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Posted: 2/8/2015 12:14:45 AM EDT
Here is an unusual case.  Flying Officer Lloyd Trigg was a Royal New Zealand Air Force officer who, along with his crew, was flying anti-submarine patrols out of Africa in 1943.  On August 11, 1943, F/O Trigg located the German submarine U-468, under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Klemens Schamong, and engaged it in combat.  Stuck on the surface, U-468 engaged F/O Trigg's Liberator aircraft with anti-aircraft fire and severely damaged it.  F/O Trigg continued the attack and managed to drop depth charges on U-468 before crashing into the ocean with no survivors.  Oblt Schamong was one of 8 survivors of the U-boat picked up by a Royal Navy ship, ironically surviving on a raft which had come loose from the Liberator.  Schamong gave a statement to the British as to the bravery of the aircrew which pressed the attack at the cost of their lives, which was used as the sole basis of a posthumous award of the Victoria Cross to Trigg.  



Flying Officer Lloyd Allan Trigg VC DFC (5 May 1914 – 11 August 1943), of Houhora, New Zealand, was a pilot in the RNZAF. He was a posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy for British and Commonwealth armed forces. His award is unique, as it was awarded on evidence solely provided by the enemy, for an action in which there were no surviving Allied witnesses to corroborate his gallantry.





"London Gazette citation:

Flying Officer Lloyd Allan TRIGG, D.F.C. (N.Z.4I35I5), Royal New Zealand Air Force (missing, believed killed), No. 200 Squadron.

Flying Officer Trigg had rendered outstanding service on convoy escort and anti- submarine duties. He had completed 46 operational sorties and had invariably displayed skill and courage of a very high order.  One day in August, 1943, Flying Officer Trigg undertook, as captain and pilot, a patrol in a Liberator although he had not previously made any operational sorties in that type of aircraft. After searching for 8 hours a surfaced U-boat was sighted.  Flying Officer Trigg immediately prepared to attack. During the approach, the aircraft received many hits from the submarine’s anti-aircraft guns and burst into flames, which quickly enveloped the tail. The moment was critical. Flying Officer Trigg could have broken off the engagement and made a forced landing in the sea. But if he continued the attack, the aircraft would present a “no deflection” target to deadly accurate anti-aircraft fire, and every second spent in the air would increase the extent and intensity of the flames and diminish his chances of survival.  There could have been no hesitation or doubt in his mind. He maintained his course in spite of the already precarious condition of his aircraft and executed a masterly attack. Skimming over the U-boat at less than 50 feet with anti-aircraft fire entering his opened bomb doors, Flying Officer Trigg dropped his bombs on and around the U-boat where they exploded with devastating effect. A short distance further on the Liberator dived into the sea with her gallant captain and crew.  The U-boat sank within 20 minutes and some of her crew were picked up later in a rubber dinghy that had broken loose from the Liberator.  The Battle of the Atlantic has yielded many fine stories of air attacks on under-water craft, but Flying Officer Trigg’s exploit stands out as an epic of grim determination and high courage. His was the path of duty that leads to glory."


http://www.lordashcroftmedals.com/collection/lloyd-allan-trigg-vc/



His medals are currently in the Lord Ashcroft collection on display at the Imperial War Museum:





Interestingly, Klemens Schamong survived the war and was tracked down by a New Zealand aviation researcher, Arthur Arculus, in 2007.



"Schamong remembered the Atlantic action vividly: "We opened deadly fire from our `two 20mm cannons' and the first salvo at a distance of 2000m set the plane on fire. Despite this, Trigg continued his attack. He did not give up as we thought and hoped. His plane. . . flew deeper and deeper. We could see our deadly fire piercing through his hull. And when Trigg was almost over us we saw his `ash cans' coming down on us and (they) exploded and damaged the boat to death."

It was not surprising Schamong expected Trigg to "give up" because on an earlier patrol the sub's flak frightened off a Grumman Avenger from a US carrier escorting an Atlantic convoy.

Schamong told Arculus that he informed interrogators after his rescue that "such a gallant fighter as Trigg would have been decorated in Germany with the highest medal or order"....

It might have ended there but Arculus has since received a copy of the now declassified October 1943 Naval Intelligence Division (NID) report disclosing what had been learned from the interrogation of Schamong and the other survivors after their arrival in Britain as POWs.

The report said the U-Boat's shooting was so accurate the Liberator was on fire before she had properly lined up the sub.

"She nevertheless ran in to attack with great determination and without deviating to avoid the U-Boat's sustained and heavy fire."

The aircraft crossed the submarine behind the bridge at a height of just 15m, hit the sea 300m away and blew up. But as she roared over the U-Boat the depth charges tumbled down, two exploding with tremendous force within 2m of the submarine.

"The whole U-Boat was thrown violently upward and suffered catastrophic damage."

The massive blasts ruptured the hull, tore engines, motors and transformers from their mountings, blew the fuel tank above the diesels down and shook equipment off bulkheads.

Water poured into the battery compartment and the sub filled with clouds of choking, killing chlorine gas, submariners' worst nightmare.

The U-Boat went down inside 10 minutes, leaving 20 swimming crew battling the horror of sharks and barracuda, attracted by blood leaking from wounds.

Then miraculously a rating found an RAF rubber dinghy floating in the aircraft's debris, inflated it and climbed in with two other seamen. Eventually, Schamong, his first lieutenant and an engineer officer supporting a wounded rating on his back were hauled in – seven survivors from a crew of 39.

A Sunderland, searching for the missing Liberator crew, spotted the dinghy the following day, its crew understandably jumping to the conclusion the waving men were their RAF mates."


http://cwfww2.com/index.php/forum/55-in-the-news/510-klemens-schamong-recalls-trigg-vcs-last-moments


OTHER RESOURCES:

http://ww2today.com/11th-august-1943-lloyd-trigg-and-crew-die-as-they-sink-u-boat

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/lloyd-trigg-vc

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10436019
Link Posted: 2/8/2015 12:24:50 AM EDT
[#1]
Impressive shooting for a VIIC.  Not a whole lot in the way of AA weaponry.  Big brass balls on the parts of all involved parties in that engagement.
Link Posted: 2/8/2015 12:49:18 AM EDT
[#2]
Wow.

Link Posted: 2/8/2015 9:43:27 AM EDT
[#3]
That is an impressive story from both sides
Link Posted: 2/8/2015 11:07:28 AM EDT
[#4]
He did his duty and they (the jerries) theirs.
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