Talk:German submarine U-109 (1940)

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A fact from German submarine U-109 (1940) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 7 July 2010 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that all but one of U-109's successes took place during the six patrols she carried out under the command of the U-boat ace, Heinrich Bleichrodt?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2010/July.

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and or[edit]

In the design section: "The submarine was also equipped with 44 TMA mines", I have changed it slightly to: "The submarine could also be equipped with 44 TMA mines."
This was because the first sentence gave the impression that the U-boat was equipped with torpedoes and mines, when in reality it was one or the other.

RASAM (talk) 14:12, 14 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Tone and Tense[edit]

There are a few minor issues in regards to grammar, tense and spelling in this article - are some parts copy-and-pasted from Hirschfeld's book?

the U-boat had to do the tactical exercise once more. -> I would say "U-109 was ordered to repeat the tactical exercise." Or something along those lines for a more formal tone.

it was noted that the attacked ship is a neutral -> "was a neutral"

On 19 May U-109 started to chase the convoy HX-126 which was found by U-94. -> "On 19 May U-109 began to track a convoy designated HX-126 which had been reported by U-94"

The next day she found the convoy but was driven aff by an escort and was attacked with depth charges. U-109 lost contact with the convoy but can sink a straggler. -> "aff" should of course be "off", but I think a paragraph rewrite is in order for, once again, a more formal tone and to include some left out details (based on Hirschfeld's book). Something like:

"Upon encountering HX-126 U-109 attempted to engage the convoy but was attacked by several destroyer escorts. The escorts attempted to depth charge U-109 but could not accurately determine its location. U-109 then gave renewed chase to the convoy and successfully torpedoed a straggler merchant vessel, prompting a counterattack by the escorts. Five escort vessels made depth charge attacks against U-109, which had to remain submerged and immobile due to being completely surrounded. These attacks caused significant damage but once again the escorts could not gain an accurate measure of U-109's location, forcing it to abort to France but failing to destroy the vessel. Which merchant vessel U-109 successfully torpedoed and sunk is uncertain, with the crew of U-109 being informed they had sunk the Marconi^[^{Hirschfeld, P.143]} although it has since been claimed that the ship sunk was in fact the rescue ship Harpagus.^[uboat.net]

There are several other similar issues, but I can't document all of them. As I understand editing rules (admittedly not very well) the issues with tense and spelling are available to edit to whomever may choose, whilst my proposed edits to tone are more complex. I would appreciate some thoughts on this. M9se (talk) 00:43, 10 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

As a side note, There is a notable lack of information regarding parts of U-109's history that Warrant Officer and Senior Telegraphist Hirschfeld does not discuss in his diary. This is partly due to an illness that meant he was no longer permitted aboard a U-Boat after U-109's 6th war patrol. A good source for this might be Clay Blair's The Hunters (1939-1942) and The Hunted (1942-1945). M9se (talk) 00:49, 10 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]