Operation Geier (ii)

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'Geier' (ii) was a U-boat three-part wolfpack operation in the Atlantic off the Iberian peninsula using boats which had previously been part of the of the 'Trutz' wolfpack (30 June/15 July 1943).

The 'Geier I' wolfpack comprised U-228, U-603, U-608 and U-641, and neither lost any of its own number nor sank any ship.

The 'Geier II' wolfpack comprised U-211, U-435, U-951 and U-953, lost Korvettenkapitän Siegfried Strelow’s U-435 and Kapitänleutnant Kurt Pressel’s U-951, and sank no ship.

The 'Geier III' wolfpack comprised U-232, U-336 and U-642, and for the loss of Kapitänleutnant Ernst Ziehm’s U-232 sank no ship.

The three 'Geier' wolfpacks headed slowly from their concentration area to the south of the Azores islands group toward Portugal on the European mainland. As they do so, between 7 and 9 July, U-951 and U-232 were sunk by Consolidated B-24 Liberator long-range maritime reconnaissance bombers of the USAAF’s 1st and 2nd Anti-Submarine Squadrons, while U-603 was damaged by a Consolidated Catalina flying boat of the RAF’s No. 202 Squadron and U-435 was sunk by a Vickers Wellington medium-range maritime reconnaissance bomber of the RAF’s No. 179 Squadron.