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Old December 2nd, 2022 #1
jagd messer
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Default U-Boot / Unterseeboot / U Boat

U-Boot / Unterseeboot / U Boat / U-109 / U-234


HIRSCHFELD: The Story of a U-Boat NCO WOLFGANG HIRSCHFELD , 1940-1946: The Secret Diary of a U-Boat as told by Geoffrey Brooks







Whilst there have been many memoirs written by U-boat commanders of the Second World War, a book such as this, based upon the diaries of a senior Petty Officer telegraphist, written in 'real time' is something very special. Wolfgang Hirschfeld, whose diaries Geoffrey Brooks has translated is a born story teller. The principal chapters describe his experiences during six war patrols in U-109, in which he served as the senior telegraphist. His is a tale which covers the whole kaleidescope of emotions shared by men at war - a story of immense courage and fortitude, of remarkable comradeship born of the dangers, frustrations and privations shared and of transitory moments of triumph. Throughout runs a vein of humour, without which resistance to stress would have been virtually impossible. We get to know one of Germany's great U-boat aces, 'Ajax' Bleichrodt, holder of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and, in a special biographical appendix, learn how he finally cracked under the strain. The role of Admiral Karl Donitz, the dynamic commander of the U-boat service, so fascinatingly described by Hirschfeld, is of special interest - not least because even this dedicated Nazi had clearly realized by September, 1942, that the war was fast being lost. In 1944 Hirschfeld was promoted Warrant Officer and found himself on a large, schnorkel-equipped boat (U-234) heading for Japan with a load of high technology equipment and, in addition, a quantity of uranium ore. The possible significance of that uranium has been deeply researched by Geoffrey Brooks and is discussed in a second appendix.




Wolfgang Hirschfeld (born May 20, 1916 ; † April 24, 2005 ) was a soldier in the Navy during World War II and most recently chief radio master on the submarine U 234 . He was best known for his diary entries .


Wolfgang Hirschfeld joined the Navy in December 1935 and initially received his basic infantry training in Stralsund . After he had completed this, he came to the radio operator course in Flensburg - Mürwik and then to the observation service for Poland and the Soviet Union . From 1937 he worked as a radio operator on clearing boats and minesweepers and after successfully completing the NCO courses at the outbreak of World War II, he served on the Pfeil torpedo intercept boat , the old former torpedo boat T 139 .


After he was assigned to the submarine weapon in 1940 , he completed a few courses and then began his service on the U 109 submarine . U 109 was a type IXB submarine and was put into service on December 5, 1940 at the Deschimag AG Weser shipyard in Bremen under Lieutenant Captain Hans Georg Fischer. Under Kapitänleutnant Fischer, Hirschfeld completed his submarine training and his first patrol, which began on May 6, 1941 from Kiel and ended in Lorient with the 2nd U-Flotilla.


After successfully completing the first patrol, Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Bleichrodt took command of U 109 . Under the command of Kapitänleutnant Bleichrodt, Hirschfeld took part in five more patrols until he left U 109 in October 1942 and was temporarily declared unfit for submarines due to a skin disease.


In July 1943, Hirschfeld was ordered to train leader and then to the chief radio master course in Flensburg-Mürwik, before he was assigned to U 234 as station manager in January 1944 . With U 234 he ran out on his last patrol in April 1945, witnessed the surrender there at sea and became an American prisoner of war. In April 1946 he went back to Europe with 1,800 other prisoners of war, was interned again in Brussels and finally released home in May 1946.


Hirschfeld kept diary-like records throughout his military service, although this was forbidden. These records, which represent an important source of the situation of German submarine crews, were preserved and were published in diary form under the title "Feindfahrten". "The Last Boat" followed later.




https://second.wiki/wiki/wolfgang_hirschfeld
Wolfgang Hirschfeld (born May 20, 1916 ; † April 24, 2005 ) was a soldier in the Navy during World War II and most recently chief radio master on the submarine U 234
 
Old December 3rd, 2022 #2
Ray Allan
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The author of this book, Wolfgang Hirschfeld, would correspond roughly to the character of Hinrich in Das Boot. In the movie, he is the hydrophone operator, and also the radioman. In the scene below, he is the crewman at 5:32 who yells, "Wasserbomb!" (depth charge) and is later tracking the attacking British destroyer at 7:49. One of the best films made about U-boats in WW2, and one of my all-time favorite films.

