KLEINKAMPFVERBÄNDE - GERMANY'S COUNTER-ATTACKS

As Allied forces crossed the Channel and stormed into Normandy, Hitler's navy fought back using a deadly new breed of maritime weaponry

- NICK HEWITT

On the night of 7/8 July 1944, a clumsy human torpedo containing a 19-year-old German sailor named Karl-Heinz Potthast was pushed into the water at Villers-sur-Mer near Le Havre. Nicknamed Neger, each unit consisted of a standard G7e naval torpedo slung beneath another G7e, with its warhead replaced by a tiny cockpit and basic controls. It could not be submerged, instead the operator peered through a plexiglass dome protruding above the water and aimed using a rudimentary sight. After slipping through Allied patrols, Potthast spotted a line of warships crossing his course. What seemed to be the largest ship, at the end of the line, slowed and anchored and Potthast fired his torpedo. As a huge explosion lit up the night sky, he turned for home.

Potthast had found the old Polish cruiser ORP Dragon, first commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1917 under the same name. His torpedo smashed into its starboard side amidships at 4:34am. Smoke and flames erupted from the hull, all the lights went out, and telephone communications with the engine rooms were lost. The corvette HMS Pennywort managed to tow the stricken Dragon inside the Gooseberry breakwater in Juno Assault Area, and the crew fought all night to save her, but the damage was catastrophic. Eventually, the old ship was scuttled as part of the sunken blockships that formed the Gooseberry.