Wolfpack Schill
Schill was a wolfpack of German U-boats that operated during the battle of the Atlantic in World War II. Service history. Following the resumption of the assault on the Atlantic convoy routes in the Autumn of 1943, U-boat Control ("Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote") (BdU) switched the focus of the campaign in October to the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic routes. To this end it established the wolfpack "Schill" off the coast of Portugal, to intercept convoys sailing to and from Gibraltar, Mediterranean and South Atlantic. "Schill" comprised ten U-boats, and commenced operations on 25 October. Its  first action was against home-bound convoy SL 138/MKS 28. During this assault the freighter "Hallfried" was sunk by "U-262" on 29 October; however "U-306" was sunk by convoy escorts "Whitehall" and "Geranium" on 31 October. Following this attack, "Schill" remained on patrol, but had no further successes. On 9 November, "U-707" was caught and sunk by Allied aircraft, a B-17 of 220 Squadron. On 16 November "Schill" was reinforced and re-organized into three groups. The first, "Schill 1", of eight U-boats, was the southernmost rake, running in a line to the west of Lisbon. The second , "Schill 2", of nine U-boats, was aligned west of Cape Finisterre in Spain, while the third, "Schill 3", of nine U-boats, was north of this, roughly along the 45th parallel. On 18 November U-boats of "Schill 1" opened the attack on convoy SL 139/MKS 30; over the next three days the boats of all three "Schill" groups were involved with three U-boats destroyed. On 18 November "U-211" was sunk by a Wellington, and on the 19th "U-536" by "Nene" and "Snowberry". On the 21st "U-538", en route from the North Atlantic to join "Schill" was  caught and sunk by escorts "Foley" and "Crane". Two aircraft were shot down on 20 November; a Liberator by "U-648" and a Sunderland by "U-618", but no ships were sunk from the convoy. With the end of the convoy battle on 22 November the "Schill" groups were disbanded; a number returned to base, while a cadre remained to form a new patrol line, code-named "Weddigen". U-boats involved. (25 October-16 November 1943) Schill (16–22 November 1943) Schill 1 Schill 2 Schill 3