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Old December 9th, 2022 #3
jagd messer
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The Cruel Sea (1953)

War - The World War II adventures of a British convoy escort ship and its officers._

Director: Charles Frend
Writer: Nicholas Monsarrat, Eric Ambler
Stars: Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, John Stratton
Genre: Drama, War
The World War II adventures of a British convoy escort ship and its officers.
 
Old December 9th, 2022 #4
jagd messer
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Default U-53

Ships hit by U-53

See the profile page for U-53


Please note that in the table below you can find a 'Map' column. This helps to find that particular attack on the map below.

Date Commander Name of ship Tons Nat. Convoy Map
15 Sep 1939 Ernst-Günter Heinicke Cheyenne 8,825 br A
17 Sep 1939 Ernst-Günter Heinicke Kafiristan 5,193 br B

11 Feb 1940 Harald Grosse Snestad 4,114 nw C
11 Feb 1940 Harald Grosse Imperial Transport (d.) 8,022 br D
12 Feb 1940 Harald Grosse Dalarö 3,927 sw E
13 Feb 1940 Harald Grosse Norna 1,022 sw F
14 Feb 1940 Harald Grosse Martin Goldschmidt 2,095 da G
18 Feb 1940 Harald Grosse Banderas 2,140 sp H
35,338
7 ships sunk (27,316 tons) and 1 ship damaged (8,022 tons).

uboat.net

http://Ships hit by U-53 - U-boat Successes - German U-boats
https://www.uboat.net/boats/successes/u53.html
WebSee the profile page for U-53 Please note that in the table below you can find a 'Map' column. This helps to find that particular attack on the map below. In some cases the exact …
 
Old March 13th, 2023 #5
jagd messer
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Default U-Boat Ace: The Story of Wolfgang Lüth




Wolfgang Luth was one of only seven men to win Germany’s highest combat decoration. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. He was the first of two U-boat commanders to be so honored during World War II, the other recipient being Albrecht Brandi.




Lüth's last service position was commander of the Naval Academy Mürwik near Flensburg. He was accidentally shot and killed by a German sentry after the end of the war on the night of 13/14 May 1945. He operated in almost every theater of the undersea war from Norway to the Indian Ocean and he was the second most successful German U-boat ace in World War II. Luth is credited with sinking 47 Allied ships and a submarine – a record topped only by Otto Kretschmer. In 1944, after 16 war patrols, including one that lasted a record 203 days at sea, he was named the youngest Commandant of the German Naval Academy at age 30.


Until the publication of this comprehensive study his accomplishments were overshadowed by other aces, to correct the neglect, Jordan Vause provides an entertaining, authoritative biography. Vause was intrigued after seeing a portrait of Luth as a midshipman on display and set out to learn all he could, tracking down some of Luth’s crewmen and fellow U-boat commanders. He draws on their firsthand information and a variety of written documents to provide a fascinating character analysis. In doing so, he encapsulates the paradoxes inherent in so many German submarine commanders, men spawned by the Nazi regime yet not entirely of it. Vause portrays Luth as a man of contradictions: an agent Nazi ideologue who could bend the rules for a slack sailor, a U-boat ace who could treat survivors of his attacks with clemency but then impetuously gun down other victims in cold blood. Even his best friend admitted that Luth had no remorse for the misery he inflicted on the crews of sunken ships. On the night of May 13th 1945 he was accidentally shot and killed by a German sentry. On May 16th 1945 he was given the Third Reich’s last state funeral.
 
Old April 1st, 2023 #6
Ray Allan
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Note: One of the other explanations I heard for the US navy pronouncing the word as "sub-MARINE-er" rather than "sub-MARE-iner" was the latter pronunciation sounded too much like "sub-standard mariner."
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Last edited by Ray Allan; April 1st, 2023 at 10:24 PM.
 
Old April 12th, 2023 #7
jagd messer
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Default Günther Prien U 47

Günther Prien, the man who was to become the commander of the famed U-boat U-47 and the Kriegsmarine's first recipient of the Knight's Cross during the Second World War, was born on 16 January 1908 in the town of Osterfeld in the state of Thuringia in central Germany, the son of a judge and the eldest of three children.



