NEWS Warship in Calpe
Spanish navy vessel was protecting divers recording TV documentary footage of the German submarine sunk in the bay in 1943
PUZZLED onlookers wondered why a Spanish naval ship had dropped anchor in Calpe bay last week, but the reason for it being there was harmless – it was protecting divers who were recording images of a German submarine for a documentary.
The director and adviser of the RTVE television channel, Fernando Navarrete, is making a documentary about a German submarine, which was sunk in the bay in 1943. In order to carry out the activity, the warship carried out maritime traffic regulation work to guarantee the safety of the divers.
Navarrete and his documentary team have devoted the last 10 years to the account of the last twenty-four hours of the submarine, which was sunk by British planes during the Second World War. For this, an intense investigation was executed, both in Spain and Germany, to where the team travelled twice to interview the last survivor of the submarine.
The website, Historia de Calp, by Andrés Ortolà, narrates the facts as follows:
On March 28, 1943 at 11.25, the U-77 was spotted and bombed by an aircraft belonging to 48 Squadron, based in Gibraltar, which partially damaged the submarine although it did not prevent it from sinking. The pilot asked for help, and at 17.45 another plane from 233 Squadron, also based in Gibraltar, arrived.This second plane, a Lockheed A-28 Hanson, located the U-77 on the surface at a distance of 30 miles northwest of the first attack and for an hour and ten minutes harassed it. Finally, from a height of only 30 metres, it dropped four depth charges.
In spite of the intense anti-aircraft fire of the 20mm machine guns coming from the submarine, the charges fell within five metres of the submar- ine, as stated in the report written by the flight officer. The sinking of the submarine was attributed to the two squadrons.
The next day (29 March) at about 06.00 in the morning, sailors of the boat ‘Calon’ who were fishing in the waters heard shouts - supposedly asking for help - and went immediately to see what was happening, soon finding nine men, numb from the cold, clinging to an upturned life raft. They were quickly hoisted aboard the fishing boat where they were provided with hot coffee, blankets and food. The skipper of the fishing boat began to search for more survivors, and after a couple of hours with no sign of any more, they headed back to Calpe port.
Two boats from Altea - La Mari Paqui and Mauritius – retrieved five bodies from the sea, and those submariners were buried in Calpe.
The nine survivors were housed in the Querol inn on Calle Arrabal del Mar. In total, there were 36 deaths, two bodies were never found, and nine survivors. The rest of the deceased men were buried in an Alicante cemetery.
In recognition of their work of rescuing survivors of the submarine, the sailors each received, from the Naval Attaché of the German Embassy, a wristwatch, a lifejacket and a thousand pesetas to distribute among the crew. The skipper, Andrés Perles García, received a medal of the Order of Merit of the German Eagle from the German Consul in Alicante, and the boat’s owner a diploma in recognition of the gesture of his crew.
The naval ship has now left Calpe, and Navarrete hopes to finish the documentary by end the of the year and present it next spring.