1 March 43 Beaufighter crew claimed over North/Norwegian Sea a Ju 88

[Laurent Rizzotti]

An old post but I found today the identity of the attacked ship.

On 15 March 1942 the coastal steamer SS Galtesund had successfully been "hijacked" and taken to the U.K. by an armed Norwegian group of 6 men under the leadership of the 25 year old Odd Kjell Starheim, one of the pioneer members of the SOE branch called Norwegian Independent Company 1 (NOR.I.C.1). The success of the Galtesund operation helped persuade the British in approving a new, more ambitious plan: Operation Carhampton, an attempt to take over a German shipping convoy.

In the operation Starheim and 40 Norwegian soldiers were landed near Abelsnes in Vest-Agder by the Norwegian auxiliary minesweeper Bodø. Thirty of Starheim’s men were from NOR.I.C.1, while the remaining 10 belonged to the Royal Norwegian Navy. The first attempt, on 10 January 1943, at capturing a convoy failed when the coordination of the various groups was lost. A second attempt on 17 January ended in a gunfight between the commandos and German guards. The group’s cover blown, the Norwegians were hunted by large German forces and had to be assisted by local resistance people in order to survive. After an aborted attempt at attacking the strategically significant mines at Knaben the whole operation was called off. The leadership in London had not supported the plans to attack Knaben, instead approving of an attack on the titanium mine Titania in Sokndal, and the capture of a 10,000 ton ship in the Jøssingfjord. The commandos were supposed to have escaped Titania by using the mine trolleys. Starheim and 12 other Carhampton members hijacked the 732-ton Norwegian coastal passenger/cargo steamship SS Tromøsund on 28 February in an attempt to bring the ship over to Scotland, but Tromøsund never reached the UK, being sunk by German aircraft the next day. One of the bombs went down the funnel, and the boilers probably blew up. Two lifeboats with 8 men in each were also sunk.

All those on board, including the 13 commandos, the 26 crew, two passengers and three German prisoners of war, lost their lives when Tromøsund sank. Starheim and the ship’s captain were the only ones whose bodies were recovered, drifting ashore on Tjörn near Bohuslän a few weeks later, and an empty lifeboat from the ship was found on a beach in Jylland. Of the members of the operation who did not sail on Tromøsund 16 made their way to West Hartlepool in North East England by fishing boat, four men were given new missions in Norway and the rest made their way to neutral Sweden. Starheim was buried in his birthplace Lista. In addition to his British DSO, he was awarded the Norwegian War Cross.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd_Starheim
http://www.warsailors.com/singleships/tromosund.html

Best regards

Laurent

[Juha]

Hello Laurent
Thanks a lot for the very interesting info!

Thankfully
Juha