Due to Hitler’s constant insistence to support Rommel’s Panzer Group Afrika in Libya by attacking Royal Navy Meditterranean Flert and finally lack of withdrawals and excuses to evade direct orders from Berlin , BdU (German U-Boat command) and Admiral Doenitz finally began transferring U-Boats from main area of operations North Atlantic to Mediterranean Sea in September. First batch of submarines (six U-Boats) began crossing from British held Gibraltar to Western Mediterranean in Seprtember 21. It was a dangerous passage. Gibraltar was home base of Royal Navy Force H (almost half of Mediterranean Fleet) that was supported by Royal Navy Naval Air Arm assets and aircraft of RAF Coastal Command and shore bases and installations. The straits was only eight miles wide. Royal Navy air and sea patrols offshore mostly supported by radar equipped aircraft and ships. Still first group of six U-Boats passed through but next groups following them in November and afterwards would meet much tougher resistance.
Still from second group of U-Boats (four of them) , successful coups against Royal Navy began to coıme in. During second week of November 1941 , Royal Navy Force H , made up modern aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal , old aircraft carrier HMS Argus , battleship HMS Malaya , cruiser HMS Hermoine and seven escort destroyers were returning back to Gibraltar after a successful fighter aircraft ferry mission to Malta. On 12-13 November 1941 , German submarine U-81 came upon to this Royal Navy task force and successfully scored a torpedo hit on aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. A large ship with a good damage control system she was supposed to reach Gibraltar in her damaged state. Alas the aircraft carrier took a heavy list and next day while being towed by tugs , a fire started in engine room which went out of control. All crew and damage control parties aboard her were evacuated by escort ships On 14th November 1941 , the famous aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal finally rolled over and sunk. Although only one person from her crew died , for right now Royal Navy had no modern aircraft carrier left in Mediterranean. (although Germans Naval High Command were confused and could not figure out the Ark Royal that crippled and doomed battleleship Bismarck seven months ago , was sunk for some time)
HMS Ark Royal
This huge sucess though created an erroneous idea in Berlin that by sending more U-Boats into Mediterranean , Axis could cheaply control of this vital patch of water and proved disadventegous for German naval strategy. Now BdU and Doenitz were under pressure from Berlin to send more U-Boats with best crews and captains to Mediterranean , leaving Atlantic field of operations bare.
Fully aware of the mounting U-Boat threeat in Mediterranean Sea , Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet and Force H decided to set up a submarine trap in Western Mediterranean. They sailed a “dummy convoy” from Gibraltar to east , composed of a few empty merchant ships but escorted by two sloops and four corvettes equipped with Type 271 centimetric radar. (a revolution in micro wave detection technology) From this “convoy” , corvette HMS Marigold tdetached from main body temporarily on the nşight of 16th November , discovered Germans submarine U-433 which was approaching to attack. German submarine fired four torpedoes to HMS Marigold but all missed but HMS Marigold using new Type 271 radar detected U-433 on the surface and raced for attack. U-433 crash dived but HMS Marigold made a good sonar contact and sunk U-433 with ten depth charges. Fatally damaged , U-433 surfaced and her crew abandoned the submarine and were picked up by HMS Marigold before U-433 sunk permenantly. HMS Marigold’s victory over U-433 was a sensetional event for British since she was the first U-Boat kill detected by shipborne Type-271 centimetric radar.
U-433
Type-271 centimetric wave length surface search radar
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Will you be featuring U-96 and La Rochelle soon? We watched Das Boot last night and talked about the significance of it.
On 18th November 1941 , 8th Army launched Operation Crusader , all out offensive to relieve Tobruk. OKM (Oberkommando Marine) ordered every available U-boat to be transferred to Mediterranean immediately to take Royal Navy out of Mediterranean and stop their operations to harrass Rommels supply links to Italy. Despite BdU and Admiral Doenitz objections in November , over 20 German submarines begin their perileous journey from Gibraltar to Mediterranean till end of year and more would be sent next year. All in all 50 more U-boats will be sent to Mediterranean till end of 1942 at the expense of minimising number of U-boats in North Atlantic and Arctic ocean.
However British Admiraly thanks to Enigma intercepts became aware what was afoot and already began taking counter measures. RAF Coastal Command intensified air patrols with radar equipped aircraft around Gibraltar. Royal Navy North West Approaches Command in Derby House Liverpool , sent several radar equipped escort vessels from North Atlantic run to Gibraltar. British Admiralty also based an entire radar equipped Swordfish torpedo bomber squadron from recently sunk HMS Ark Royal in Gibraltar. All naval and air patrols and radio tracking around Gibraltar was intensified day and night to block passage of U-boats. On top of that there was additional problems for German Navy in Mediterranean. U-boat bases and rapair facilities in La Spazia and Salamis were complately inadequate and not fully operational.
