91�ȱ�

This story appears courtesy of and with thanks to Mike Kemble and Tony Green.

The story of the ”Loch Killin”, supported by “Wren”, describing how a U-boat she was attacking surfaced directly under her stern is now legendary. Most of the German crew jumped from the conning tower directly on to her quarterdeck without getting their feet wet. On that patrol several U-boats were sunk with no survivors — but four others were sunk and many of the crews were rescued and had to be distributed amongst the ships because of space limitations. Remember that officers had to be separated from their crew and each ship’s crew separated from the others. Each of these small parties also had to be guarded. This led to some very innovative sleeping and living conditions with bodies strewn in any small compartment that could be closed off. On one occasion some U-boat crewmembers had somehow struggled to leave their sinking ship with several bottles of champagne in their life rafts (they had left Brest and were returning home). These were of course confiscated and were locked up with strict instructions they were not to be opened until VE day.

'This story was submitted to the People’s War site by 91�ȱ� Radio Merseyside’s People’s War team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.