Early Life in Leipzig

Most of Prien's early childhood was spent in the northern port city of Lübeck, but this was to change following the break-up of his parents' marriage, which saw the young Günther and his mother move to the Saxon city of Leipzig along with his younger sister and brother Liselotte and Hans-Joachim. Life in Leipzig was far from easy, with Frau Prien making ends meet by buying and selling Erzgebirge lace; she made very little, with the meagre profits barely enough to feed the family. In order to earn a little extra money, the largest room in the house had been let to a student named Buzelius. Günther was employed as the errand and delivery boy, where more often then not he would be left to deal with the buyers, most of whom were prickly old women who treated him with an undisguised contempt.

School did little for the young Prien; his great dream was to take to the high seas and follow in the footsteps of his hero, the great Portuguese seafarer Vasco de Gama, whose portrait sat above the youngster's bed. In 1923, buoyed by the support of his schoolfriend Heinz Frenkel and the ninety-one Swedish Kronor he had earned as a part-time guide at the Leipzig Trade Fair, Prien made the first concerted move towards a seafaring career he had yearned for so much. He was a mere fifteen years old. The headstrong young man's decision was against the wishes of his mother, but the young man was determined. Eventually, his mother gave him her blessing after Günther told her this was that he really wanted to do with his life. Arriving at the Seaman's College (Deutsche Seemannsschule) at Finkenwärder near Hamburg - dubbed the "matelot sausage machine" - Prien enrolled on a three-month training course, with the Swedish money just about covering the cost.

The Merchant Marine

The training at Finkenwärder under Captain Oelkers was tough and discipline was strict - but after the three months Prien and all of the others who had enrolled along with him passed the examination. Bereft of funds and unable to afford the fare for the journey home, Prien remained at Finkenwärder along with Jahnke, another graduate. This was to prove to be a lucky break, as not before long both he and Jahnke were offered places on the sailing ship Hamburg. After the boys had enquired about their wages, they were laughed at by Oelkers, who also went on to say that as the Hamburg was also a training vessel, both of them would have to stump up a further thirty Reichsmarks. The boys left disappointed, thinking perhaps that the opportunity had gone; however later that evening the captain summoned the two graduates to his office again, and informed them that the fees had been waived. After yet more cheeky questions about wages, Prien and Jahnke were provided with an outline of the pay structure - 'rising in small increments from zero Marks'.

Prien soon found himself in the thick of things on board the Hamburg. During his first week he managed to get on the wrong side of one of the senior matelots, and was quickly made to understand how the hierarchy on board a merchant ship worked. His first assignment was to scrub up the latrine, popularly known as the "parliament", with only a supply of salt and a bucket of hot water. Although this was hardly the life he expected as a sailor, Prien laid into the task with gusto. He was to display the same level of commitment and bullish determination with all of the other tasks he undertook: time was spent honing his skills to a high level, skills that were later to become indispensable. As the months passed he found himself engaged in a wide variety of roles, including cabin boy, deckhand and even a short stint as a replacement cook. He excelled in all tasks, apart from a (in hindsight, at least) comical attempt to change the colour of white cabbage using red lead dye that was to lead to both a stomach upset for his crewmates and the ending of his short career in the kitchens. By serving on the Hamburg Prien had also fulfilled his dream to see beyond his homeland, with his journeys taking him to the Azores, Britain and across the Atlantic to America.


In 1925 however disaster struck, when the Hamburg found itself caught up in a violent storm off the coast of Ireland. Swept like matchwood by the swirling winds and crashing waves, the ship was flung towards the coastline. It crashed violently, and if that were not bad enough Prien and a number of his colleagues found themselves involved in what amounted to face-to-face combat with an army of marauding rats. The local lifeboat was to arrive not a moment too soon. All of the Hamburg's crew were ferried to Dublin, and the following morning they forlornly attempted to salvage what they could from their stricken vessel. All attempts to get the ship serviceable again proved fruitless, and after six weeks the once-resplendent three-rigger was finally written off as a wreck. Having spent a less than eventful six weeks in the Irish capital, the indignity was piled upon the crew as they found themselves being shipped back to Germany as third-class passengers - as sailors without a ship.

