The Strangest U-Boat "Kill"

[MIflyer]

One day in WWII a patrol aircraft over the North Atlantic sighted a U-boat. Running low on fuel, the aircraft radioed a sighting report and headed for home. A Royal Navy destroyer was dispatched to the area to see if something could be done about the sub.

The destroyer arrived and found not a U-boat but an entire U-boat crew floating in the water. It turned out that the U-boat lookouts had spotted the aircraft and the sub dived. Then, one of the crew needed to use the head. There was a specific procedure for flushing a toilet on a submarine and the consequences for flubbing a flush could be catastrophic. And it was.

I wonder how that went over in the POW camp? "Ach! They got you too! What was it? One of those accursed Liberators? A Hudson? A corvette? A destroyer?" "Nein! Hans had an accident in the head."

And how do you paint that kill on your airplane? Well, how about instead of a U-boat sinking....

 

[Gnomey]

Interesting!

 

[MIflyer]

In WWII the OSS were contacted by the Norwegian underground, saying that the entire country's catch of sardines had been purchased by the Germans and was to be shipped to the German U-Boat bases in the country. They underground assumed that the sardines were going to be used to provision the U-boats, as a compact and high protein food supply. The underground said that they had access to the sardines and could put something in them if the OSS could provide it.

The OSS sent the Norwegians croton oil, which is a very powerful laxative. The effects of this on a U-boat crew can only be imagined. But they never found out whether the sardine sabotage worked..

 

[cherry blossom]

There seem to be several versions of the toilet story. Wikipedia has German submarine U-1206 - Wikipedia