MITTELMEER PATROL 8
STOP ITALIAN BATTLESHIP SURRENDER
U-133 departed La Spezia, Italy, before dawn on of 02-SEP-1943 and headed for Gruppe “A”, 50 to 75 kilometers east of La Maddalena in northern Sardinia. Our orders were to patrol the area for 14 days and stop the Italians from surrendering their battleships to the enemy should the Italian Grand Fascist Council sue for peace. We were also advised that the German Luftwaffe would be patrolling the area and get involved should the battleships head south from La Spezia toward Malta. On departure, we shadowed an Italian Akua U-Boot departing La Spezia, and were surprised when she suddenly turned around and returned to base.
We had just rounded the Italian island of Elba when we had to dive to avoid 2 American B-17s on patrol. To say the least, we were very surprised to see enemy aircraft patrolling this far north in the Tyrrhenisches Meer. Later that day, we had to again dive to avoid detection by an Akua U-Boot patrolling the northern area.
At 06:00 on 03-SEP-1943, we arrived at our patrol zone off La Maddalena and began a box search pattern around CH4395 to the northwest and CJ5778 to the southeast. For 6 days we continued our patrol, occasionally having to dive to avoid enemy PBYs, Wellingtons, B-17s and B-24s patrolling the area. On 08-SEP-1943, we received a signal that the Provisional Government had indeed surrendered and the Italian Battleship Fleet was preparing to leave La Spezia.
On the morning of 09-SEP-1943, the weather was overcast with heavy rain. At 14:28, we got our first hydrophone contact on warships to the north moving fast toward us in CJ5477. We maneuvered to intercept and waited at periscope depth. At 15:03, we sighted 2 destroyers and 2 battleships coming out of the fog heading 150 at 20 knots. We fired 2 torpedoes at each battleship – the RN Vittorio Veneto in the lead and RN Littorio trailing – all 4 torpedoes hit their targets amidships or astern. In high seas, we remained at periscope depth and watched both warships go dead in the water.
We remained silent as the destroyers tried in vain to find us when we suddenly got a new hydrophone contact to the northwest. On viewing through the periscope, we could see the flash of large naval guns through the heavy rain even though we estimated the contacts to be perhaps 10 kilometers away. At the time, we were not aware that the German Luftwaffe had located and was attacking the battleship RN Roma.
By 15:25, both RN Vittorio Veneto and RN Littorio were sinking. We waited until the destroyers disappeared into the fog and then turned to intercept the RN Roma. The crew was able to load 2 forward eels when we saw the flames of RN Roma in the distance. Realizing we could not get close enough submerged, U-133 surfaced and proceeded at flank speed and standard propulsion toward the battleship. We realized this would make us susceptible to enemy radar and had our own radar on to track enemy destroyers. Regretably, we were still some distance from the battleship when the first destroyer was detected on radar and coming out of the fog. We quickly dove to periscope depth, running silent and fired our 2 forward torpedoes estimating range and speed of the battleship – both torpedoes missed.
We could see a destroyer coming up behind us, clearly from the first task force we engaged, and fired our stern torpedo at her, but the torpedo failed to detonate. Immediately after launch, we changed course 30 degrees to the west and proceeded at flank to 150 meters dropping two decoys passing 20 meters depth. We slowed to 1 knot passing 80 meters and could hear more destroyers joining the search from the northwest. Passing 110 meter depth, we could hear at least 3 destroyers above us, but they were unable to detect us.
By 16:30, we were at 140 meters and the destroyers had moved off never detecting us. We made our way slowly to the surface by 20:27. U-133 then proceeded northwest at standard speed and made our way between Corsica and Sardinia during the night.
Our torpedo tubes now reloaded, we then headed south to CH93 to see what we could pick up. At 12:57 on 11-SEP-1943, we transmitted a contact report on a convoy west of our position in CH9339 and closing; went to periscope depth; and proceeded to intercept.
In position, we could see the convoy coming out of the fog – 3 Troop Ships, a Modern Tanker, and several smaller merchants. We estimated at least 4 destroyers. We proceeded into the convoy and at 13:30 fired 2 torpedoes each at a Ceramic-type Ocean Liner and a Troop Ship. All torpedoes hit their target. U-133 then immediately turned north to fire our stern eel at a Chatham-type Troop Ship, which hit its intended target. After firing our stern eel, U-133 turned port to a southerly course, again diving to 140 meters at flank and releasing 2 decoys passing 20 meters. Passing 80 meters, we went silent at 1 knot. We were not detected by the destroyers; although one remained in the area for about 1.5 hours while the Chatham Troop Ship slowly sank by the stern.
We finally surfaced at 15:30 and transmitted our status report as we turned north. With bad weather and only one internal eel, we realized that it could be some time before we could load externals, and decided to make our way to Toulon, France.
We arrived at our new home port of Toulon at 18:57 on 12-SEP-1943 without incident.