Prien's tale of woe did not end there; back in Hamburg at the company office expecting some sort of wage packet, he was duly informed by the clerk that he owed the ship's book five marks and seventy pfennigs for supplies he had drawn on board during his period of service. As if to clarify the situation the clerk handed Prien a receipt signed by his ex-skipper, an officious character who had rather unsurprisingly been dubbed der Schlangengrieper - 'the Old Sod'. On asking how he was expected to travel home, the official matter-of-factly stated that the company was prepared to foot the bill for a fourth-class rail ticket. Thanks to the intervention of his friends Stwer and Witaschek, the seriously annoyed Prien was prevented from boxing the pen-pusher's ears. He was to spend one last evening together on the town with his two shipmates - kindly funded by the pair of them - before bidding them both farewell.

Things didn't turn out too badly for Prien however, as he soon found himself back in Hamburg having landed a job as an Offiziersanwärter on board the South America-bound freighter Pfalzburg, an ugly vessel that was a far cry from the three-masted full-rigger Hamburg. Once again Prien found himself having to get to know a completely new crew, some of whom didn't take too kindly to having on board the new boy who was training for his masters certificate. Prien was never as happy on board the Pfalzburg as he had been while serving on the Hamburg, but at least it kept him in the job and on course for the masters certificate. He even gained the grudging respect of the crew after he had stood up to Mayland, the bully who had plagued him right from his first day on board the freighter.


All of this hardship was worth it however, as by early 1929 the twenty-one year old Prien soon found himself as the Fourth Officer on the passenger vessel San Francisco, his master's and wireless operator's certificates both safely in his pocket. His service was tough, but it was without its benefits. As well as gaining a wealth of seafaring knowledge and expertise, Prien had also been able to acquaint himself with many places around the world, imbibing a wealth of knowledge and experience far removed from his provincial early life running errands.

When taking up his post on the San Francisco, donning his smart new uniform and taking command of his clean new cabin, it appeared that Prien was finally reaping the rewards after years of latrine-cleaning, deck-scrubbing and third-class travel. Yet ironically this was the period which saw an incident that almost put an end to his entire career. On 11 March 1929, the ship set out from Hamburg on a cold, grey evening en route to America. Not long into the journey, there followed a collision with another vessel, which Prien found out to be the steamer Karlsruhe. Following an outburst from an irate passenger, the Fourth Officer - Prien - was to effectively become the scapegoat. The damage was minor and had been calculated at 35,000 Reichsmarks, and the vessel was able to continue with its voyage. That no great harm was done was little consolation to the young Fourth Officer, who spent the remainder of the voyage brooding over the thought that everything he had worked for might come to nothing.


The time soon came when Prien, the Captain and First Officer were summoned to attend the Marine Court - the Seeamt - in the port of Bremerhaven. After the three men had been given a thorough grilling by the Court Commissioner, the mood was not great, with everyone still unsure as to which way the verdict would go. After being called back into the court, the verdict was finally presented: it was the poor weather that had been the reason for the collision, and everyone else was absolved of blame. A great weight lifted from his shoulders, Prien decided there and then that he was going to double his efforts to obtain the coveted captain's certification. In January 1932, almost three years after the collision with the Karlsruhe, Prien had achieved his goal. One would have thought that a glittering Merchant career lay ahead, but this was not to be the case.

1932 dragged on, and saw the unemployed Merchant Marine captain end up as a labourer in a succession of work-gangs in the Vogtland. Even there he made a good reputation for himself, and had been lined up as a potential leader. But Prien had always been a seaman; being a leader on a building site was not where he wanted to be. Things were not to remain this way for long, though - in late 1932 his life and career was to take another turn when heard the news that the Reichsmarine, the successor to the wartime Imperial Navy, had opened its doors to officers from the Merchant Marine. Prien grabbed this welcome opportunity with both hands, and headed off to the Baltic port of Stralsund to volunteer.

This situation had come about rather fortuitously: on 26 July 1932 a freak summer storm had resulted in the sinking of the training sailing ship Niobe, killing seventy officer candidates of Crew 32. This led Admiral Raeder, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Reichsmarine, to write to Germany's leading commercial shipping lines asking for their best officers to come forward as replacements. One of the fifteen Handelsschiffsoffiziere (Merchant Marine officers) to join in 1933 was Günther Prien, who enlisted on 16 January. These men are often recorded as Crew 31/33; their previous experience earned them a place in Crew 31.

By the end of January 1933, Günther Prien was back in uniform again, having been admitted to the Reichsmarine at the rank of ordinary seaman. On 30 January, one Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of the German Reich.

