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| 03/01/1943 |
Convoy JW-51B arrives
without loss at Murmansk. |
| 15/01/1943 |
German naval forces announce a blockade
of Sweden's Gothenburg harbour to protest the ongoing traffic
between Sweden and Great Britain. After five months, the Germans
finally relent and lift the blockade. |
| 29/01/1943 |
Admiral Dönitz takes over from
Admiral Raeder as C-in-C of the German Navy. |
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| 21/02/1943 |
Convoy ON-166 (60 ships) sailing from
Britain to North America, is attacked in the North Atlantic
by 19 U-boats from wolfpacks Ritter and Knappen between the
21st and 26th February. 14 allied ships are lost for 87,901
tons. 4 U-boats U-225, U-606, U-529, U623 were sunk during
the battle. |
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| 07/03/1943 |
A new wolfpack, codenamed
'Raubgraf' (Robber Baron), is created in the central North
Atlantic. It will operate between the 7th and 20th March 1943
and includes U-84, U-89, U-91, U-435, U-468, U-600, U-603,
U-615, U-621, U-638, U-653, U-664, U-758. Immediately the wolfpack
attacks convoy ON-168 which is traveling between North America
and the UK. One ship is damaged and abandoned on the 7th March,
to be finally sunk on the 12th March for 6,537 gross tons. |
| 09/03/1943 |
U-510 torpedoes eight ships in three
hours off the coast of Brazil, in what is the most successful
single U-boat action of the war. |
| 11/03/1943 |
The north Atlantic convoy ONS-169
is attacked by wolfpack 'Raubgraf' between the 11th and 12th
March losing 2 ships for 10,531 gross tons. Atlantic convoys
SC121 and HX228 are also attacked by other wolfpacks and lose
17 ships for the loss of just U-444 and U-432. |
| 16/03/1943 |
Wolfpack 'Raubgraf' and attacks convoys
HX-229 (37 ships) between until the 19th March, sinking 12
ships for 86,326 gross tons damaging 4. Another wolfpack, named
'Stürmer', attacks SC122 and over a period of four days
and nights sinking 11 ships (54,740 tons) for the loss of just
one U-boat, U-384 (Oblt. von Rosenberg-Gruszinski). |
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| 25/04/1943 |
On his last patrol aboard
U-404, Kapitänleutnant Otto von Bülow fires two FAT
and two G7e torpedoes at British aircraft carrier HMS Biter.
All detonate prematurely and HMS Biter escapes without damage.
Von Bülow is later decorated by Hitler with Oak leaves
to his Knights Cross for his Atlantic successes and German
newspapers report the recent sinking of the American carrier
USS Ranger as well. Later, USS Ranger commander Gordon Rowe,
is photographed aboard his carrier smiling at a photograph
of von Bülow and the German report of his vessel's demise. |
| 29/04/1943 |
U-boats begin a six-day attack on
Convoy ONS5, during which 13 allied ships are finally sunk
for the loss of six U-boats. |
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| 14/05/1943 |
During a raid against
Kiel by the U.S. 8th Air Force, 3 U-boats are destroyed. |
| 20/05/1943 |
The U.S. Tenth Fleet is formed for
anti-submarine operations in the Atlantic. |
| 24/05/1943 |
The battle of the Atlantic is officially
concluded as won by Allies, due to the withdrawal of virtually
all U-boats from the Atlantic by Admiral Dönitz, C-in-C
of the Kriegsmarine after the loss of 56 boats in April and
May. |
| 31/05/1943 |
By the end of May, 41 U-boats have
been sunk in the Atlantic due to greatly improved allied anti-submarine
techniques and tactics (Hedgehog, greater-range patrol aircraft,
better radar, more escort vessels and carriers, plus the advantage
of having broken the German Navy Enigma code). "Black
May" effectively marks the end of a sustained German U-boat
campaign in WW2 which did come very close to starving out Britain
and forcing her to make terms with Germany. |
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 |
| 01/06/1943 |
BdU (C-in-C U-boats) adopts
a new policy of fighting back at Allied sub-hunting aircraft
with the U-boats' own AA guns while crossing the Bay of Biscay
on the surface. This tactic proves to be largely unsuccessful
and is soon abandoned. |
| 05/06/1943 |
U-513 (Kptlt. Sohler)
sinks 4 ships off the coast of Brazil. |
| 14/06/1943 |
RAF Coastal Command begins daily
patrols over the Bay of Biscay with aircraft equipped with
new detection devices to locate and destroy German U-boats
leaving and entering their bases on the French coast. |
| 17/06/1943 |
The British battleships Valiant and
Warspite are transferred from Scapa Flow to Oran and Alexandria
in North Africa in preparation for Operation Husky, the Allied
invasion of Sicily. |
| 20/06/1943 |
The British announce a five-day U-boat
attack on the Atlantic convoys and claim that 97% of ships
survived. |
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| 07/07/1943 |
Off the coast of Brazil,
U-185 (Kptlt. Maus) sinks 3 merchant ships. |
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 |
| 31/08/1943 |
The Japanese submarine
I-8, reaches France after a marathon voyage from Penang in
Malaya. |
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 |
| 21/09/1943 |
Molotov insists on the
resumption of Arctic convoys. |
| 22/09/1943 |
Six British midget submarines attack
and damage the Tirpitz in Alten Fjord, northern Norway. |
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 |
| 23/10/1943 |
A German torpedo boat
flotilla sinks the Royal Navy cruiser Charybdis and the destroyer
Limborne in a Channel duel. |
| 24/10/1943 |
An E-boat attack on a convoy off
the Norfolk coast result in four E-boats being sunk and one
British trawler. |
| 26/10/1943 |
A hospital ship arrives in Liverpool
with 790 wounded POW's aboard, repatriated from Germany. |
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| 26/12/1943 |
Ordered to sail to the
Barents Sea and destroy the allied convoy JW-55B bound for
the Soviet port of Murmansk, the German battle-cruiser Scharnhorst
encounters a protective force of the British Home Fleet consisting
of the cruisers HMS Belfast, Duke of York, Jamaica and Norfolk.
After a fierce action, Scharnhorst is sunk, with only 36 of
her crew of 1,839 surviving. |
| 28/12/1943 |
The Royal Navy cruisers Enterprise
and Glasgow sink the German destroyers T25, T26 and Z27 which
were escorting blockade runners in Bay of Biscay. |
| 31/12/1943 |
Allied merchant shipping
sunk by U-boats, world-wide from January to year's end 1943
is 588 ships, equalling 3,042,371 gross tons. 242 U-boats were
lost worldwide in the same period. |
