(continued from last issue)

April 1945, only 24 BIBER remained at Rotterdam. 60 MOLCH were held in reserve at Ammersfoort. Four additional operations took place in April which involved 24 BIBER -- 19 of them were sunk or damaged, and no Allied shipping was damaged at all.

The Kriegsmarine deployed BIBER and MOLCH units to Denmark and Norway and the initial commander was Kapitan zur See Fritz Bohm but soon this command was split. Kapitan Duwel took command of the units in Denmark and Kapitan Beck took over the units in Norway.

In November of 1944. the units were spread out thus:

• Northern Norway - 60 BIBER and 60 MOLCH
• Southern Norway - 60 MOLCH
• Denmark - 60 BIBER, 60 MOLCH and 12 HECHT
• Helgoland - 30 MOLCH
• Borkum - 30 MOLCH
• Ems estuary - 30 BIBER

K-Flottille was posted to Harstad, Norway in November 1944.

The first of the SEEHUND units was posted to Ijmuiden in late December of 1944. The first 6 arrived on Christmas Eve and the next 18 units arrived between Christmas and the end of the year.

A total of 17 units departed their base on New Year's Day 1945 to launch an attack on an Allied convoy, spotted off the Kwinte Bank.

Of these 17 SEEHUND units, seven of them were found beached. There is no mention of what happened to the operators - were they lost? Did they deliberately beach their boats and walk ashore to blend in and stay alive in a war they knew was lost? Not known.

Four disappeared, never to be seen again. 2 were definitely sunk . 1 was abandoned at Dornberg and 1 was picked up by a British MTB.

Only 2 of the entire flotilla of 17 units returned. That is only 11.8% of the total number of SEEHUND units in the action!

Only 1 Allied ship was sunk - the trawler HA YBURN WYKE.

On 10 January, 5 were ordered to operate off the Kent coast ofl Margate. Only one SEEHUND was able to even reach his area, but returned without firing at any shipping.

The K-VERBAND was having a terrible time!

Finally, on 20 January 1945, there were 26 boats in this unit and the very next day, 10 were ordered out on a mission to Ramsgate, North Foreland and also into the channel off Lowestoft. Of these:

• Seven had malfunctions and returned to base;
• Two returned without success.

The other SEEHUND had nothing but bad luck. His compass did not work. He then attached a ship in the Thames estuary but strong tides brought the boat to the north until finally, he found himself off Lowestoft but a British minelayer ML-153 spotted him and attacked. This SEEHUND got away, but wound up even further north and was off Great Yarmouth. The crew had no idea where they were and certainly, did not know they were so far to the north and they headed directly east, anticipating a return to familiar shores. No such luck -- they ran aground on Scroby Sands and went hard aground. Nothing they could do would free them, so after about 60 hours, they fired flares and were picked up by a British vessel. Tired and hungry, they became P.O.W.s.

The luck of the next group was no better. Ten departed Ijmuiden and half were to take up station off Margate and the other half off South Falls. Only 2 reached their patrol area while the others all returned with mechanical problems.

On 12 February, 5 departed for North Foreland and on 15 February the Dutch tanker LISETA, part of Convoy TAM.80, was damaged. Two of the boats were lost and others were temporarily beached.

16 February - four more departed for their patrol area off the Scheldt. One launched an unsuccessful attack on some small landing craft and was beached. Another just beached without any action against the enemy - and the other two just disappeared.

20 February, three departed for their patrol area off Ramsgate and a day later, four more departed for their patrol area off South Falls.

23 February, one more departed for his area off South Falls. This was U-5330 with Sparbrodt and Jahnke as crew. They had much better luck and sank the French destroyer l'COMBATTANTE.

This was a more successful time and the LST-364 was sunk out of Convoy TAM.87 and the cable ship ALERT was sunk off Ramsgate. More important, all eight units returned safely even though one was attacked by a BEA UFIGHTER of 254 Squadron.

In January and February of 1945 and 33 sorties -- four units were lost, two Allied ships (total 3,691 tons) were sunk and another ship of 2,628 tons was damaged.

In March of 1945, there were a total of 29 sorties and the results, although a little better, were not promising.

• Two were sunk by MTBs;
• Three sunk by attacks from airplanes;
• One was sunk by HMS TORRINGTON,
• Two disappeared;
• One was sunk by HMS PUFFIN.

HMS PUFFIN rammed the SEEHUND and hit the torpedoes, detonating them both. The result was the total loss of the K-Boat and damaging HMS PUFFIN so badly that she was out of the war, which ended shortly thereafter and she was never repaired.

Successes of the SEEHUND group in March included:

• TABER PARK of 2,878 tons, -
• JIM of just 833 tons;
• NELANDS of 1,556 tons.

Nine SEEHUND units and crew lost for the sinking of just three ships of 5,267 gross ions is a high price.

At this time, there were 29 SEEHUND units at Ijmuiden in the beginning of April 1945 but only about half of them were in any condition to go into battle. By the 20`h, four more units arrived from the base at Wilhelmshaven then on I May, 14 more arrived as did another two from Helgoland. By this time, the war had mere days before the end.

In April 1945, there was a little more action in that 36 sorties were made by these units and some were lost. This was from:

• One sunk on 9 April by ML-102;
• One sunk by a BEAUFIGHTER of 254 Squadron;
• One ran aground at Calais;
• One sunk by MTB-632 (possible), -
• One was sunk off the Ilook of Holland;
• One sunk by a BARRACUDA of 810 Naval Sqdn;

Successes of the SEEHUND group in April included:

• MONARCH (cable ship), -
• Y-17 (U.S. Navy oiler)
• SAMIDA of 7,219 tons;
• SOLOMON JUNEAU of 7,176 tons (damaged), -
• PORT WYNDHAM of 8,580 tons.

Better, but all for naught as the SEEHUND operations were halted on 28 April 1945. The War was almost ended.

In total, there were 142 sorties; nine ships sunk, three ships damaged and 35 SEEHUND units and their crews lost. While some were lost in combat, most of the SEEHUND units were lost due to bad weather, operational problems, internal malfunctions and operator error.

VICTOR - many thanks for all the great articles you have been sending. Keep them coming! And you other Members - please send your articles. Make sure the research is accurate and correct, and if you can send photos, all the better. We will return them.