[Rainer]

TNA is the abbreviation for the British National Archives - the original documents about the investigations carried out by the Admiralty and the RAF about this incident can be found there and these documents weren't open to the public until decades after the war.

Alex, you asked for details about the sinking of B-1 and all information you search can be found in the TNA documents we mentioned. It is ok if you don't want to pay to read them yourself, but Bruce has seen them and told you the most important part: The British investigations came to the conclusion that the crew of the Liberator was at fault - they were out of position and did not properly identify their target despite being warned about the presence of Allied submarines in their patrol area. Nonetheless, in the official naval history the Soviet submarine was blamed of being out of position.

B-1 was only one of four British submarines transferred to the Soviet Union at that time, together with several destroyers, cruisers and even a battleship (HMS Royal Sovereign). But the warships were only lend to the Soviet Navy until their share of the Italian fleet could be transferred to Russia. All four submarines left the UK in late July 1944 with B-1 being the first to leave - the other three safely arrived at their destination between 2 and 4 August. All were returned to the Royal Navy in 1949/50 and scrapped.

So please tell me why the British should make the effort to stage an incident like this to prevent one submarine from this large group of warships to become part of the Soviet Navy? What made B-1 so special? To have a Jewish commander? The Brits couldn't care less.

All known facts show that this was an unfortunate accident - not more, not less - and not the only Allied submarine to fall victim to own forces. HMS Oxley, ORP Jastrzab and HMS Unbeaten come to my mind, but there were probably even more.