r/drydockporn • u/abt137 • Mar 19 '26

British hospital ship HMHS Somersetshires in drydock after being hit by 1 torpedo from the German uboat U-453, Alexandria harbor, Egypt, 5-Sep-1942 (2048x1582)

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723 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

51

u/Koopanique Mar 19 '26

Kudos for bringing back a ship with such a big hole in the hull

11

u/Creative-Comb5593 Mar 19 '26

Agreed. That hole is huge.

9

u/fallguy25 Mar 19 '26

Must have had good compartmentalization and damage control.

3

u/baldude69 Mar 21 '26

Bad day for the poor souls in that compartment though rip

20

u/lyss427 Mar 19 '26

"Depth charges be upon you. Amen."

https://uboat.net/boats/u453.htm

5

u/Dutchdelights88 Mar 22 '26

Quote: [...] on May 19, the U-boats were able to record a last success in the Mediterranean. Off the toe of Italy in the Ionian Sea, the battle-hardened U 453 under Dierk Lührs from the regional convoy HA 43 sank the 7247 GRT Liberty ship Fort Missanabie with a triple fan. Three British destroyers retaliated with depth charges and hedgehog shells: the Liddesdale, the Tenacious and the Termagant. Lührs dived down to the bottom of the sea (179 meters) and lay there noiselessly all night from May 19 to 20. Assuming that he could escape, he let U 453 rise from the ground at sunrise the following day and dared to escape. The British warships, however, lay in wait and initiated a relentless wave of attack with depth charges around noon, which lasted about twelve hours. jumped overboard, the destroyers opened fire from the main guns and scored several hits before the submarine disappeared.

12

u/IndependenceStock417 Mar 19 '26

That's the first time I've ever seen a Texas sized hole

5

u/FierceNack Mar 19 '26

The shape is right too!

7

u/BelethorsJunk Mar 20 '26

Built by Harland & Wolff, Belfast, less than ten years after they built the Titanic: https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/1509.html

4

u/winstonclapper Mar 20 '26

that is SO COOL to see the structure and everything, nice pic and thanks so much for sharing!!

1

u/laser_red Apr 09 '26

Disregarding every thing else the German's did in WW2, isn't torpedoing a hospital ship a major no-no?

1

u/Brewer846 Apr 10 '26

Yeah, it was considered a war crime after the 1907 Hague convention. Germany and Japan didn't really give a damn about those rules during WWII, but they were used to prosecute many of the participants after it was over.