Video of the day

Although this is quite long at 58 minutes, it is quite good at explaining why Naval gunfire was so bad.
Worth seeing if you can get over the urge for instant gratification. :)

 

Picture taken of a U-boat by my father in 1943. Note that it has 2 deck guns. Unusual.

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List of Type IXB U-boats
The Type IXB class had 14 U-boats, all of which were built by AG Weser of Bremen:

Name (a) Hull builder Ordered Laid down Launched Commissioned Fate
U-64 AG Weser, Bremen 16 July 1937 15 December 1938 20 September 1939 16 December 1939 Sunk on 13 April 1940 in the Herjangsfjord near Narvik, Norway. 8 dead and 38 survivors.[3]

U-65 AG Weser, Bremen 16 July 1937 6 December 1938 6 November 1939 15 February 1940 Sunk on 28 April 1941 in the North Atlantic south-east of Iceland. All hands lost.[4]

U-103 AG Weser, Bremen 24 May 1938 6 September 1939 12 April 1940 5 July 1940 Sunk on 15 April 1945 at Kiel in an Allied bombing raid.[5]

U-104 AG Weser, Bremen 24 May 1938 10 November 1939 25 May 1940 19 August 1940 Missing since 28 November 1940 north-west of Ireland. All hands presumed lost.[6]

U-105 AG Weser, Bremen 24 May 1938 16 November 1939 15 June 1940 10 September 1940 Sunk 2 June 1943 near Dakar. All hands lost.[7]

U-106 AG Weser, Bremen 24 May 1938 26 November 1939 17 June 1940 24 September 1940 Sunk on 2 August 1943 north-west of Cape Ortegal, Spain. 22 dead and 36 survivors.[8]

U-107 AG Weser, Bremen 24 May 1938 6 December 1939 2 July 1940 8 October 1940 Sunk on 18 August 1944 by depth charges from British aircraft.[9]

U-108 AG Weser, Bremen 24 May 1938 27 December 1939 15 July 1940 22 October 1940 Sunk on 11 April 1944 at Stettin during a bombing raid. Later raised and scuttled there on 24 April 1945.[10]

U-109 AG Weser, Bremen 24 May 1938 9 March 1940 14 September 1940 5 December 1940 Sunk on 4 May 1943 south of Ireland by depth charges from British aircraft. All hands lost.[11]

U-110 AG Weser, Bremen 24 May 1938 1 February 1940 25 August 1940 21 November 1940 Captured on 9 May 1941 in the North Atlantic south of Iceland by the destroyers HMS Bulldog, Broadway and the British corvette HMS Aubrietia. The Royal Navy allowed the U-boat to sink the next day in order to keep the documents captured from her a secret.[12]

U-111 AG Weser, Bremen 8 August 1939 20 February 1940 15 September 1940 19 December 1940 Sunk on 4 October 1941 south-west of Tenerife by depth charges from a British warship. 8 dead and 44 survivors.[13]

U-122 AG Weser, Bremen 15 December 1937 5 March 1939 20 December 1939 30 March 1940 Went missing on 22 June 1940. All hands presumed lost.[14]

U-123 AG Weser, Bremen 15 December 1937 15 April 1939 2 March 1940 30 May 1940 Scuttled at Lorient on 19 August 1944. Raised and later became the French submarine Blaison.[15]

U-124 AG Weser, Bremen 15 December 1937 11 August 1939 9 March 1940 11 June 1940 Sunk 2 April 1943 west of Oporto by depth charges from the British warships HMS Stonecrop and Black Swan. All hands lost.[16]

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In 1945 my father was an RCAF officer flying anti-sub patrols out of BC (Pat bay, I think).

One day he was at the outdoor patio of the officers mess and they saw a balloon come down and settle in a tree in the back yard.

In his photo album is a piece of the balloon skin. Apparently they all took a piece of it as a souvenir. They knew it had come from Japan. He never mentioned anything about what might have been hanging on it.

Maybe it had dropped the payload off shore or farther south.
 

In 1945 my father was an RCAF officer flying anti-sub patrols out of BC (Pat bay, I think).

One day he was at the outdoor patio of the officers mess and they saw a balloon come down and settle in a tree in the back yard.

In his photo album is a piece of the balloon skin. Apparently they all took a piece of it as a souvenir. They knew it had come from Japan. He never mentioned anything about what might have been hanging on it.

Maybe it had dropped the payload off shore or farther south.


I live close to a community called Cherryville BC. Last summer, some loggers came across the remains of one of the Japanese balloon bombs. Not much left, other than a metal ring that held the bombs

We're over 500 kliks from the Pacific coast
 
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