Rubis Photo Gallery Photographs of the Free French Naval Forces submarine Rubis and her crew.
Rubis in Action (Google Map) The map shows the positions of all of Rubis's documented actions.
Rubis Today (Diving Videos) Rubis was scuttled in 1957 off St. Tropez, France, for sonar target practice.
Tribute to Submarines By Winston Spencer Churchill, Prime Minister.
Estuary Panorama (Scrollable Panorama) of the Tay Estuary with wartime points of interest highlighted.
With the invasion threat at its height in 1940, the defence of the Angus and Fife coastline was the responsibility of the Polish First Army Corps. The 3rd Cadre Brigade was stationed at Buddon Ness to guard, in particular, the Port War Signal Station which controlled all shipping movements in the Tay.
The entrance to the Tay became a battleground in its own right as enemy aircraft and U-boats tried to interrupt traffic in and out of Dundee. The first sight of the enemy came on 16th October 1939 when a flight of German bombers passed over St. Andrews Bay and RAF Leuchars on their way to attack naval units in the Forth. This was the first air raid over mainland Britain of the war and two of the raiders were shot down by RAF Spitfires.
Then, in a radio announcement on 1st December 1939, the Germans gave clear warning of their intentions:
Although mines had not yet been laid in the area, it was hoped that the announcement would paralyse shipping off the east coast. It did not do so and, at a conference with the Führer a week later, German naval chief Admiral Raeder had to admit that there was, ‘…pronounced activity along the north-east coast [of Scotland].’
The list of casualties began growing at an alarming rate. Late on 2nd December 1939, off the entrance to the Tay, U-56 torpedoed the Swedish steamer Rudolf, a neutral, which sank quickly with the loss of nine of her crew. Another torpedo from U-56 struck the British steamer Eskdene a few minutes later. Captain Niblett and his crew abandoned ship and were brought in to Dundee by a naval patrol trawler, but Eskdene was kept afloat by her cargo of timber and, having been found a few days later, was towed in to the Forth. Five days later, on 7th December 1939, Spitfires of 72 Squadron from Leuchars and 603 Squadron from Montrose intercepted a raid of three Heinkel 111 bombers over the Tay and shot two of them down. 603 Squadron intercepted another raid of seven enemy aircraft heading for the Tay on 18th December and chased them out to sea.
Clear evidence of the vulnerability of shipping in narrow channels like the Tay came just after 11.00 a.m. on 6th January 1940. Pilot cutter Skipper Tom Knight had just put Pilot Alex Cook aboard the inbound jute liner City of Marseilles at the Tay Fairway buoy when a mine exploded under her bridge, throwing up a spout of water and mud between the ship and the cutter.
At first it appeared that the City of Marseilles was settling and, as the explosion could have been caused by a torpedo, the order to abandon ship was given. Two lifeboats had been wrecked by the explosion and, in the panic to get away, another capsized pitching 14 men into the sea. One man died and 163 survivors were landed at Broughty Ferry to be cared for initially at the St. James’ Church Hall.
The examination drifter Suilven was lying at anchor at Buddon and her crew heard what they took to be an underwater explosion. They could see nothing owing to the fog but got under way down river and met the pilot boat inbound with the lifeboats in tow. Suilven continued down river and found the liner with a list of 10º–15º, and a splintered lifeboat in the davits the only visible sign of damage. The minesweeping trawler Sturton could also be seen approaching and it became a race to see who could get alongside the abandoned liner first. Suilven and the minesweeper made fast on opposite sides of the City of Marseilles and Sub-Lieutenant Iain Rutherford of the Suilven reached the deck to find Lieutenant Commander Hackett of the Sturton climbing over the opposite rail. Rutherford and Hackett searched the ship but found her abandoned. Another minesweeper Cranefly then arrived and her master, Adrian Seligman, had joined them in the Purser's cabin when Rutherford noticed that water was beginning to trickle out of an overturned carafe, indicating that the liner's list was increasing.
Rutherford wrote;
City of Marseilles was in a bad way with rivets started everywhere and fittings smashed. Adrian Seligman wanted to take her in tow and pointed out that they could make a great deal of money were they to get her in. Hackett agreed and they began to pass a wire from a drum on the liner's foredeck to one of the sweepers, but the drum ran out of control and one of the handles flew off, just missing Rutherford's head, to land on the bridge. The tow was secured and all that remained was to raise the anchor, but there was insufficient steam pressure to work the winch. By that time, however, the tide had turned and they were not sure that a sweeper could tow the liner against the ebb. Just then, the Broughty Ferry Lifeboat Mona was seen approaching with the liner's officers and a pilot aboard so the attempted tow was abandoned. City of Marseilles was towed up to Dundee by three tugs the next day and berthed at the Eastern Wharf. The magnetic mines that caused so much damage had been laid on 12th December by Kapitanleutnant Heinz Scheringer's U-13.
