2 Dec 1941

Spain
  • German submarine U-557 (Ottokar Arnold Paulssen) spotted and identified the unescorted 4,032-ton Norwegian ship Fjord at the harbour of Málaga, Spain at 1825 hours. At 2033 hours off Estepona Point, Spain, she fired two G7e torpedoes, one of which hit Fjord on the starboard side in the boiler room. Fjord had been steaming at 8 knots in fine weather. She sank so quickly that the crew had no time to launch the lifeboats and were forced to jump overboard, clinging to wreckage and swimming to two rafts that floated free. The master and 13 crew members were lost. One raft with 11 survivors and another with 9 managed to reach the nearby coast about nine kilometres southwest of Estepona. They were first taken to Algeciras and questioned by Spanish naval officers, but then transported to Seville as they were not yet allowed to leave Spain. However, after none of the Norwegians took the offer to return to Norway, all survivors eventually left for Gibraltar. The Allied consulates got busy investigating the case, as it was obvious that the German submarine attack took place well within the neutral Spanish territorial waters. ww2dbase [Estepona, Andalusia | CPC, HM]

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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