Norwegian Motor Tanker M/T Hamlet

M/T Hamlet.

by C.J. Christ

What do most people think about when the word Hamlet is spoken? A play by William Shakespeare. The quote “To be or not to be”? A name for Hagar the Horrible’s son in the Sunday comics? A small village of Germanic origin? Or a ship sunk southeast of Morgan City during World War II?

It’s easy to guess by now where I stand.

Let me tell you the story with the help of the U.S. Naval Intelligence report “Summaries of statements by Survivors.”

The Norwegian Motor Tanker M/T Hamlet was chartered to the Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission of New York City when it was torpedoed without warning in the early morning of May 27, 1942. The attack occurred while headed to United Kingdom Ports from Beaumont, Texas, via Key West, Fla., carrying 64,139 barrels of crude oil. She sank at 4:30 a.m. after receiving three torpedoes.

Plunging bow first, she sank in the same position in about 20 fathoms, approximately 60 feet, of water.

The Hamlet was on a course zigzagging on a pattern designed to lose 10 percent over the ground, wholly blacked out. The radio had not been used previously. Three official watchmen were on duty, one on either wing of the bridge and one at the wheel. Three unofficial lookouts also were on deck. The weather was good; visibility, good; sea, calm; wind, southeast force at 4 miles per hour; no moonlight, no ships were in sight.

First torpedo struck starboard side forward, second amidships, starboard side, and third, stern port side. Damage was unknown as the ship began to sink. The motor was stopped after the first torpedo. No distress signal could be sent due to the main antenna being wrecked. No auxiliary was maintained. No counter offensive could be made due to rapid sinking. Two codes, British No. 18 and Mersigs were sunk in a weighted canvas bag.

Ship abandoned in orderly manner in four boats. Three men jumped in the water and were taken into boats. All hands were rescued, being picked up by three fishing boats at about 9 a.m. and brought into Morgan City. The fishing boats were The Lucille, Ramos Jr. and E.F. Marin.

The sub is described as being very small, about 250 tons, 90-150 feet in length. It had no deck guns visible. The conning tower was round with a pulpit bridge. It was described by all as a coastal-type ship of small size and shallow draft. It was last seen heading due east on the surface at about 16 knots.

All survivors mentioned small size of sub and lack of deck guns, unless they are hydraulically raised to firing position. All noticed the difference between the three explosions. The first was very heavy; the second, incendiary, scattering burning material; the third, a much lighter explosion. Rockets were noticed to eastward while crews were in boats, being fired at about 20-minute intervals. It was in this direction that the sub was last seen heading at 16 knots on the surface.

That is just the beginning of the story of the Hamlet.

Years later, I was scheduled to meet Capt. Ira Pete from Berwick, and later from Chauvin. He was the skipper on one of the fishing boats mentioned.

After many hours which spanned many years of my association with this gentleman and historian, I learned to take every fact that he gave me for the absolute truth.

At first, we had problems. For instance, he told me that this U-boat did not have a deck gun. I looked in all of the books I could find and concluded that he must be mistaken. No German submarines went to sea without a deck gun.

When I finally was able to get a microfilm copy of the actual deck log of U-753, there it was. Off the coast of Florida, Korvette Kapitan Alfred von Mannstein torpedoed a ship while it was in convoy and was actually run over by another ship. The damages to the deck gun were irreparable. The log states “the remains of the irreparable deck gun were placed in storage under the deck grating.”

Pete was right, U-753 did not have a deck gun.

When I received the deck log of the U-753, I was able to answer another question about the encounter. Pete had asked, “Do you think the U-boat saw us?” There in the log was sketched several fische flotte or fishing flotilla. They had indeed seen the fishing boats, but that was not their mission, to sink fishing boats.

In early August my column had an accompanying photograph showing nine fishing boats around the sinking Hamlet. For my Morgan City/Berwick readers, I’ll name the ones which were positively identified by “Butch” Falterman with the help of some of the captains. They were the Venture, Pioneer, Albatross, Lucille, Ramos Jr., E.F. Marin and Depeneta. Boats not in the photograph but did go to the ship before she sank completely, were, Papa Joe, J. Edwin Treakle, Shearwater, Midshipman and Forty Fathoms No. 6.

Almost 45 years later, I went diving on the Hamlet and recovered two big, brass port lights. That’s another story.

