Danish fishing smacks, 27 August 1940

[Danny152]

On 27 August 1940, a lone Hudson of 220 Sqn attacked a large cluster of Danish fishing smacks, they were flying the German flag, hence being attacked with bombs and guns.

I have the detail from the ORB 540, but wondered if anyone knew what and who they were etc.

Thanks, and any other official details would be of great interest.

Cheers

Danny

[Tim O.]

I can’t help thinking that the Danish flag might look similar to a Kriegsmarine flag from the air….

[Carsten Petersen]

There are no reports on damagede Danish fishing boats on the 27th of August 1940. I don't have the ORB for 220 Squadron from that date - can you give a position ?

[MW Giles]

Form 541 220/P 15:30-19:38 Patrol SA.3

Came across a large number of Danish Fishing Smacks which were attacked. Many of the smacks were of the normal type the first being met 60 miles W of Horn's Reef. Our a/c closely examined the vessels for armaments of [or?] troops, but none were seen. Further isolated vessels were seen off the Danish Coast, and one , 100 tons larger than the rest was singled out for attack, with two others. Our a/c approached from W to E in a dive bombing attack on the larger vessel at 2000ft releasing 1,120 lb GP bomb, which however failed to explode. At the same time a front gun attack was made, but the damage and casualties are unknown. An identical attack was made on the two other smacks sailing closely together, but again the bomb failed to explode. These smacks were also m'gunned, and about 20 others with the rear and side guns at 200ft and about 150 yds distant. Hits were registered on most of the vessels and one man was seen to be hit and smoke rose from the hull of one of the boats.

Therefore they lnew they were Danish boats and the attacks were generalised, not just one boat with a German flag.

They had been seeing Danish smacks for most of the preceeding month.

Suggestion is that it was where the boats were and not who they were, but would have to find the Admiralty order to be sure

There is a precedence - later in the war Spanish and French tunny boats were liable to attack if they were found in certain western waters

Martin

[Darius]

Hi,


no qualified hint for 27.-28.08.1940 in german KTB der Skl A.
Only report on many "Einflüge" in the Raum Deutsche Bucht, warnings of minelying etc.



Regards


Darius

[Darius]

Admiraly War Diary, 27.08.1940 [false date on page - 29.08.1940]:

Army intelligence:
[...]30 Danish fishing smaks
55°50'N., 5°50'E. course 280, speed 5 knots. No sign of troops on board. (A/c 1755/27, 1850/27).[...]

Regards


Darius

[Laurent Rizzotti]

https://www.sbib.dk/files/bibliotek/statistik/1940.pdf lists AFAIK all incidents suffered by Danish ships, up to small fishing ships, in 1940 (other files exist for other years) and has no ship listed as being strafed on 27 August 1940. Cases listed are from ship sunk or vanishing without trace to groundings without big damage, and also cover cases where ship was not damaged but a sailor was lost overboard, so my guess is that if the Hudson had actually hit a ship and killed/wounded a Danish sailor, il would probably be reported there.

The case 9 on the file is for the fishing boat Alma Ruby that was bombed and strafed by an aircraft on 24 May 1940. The ship was damaged, there were no casualty.

The case 183 on the file is for the fishing boat Kristine that was bombed and strafed by an aircraft on 8 July 1940. The boat sank, there were no casualty.

The case 228 on the file is for the fishing boat Norland that was strafed by an aircraft on 8 July 1940. The hull was damaged, there were no casualty.

Other cases of air attacks listed in the file are before April 1940 and are attacks by German bombers in the North Sea.

[Carsten Petersen]

The wessels were fishingboats from Esbjerg. The fishingboat 'Ingolf' had one man wounded. He was hit by four shots. The Hudson gunned several boats. They were showing the Danish flag and not a German one. There were no German ships nearby and the Danes were fishing at a wellknown fishing area. It is hard to see why the fishing boats were attacked,