A first in submarine warfare took place on Feb. 9, 1945 between a German U-boat and a British submarine, with
the state of world affairs today it may not be the last. Off the coast of Norway a three hour drama between the
U-864 and the HMS Venturer P-68 took place under the surface of the North Sea. The U-864 was en route to
Japan with a cargo of mercury and more importantly jet engines parts manufactured by Messerschmitt. The
HMS Venturer had already scored a U-boat kill on Nov. 11, 1944 by sinking the U-711, and now
Lt. James Stuart Launders was on the hunt for a second.
This encounter was not by chance, Venturer had been ordered to sink the U-864 and given her probable position
courtesy of Hitler's own machine, the Enigma. The coded messages were deciphered in Bletchley Park and
passed on to the appropriate authorities. It was one of these decrypts that gave away the U-864, but it was
not just that simple, one had to find the boat and sink her.
The U-864 departed from Bergen on Feb. 7 and was intercepted by the Venturer on the 9th. She was found by
dead reckoning and located by the sound of her propellers. Launders did not want to risk a quick attack he
needed to be sure he would complete his mission so he therefore trailed the U-boat for some three hours before
launching his torpedoes. From time to time the periscope of the U-864 was visible but the boat stayed under
the surface.
After some time the commander of the U-864,
Korvettenkapitän
Ralf-Reimar Wolfram, realized he was being
followed and began to take evasive action by zig-zagging, still under water. Launders, having little choice
made a radical decision, he would fire his torpedoes while submerged, at another submerged target. The U-864
managed to avoid three of the four torpedoes fired, but under water it takes only one and the fourth one found
the target, the U-864 broke in half and sank with all hands.
In all of naval warfare this is the only known incident where a submarine sank another submarine while both
were submerged.
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