Talk:German submarine U-74 (1940)

HMS Prince of Wales
Amongst other edits, I have deleted 'heavily' as in "...heavily damaged the Prince of Wales..." because the 'H' word gave the impression that PoW was so damaged that she required many months of repairs. This was clearly not the case as the ship was sunk in the Far East in December 1941. Indeed, most accounts that I have read do not use 'heavily' or 'badly'.

RASAM (talk) 13:59, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

2nd patrol / U-74's involvement with the Bismarck
Having studied this article in some detail, it looks like the '2nd patrol' sub-sub section contradicts the "U-74's involvement with the Bismarck" sub section. i.e. If the U-boat was badly damaged on 21 May and 'obliged to return to France' she would hardly likely to be searching for survivors[of the Bismarck's sinking] on about 27 May. Uboat.net is the source for both these assertions!

I've left both pieces on the article's page in the hope that someone more knowledgeable than me will sort this situation out.

RASAM (talk) 23:03, 1 December 2012 (UTC)

I leave it to someone else to find better sources, but based on Wikipedia’s own (sourced) information for Guenther Luetjens, the sinking of the Bismarck and Convoy HX26

21/22 U74 sustains damage in a convoy action west of where the Bismarck was attacked by the British. Returning to its base in occupied France for repairs it passes close to where the Bismarck is sinking and is ordered to retrieve the ship’s log book. It is too late but still happens to spot some survivors on the 24th and rescues them. Then it finally reaches base on the 29th and gets attacked by a British submarine.

I agree this article could probably be better sourced but there isn’t really a contradiction here. Basically the U74 was passing through the area on its way back to France from the convoy action. It wasn’t really diverted and was not damaged so badly it couldn’t maneuver. In fact the job of rescuing the Bismarck’s log book was passed on from another boat that had less fuel. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 126.186.40.97 (talk) 16:07, 27 November 2022 (UTC)