U-boat Training

After a period of service on the light cruiser Königsberg as an officer cadet, Prien obtained his full commission, and was transferred in October 1935 to the U-boat force (Ubootwaffe) at the rank of Leutnant zur See in what had now become the Kriegsmarine. He was almost immediately placed on the U-boat training course, along with a number of others who were also to go on to be some of the most successful U-boat commanders, among them Joachim Schepke and Herbert Schultze. The training department, at that stage officially titled the school of anti-submarine warfare (Unterseebootsabwehrschule, or UAS), had on 6 June 1935 been placed under the command of the then Kapitän zur See Karl Dönitz. The boats used were type IIA and IIBs. For his training, Prien found himself on the U-3, one of the new Type IIAs.

The training that U-boat crews had to undergo was thorough to say the least; a veteran submariner himself, Dönitz applied himself to his task with both innovation and vigour, applying a number of strict fundamental principles in a well-organised, intense programme. It was the thoroughness of this training programme that was to produce the highly skilled commanders and crews that only a few years later were to take to the seas and strike fear into the opposition. The thoroughness of the training was exemplified by the number of practice attacks a trainee crew had to make before even being permitted to fire a live torpedo - a staggering total of 132 manoeuvres, 66 of which were submerged and 66 while surfaced, using shots of compressed air known to the crews as "water slugs". Every technique and trick in the book, as well as a number of new ones geared towards overcoming improvements in enemy anti-submarine technology such as the feared ASDIC system, were learned thoroughly by Dönitz's fledglings.

Within two years of beginning his U-boat training Günther Prien was promoted, attaining the rank of Oberleutnant zur See on New Year's Day 1937. During the following year Prien was stationed on the experimental Type IA boat U-26 as a watch officer under Kapitänleutnant Werner Hartmann, picking up valuable "real time" experience patrolling in Spanish waters during the Spanish Civil War. Hartmann was a particular admirer of the young officer, who in addition to being meticulous, thoroughgoing and dedicated to his profession was also an highly personable individual who could keep eager listeners enthralled with a vast array of stories about his ventures around the world as a merchant seaman.

Sometime in 1939 before the start of what was to become the Second World War, Prien married his fiancée Ingeborg. According to what Prien "said" in the ghost-written autobiography Mein Weg nach Scapa Flow, he had met his future wife after supposedly mistaking her for someone he had met sometime earlier in the city of Plauen in the Vogtland. However, in various interviews after the war Prien's widow discounted the account in Mein Weg nach Scapa Flow as pure fantasy. A happy married life was not going to last long however - for war was just around the corner.

War, Command, and the Iron Cross

On 17 December 1938 at the rank of Oberleutnant zur See, Prien was given command of the Type VIIB U-47, the most junior officer to be given command of one of these newer, more advanced vessels. This was not without justification: Prien had been highly rated by his superiors, making his mark during the Atlantic "war games" of May 1939 where he had been the most aggressive and achieved the best results. On 1 March 1939 he was promoted to Kapitänleutnant.

When war broke out in September Kapitänleutnant Prien was to make his mark as the first U-boat commander to gain a successful sanctioned kill* on his first Atlantic patrol, with the sinking of the British steam ship Bosnia on 5 September 1939, a mere two days after the opening of hostilities. Prien conducted the attack with a chivalry that was often shown by the U-boat aces: after the British vessel had refused to heed verbal warnings, it was attacked with deck gunfire. Not before having the crew of U-47 assist the Bosnia's survivors by bailing out their capsized lifeboat, Prien allowed its stricken crew to be picked up by a neutral Norwegian ship before finally sending the steamer to the bottom of the Atlantic with a torpedo. No-one was killed during this attack.

Prien's first skirmish was to yield a total of three victims, the sinking of the Bosnia being followed by the successful attacks on 6 and 7 September against the British freighters Rio Claro and Gartavon. Once again, the crews were allowed off their stricken vessels and allowed to progress in their lifeboats before U-47 delivered the coup de grce. The eventual sinking of the Gartavon was particularly eventful: after the crew had taken to the boats, the crewless freighter steamed in an arc towards U-47. After U-47 had dodged the ship, a single torpedo was fired to sink her. After the torpedo jagged off course and passed wide, the decision was made to sink it with shells from the 88mm deck gun.

