Sinking of the freighter "Ulyanov" 22/23.Feb.43 Tuapse.

[Andrey Kuznetsov]

Hello,

at 01:51 MSC 23.Feb.43 (23:51 MEZ 22.Feb.) a Ju88 sunk the freighter "Ulyanov" in Tuapse (Black Sea port). In the darkness the plane was mistaked by the observers for the returning Soviet “Boston”, therefore it was able to bomb from low level without any counteraction in that heavily defended base.

Are there any details from the German side? (Unit, crew, etc - maybe from logbooks). Most probably it was a recce aircraft from 4.(F)/122 but other variants are possible too.

It isn't clear if the successful crew saw the result of his attack because in Kriegsmarine documents the first mention of that success registered on 25.Feb.43 when air recce had fixed the merschant ship (2500 t) sunk by Luftwaffe in Tuapse (nose part under the water).

Best regards,
Andrey