Despite that U-boats sent to Mediterranean started impressive feats in November 1941. On 25th November , U-331 commanded by Capt. Von Tiesehaunsen intercepted a huge Royal Navy Task Force from Alexandria Egypt , this was a group made up battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth , HMS Barham and HMS Valiant and eight escorting destroyers. Von Tiesenhausen launched four torpedoes to second battleship in the line and three of the torpedoes struck 32.000 ton Queen Elizabeth class battleship HMS Barham , causing a thunderous explosion and she sunk in three minutes with 862 of her crew. After Prien’s HMS Royal Oak , this was the second battleship sunk by a U-boat. The Admiralty witheld her loss for weeks. Von Tiesenhausen who managed to lose escorts after his attack , was awarded a Rittenkreuss after this feat
HMS Barham
In the last week of November ten more U-boats headed to Mediterranean via Gibraltar Strait. Eight U-boats passed , two were sunk
-First U-boat lost was U-95 under veteran captain Gerb Scheiber. After passing through the Strait early morning on 28th November , she was approached by a strange vessel while cruising on the surface. This was Free Dutch Navy submarine O-21 commanded by Capt. Franz Van Dulm returning to Gibraltar. When captain Scheiber hesitated , assuming it might be an Axis submarine approaching and sent recognition signal by light , Dutch captain Van Dulm did not hesistate and O-21 launched two torpedoes , one struck U-95 and blew German submarine to pieces. O-21 picked up Gerb Screiber and three more survivors and brought them to Gibraltar.
-Second U-boat loss inside Mediterranean was Otto Paulshen’s U-557. After passing through Gibraltar on 26th November , she encountered Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Galatea off Alexandria , torpedoed and sunk it. However after this victory , on early morning 16th December , while returning back to U-Boat base at Salamis on the surface , Italian PT boat Oriani encountered U-557 off Crete and in darkness Italian torpedo boat attacked with all guns blazing to U-557 then rammed her. Badly holed , U-557 quickly sunk. There were no survivors.
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During last week of November , five more U-boats tried to pass Gibraltar Straits. None made to Mediterranean though :
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U-96 under command of Lehmann Willenbrock was detected by a radar equipped Swordfish aircraft off Gibraltar (formerly from HMS Ark Royal) The plane dropped two depth charges , severely damaging U-96. Lehmann-Willenbrock had to submerge and took U-96 bottomed 240 feet for five hours , making emergency repairs then aborted to France. Still on board , German propagandist Lothar-Gunther Buchheim drew upon retreat of U-96 for climax of his famous novel “Das Boot” greatly exagerrating the incident. The movie version did likewise.
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Sailing from St. Nazaire on 29th November , to enter Mediterranean , U-206 struck a mine in an undetected British minefield on the same day and lost with all hands.
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U-563 on 30th November and U-558 on 1-2 December tried to force Gibraltar but in both cases they were detected and attacked by RAF Coastal Command aircraft , badly damaged and had to abort back to France
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On 7th December , U-208 fresh from Brest , tried to pass through Gibraltar but she was detected , depth charged and sunk by Royal Navy destroyers HMS Hesperus and HMS Harvester off 70 miles west off Straits. There were no survivors
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U-451 under command of Eberhard Hoffman tried to pass through Gibraltar Straits on early hours of 21st December but while cruising on the surface she was detected by a radar equipped Swordfish torpedo bomber from Squadron 821 formerly based on HMS Ark Royal. Swordfish aircraft came from low , dropped three 250 pound depth charges that sunk U-451. Only executive offier of U-451 survived and rescued by Royal Navy sloop HMS Myosotis. U-451 sunk with rest of her crew. She was the first U-Boat to be sunk at night by aircraft.
While trying to attack different convoys , two more U-boats were sunk inside Mediterranean by Royal Navy during December 1941. On December 23 , U-79 approaching to Egyptian coast , was detected , depth charged and sunk by Royal Navy destroyers HMS Hasty and HMS Hotspur off Sollum , Libya. All of her crew was picked up by British destroyers. And on 28 December 1941 off Mersa Matruh , Egypt , Royal Navy destroyer HMS Kipling detected , depth charged and sunk U-75. Only twenty five crewmen were rescued from this U-Boat and picked up by HMS Kipling.
All in all , beside sinking of HMS Ark Royal , HMS Barham and HMS Galatea , U-Boats in Mediterranean also sunk Australian corvette HMAS Paramatta and corvette HMS Silvia plus plus eight freighters and tankers totalling 30.500 tons in November and December 1941. These losses along with sucessful underwater attack on Alexandria harbour by Italian frogmen on 18-19 December 1941 which crippled last two Royal Navy battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Barham plus transfer of Luftflotte 2 from Russian Front to Mediterranean temporarily broke Royal Navy’s command in Mediterranean Sea. It was unable to provide flank support to advancing Eighth Army after successful conclusion of Operation Crusader which bogged down after British capturing Benghazi.
None of the U-Boats entered Mediterranean would be able to return to Atlantic though.
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Thanks 
I love your essays on these events.
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