May 19, 1943
Lights and water pipes broken by depth charges dropped by Coast Guard chasing submarines. Lost two ships from Convoy.
Wow!
I tried to do a bit of research on the ‘lost ships’ and I am going to guess that these were not sunk but perhaps moved on for repair at safer ports. This could be that Merton’s date may not match the actual as discovered in the previous days.
Searching uboat.net shows no Allied ships sunk in the area where my grandfather was during May. One ship, the British steam merchant Aymeric, at a loss of 53 crew with 25 survivors, sunk on the 17th much further North near Greenland.¹
The Aymeric – Sunk on May 17, 1943 near Greenland – uboat.net
Searching for sunken U-Boats on the other hand yields nothing concrete, however…
U-381 reported for the last time on 9 May from approximate position 51.30N, 36.00W [MAP] and is listed as missing south of Greenland on 21 May 1943.¹
U-381 was a part of the Wolfpack that sunk the ship mentioned above.
Did U-381 venture close to Newfoundland and succumb to damage from the depth charges dropped by the convoy’s escorts? My guess is that only her Captain – Wilhelm-Heinrich Graf von Pückler und Limpurg and Crew of 46 will know.
Wilhelm-Heinrich Graf von Pückler und Limpurg – uboat.net
In 1943 and 1944, my Grandfather Merton Young traveled to Greenland while working for the Merritt-Chapman & Scott Company. He wrote a brief diary of his journey and this is a piece of that story.
Next Entry – May 20, 1943
¹ Source – uboat.net