U-47 safely returned to port on 15 September, and ten days afterwards Prien was awarded for his exploits with the Iron Cross second class.

At the very beginning of the war old codes of chivalry remained in force, and Prien stood firmly by these values and always encouraged his officers and men to do the same. During these early forays, he often invited the captain of the stricken merchantman on board the U-boat, exchanging pleasantries and assuring them that the crews would come to no harm before making sure the crews of the vessel were safely aboard their lifeboats. This approach led to the sinkings of enemy vessels without any loss of life, as was the case with the Bosnia. As the war went on however and Allied vessels started to carry arms, attitudes among U-boat crews had to change:

From then on the war hardened with every day. The British began to arm their merchant ships and send them in convoys. We acted accordingly. Every vessel in an enemy convoy was liable to be torpedoes without warning and we worked according to the formula: Any ship in convoy to the bottom.

(Günther Prien, Mein Weg nach Scapa Flow)

*The first actual sinking of an enemy vessel by a U-boat during the war was the steam liner Athenia, mistaken for an armed merchantman and sunk by U-30 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp.

The Bull of Scapa Flow

Prien's second patrol was to elevate the man from the small town in Thuringia to the status of legend, a sailor feted upon by the whole of Germany and its leader. After the chief of the U-boat fleet, Karl Dönitz (himself now an Admiral), had suggested an attack on the British Northern Fleet at the base of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, Prien jumped at the opportunity. In an audacious night-time raid on the "impenetrable" British base on the night of 13/14 October 1939, U-47 attacked and sunk the battleship Royal Oak before escaping back to base unscathed and accepting the adulation of his chief, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and the German people.

U-47 arrives back at WilhelmshavenPrien receives his Knight's Cross from Hitler in Berlin



Left: The "Bull of Scapa Flow" and his triumphant crew arrives in Wilhelmshaven to a rousing reception following the successful mission at Scapa Flow. Right: Prien stands proudly on the conning tower.

On his return to Germany, the first recognised "ace" of the war was awarded with both the Iron Cross first class and the coveted Knight's Cross, or Ritterkreuz, the latter presented by Hitler himself in Berlin on 18 October 1939, along with the rest of the crew. Of the millions who were to serve in the German armed forces during the war, only 7,313 were to win this award, with Prien being the very first recipient. The American journalist and author William L. Shirer, present in Berlin at the time, described Prien and his crew:

Captain Prien, commander of the submarine, came tripping into our afternoon press conference at the Propaganda Ministry this afternoon, followed by his crew - boys of eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Prien is thirty, clean-cut, cocky, a fanatical Nazi, and obviously capable. Introduced by Hitler's press chief, Dr. [Otto] Dietrich, who kept cursing the English and calling Churchill a liar, Prien told us little of how he did it. He said he had no trouble getting past the boom protecting the bay. I got the impression, though he said nothing to justify it, that he must have followed a British craft, perhaps a minesweeper, into the base. British negligence must have been something terrific.



Left: Günther Prien and the crew of U-47 in Berlin prior to their meeting with Adolf Hitler in October 1939 following the sinking of the HMS Royal Oak at Scapa Flow. Right: Prien was soon afterwards presented with the Knight's Cross.

Fted by Goebbels' propaganda ministry and with his star ascending by the day, Prien was soon back on his boat, part of a growing elite group of U-boat commanders who continued to cause havoc for the Allied transporters, not to say the Allied leadership, with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill himself highlighting the threat of the U-boats on many an occasion. Among this number were names such as Otto Kretschmer (U-99), Herbert Schultze (U-48), and Joachim Schepke (U-100). Fresh from the receipt of his Ritterkreuz, Germany's most famous "Kaleun" and his crew set off once again for the familiar waters of the North Atlantic, putting out to sea on 16 November. On what was to be a gruelling patrol lasting just over a month, U-47 sunk three enemy vessels between 5 and 7 December - the British freighter Navasota, the Norwegian tanker M/S Britta, and the Netherlands-based Tajandoen. The latter two vessels were sunk mere miles off the English coast.

