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Johann
Faulbaum sank after a Russian aircraft of the type P-40 from 78 IAP
VVS, attack in the Jarfjord in the morning on the 14th of May 1944.
But before the ship ended her days here, the ship had an interesting
task during the first world war. During the first world war the German
submarines had become a problem and the trade fleet had not much to
set up against them. As a countermeasure against the the submarines
there was worked out a plan to camouflage civilian merchants ships with
weapons which could be used as decoys, Q ships. One of the vessel's
to be apionted to such a service was Johann Faulbaum. On the 7th of
June 1917 the ship was attacked by the submarine UC 29 and was hit in
the cargo room by a torpedo. The crew left the ship, but when the submarine
surfaced to sink the ship with her cannon, the submarine instead was
attacked by the soldiers onboard the ship. The submarine was quickly
sunk, and only two men of the German crew survived. Commander Campbell
who was the commandant on HMS Q5 was given the British Victoria Cross
after this event. Before she was sunk near Kirkenes city in 1944, the
ship came from Germany. Johan Faulbaum was loaded with cement and wood
for the German organization Todt who built a cable canal to the Litsa
front. On the 1st of May the ship arrives and the crew start to unload
the cargo immediately because of the grave danger of a Russian attack.
Not all goes according to the plan, and on the 15th of May the ship
is spotted by Russian bombers heading for home after an attack on Kirkenes
city. Some hours later there suddenly dives five Russian bombers from
the sky. In the heat of the fight one plane was hit and disappear in
the fjord with a tale of smoke behind her before it crashes in the mountain
wall. The pilot is killed momentary. During the attack no one onboard
Johann Faulbaum were injured, but the ship had gained five more hits
from bombs and the bow part split apart and the ship sank soon. The
smaller ship Flohendiep picked up the crew and tried to tow the ship
to land, but they have to give up the attempt. The Russians lost one
P-40. The wreck stands on her keel and is in a good condition
on a depht of ten to forty meters. The wreck lies in the northern bay
by Tårnet in Jarfjord almost three hundred meters from land, with her
stern part towards land, and is normally marked with a buoy. The ship
was also at Filipstad harbor the 19. December 1943 when the cargo onboard
the German ship Selma exploded. But Johann Faulbaum was towed away by
the tugboats and survived the Filipstad Accident in 1943...
The
official Victoria Cross reference.
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Edited
29.06.2007
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