Thursday, August 9, 2012

Day 1075 August 10, 1942

In the Mediterranean, off the coast of Palestine. At 1.20 AM, U-77 sinks Palestinian sailboat Kharouf with the deck gun. 7 miles off Haifa, British anti-submarine trawler HMS Isley depth charges and sinks Italian submarine Scirè which is on a mission to launch “maiali” manned torpedoes (44 crew and 11 “maiali” operators killed).

At 2.15 AM 50 miles East of Antigua, U-510 hits British MV Alexia with 3 torpedoes. Although badly damaged, MV Alexia does not sink and will be repaired and commissioned into Royal Navy in December 1943 as auxiliary escort carrier HMS Alexia.

At 7.10 AM, 90 miles East of Kavieng, New Ireland, US submarine USS S-44 attacks Japanese cruisers Aoba, Kako, Furutaka and Kinugasa (returning to base at Kavieng after the raid on Allied ships off Guadalcanal). Kako is hit by 3 torpedoes and sinks in 5 minutes (34 killed, 582 survivors picked up by the other cruisers who also depth charge USS S-44 without success).

In the South Atlantic 1500 miles East of Trinidad, Italian submarine Reginaldo Giuliani sinks British MV Medon with the deck gun (all 64 hands escape in 4 lifeboats; rescued after 7 days by Norwegian MV Tamerlane, after 8 days by Panamanian SS Rosemount, after 35 days by Portuguese SS Luso and after 36 days by British SS Reedpool).

Case Blue. German 13th Panzer and 16th Motorized Divisions (1st Panzer Army) reach the Soviet oilfield at Maikop, having driven West 100 miles from Stavropol in 6 days. They capture Maikop unopposed due to a Brandenburger Commando unit (commanded by Baron Adrian von Fölkersam), dressed as NKVD, who order Soviet troops to retreat. Further East, other elements of 1st Panzer Army reach the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, covering 260 miles in 16 days, but the bulk of Soviet oil production lies on the other side of the mountains.

North Atlantic. U-boats continue to swarm over convoy SC 94, 500 miles West of Ireland. At midday, U-438 and U-660 attack simultaneously from both sides, while Allied escorts are busy chasing submarine contacts at the rear of the convoy. U-438 and U-660 sink 4 merchant ships, including Greek SS Condylis which is hit by torpedoes from both submarines. At 6.50 PM 150 miles Northeast of Paramaribo, Suriname, U-155 sinks Dutch MV Strabo with the deck gun (all 13 crew reach Paramaribo a week later). At 9.30 PM 140 miles East of Turks and Caicos Islands, U-600 stops British sailing ship Vivian P. Smith with a shot across the bow. After allowing all 11 crew to abandon ship (they reach Turks Island), U-600 sinks Vivian P. Smith with the deck gun.

Overnight, a British convoy of 13 freighters and American tanker SS Ohio, carrying 170,000 barrels of fuel oil, passes through the Strait of Gibraltar to make a final effort to resupply Malta (escorted by 4 aircraft carriers, 2 batttleships, 7 cruisers, 34 destroyers). This massive force does not go unnoticed by Italians and Germans who deploy submarines to intercept.

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