Action in Tarafal Bay

Part of World War II

Date	27/28 September 1941
Location	Tarafal Bay, Cape Verde, Atlantic Ocean
Result	Inconclusive

Belligerents

United Kingdom

Nazi Germany

Commanders and leaders

LtCdr. DC. Ingram

V Adm. Karl Dönitz (BdU)

Strength

1 submarine

3 U-boats

Casualties and losses

1 submarine slightly damaged,
none killed

1 U-boat damaged
none killed

The Action in Tarafal Bay was a naval engagement which took place during the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War. It was notable in that the four vessels involved were all submarines.

In September 1941 the German U-boat Arm was engaged in a war against Allied trade; as part of this offensive the U-boat Command (BdU) in the person of V Adm. Karl Dönitz dispatched a force of U-boats to operate in the South Atlantic, principally off the west African coast. The first wave of four boats left in late August and early September. They had little success; one factor in this was that the Allies had penetrated the German Enigma code system, and were able to garner up-to-date intelligence (Ultra) on the whereabouts of marauding U-boats. This enabled them to re-route merchant shipping to avoid trouble.

The following wave also of four U boats departed in mid-September; these were more successful, mounting an attack on convoy SL 87, sinking six ships. In the process of attacking SL 87 one boat, German submarine U-68 (1940) (KK K-F Merten), fired most of her torpedoes, many of which had malfunctioned (a late example of the torpedo problems that bedeviled the U-boat Arm in the early part of the war) and was left without enough to continue. Another U-boat, German submarine U-67 (1940) (KL G. Müller-Stöckheim), had a crewman requiring medical attention. BdU decided to have U-67 and U-68 rendezvous with German submarine U-111 (1940) (KL W. Kleinschmidt), a first wave boat which was returning to base. Thus, U-111 would transfer fuel and torpedoes to U-68, while the doctor aboard U-68 could treat the sick man on U-67. If he needed hospitalization he could then be shipped home in U-111. The RV was set for Tarafal Bay, on the island of Santiago in the Cape Verde island group. Cape Verde was neutral Portuguese territory and Tarafal Bay was a remote region of it; BdU reasoned it would be an eminently suitable site for the meeting. The arrangement for the RV were transmitted encrypted by radio; the messages were received and decoded at Bletchley Park, including an indiscrete reference by the captain of U-111 to Tarafal Bay as the rendezvous site. Despite the risk of acting directly on Ultra intelligence, thereby risking exposing the fact that the code had been penetrated, the Admiralty decided to intercept the RV and ordered the submarine HMS Clyde (LtCdr. DC. Ingram), on ASW duty in the South Atlantic, to intercept and destroy them.

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Wikipedia