Sinking TA 26 and TA 30.

[cam]

Hi.

Colleagues,
Please help me find out the circumstances of the death of torpedo boats TA 26 and TA 30 on the night of June 15, 1944.
The Americans describe this attack as follows
On the night of June 14/15, Lt. Bruce P. Van Buskirk, USNR, leading a patrol out of Bastia in PT 558, with PT's 552 and 559, made a nearly perfect attack on two corvettes between La Spezia and Genoa. The PT's tracked the corvettes by radar for 25 minutes, finally idling in to firing range and releasing two torpedoes each. As the boats sneaked away they saw the leading corvette disintegrate with a violent explosion, and immediately afterwards saw an explosion on the other corvette. Ten minutes later the boats saw gunfire, apparently from the second corvette, but it was not even in the direction of the PT's. Then there was another explosion in the direction of the corvette, and the ship disappeared from the radar screen. The PT's were certain of destruction of one corvette, and thought they might have sunk the other, but could not stop to investigate because the first light of dawn was breaking. It is now known that both enemy ships (TA 26 and TA 30) were sunk.
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/CloseQuarters/PT-6.html

The Germans write in their War Diaries

15 jun. 1944
During the night of 14 Jun., the foreign made torpedoboats TA "26" and "30' carried out the mine task "Nadel" north of Gerona according to plans. On their way back the boats were torpedoed by enemy PT boats 17 miles west of Spezia.

17 jun. 1944
Searches for the rescue of the torpedoboats of foreign construction TA "26" and "30" had no success during the night of 16 Jun. According to a report of the commander of TA "30" the boats were torpedoed by a salvo of four torpedoes of an enemy submarine.
https://archive.org/details/wardiarygermann581944germ/page/380/mode/2up

It turns out that the American torpedo attack was completely unexpected.
But there is a description in Russian, which in English looks like this

On June 15, at about 4 am, 17 miles west of La Spezia, destroyers suddenly found long, low shadows moving rapidly in the southwest, in the darkest part of the horizon. It turned out to be American torpedo boats, which at that moment launched torpedoes at German ships. The destroyers immediately began to turn, trying to evade the approaching torpedoes. The TA-26 did not have time to turn off. The torpedo hit the middle of the ship. A column of fire and water shot upward. The enemy boats circled around the damaged destroyer, although all German guns fired at them. This did not help - apparently, the lack of training of the crews and the lack of proper experience affected. Another boat was able to approach the TA-26. The second torpedo hit sent the ship to the bottom very quickly. At 04.16, he disappeared under water. But the battle did not stop, although the attackers also suffered losses. One boat exploded from being hit by a 100-mm shell from a TA-30. Another boat lost its speed and was engulfed in fire. The rest of the boats fired torpedoes again, one of which hit the TA-30. Huge tongues of flame burst out of the destroyer - it detonated the ammunition. The explosion ripped off the stern and instantly disappeared under water. The rest followed. At 04.33 the destroyer sank. These were heavy losses for the flotilla. Although the two remaining destroyers, finishing off the second boat and forcing the rest to retreat, immediately began to pick up people from the water, nevertheless, many died - 90 people from the TA-26 crew and 20 people from the TA-30.
http://wunderwafe.ru/Articles/Nem_Sred.htm

This description is taken from some German source.
I would like to know if there was a battle of torpedo boats with PT boats.

cam

[kalli]

Siehe dazu Angaben in ,,Wirich von Gartzen – Die Flottille", Seite 68 ff.

Es ist  wahrscheinlich, dass die Angriffe von amerikanischen Patrol Boats ausgingen (Funküberwachung Feindfunk 09.15 Uhr: Versenkung von 2 deutschen Zerstörern). Englische Quelle (welche?) nennt US PT 552, PT 558, PT 559.

Dagegen beschreibt Kaptl. Kopka, Kommandant von TA 30:
04.14 Uhr: Torpedotreffer TA 26, 2 Sekunden später Treffer TA 30...
04.28 Uhr: U-Boot taucht Stb. querab auf, Entfernung etwa 600 m ..
04.31 Uhr: U-Boot taucht...

Kopkas Beschreibung in seinem Tagebuch weicht deutlich von der Beschreibung bezüglich eines PT-Angriffs ab. Was stimmt?

Falls diesbezüglich noch keine Klarheiten bestehen wäre die Frage, welche U-Boote sich in fraglicher Zeit an fraglicher Position befanden?

[cam]

American source - R.Bulkley. At Close Quarters: PT Boats in the United States Navy.

No Allied submarine reported an attack on ships that day in the area.

Wirich von Gartzen write:
Although the two remaining destroyers, finishing off the second boat and forcing the rest to retreat, immediately began to pick up people from the water, nevertheless, many died - 90 people from the TA-26 crew and 20 people from the TA-30.
but other sources only mention TA-26 and TA-30.

[kalli]

Hier einige passende Fotos:

Bild 1: KL Dereschewitz, KK Burkart, KL Kopka, KL Schmidt-Troje
Bild 2: Wenzel, Burkart, Dereschewitz, Kopka, von Trotha

[kalli]

Fotos von TA 30

[cam]

Thanks for the photo, especially for the TA 30 - I did not have a photo of this torpedo boat!

[Darius]

Lt. MTB Sq. 29, Action Report No. 2, night of 14/15 June 1944, wurden PT 558, PT 559, PT 552 auf die dt. Fahrzeuge angesetzt. Sie feuerten jeweils zwei Torpedos, von welchen 3 oder 4 als Treffer angenommen wurden.
Auf dem Rückmarsch haben die Boote Luftsicherung angefordert. Dieser Anruf wurde vom dt. B-Dienst erkannt.




Darius