THE HUNT FOR THE LOST SOVIET SUB
Summer 1942. A world at war. The small idyll Västervik on the Swedish east coast is also affected by the horrors of World War Two. Kungsgrundet is a known haunt of soviet submarines. In July a periscope is spotted in the area and Swedish marine vessels and airplane attack.
1942 was the year when WWII was balancing. In Russia the battle of Stalingrad was raging back and forth and the Nazis was on the verge of retreating. Wehrmacht occupied Norway and Denmark and Finland had allied with Nazi-Germany in their fight against the Soviet Union. Sweden was on the paper neutral in the conflict.
In the Baltic Sea the soviet submarines was trapped in the Finnish Gulf and made dangerous brake-through attempts to take their machines out into open sea. Their targets where German troop and iron ore transports. In the Finnish Bay the Soviet submarine commanders and their crews met mine barriers and German and Finnish patrol boats.
At a high cost, a total of 15 Soviet subs where lost 1942, they sometimes managed to take their lethal machines out into the Baltic Sea. Kungsgrundet, just outside of the city Västervik at the east coast of Sweden, became a popular spot to lurk on convoys.
The Soviet sub fleets activities in the Baltic Sea increased drastically during war spring –42. The commanders had orders not to attack Swedish boats and respect territorial waters. The order was not always complied.
20 of June 1942 the Danish steamer Orion was hit by a torpedo amidships on her way from Visby to Landsort. She didn’t sink but was towed in to the harbor of Visby. In the hull torpedo fragments with Kyrillian letters where discovered.
Two days later, at 12.14, the Swedish steamer Ada Gorthon was attacked outside of Möckleby at Öland. She sank in 15 seconds with 14 of the totally 22 crewmembers still aboard.Now the Swedish authorities had had enough.
Sweden’s minister of foreign affairs, Richard Günter, turned to the Soviet Union with a public letter of protest. The Swedish navy announced at the same time that all vessels, regardless nationality, now were to have an escort while travelling across Swedish waters. Airplanes were also commissioned for escort duties.
The Soviet Union reacted. All their submarines received a direct order not to attack any Swedish transport vessels. To admit such an order had been the same as admitting to have sunk Swedish neutral ships. The order was therefore classified as top secret until long after the war had ended.
Between the beacons of Landsort (outside of Stockholm), Furön (outside of Oskarshamn) and Garpen (outside of Bergkvara) where daily escort by Swedish navy ships established for convoys headed north or south. For the purpose ten destroyers and four smaller patrol ships where decommissioned. Sometimes the escorts also had one or two planes at their disposal.The escorted convoys mostly left at dawn. The reason was to make as much use of the precious daylight as possible. The Swedish destroyers had, although almost new, no hydrophones or sonar to detect subs with. The patrol boats had a type of hydrophone called “perifon” but it had limited usability. The crews’ only chance of spotting attacking submarines was optical observations and the daylight was essential for surviving.
The Swedish navy had put itself in a precarious situation. On one hand there were Finland and Germany who, of course, took the chance to have Swedish escorts. On the other hand there were the Soviet submarines that targeted the same convoys. The cargo was a natural hunt for them because the goods where used in the war against their country. Swedish seamen where therefore most highly involved in the war. One of the most famous efforts is what came to be known as “Slaget vid Kungsgrundet” (The Battle of Kungsgrundet).
It is early morning 21 of July 1942. It looks like it is going to be a lovely day. Outside of Bergkvara crewmembers is awaken. They’re to meet a day they never will forget.The clock has precisely struck 7. A northbound convoy of 11 transport ships departs from the beacon of Garpen. Leader of the convoy is the white painted steamer Bele. The transports are guarded by the destroyers Nordenskjöld and Karlskrona and the patrol boat Kaparen, together with a seaplane of type S 5C Hansa. Nordenskjöld is the leader of the escort.The weather is nice. The sentinel on the only two-year-old destroyer Karlskrona writes in the war diary that a faint southwest wind strikes at two meter per second. It is 16 degrees Celsius in the air and 15 in the water. A nice summer day that soon will change character.
09.40 the ships are situated four nautical miles south of Kungsgrundet. Suddenly the airplane dives down between Bele and Nordenskjöld and drops a bomb. The commanders are frenetically trying to get in contact with the pilot, but the radio on the plane is broken.The bomb doesn’t explode but the crew on Kaparen sees a periscope steaming against Bele. The sub is now inside the escort and has a perfect firing position against the transport ships.The commander of Nordenskjöld keeps his head calm and orders that a depth charge shall be released against the unknown hostile submarine. The charge explodes and the sub dives so steep that its propeller is spotted on the water surface. The Nordenskjöld commander lets his ship and Kaparen break the escort to hunt down the submarine while Karlskrona creates smoke to hide the convoy.
