DUPLEIX - Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis

[olivier 12]

Bonjour Oliver, bonjour à tous,

Thanks for these interesting informations. Two submarines missed cargo ships in the vicinity of this position and that day, at about the same time! It's really unusual.

Of course, its quite difficult to attribute the attack to UC 71 or U 90... I noticed your favorite is UC 71.

Best regards

[Yves D]

Bonjour Olivier und Oliver
Here enclosed a copy of U 90 KTB for the evening on 22.1.1918.
Though the poor quality of the document, I agree with Oliver. It is quite surely not U 90 who attacked Dupleix.
According to Spindler comment on this page, the british Admiral Cochrane was hit and credited to U 90 when we, at uboat.net, we have this hit credited to UB 31(Thomas Bieber) 3 miles S28°E of Berry Head...
Seemingly this action seems a little bit confusing.

Cdlt
Yves

[Gastolli]

Bonjour,

UB 31's target indeed was the ADMIRAL COCHRANE, time and place are fitting!

But for DUPLEIX, I'm not really sure, UC 71 is a guess, but the time of her attack is a little bit to late ...

Oliver

[Gastolli]

Bonsoir,

well, my fellow researcher Wolfgang Göthling pointed me to the right direction as to the U-boat reported by DUPLEIX.

We are pretty sure now that it was UB 54 (Oblt.z.S. von Werner), see the entries from her war diary:

22.01.18 Seine-Bucht.
.....

19. Uhr Wind SO 3, Seegang 2, heller Mondschein.

19 - 24 Uhr In der Seine-Bucht gekreuzt.

22.35 Uhr Es kommt ein gesicherter Geleitzug in Sicht. Auf den Spitzendampfer zum Angriff angelaufen. Auf etwa 3000 m Abstand wird das Boot gesehen. Der Dampfer (Dupleix 7400 ts) dreht ab, morst die Bewacher an und gibt U-Bootswarnung durch F.T. Boot dreht ab.

23. Uhr Getaucht und versucht, unter Wasser anzugreifen. Durch das Sehrohr kann nichts beobachtet werden.

gez. v. Werner

23.01.18 Seine-Bucht.

Wind S 3, Seegang 2.

00 Uhr Kurs 327°.

00.15 Uhr Aufgetaucht, Kurs 302°.

.....


Well, I'm sure we are right now, und I'm also sure that UC 71 did attack that little convoy later, but went unnoticed.

One sidenote: on an extra sheet of convoys seen during the patrol UB 54 reported this one as:
Seine Bucht, 4 Dampfer 2-7000 t, Kurs 150°

That's NOT fitting (2 steamers and 1 destroyer, course maybe opposite), but during the night and the vessels steering an zigg-zagg-course I'm sure one can get an wrong idea of what's going on a few miles away!

Oliver