Aviation History - January 2016

36 AH January 2016

Arnold and Admiral Ernest King. Slessor’s pleas

for American VLR Liberators were instrumental

in resolving the long-simmering ASW disputes

between the Army and Navy. In brief, the Army

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increased allotment of new production B-24s.

Moreover, King, an Anglophobe, agreed to tem-

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In July and August, while U-boats received lit-

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superb for all ASW aircraft, including the VLR

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in the early weeks of July. Then, between July 28

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nine more, three of them on July 30. But Slessor

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port, then authorized his skippers to trespass into

neutral Spain’s coastal waters whenever feasible.

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Germany had previously experimented with

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gun. Now U-boats armed with dismountable sin-

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out when surprised on the surface. The stage was

set for pitched air/surface battles.

P

erhaps the most intense of these show-

downs began before dawn on November

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Vickers Wellington bomber detected a

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addition to the RAF Wellington, three U.S. Navy

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hour battle.

A diary entry from the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Air

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blows: “10 November 1943/Time 0910/U-boat

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VB-105, and VB-110. Flak from U-boat was

in tense. One Liberator hit and returning to

Dunkes well Air Base with one engine out. U-boat

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The submarine was U-966, a 712-ton Type

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and commanded by Lt. j.g. Ekkehard Wolf, not

yet 25. Wolf and his 50-man crew had survived

a British destroyer depth-charge attack but lost

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nicate, Wolf aborted the patrol and made a run

for western France. U-966 surfaced in the Bay of

Biscay and was changing its deck watch when the

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Gunn doused his Leigh Light, instead exploiting

bright moonlight and a telltale phosphorescent

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When the charges exploded, remembered Her-

bert Komer, U-966’s chief engineer, “It was as if

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soon as wounded sailors were brought below, Wolf

ordered an emergency dive to 150 meters. Making

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plunged, U-966_W]TLVW\TM^MTWٺKWV\QV]QVO\W

240 meters before stabilizing. The German crew

rallied to patch and repair. Finally, at 9 a.m., its

battery power exhausted, U-966 surfaced in bright

sunlight and fair seas only to be spotted again, now

by a PB4Y-1 Liberator from VB-105.

Lieutenant Leonard Harmon attacked out of

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Harmon executed three strafing runs, using

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navalized Liberator’s bow turret. Having sus-

tained heavy damage and low on fuel, Harmon

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ments. Shortly before noon VB-103 PB4Y-1 pilot

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Afterward, Wright reported the U-boat was

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deadly defense

An armorer cleans the

.303-inch gun barrels

of a Liberator Mk. III’s

rear turret in 1943.