Spitfires shot down a Heinkel 111 off Fife Ness on 13th January and the sole surviving crewman was brought in to Tayport by RAF Air-Sea Rescue Launch. Another Heinkel appeared out of a blizzard over the Firth of Tay on the morning of 29th January 1940 and attacked a trawler but was driven off by Spitfires. Then, in similar weather conditions the following afternoon, Heinkels attacked three ships waiting to enter the Tay. Captain Griffiths of the Stancourt ordered his crew below as four bombs dropped around his ship and one bomber made repeated strafing passes. One of Stancourt’s crew, a young lad from St. Ives on his first trip to sea, said later, 'When it power-dived over us and dropped a bomb, we just scrammed for cover.' Stancourt tried to get to safety by running into the Tay, but she hit a sandbank and her crew had to be taken off by the Broughty Ferry Lifeboat. One of Kapitanleutnant Scheringer's mines claimed another victim late on 6th February 1940. The ancient Estonian steamer Anu was waiting at the Fairway Buoy to come up to Dundee with her cargo of paper when a mine exploded under her engine room, breaking her in two and sending her to the bottom in minutes. Six of the Anu's crew died with her and 13 survivors got away on a raft, eventually drifting ashore at Carnoustie. They were found at daybreak, wandering around on the golf course, but by then Stewardess Elma Jorgensen had died of exposure.
Three days later, on 9th February, the hopper barge Foremost 102 was towed in to Dundee with an unexploded bomb in her hold. She had been bombed and strafed and the crew of the Arbroath Lifeboat had braved bombs and bullets to take off her crew. Coxswain 'Willie Polar' Swankie and his crew received gallantry awards from the RNLI. One of the raiders was shot down near North Berwick.
All this was happening during what people still insist on calling the 'Phoney War'. In reality, there was no such thing at sea. But, by mid-February 1940, both the Luftwaffe and the U-boats were finding the area around the Forth and Tay estuaries too dangerous and, for a few months at least, enemy action died away. There would, however, be one more tragic loss during the so-called phoney war period. The Dundee trawlers Ben Attow and Strathblane were fishing near the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth late on 7th March 1940 when Skipper Norrie of the Strathblane saw the Ben Attow's lights disappear in a huge explosion. She had detonated a mine and her entire crew of nine, all Broughty Ferry men, were lost.
U-56 was a type IIc boat which was laid down at Deutsche Werke AG yard in Kiel on 21th September 1937. She was launched on 3rd September 1938, commissioned on 26th November 1938 and served throughout the war, succumbing only to an allied bombing raid, ironically at Kiel, on 28th April 1945. 6 crewmembers were killed and 19 survived this attack. U-56 carried out 12 patrols and sank 4 ships totalling over 25,000 tons (GRT).
On the 30th October 1939, one of 4 German U-boats operating west of the Orkneys, U-56 locates the British battleships Nelson, Rodney and Hood with 10 destroyers and attacks. Torpedo failure ruins the favorable attack chance.
On the 6th September 1940 The British submarine HMS Tribune attacked a submarine about 15 nautical miles north-east of St. Kilda, Hebrides in position 57º58'N, 08º14'W. All torpedoes fired missed their target. It leaves little doubt that the torpedoes were fired against the German submarine U-56 as this was the only submarine passing through that general area on that day. The Germans however reported no attack.
Unlike many other U-boats, which during their service lost men due to accidents and various other causes, U-56 did not suffer any casualties until the time of her loss.
Data from U-Boat.net
Eskdene was 3,829 tons steam merchant vessel completed in 1934 by Bartram & Sons Ltd, South Dock, Sunderland. She was owned by the Dene Shipping Co Ltd, London.
At 07.42 hours on 8th Apr, 1941, the Eskdene (Master William Joshua Thomas), dispersed from convoy OG-57, was hit by two torpedoes fired by U-107 (Fregattenkapitän Günter Hessler) southeast of the Azores and was sunk by the U-boat with 104 rounds of gunfire.
The master and 38 crew members were picked up on the same day by the British steam merchant Penhale and landed at Pernambuco on 22nd April.
Data from U-Boat.net