Best unknown tales from WW2 naval history

[aurora]

John Melville (John "Jack" Melville) served on HMS Dasher and was originally believed to have been buried with full military honours in Ardrossan, having lost his life in the disaster that sank the ship. It now appears that Mr Melville's body may have played the central role in Operation Mincemeat, an elaborate and top secret hoax intended to deceive the Germans into believing the Allies would invade southern Europe through Greece and Sardinia, rather than Sicily.
Operation Mincemeat
The success of Operation Mincemeat was dependent on the provision of believable, genuine corpse. After Mr Melville's body was recovered from the Firth of Clyde, it was packed in ice, and placed on board the submarine HMS Seraph for transport to the Mediterranean. There, his body was carefully dressed in the uniform of a Royal Marines Courier, the fictitious Major William Martin, ensuring details such as labels were all correct, and provided with false documentation to support the legend, including personal letters and photographs provided by female staff involved in the operation. Finally, the courier's all important leather briefcase containing the false plans was prepared, ready for transport.
On April 29, 1943,submarine HMS Seraph made ready and departed for a location off Huelva on the coast of Spain, chosen in the knowledge that an active German agent was stationed there. The prepared body was preserved in dry ice, packed in a special canister, and identified only as secret meteorological equipment to all but those directly involved.
At 04:30 on April 30, 1943, the canister was brought up on deck, under the pretence of deploying the equipment it contained. The Seraph's crew were ordered below deck, and the submarine's officers were finally briefed on the real operation, and sworn to secrecy. The canister was opened, Major Martin's body was fitted with a Mae West life jacket, and the briefcase attached. The 39th Psalm was read, then the body was gently pushed into the sea, leaving the the tide to carry it ashore, together with a rubber dinghy to complete the illusion of an aircraft accident.

What do you think????

[pgollin]

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Almost all the incidents so far mentioned have had at least one book released about them and, likewise, documentaries on TV.

So how "unknown" do you want (versus "daring" or "odd") ?

For instance, the Italian "special unit" raids from Spain have been in at least one film, two books and numerous articles. But how many know about the much more important German surveillance operations including an Infra-Red Telescope ?

There are books about HMS Graph (the capture and subsequent operation of a Type VII U-Boat as a trials, and operational, submarine) but what about the modification and operation of S-class submarines as high-speed targets representative of Type XXIs to clarify possible tactics (covered in an article) ?

Operation Ironclad ?

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[aurora]

pgollin-Why are you being so critical-if one takes the term UNKNOWN then adds TALE- it then becomes an oxymoron and I am quite aware of that fact. However because I choose to go along with this-"Unknown" becomes ("Unlikely" or "Surprising") for me.Having made your point- perhaps you will be good enough to regale us with your "Best Unknown Tale" and surprise us all.
NB. This thread has been read over 2000 times and not a murmur

[pgollin]

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"Unknown" is relative, I am sure that most Chinese don't know about Stalingrad, the Battle of Britain, or Midway.

IF there has been a book about it, that to me disallows something from being "unknown" - it is more a comment on how well read people are.

I gave a couple of examples - the German infra-red telescope, for instance, is an interesting tale.

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[aurora]

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"Unknown" is relative, I am sure that most Chinese don't know about Stalingrad, the Battle of Britain, or Midway.

IF there has been a book about it, that to me disallows something from being "unknown" - it is more a comment on how well read people are.

I gave a couple of examples - the German infra-red telescope, for instance, is an interesting tale.

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I'd be delighted to read your story of the German infra-red telescope-not so sure about the Chinese though-well-on reflection- could be that you are right.

[pgollin]

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I can assure you that to most Chinese the Second World War is non-existent, they are only interested in the Japanese invasion and the Chinese Civil War.

[aurora]

"-well-on reflection- could be that you are right."

Need I say more and what about the German Infra-Red Telescope????

[pgollin]

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The story is in the TNA:PRO, ready for anyone.

(As are NUMEROUS such stories, as well as other national archives - the Infra-red file should exist as some sort of copy in the US archive as it was copied to the USA.)

In the Uk the 70s saw lots of "unknown" small stories released to the newspapers because there was a sort of "info war" between Marder and Roskill to release info they had from the archives as "favoured" researchers.

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[Dave Saxton]

Paul Schmalenbach speaks to an infra red device tested on the Prinz Eugen during 1943. It is also detailed in the MDv-291 files. This device was called the warmpeilung geraete. It was to precisely establish the bearings of targets in poor visibility conditions as suppliment or alternative to lobe switching radar and/or night optics. Its basic short coming was that its maximum effective range was about 18km at night and less during the day, so it did not extend the range over the effective range of using star shell illumination.

[Dave Saxton]

One of the lesser known stories from WWII, that is a great storey, is how the Danes saved most of their jewish people from the Nazis. There had been a hands off policy since the oocupation but by summer of 1943 the SS was planning to round up the Danish Jews and ship them off to the death camps. To prevent them from escaping across to Sweden the SS asked the Kriegsmarine to seal off the ports and waterways. We now know it was KM officers who tipped off the Danish clergy about the up coming SS aktion. The Danish Christians came together as one and organized an effort to bring the jews into hiding and to spirit most of them away to Sweden via the Danish fishing fleet. When the day came, the Kriegsmarine looked the other way and essentially did nothing, allowing the Danish fishing fleet to complete its missions.