Built

Name

Type

Homeport

Owner

1925

Carl J. Busch
HC 143

Trawler

Cuxhaven

"Nordsee" Deutsche Hochseefischerei, Cuxhaven

Kriegs-
marine

Name

WBS#

WBS-Service

Complement

1939

Carl J. Busch

3

17.10.41 - 15.6.42

12.10.42
- 1945

? crew
5-6 meteorologist

Operation "Kreutzritter" 1943

Spitsbergen (28.6. - 19.11.43) - Transport of weather party to Leifdefjord, Vestspitsbergen.

On 15. September 1943 C.J.Busch, commanded by Steuermann Sittig, sailed from Kiel to Tromsø and Hammerfest. On 4 October she left Hammerfest bound for Leifdefjorden in company with U-355. C.J.Busch was heavily laden, and only made four knots against the strong north winds, but on 6 October the trawler and her escort lay off the north coast of Vestspitsbergen. By ill chance the trawler ran aground when feeling her way up Woodfjord and the equipment and stores had perforce to be unloaded near Sørdalsflya. On 17 October the U-boat arrived back at Sørdalsflya, C.J.Busch had meanwhile been refloaded and the trawler and her escort left for home on 19 October.

Operation "Haudegen" 1944

Spitsbergen (5.8. - 27.9.44) - Transport of weather party to Wordiebukta, Nordaustlandet.

On 5 August 1944 the C.J.Busch, which had recently been strengthened for ice navigation, left Sassnitz bound for Narvik, where she arrived on 16 August. In Narvik the stores intended for an emergency depot in Wahlenbergfjorden were transferred to U-357. This made room in C.J.Busch for the remainder of the stores brought north by the WBS 8 Hessen, which included provisions for the crew of the C.J.Busch in case they should be forced to winter with the meteorological party. The expedition was about to leave when U-357 was ordered to take part in operations on the northern convoy route in the Bjørnøya-Nordkapp area. From these operations the U-boat did not return. The C.J.Busch had meanwhile left Narvik for Tromsø, where U-307 was ordered to load stores to replace those lost in U-357. Expedition leader Lt. Wilhelm Dege divided his party equally on board the trawler and U-boat and on 10 September the expedition left Hammerfest and headed north. On 13 September Rijpfjorden was reached and next day C.J.Busch anchored in a small bay called Wordiebukta. On 27 September C.J.Busch and U-307 left for Narvik.

Feldpost Nr.
M 51 561

(10.1.43-1945)
Wetterbeobachtungsschiff No. 3