Rossbach was a wolfpack of German U-boats that operated during the battle of the Atlantic in World War II.
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Service history
Rossbach was formed in October 1943 to operate against the North Atlantic convoy routes and comprised 21 boats. It consisted of 12 boats from the disbanded group Leuthen, plus 9 others from bases in France and Germany.
Whilst forming, several boats from Rossbach were found and attacked by air patrols; 4 were sunk (U-221, U-279, U-389,and U-336) and another 4 were damaged (U-260, U-305, U-666 and U-731), forcing them to return to base. A further 3 were damaged, but were able to continue, while 2 more boats arrived from base as re-inforcement.
On 8/9 October 1943 Rossbach, attacked convoy SC 143. They sank one ship of 5,612 gross register tons (GRT) and one warship but lost 3 boats (U-419, U-610 and U-643) in the engagement.
Rossbach was disbanded following this attack; the remaining boats formed the core of a new group, codenamed Schlieffen.
U-boats involved
The name
Rossbach was a reference to the Battle of Rossbach fought by Frederick the Great during the Seven Years' War.