M343

 Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck, draw only border

Just eight days after D-Day three German minesweepers were steaming flat-out to dodge the Royal Navy forces protecting the cross-Channel supply lines to the invasion troops, writes Kendall McDonald.

Once clear, the minesweepers were to take shelter among the Channel Islands before moving on to sweep up newly laid British minefields in the approaches to the German naval base at Brest. While doing this, they were to be under the protection of the E-boat flotillas based on Guernsey.

One of those minesweepers, M-343, was one of 131 M-boats of the 1940 type, built by German yards between 1942 and 1945. She would also become one of the 62 of that type to be sunk during their sweeping in many theatres of the war in the West.

Despite the loss of nearly half of those built, these minesweepers were well designed for their task - 543 tons, 204ft long and 29ft in the beam, with 2400hp engines that gave them a maximum speed of 17 knots. But their defence was light - the usual crew of 87 had one 4.1in gun and two AA guns, a 37mm and a 20mm.

Not that their firepower was to be of much use. The three sweepers were spotted by radar off Cap de la Hague as they started to swing in towards the Channel Islands.

Within minutes they were straddled by fire from the RN destroyer Ashanti and the Polish-manned destroyer Piorun. At 1.40am on 14 June, direct hits sank the minesweeper M-83. The other two pounded away into the darkness, but the Navy stopped long enough to pick up 24 German survivors. Then they resumed the chase.

At 2.30 they found the M-412 , crippled her with several direct hits, and then finished the running battle by sinking M-343 as she fled south of Jersey. There is no record of any survivors.