The Sinking of the Lylepark

[Lou Barron]

In the last few weeks i have been in contact with a ex MN guy who wrote a book about the sinking of the the Lylepark by the German raider Michel the raider that sunk the Gloucester Castle and just reasonly Chris Smith sent me a draft of the book he wrote a good few years ago it is very interesting reading for me
This sinking was just a few weeks before the raider sank the ship i was on using the same tactics
As it as been said before on this site about the captain of the raider Von Ruckteschell being tried for war crimes when he he was captain of the other German raider Widder
Chris told me he had the good fortune to meet up with some of the crew of the Michel and he said they were very nice guys to meet
In this draft i received it gives a detailed attacks the raider used and as i have said before the use of small guns and machine guns when even they had fired over thirty shells of 6inch and torpedo*s and the ship was sinking why was the use of small arms used in my way of thinking it was to kill as many of the crew as possible
or am i wrong

[Captain Kong]

Hi Lou
This from the U-BOAT.NET SITE.
Cheers
Brian

Posted by: Anders Wingren ()

Date: May 25, 2000 12:09AM



Hi George!
RE: CHARLOTTE SCHLEIMAN

German tanker CHARLOTTE SCHLIEMANN arrived at Las Palmas on the day
before war was declared,with 10 800 tons of oil fuel emarked at Aruba,Dutch
West Indies.There she remained until rearly 1942.She seems only to have
supplied fuel to one Italian Sub while in Las Palmas.
On the 24th Febr -42 she left the Canaries to supply German Raider Ships
STIER and MICHEL,and between April and August made at least 3 rendezvous
with each of them in the South Atlantic.

STIER had 4th June -42 sunk British ship GEMSTONE (4986 tons),and 2 days
later a valuable Panamanian tanker of over 10 000 tons.STIER relieved those prisoners to SCHLIEMANN.

MICHEL sank British ship PATELLA carrying nearly 10 000 tons of fuel oil from
Trinidad to Cape Town,on 19th April.Four days later she sank US tanker
CONNECTICUT,also bound Cape Town.On 20th May MICHEL sank Norwegian
freighter KATTEGAT by gunfire.
On 6th June MICHELs MTB-boat made a night attack on US ship GEORGE
CLYMER,and MICHEL thought she had sunk her.But CLYMER made a distress
signal wich was picked up by C-in-C South Atlantic,Freetown;who detached
HMS AMC ALCANTARA from escort of convoy WS-19.On 7th June the AMC
found GEORGE CLYMER still afloat,rescued her crew,and it was decided to
sink the badly damaged CLYMER on the 12th.
Five days later MICHEL sank British ship LYLEPARK south of Ascension Island.

MICHEL than met SCHLIEMANN and German converted mine-layer DOGGERBANK,where she got rid of her prisoners. All 3 ships remained in company for a week.
MICHEL than operated east of Ascension Island and on 15th July sank the
Union Castle passenger and cargo ship GLOUCESTER CASTLE by gunfire and
torpedoe,and 90 lives were lost. Next day 16th July a US tanker returning to
Trinidad in ballast was sunk,and the Norwegian tanker ARAMIS was attacked
by the MTB and damaged in a night attack.ARAMIS made a raider report and
did her best to escape,but after a 24 hours pursuit,MICHEL caught her and sank
her.MICHEL than steamed south and met firstly STIER and subsequently
CHARLOTTE SCHLIEMANN,and was once more relieved of her prisoners.

It is also worth mentioning that the earlyer mentioned DOGGERBANK was the
former British ship SPEYBANK,wich had been captured in Indian Ocean early
in 1941 by German Raider Ship ATLANTIS and taken to Bordeaux in prize,
there to be converted to an auxiliary minelayer.
When DOGGERBANK supplied MICHEL in 29*South 19*West on 21st June -42,
she also transferred most of her remaining supplies to CHARLOTTE SCHLIEMANN
and embarked 177 Merchant Navy prisoners captured by raiders.With these
onboard DOGGERBANK sailed firstly for Batavia,then to Japan,where she
became a Blockade Runner.End of her career came when U-43 off the Canaries
on 3rd March 1943 sighted her,misidentified her,and sank her,at DOGGERBANKs
nearly completed blockade running trip from Japan!!

On 27th August 1942 CHARLOTTE SCHLIEMANN fuelled STIER for the last time,
and than left for Japan.

In June 1943 CHARLOTTE SCHLIEMANN was refuelling at least 7 different
U-boats southeast of Madagascar.These U-boats had been operating in waters
off Cape of Good Hope,and after refuelling from SCHLEMANN they moved north
and northeast,to seek traffic in Mozambique Channel,and ships steaming
between the Cape of Good Hope and India or Ceylon.

In the last 10 days of January 1944 six indepentently routed British ships were
sunk in Indian Ocean by 4 U-boats working in Gulf of Aden and north of Maldives.
Two of these U-boats had refuelled from CHARLOTTE SCHLIEMANN,when in
February a Catalina from Mauritus sighted the German Supply ship.
On the 9th February 1944 HMS destroyer RELENTLESS caught up with,
and sank CHARLOTTE SCHLIEMANN southeast of Mauritus.

Sources:
Roskill:War at Sea.Vol II.Pages: 178-182,265,267.
" " Vol III.Part I.Pages:23,219,349.
Shrubb&Sainsbury:Royal Navy Day by Day.Page:33.
Best regards/Anders.

[DeepSea]

I have a copy of the book written to the memory of Charles Smith lost in the Lylepark by Chris & Michael Smith. Was sent to me by Chris quite a few years back as I helped with the details in the research of the ship. The book was never published, but they had a few hard back copies printed.

[Lou Barron]

Yes Deep Sea it mentions that you gave them some assistance in the writing of their book
It was very interesting reading it gave me some info that i did not know
Going back to the Charlotte Schliemann i can remember being on deck in one of our few times we was allowed on deck and seeing the tanker refueling a couple of U Boats and the two raiders the Steir and Michel
The Steir had just sank the Dalhousie with very little loss of the crew so they bang the all lots in the hold of the tanker they must have been nearly 300 of us and believe me it was not very nice i think i have mentioned before what it was like but i will say these guys kept the moral up a 100%

[Keith at Tregenna]

Re: The Sinking of the Lylepark

INCLUDED IN A LOCAL NEWSPAPER REPORT LAST YEAR, WAS OF A LOcAL MAN LOST WITH THIS SHIP.

LYLEPARK: Edward R Davies of Barry Dock. S. Wales.

K.




.

[Keith at Tregenna]

Lulworth Hill to Lyle Park:

Tower Hill WW2 Memorial Lulworth Hill to Lyle Park