09.50 the tower of the submarine is briefly seen from Kaparen. Kaparen, Nordenskjöld and the plane drop bombs and depth charges.
10.15 the crewmembers can exhale. The water fog and dynamite smell after the depth charges is slowly disappearing and the head of escorts has the situation under control.Nordenskjöld and Kaparen resume escort duties while Karlskrona is ordered to stay and guard the area. A southbound convoy is entering the area and, although the sub is presumed to have sunk, the order is to watch the area.
11.05 a large oil stain is visible on the water surface. Swift drops
Karlskrona 8 depth charges in the stain.
11.15 the echo sounder makes a big jump. On the bottom lays something that’s between five and eight meters of height. Every time Karlskrona passes over the same spot the echo sounder makes a jump. After a while a flow of air streams to the surface and more depth charges are released.
12.00 the southbound convoy arrives in the area and Karlskrona gives up its attempts to find the presumed sunk soviet sub.
At 17.00 the navy vessels anchor in Hårsfjärden, outside of Stockholm. A nerve-tangling day has reached its end and most of the crewmembers are certain that they have sunk a soviet sub, giving the poor sub crewmembers little thought. But the question is if they really did sink a Soviet sub.
War diaries and evidence points out that the Swedish navy at least must have hit the sub. During those two hours more than 60 depth charges and two plane bombs was used against the submarine. Oil stains and air bubbles are evidence for the sub being hit. At the same time it is a fact that all weapons where dropped almost blindly. The Swedish navy had no accurate equipment that could locate the attacking sub. The only one involved with some control over where they were pointing there weapons where the airplane. And it dropped one bomb that was defect and one that exploded far behind the sub.
But the Swedish commander in chief of the army’s intelligence, Linder, was certain. He reported that the Swedish navy had not only sunk one, but two submarines nearby Kungsgrundet. One on the 11th of July 1942 and the second 21st of July. On the 11th of July the Swedish transport ship Luleå was attacked and sunk. The Swedish patrol boat Snapphanen attacked the sub and reported to have sunk her.
What the proud commander did not report was that the navy had sent the sub rescue vessel Belo to the places where the subs where presumed to have sunk. The expeditions gave nothing. The closest Belo came to the wreck after a sunken sub was an under water cliff.
Per-Olof Ekman, well known Finnish author, who has written several books about the submarine war in the Baltic Sea, has said that the reported sinking from the Swedish Navy was “wishful thinking”.
The sub that was attacked 21st of July was most probably SC 406. According to her captains war diary she shot two torpedoes on the 22 of July against a convoy of eleven ships led by the steamer Bele and escorted by navy ships. The convoy at Kungsgrundet fits well in this description but according to the submarine captain Ospinov the attack should have taken place outside of Mariehamn at Åland.
If SC 406 was the sub that was attacked at Kungsgrundet she managed to escape in a good condition. She returned to the harbor at Lavansaari on 6 of august 1942 after two months war patrol. Ospinov reported that the damage on the submarines periscope and rudder came from a Finnish patrol boat attack in the Finnish Bay on his way home.
Other sources points out SC 317. But here there are a lot of questions raised. On the 10th of July SC 317 sent a message to home base that she had run out of torpedoes and was returning. That was the last time the sub and it’s 42 men strong crew ever was heard of again.SC 317 may have been at Kungsgrundet 21st of July. But why should she be in a position for firing torpedoes when she none had? Also the Finnish Navy has reported that they had sunk her on the 14th of July 1942.
Although sources and statements contradict one and each other there are several factors that suggests that a soviet submarine and its crew has found its last resting place somewhere outside of Kungsgrundet.
On the night between 7 and 8 of July 1942 two submarines was spotted by Swedish destroyers and airplanes in Swedish waters. One of them was most definitely SC 406. The other sub is unknown but may very well have participated in the Battle of Kungsgrundet.
Opinions and information about what really took place that day differs. It is hard to conclude what really happened, when and where. One thing is certain though, there was a war going on in the Baltic Sea with all the horror and death there always are in wars.
A tragic evidence of that is the Soviet sub S 8. She was assumed to have struck a mine in the Finnish Bay 12th of October 1942 but was discovered outside of Öland in June 1999 by a Swedish amateur dive team. There she had struck a mine and sunk with the whole crew of 46 men. Nothing says that not more Soviet subs, who cleared they’re way through the Finnish Bay instead came to meet there final destiny some other place. Perhaps at Kungsgrundet.
Footnote: Thanks to Staffan Berglind, Sergey Goglov, Per Clason and Kajsa Andersson for all research help.
Read more:
Havsvargar, Ubåtar och ubåtskrig i Östersjön by Per-Olof Ekman.JAGARE by Curt Borgenstam, Per Insulander, Gösta Kaudern.
By: Peter Ahlgren
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