HMS Burwell

[Laurence Strong]

Hi

I am trying to confirm if this is HMS Burwell or HMCS Niagara. It has to be one of the 2 as they were the one's involved in the capture of U570

Edited June 17, 2007 by Laurence Strong

[Arthur]

Hi

I am trying to confirm if this is HMS Burwell or HMCS Niagara. It has to be one of the 2 as they were the one's involved in the capture of U570

Hi,

It is H.M.S. Burwell, I have a picture of her in 'The Towns' by Arnold Hague. Niagra's camouflage on the hull is different to that of the Burwell.

Regards

Arthur

[Laurence Strong]

Hi Arthur

Thanks for your help. PM sent

[Laurence Strong]

The scans sent to me by Arthur

HMS Burwell

Edited June 18, 2007 by Laurence Strong

[Laurence Strong]

HMCS Niagara

I believe this photo dates after her second refit, I seem to recall a photo with her pennant number with the same colours as shown in the Burwell photo

[Laurence Strong]

An excerpt of the After Action report:

"......Upon arrival of H.M.S. BURWELL, that vessel circled the submarine and sized up the situation. The submarine appeared to be very low in the water. The first message received from the submarine was. - "Will you take off our crew?". to which the BURWELL replied, - "Blow main ballast tanks and send your crew below". No reply was received and no action was taken by the German crew to blow main ballast tanks or go below.

Another message was sent, - "Do not attempt to throw any papers or books overboard and do not attempt to scuttle". An answer was received to this message. - "What does scuttle mean?"

Very shortly after the above message was received the following message was received from the submarine, - "Will you take off our crew, we are sinking": to which the commanding officer, H.M.S. BURWELL replied, - "Blow fuel overboard".

Since no action was taken to blow main ballast tanks or to blow fuel and since no member of the crew was observed to go below, the commanding officer of H.M.S. BURWELL opened fire on the submarine with a burst from one fifty caliber machine gun. Members of the crew of the submarine were wounded and others rushed below decks. Ballast tanks and fuel tanks were then blown. (Air to the fuel tanks was not completely shut off until a boarding party boarded the submarine. Whether this was due to fright or was a deliberate attempt to deplete the air supply is not known). The reason that no attempt to board the submarine had been made up to this time was the bad weather. A very high sea wa running which, however, was moderating.

After blowing tanks the submarine signaled, - "Will you take off my wounded"; to which BURWELL replied, - "Yes". After two unsuccessful attempts by the BURWELL to float a raft to the submarine one of the trawlers succeeded in doing so. The first persons to leave the submarine were its officers and not the wounded. A total of six wounded were later removed from the submarine...."

Reproduced with the kind permission of Capt Jerry Mason USN (Ret)

A wealth of information can be found here along with some photo's of the capture:

http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-570.htm

One of the Photo's

Edited June 18, 2007 by Laurence Strong

[Tiger-pie]

"...The first persons to leave the submarine were its officers and not the wounded. A total of six wounded were later removed from the submarine...."

Bloody typical of officers...

Thats a great link Laurence, heaps of info. We have a huge scale printer where I work, so I will be able to run off a copy of the General Plan of U-570 without cropping or resizing.

Regards;

Johnsy

[Arthur]

HMCS Niagara

I believe this photo dates after her second refit, I seem to recall a photo with her pennant number with the same colours as shown in the Burwell photo

Hi,

This site show Niagara with similar markings on her port side: http://www.navyphotos.co.uk/ngara1b.jpg

Regards

Arthur