RAAF 461 Squadron – Courage & Coincidence
Short Sunderland Flying Boat
We read many stories of wartime exploits which highlight amazing bravery and daring in the face of near overwhelming odds. But there are times when unbelievable coincidences also occur. This is one of them.
Our story begins in 1942, in the dark days of World War 2. The Battle of Britain had been won but the war was far from over. A group of Australian airmen had been sent to England in March, to form RAAF 461 Squadron and fly Catalina Flying Boats. However, as often happens, the squadron was equipped with the bigger Short Sunderland Mk. II flying boats instead. To bring the squadron up to full strength, additional personnel were drawn from around the Commonwealth but was still primarily made up of Australians. 461 Squadron was to be part of the Royal Air Force Coastal Command and was tasked with anti-submarine patrols over the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic Ocean. The squadron became operational in July 1942 and by May 1943, was re-equipped with the more advanced Mk. III Sunderlands.
German submarine “U-461”
On the 27th July 1943, a German submarine under the command of Korvettenkapitan Wolf Steiber, left Bordeaux (on the French south-west coast), on its 6th patrol. The submarine was a Type XIV supply and replenishment U-Boat, commissioned in January 1942 and had operated extensively in the Atlantic Ocean on its previous patrols. Normally based at St Nazaire, on the French north-west coast, this submarine had been damaged on its 5th patrol when attacked by a Canadian Wellington bomber of the RAF’s 172 Squadron, making it necessary to call into Bordeaux for urgent repairs. After joining two other submarines, it headed through the Bay of Biscay towards to Atlantic Ocean.
On the 30th July 1943, an RAF Liberator bomber sighted the three submarines and attacked but sustained substantial damage from the heavy flak coming from the submarines. An RAAF 461 Squadron Sunderland, registration “U” or “U-461”, under the command of Flight Lieutenant Dudley Marrows, joined the attack. “U-461” made one attempt flying in low and then dropping seven depth charges. A direct hit was made on one of the submarines. The force of the explosions broke up the submarine and it began to sink. Those of its crew who could, had no alternative but to abandon ship into the cold waters where survival unless rescued quickly, was unlikely. But, against RAF regulations, the 12 Australian crew of “U-461”, agreed to drop their plane’s life raft to the men in the water below. Only 15 of the 68 German crew survived the sinking.
Flight Lieutenant Dudley Marrows at the controls of his Sunderland Flying Boat
Coincidentally, the German Submarine was the “U-461”, the same registration as the RAAF Sunderland.
The RAAF 461 Squadron was disbanded in June 1945 as World War 2 drew to a close. Throughout the squadron’s short operational life, 20 Sunderlands would be lost to enemy action or accidents with a total of 86 personnel killed included 64 Australians.
In 1985, at a reunion of Sunderland and U-Boat crews in Germany, Dudley Marrows met Wolf Steiber whose life he had saved by dropping the life raft into the freezing waters of the Atlantic Ocean. They would become great friends with Wolf visiting Dudley in Australia, a few years later.