month, it will be the turn of a "rising" YMB convoy, the sixth, loaded with trucks, radios, fertilizers and other products of American industry for the USSR.
The Germans and Italians are determined to disrupt this ballet. This time, they decide to attack the "descending" convoy, which they hope will be less well protected.
As in October, the German patrol boats LS-5 and LS-6 are used to lay mines: no longer at the level of Tenedos but further south, between the islands of Psara and Chios. In two sorties, on the 8th and 9th, they lay two small fields of eight mines each. Which are almost a failure: the Greek patrol boat A24 was from the 11th the victim of one of them, thus discovered and quickly cleaned up; the second one will remain ignored but will not do any damage. However, having already laid mines, the two German patrol boats had time to put their torpedo tubes back in place.
When, at dawn on November 14th, the sixteen ships of convoy BA 5 (ten from YMB-5 and two Soviet ones) leave the Dardanelles and join their escort, the LS-5 and LS-6 are lying in wait in the (Turkish!) waters of the island of Imbros, in the shadow of Cape Kephalas. They wait until the whole convoy is well out of the strait to attack the tail. The attack is successful: one of the LS-5 torpedoes hits the British freighter Cape Corso (3,807 GRT), which eventually sinks. Escaping the fire of the escort, the two retreat at full speed towards Dédéagatch (Alexandropoulis). But luck abandons the LS-5, victim of engine problems and forced to reduce its speed. That allows the Hurricane II of Sqn 1 of the SAAF, taken off from Mytilene 2, to intercept it and to sink it with the gun.
.........
Between Mykonos and Icaria, 22:50 (GMT+2) - Neither the three surviving MAS nor the mini-submarines CB-6 and CB-10 submarines can worry the BA 5 convoy. On the other hand, the CB-1 of LV Enrico Lesen d'Aston (leader of the mini-submarine squadron) is this time in the right place.
His commander does not miss the opportunity and places his two torpedoes on a large cargo ship, which quickly sinks. Unfortunate victory: its victim is one of the Soviet merchant ships chosen to make a national contribution to the supply of the USSR, the Kharkov (6,580 GRT), loaded with tin. The success of Lesen d'Aston will be one of
concrete facts that will allow the Soviets to argue that the Italians would have done them all possible harm if they had had the opportunity to do so, and to claim reparations from these enemies that were out of all proportion to the damage actually inflicted (since the Regio Esercito could not send troops to the Russian front).
* Not to mention Victor Hugo in Clair de lune, a poem from the collection Les Orientales: "Is it a heavy Turkish vessel that comes from the waters of Cos / Beating the Greek archipelago with its Tartar oar?" The word "archipelago" is to be taken in its original Greek meaning: "arch-sea", the sea par excellence.
South of Imbros, 07:20 (GMT+ 2) - The second half of November is going to be very agitated in what the Italians, after the ancient Greeks, call the Archipelago*.
According to a rhythm now well established, the Aegean will see passing first a "descending" convoy BA, n° 5, of the ships returning from the Black Sea: cargo ships loaded with non-ferrous ores and tin and improvised troop transports on which the Soviets have embarked several thousands of liberated Polish prisoners, delighted by the prospect of resuming the fight alongside the West. The sea route has indeed become much more convenient and especially cheap than the trans-Iranian route for this rather special export. In the last days of the month, it will be the turn of a "rising" YMB convoy, the sixth, loaded with trucks, radios, fertilizers and other products of American industry for the USSR.
The Germans and Italians are determined to disrupt this ballet. This time, they decide to attack the "descending" convoy, which they hope will be less well protected.
As in October, the German patrol boats LS-5 and LS-6 are used to lay mines: no longer at the level of Tenedos but further south, between the islands of Psara and Chios. In two sorties, on the 8th and 9th, they lay two small fields of eight mines each. Which are almost a failure: the Greek patrol boat A24 was from the 11th the victim of one of them, thus discovered and quickly cleaned up; the second one will remain ignored but will not do any damage. However, having already laid mines, the two German patrol boats had time to put their torpedo tubes back in place.
When, at dawn on November 14th, the sixteen ships of convoy BA 5 (ten from YMB-5 and two Soviet ones) leave the Dardanelles and join their escort, the LS-5 and LS-6 are lying in wait in the (Turkish!) waters of the island of Imbros, in the shadow of Cape Kephalas. They wait until the whole convoy is well out of the strait to attack the tail. The attack is successful: one of the LS-5 torpedoes hits the British freighter Cape Corso (3,807 GRT), which eventually sinks. Escaping the fire of the escort, the two retreat at full speed towards Dédéagatch (Alexandropoulis). But luck abandons the LS-5, victim of engine problems and forced to reduce its speed. That allows the Hurricane II of Sqn 1 of the SAAF, taken off from Mytilene 2, to intercept it and to sink it with the gun.
.........
Between Mykonos and Icaria, 22:50 (GMT+2) - Neither the three surviving MAS nor the mini-submarines CB-6 and CB-10 submarines can worry the BA 5 convoy. On the other hand, the CB-1 of LV Enrico Lesen d'Aston (leader of the mini-submarine squadron) is this time in the right place.
His commander does not miss the opportunity and places his two torpedoes on a large cargo ship, which quickly sinks. Unfortunate victory: its victim is one of the Soviet merchant ships chosen to make a national contribution to the supply of the USSR, the Kharkov (6,580 GRT), loaded with tin. The success of Lesen d'Aston will be one of
concrete facts that will allow the Soviets to argue that the Italians would have done them all possible harm if they had had the opportunity to do so, and to claim reparations from these enemies that were out of all proportion to the damage actually inflicted (since the Regio Esercito could not send troops to the Russian front).
* Not to mention Victor Hugo in Clair de lune, a poem from the collection Les Orientales: "Is it a heavy Turkish vessel that comes from the waters of Cos / Beating the Greek archipelago with its Tartar oar?" The word "archipelago" is to be taken in its original Greek meaning: "arch-sea", the sea par excellence.