ABSTRACT
As the Second World War came to a close, Korvetten-Kapitan Adalbert Schnee took the new Type XXI U-boat U-2511 on its first operational patrol. These streamlined boats were capable of high underwater speed and (by use of the schnorkel breathing tube) of continuous submerged operations. Taking U-2511 to the North of the Shetlands, Schnee, so the literature relates, found himself in an excellent position to attack the cruiser HMS Norfolk, screened by a single destroyer. Some accounts suggest that Schnee penetrated the cruiser’s destroyer screen and simulated firing a torpedo salvo at point-blank range, while others suggest that by making a 30º alteration of course and increasing speed to 16 knots he passed well outside the British destroyer’s detection range and thus avoided contact.1
