''Rossbach'' was a
wolfpack of German
U-boat
U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...
s that operated during the
battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allies of World War II, ...
in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Seven of its 21 U-boats were sunk and another seven damaged, four of which were forced to return to base, before the wolfpack was disbanded.
Service history
''Rossbach'' was formed in October 1943 to operate against the North Atlantic convoy routes and comprised 21 boats.
It consisted of 12 boats from the disbanded group
''Leuthen'', plus 9 others from bases in
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
and
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
.
Whilst forming, several boats from ''Rossbach'' were detected and attacked by air patrols; 4 were sunk (, , , and ) and another 4 were damaged (, , and ), forcing them to return to base.
A further 3 were damaged, but were able to continue, while 2 more boats arrived from base as reinforcement.
On 8/9 October 1943 ''Rossbach'', attacked convoy
SC 143.
They sank one ship of and one warship but lost 3 boats (, and ) in the engagement.
''Rossbach'' was disbanded following this attack; the remaining boats formed the core of a new group, codenamed
''Schlieffen''.
U-boats involved
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The name
''Rossbach'' was a reference to the
Battle of Rossbach
The Battle of Rossbach took place on 5November 1757 during the Third Silesian War (1756–1763, part of the Seven Years' War) near the village of Rossbach (Roßbach), in the Electorate of Saxony. It is sometimes called the Battle of, or at, ...
fought by
Frederick the Great
Frederick II (; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was the monarch of Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786. He was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled ''King in Prussia'', declaring himself ''King of Prussia'' after annexing Royal Prussia ...
during the
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...
.
References
* Jak P M Showell ''U-Boat Warfare: The Evolution of the Wolf-Pack'' (2002)
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rossbach
Wolfpacks of 1943