The Norwegian Motor Tanker M/T Hamlet was chartered to the Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission of New York City when it was torpedoed without warning in the early morning of 27 May 1942. The attack occurred while headed to United Kingdom ports from Beaumont, Texas, via Key West, Florida, carrying 64,139 barrels of crude oil. She sank at 4:30 a.m. after receiving three torpedoes. Photo taken 1 January 1942.

M/T Hamlet.

M/T Hamlet. (State Library of New South Wales)

 

FuG 200 Hohentwiel: German Luftwaffe Maritime Patrol Radar System

Focke-Wulf Fw 200C with triple radar antenna arrays for its FuG 200 installation. July 1943.

The FuG 200 Hohentwiel was a low-UHF band frequency maritime patrol radar system of the Luftwaffe in World War II. It was developed by C. Lorenz AG of Berlin starting in 1938 under the code name "Hohentwiel", an extinct volcano in the region of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.

Originally developed as an anti-aircraft radar for the Luftwaffe, it lost out to the Würzburg for this role. In 1941, it was modified as an airborne surface search radar for naval patrol aircraft like the Focke-Wulf Fw 200. In 1944 it was further adapted for shipborne use, used on late-war U-boats, some surface ships, and land-based installations. 

The device had originally been entered into a design contest held by the Luftwaffe for the new FuMG 40L (ground-based fire-control radar). When competitor Telefunken won that contract with its "Würzburg radar" in 1939, the device was shelved.

In 1941, Lorenz started to re-design it for another design contest by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium for an airborne naval search radar. As no specific antenna had been specified, initially the simplest possible layout with three transversely-arranged antenna arrays was chosen - the central one for transmitting and two others for receiving, one each to port and starboard of the central transmitting array. Each antenna array possessed sixteen horizontally-oriented dipole elements, in eight sets of two elements each, with each set of four dipole groups vertically stacked comprising each array. To determine which side a target lay on, the radio operator had to manually switch the receiving arrays to find the stronger signal. Later, the device received a motor-driven antenna switch. The received signal strength was displayed on a cathode ray tube so the observer or pilot could roughly gauge the target's heading as 'left', 'right' or 'head on'. The maximum range was 150 km for convoys on the Atlantic. The device was first deployed on Junkers Ju 88, Focke-Wulf Fw 200 and other maritime patrol aircraft and twin-engined torpedo bomber designs, and is known to have been fitted to Heinkel He 111 medium bombers for training purposes, and experimented with on the Heinkel He 177A. In order to avoid capture after a crash, it was fitted with several small self-destruct explosive charges in each of the system's electronics cabinets, which could be triggered by the pilot. 

In 1943, Lorenz was instructed to adapt Hohentwiel for naval use, and soon the Hohentwiel appeared on U-boats, small surface ships, and coastal installations.

There are two U-boat versions of the FuG 200 Hohentwiel used during World War II; FuMO 61 Hohentwiel U and the FuMO 65 Hohentwiel U1. The U-boat versions were easier to maintain and more reliable compared with the other versions. However, the U-boat versions had several disadvantages: the smaller antenna and the height of the antenna. The antenna was smaller as it had to fit within a small area on the port side of the conning tower. In addition, the reduced height of the antenna installation impaired the range. Both U-boat versions had ranges of between 8 and 10 kilometers (5.0 and 6.2 mi) for naval targets and between 15 and 25 kilometers (9.3 and 15.5 mi) at an altitude of 200 meters (660 ft). Resolution was about 3 degrees, and at short range its range accuracy was 100 meters (330 ft). Both U-boat versions operated at a frequency 556 MHz and had four rows of six dipoles. Before the U-boat could dive, the antenna needed to be retracted into a well on the conning tower. Both U-boat antenna versions were 1,400 mm (4 ft 7 in) wide by 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 in) in height, and total overall dimensions of the antenna frame was 1,540 by 1,022 mm (5 ft 0.6 in by 3 ft 4.2 in).

There are two types of radar transmitter for the FuMO-61 Hohentwiel U and FuMO-65 Hohentwiel U1, the Type F431 C1 and the Type F432 D2. The Type F431 C1 was used on the Type VII, Type IX and the Type F432 D2 on the Type XXI. 

FuMO 61 Hohentwiel U: The FuMO 61 Hohentwiel U was the marine version of the FuG 200 Hohentwiel used by the Kriegsmarine on Type VII, Type IX and Type XXI U-boats. Beginning March 1944, it began to be installed on Type VII and Type IX. 

