Anti Shipping Strikes 14 September 1942

[Mark McShane]

Hi All,

Can anybody provide some details on what German/Italian air units were involved in the attacks on the RN surface units involved in Operation Agreement, the failed commando attack on Tobruk. The little information I have gleaned was the attacking German aircraft took offfrom Crete, HMS Coventry and Zulu were sunk although one reference states that HMS Zulu was sunk by an Italian aircraft. Any info is apprecited.

Mark

[Martin Gleeson]

Hallo Mark,
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These are waters further away than those you normally frequent ! Apart from material in several excellent books I have very little to offer as this is not my area of expertise.
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I will give you the entire entry for this action in the revised edition (2005) of Jurgen Rohwer's magnificent CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR AT SEA 1939-1945;
"13-14 September (1942) Mediterranean.
Operation 'Agreement', a British raid on Tobruk, takes place. On 13 September the destroyers Sikh (Capt Micklethwaith) and Zulu, with 350 Royal Marines on board, set out from Alexandria and while at sea met up with the AA cruiser Coventry and the 5th Destroyer Flotilla ('Hunt' class) with Belvoir, Dulverton, Hursley and Croome; in addition , 18 MTBs and three launches arrive with 150 landing troops. During the night 13/14 September there are heavy attacks by the RAF on Tobruk. On 14 September an attempt is made to land but only a few soldiers are able to get ashore. Sikh is damaged by fire from the 1/43rd AA battery (Maj Wegener) near the coast and sinks while under tow by Zulu. Most of the crew and the surviving Marines are taken prisoner. Ju 87s of 8./StG 3 (Lt Goebel) and Ju 88s of I./LG 1 (Capt Hoffmann) damage Coventry, which has to be scuttled by Zulu. MC 200s of the 13th Italian Fighter Bomber Group (Maj Renzo Viale) sink MTB 308, ML 352 and ML 353 and 19 Ju 87s of III./StG 3 (Capt. Kurt Walter) damage Zulu and sink MTB 310; Zulu founders while under tow by Hursley. Twenty Ju 88s from II./LG1 on Crete sink MTB 312, and MTB 314 is brought in by boats of the 6th Motor Minesweeping Flotilla (Lt-Cdr Reischauer) with 117 men on board. A simultaneous Commando operation from the landward side (Col Haseldent) also fails. The German and Italian defenders of Tobruk take, in all, 576 prisoners, and important code and cipher equipment is captured."
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Jurgen Rohwer also has a website in German which is basically the book online but with photos and quite often more detail. The entry for this battle contains a photo of the captured MTB 314. See http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/42-09.htm
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There is a very fine book on the Italian Air Force by Chris Dunning published in 1998 titled COURAGE ALONE: The Italian Air Force1940-1943. I believe there is a more recent edition with a new title. The entry for the 13 Gruppo CT includes the following;
"On 14 September aircraft from the 82 Squadriglia sank the destroyer Zulu and set fire to four MTBs off Tobruk. On this day the unit had 9 out of 17 MC 200s serviceable, one out of two MC 202s, and 5 out of 6 CR 42s at Bu Amud (Libya)."
The 'unit' probably refers to the Gruppo, which also included the 77 and 78 Squadriglie.
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Hope that helps and that others can expand on the above.
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Regards,
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Martin.

[Mark McShane]

Thanks for the info Martin, appreciated.

Mark

[mkenny]

The last post here has some interesting info:

http://www.feldgrau.net/forum/viewto...p?f=40&t=24873

My German is little, but the sinking of Zulu by one direct hit delay action fuzed bomb on the side matches perfectly with the report by Capt. Zuccarini who, with his "wings" sergeant Boeri and Zanarini, attacked twice the enemy ships using, the second time, British bombs fuzed for this right purpose by some technicians coming from Guidonia who were present, that day, at Tobruk. The full story is in AEROFAN n. 81, April-June 2002.


Some photos taken by a Zulu crewmember can be seen here:


http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/1959/zulup.jpg

Coventry on fire in the distance.

There are a lot of other interesting pics on his pages