PROBLEM PICTURE
From the very first edition, each issue of Evidence in Camera contained what was eventually called a “Problem Picture”.
Selected from the “normal operational photographs”, each image invited the reader to guess what the object in question was – exactly as we do here!
The answer is at the bottom of the page.
U-BOATS ATTACKED IN THE ATLANTIC
During the summer of 1943, US Navy aircraft operating fromaircraft carriers in the Atlantic were beginning tomake their presence felt in the war against the U-boats – as these two pictures testify.
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intense flak, the Avenger’s pilot, Lieutenant A.H. Sallenger, immediately dived in to attack. A pair of depth charges was dropped, each with twenty-five feet settings, along with amine with a contact fuze. The former straddled U-117 – as can be seen here in Picture (1). U-66, on the left in this image, immediately separated from the “Milk Cow”.
As U-66 submerged, Sallenger made another pass, only to be met with heavy fire from the crew of U-117. Picture (2), taken during this attack, clearly shows “three twin light A.A. guns mounted on the steps of the conning tower”.
Sallenger’s aircraft was then joined by two more Avengers and, according to some accounts, a pair ofWildcats. Further depth charges fell either side of U-117, whilst the fighters kept strafing the casing. At this moment, the U-boat looked to be diving, at which point it was noted that she was wallowing on the surface. As U-117 finally slipped beneath the waves stern first, a number of passive acoustic homing anti-submarine torpedoes were dropped.
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One of these, believed to be the one deployed by Lieutenant Junior C. Forney, was reported to have struck the
On 3 August 1943, two aircraft from the USS Card (a Grumman TBF Avenger and a Grumman F4F Wildcat) surprised the surfaced Type IXC U-boat U- 66 450 miles west-south-west of the Azores. A machine-gun attack by the Wildcat killed three of the submarine’s crew and wounded a further eight. The Avenger’s crew then dropped two bombs, but both missed. Although she initially dived, U-66 returned to the surface to be met with a further attack by one of the aircraft. At this point the U-boat’s captain, Kapitänleutnant FriedrickMarkworth, was badly wounded by the machine-gun fire. However, U-66 successfully dived, and once againmade good her escape.
Badly damaged, U-66 requested assistance. Late on the 6th, she rendezvoused with the Type XBminelayer U-117, one of the so-called “Milk Cows”. A relief commander for U-66, Oberleutnant zur Zee Frerks, was provided by U-117.
The following morning, as the two U-boats were re-fuelling on the surface, they were once again surprised by an Avenger of VC-1 from USS Card. Frominterceptedmessages, the Americans had been aware that themeeting between the two submarines was to take place. Despite
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submarine on its port side. Five minutes later an area of light blue water filled with bubbles appeared where U-117 had last been seen – the sign of a successful strike. U-117, on her fifth war patrol, was lost with all sixty-two of her crew.
AUGUST 2010
Answer: Part of an artillery range located south-west of Berlin. (All images HMP)
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