FuMO 63 Hohentwiel K: The FuMO 63 Hohentwiel K became available at the beginning of 1944. It was fitted to the foremast and mainmast of surface warships.

FuMO 65 Hohentwiel U1: The FuMO 65 Hohentwiel U1 was the marine version of the FuG 200 Hohentwiel used by the Kriegsmarine only on Type XXI U-boats. The FuMO 65 Hohentwiel U1 had an updated radar display over the older FuMO 61 Hohentwiel U, it had a Plan position indicator display, known to the Germans as Drauf. 

Literature

G. Müller: Funkmessgeräte-Entwicklung bei C. Lorenz AG, 1935–1945. Internal archive volume of the SEL company, 2. expanded edition, December 1981

RLM Werkschrift 4108, Bordfunkmessgerät FuG 200. Geheime Kommandosache, August 1943

RLM Vorschrift Nr. 75/790, Prüffibel für Bordfunkmessgerät FuG 200. October 1944

RLM Luftfahrtsröhren Ringbuch, Daten und Richtlinien über die Verwendung von Luftfahrtsröhren. January 1945

K. Steimel: Bericht über den Zustand der Röhrentechnik in Deutschland zum Abschluss des Krieges. August 1945

U.S. Air Materiel Command Dayton OH, Summary Report No. F-SU-1109-ND, The High Frequency War – A survey of German Electronic War. 10 May 1946

CIOS Final Report 1746, German development of modulator valves for radar applications

CIOS report XXX-36, Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt. June 1945

CIOS Report XXVII-46, Design of Radar Test Equipment at Siemens-Halske Munich

BIOS Report 1228, HF Instruments & Measuring Techniques

Achievement in Radio, Radio Science, Technology, Standards and Measurements at the National Bureau of Standards. US Department of Commerce, October 1986

Gerhard Megla: Dezimeterwellentechnik. Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 1952 (Chapter on measuring devices and measuring methods in the decimeter range of wavelengths)

Radio Measurements, Proceedings of the IEEE, Volume 55, June 1967. Hewlett Packard, Microwave *Measurement Handbook, Chapter RF Peak Power Measurement, Procedures and Equipments

Boonton Electronics Company, Application Note AN-50, Measuring the Peak Power

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, ASB Radar Alignment Procedure. November 1942

Radar Transmitter Type F431 C1: The FuMO 61 Hohentwiel antenna was 1,400 mm wide and a height of 1,000 mm, though it had an overall width of 1, 540 mm and a height of 1,022 mm. The mesh size is approximately 15 mm.

Radar Transmitter Type F432 D2: The FuMO 61 Hohentwiel antenna was 1,400 mm wide and a height of 1,000 mm, though it had an overall width of 1, 540 mm and a height of 1,022 mm. The mesh size is approximately 15 mm.

Front cover of Luftwaffe manual with full technical specification.

First page of three in the chapter on the FuG 200 (Hohentwiel) ASV and Navigational Radar in TM E 11-219 "Directory of German Radar Equipment" (a US War department publication), 20 April 1945.

Submarine version FuMO 61 "Hohentwiel" antenna and FuMO Ant.3 "Bali" on board U-3008, a Type XXI U-Boat, June 1945.

Same boat seen from further aft.

FuMO 61 antenna on U-Boat.

FuMO 61 antennas on the U-Boats shored in Lisahally, at the end of June 1945. From right to left, in the first row: U-1109, U-1058, U-278, U-901, behind U-293, U-826, U-1105, U-1022 and U-2326.

Arrangement of FuMO 61 radar set in the radio room of a type IXC U-Boat.

Arrangement of FuMO 61 radar set onboard U-515 – showing the driving shaft of the antenna .

Transmitter (at right, top) and receiver (below) of FuMO 61 radar set in the radio room of U-889.

Imaging module (at left, top) of FuMO 61 radar set and hand wheel for rotating antenna (below) in the radio room of U-889.

Receiver, imaging module and transmitter of FuMO 61 radar set.

Imaging module of FuMO 61 radar set (most likely from U-234).

Oscilloscope, Radar, German, FuG 200 Component, SG 200. Imaging module of FuMO 61 radar set.

Type A display of the FuMO 61 radar set.

FuMO 65 antenna on the type XXI U-Boat.

Receiver, Radar, German, FuG 200 component, E-200, LN28892.