Wolf pack Schlieffen

"Schlieffen" was a wolf pack of German U-boats that operated during the battle of the Atlantic in World War II.

ervice history

"Schlieffen" was formed in October 1943 to operate against the North Atlantic convoy routes and comprised 14 boats.It consisted of 6 boats from the disbanded group "Rossbach", plus 7 others from bases in France and Germany, whilst another, "U-455", joined from patrol in the Mid Atlantic.

Whilst moving into position a number of boats came under attack, principally from aircraft from USS "Card", which was operating against their re-fuelling operation.The tanker "U-488" was attacked on 12 October, but suffered little damage; however "U-731", which was also attacked later that day was forced to return to base. On 13 October 2 more boats ("U-402" and "U-603") were attacked, and both were destroyed. Another 2 boats, "U-631" and "U-455" collided; both were damaged, and "U-455" was forced to retire to base for repairs, while "U-631", with her torpedo tubes out of action, was put on observation duties.

From 15 October "Schlieffen" operated against convoys ONS.20 and ON 206, which were travelling together; U-boats from "Schlieffen" sank one ship of 6625 GRT, but lost 6 boats ("U-470", "U-540", "U-630", "U-841", "U-844" and "U-964") in one of the most calamitous nights of the campaign for the U-boat arm ("U-Bootwaffe",UBW)

"Schlieffen" was disbanded after this attack, with a number of it boats forming the nucleus of a new group, code-named "Siegfried".

U-boats involved

*U-91
*U-231
*U-267
*U-271
*U-413
*U-426
*U-437
*U-448
*U-540
*U-668
*U-762
*U-841
*U-842

The name

"Schlieffen" was named for Count Alfred von Schlieffen, the German strategistwas a German field marshal and strategist of the 19th Century.

References

* Jak P M Showell "U-Boat Warfare: The Evolution of the Wolf-Pack" (2002) ISBN 0-7110-2887-7

* Clay Blair : "Hitler’s U-Boat War Vol II" (1998) ISBN 0-304-35261-7