British submarine Seal 19.4.40

[jan-olof]

Hello again,

In some German documents it is alleged that the British submarine Seal, while returning to Rosyth on the 19th of April, 1940, crash dived in order to avoid a torpedo fired against her from a German u-boat. The reason for asking is that this attack is not mentioned on the uboat.net page dedicated to the submarine:

https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3417.html

Did this attack really take place or is German document in error?

Best regards,

Jan-Olof

[Brian Corijn]

Hi Jan Olof,

I have checked the patrol report but there is no mention at all on this.
In fact the last entry is for 17 April and says something like; proceeded to Rosyth as ordered.

The last logbook of HMS Seal i have photographed is the one for March 1940.
The logbooks of April and May 1940 most likely were captured with the submarine, seems likely the german document you have is a translation of the captured logbooks.

As far as i know no German submarine reported attacking a submarine near the position HMS Seal would have been in on the 19th so most likely the attack was bogus.

Regards,
Brian Corijn
Admin Allied warships section Uboat.net

[t-geronimo]

Duikboot-database also has no entry for this day:

https://historisches-marinearchiv.de/pr ... uik=search

[jan-olof]

Hello Brian and Thorsten,

thank you both for your replies, it certainly looks like a bogus attack unless it was an allied sub I guess.

Best regards,

Jan-Olof

[Platon Alexiades]

Hello Jan-Olof and friends,

HMS Seal sighted what appeared to be a torpedo track at 1020 hours on 18th April 1940 (not the 19th) in 57°10' N, 00°20' E (source ADM199/1840).

The "attack" is certainly bogus as no German U-boats (or S-boats) operated in this area at that time.
All the best,

Platon

[jan-olof]

Hello Brian, Thorsten and Platon,

many thanks for your informative replies. Another mystery solved.

Best regards,

Jan-Olof