Earlier in this patrol on 28 November, Prien had attacked the British "London" class heavy cruiser Norfolk, following a signal from U-35 commanded by Kapitänleutnant Werner Lott. Prien carefully closed in on the Norfolk, firing a single torpedo which apparently struck the British vessel. The respective sides offered different views on what had happened: while the German propaganda ministry credited Prien with the Norfolk's destruction, the British claimed that no damage had been done. Prien returned to Kiel on 18 December, once again to a hero's welcome. The crew of Lott's U-35, however, were not so lucky, finding themselves on the receiving end of destroyer attacks on 29 November. All of the crew were successfully picked up, and were to spend a time incarcerated in the Tower of London before being transported to other POW camps in Britain and Canada.

A change in fortune: Disaster in Norway

1940 was to be a topsy-turvy year for Kapitänleutnant Prien and his crew, mainly due to the constant problems he and other U-boat skippers were experiencing with their torpedoes, in what soon became known as the Torpedo Crisis. Things began poorly, with U-47's first patrol of the year, its fourth in all, yielding only one victim during its nineteen days at sea, the Danish steamer Britta. Days went by with nary an enemy vessel to be seen, with the boredom only being broken by the periods in which U-47 found itself dodging enemy destroyers and their deadly depth charges. Having spent nineteen unproductive days at sea, Prien returned to base disappointed and disenchanted.

As far as the torpedo problem was concerned, things were to come to a head during the next (fifth) patrol during the Norwegian campaign, codenamed Operation Weserübung, where Prien and his colleagues were more often than not left watching salvo after salvo either explode prematurely or trickle harmlessly away from their intended targets. The misery felt by Prien and his crew was broken only by the good news that Prien's wife Ingeborg had given birth to a healthy baby girl on 7 April; with a dose of typically nautical humour, Dönitz had telegraphed Prien, announcing the arrival of a new "U-boat without a periscope" ("Ein U-boote ohne Sehrohr ist heute angekomen").



Probably the brightest moment for Günther Prien during the disappointing campaign in Norway was the news of his wife Ingeborg giving birth to a daughter. This photograph of the happy family, signed by Prien, was probably taken during his period of home leave between U-47's fifth and sixth patrols.

Even with this wonderful news from back home, the happy father could only dwell on it for so long: the ongoing problems with the torpedoes, the incessant boredom and the constant threat of enemy vessels could not be placed at the back of his mind for long, and the reality of the situation bit hard. Ordered to take up a waiting position, the entire day was spent waiting in the depths as more than two dozen depth charges exploded above.

What was probably the most significant "incident" concerning the torpedoes took place late in the evening on 16 April at the Bydgenfjord near the port of Narvik; after having launched four torpedoes at short range at what was effectively a wall of stationary vessels, Prien witnessed all four devices fail to achieve any results. Undeterred, he reloaded the four bow tubes and ran in for a second attack, with the results almost identical. Worse still, one of the four "eels" strayed away and exploded harmlessly against the base of a cliff. If this were not bad enough, the U-boat ran aground on an unchartered sand bar and damaged an engine in freeing itself, a situation that could well have ended in disaster had the enemy vessels - among them two battle cruisers - been alerted to U-47's presence. In order to free the boat from the sand bank, a number of the crew found themselves having to charge up and down the length of the vessel to create enough movement to engineer an escape:

The whirring propellor churned a wake of froth astern. Still the U boat stuck fast.

Tramp-tramp to starboard - back again - and again! Doggedly the men pounded backwards and forwards on the exposed casing. Very gradually the boat began to rock. With each new effort the propellors thrashed deep whirlpools in the limpid fjord water astern, for'ard on either side of the boat the compressed air seethed and bubbled. At last, after minutes, with a scrunching groan and a heave the boat sprang free.

(Wolfgang Frank, Enemy Submarine)

As well as the not so simple matter of the dud torpedoes, the additional problem of the weapons exploding prematurely was to result in the loss of a number of U-boats, with Prien himself lucky to escape such a fate after a run-in with the British battleship Warspite a couple of days after the debacle at Bydgenfjord. At a range of around nine hundred yards, U-47 had fired twice at the battleship, with neither torpedo finding its mark - although one fired prematurely, alerting the circling enemy destroyers. Finding himself surrounded, Prien escaped by the skin of his teeth. By 19 April Prien had totally given up on his weapons - with a dismal record of ten duds from ten shots, he refrained from using his remaining four torpedoes on what would otherwise have been an inviting convoy on his homeward journey. With his engine already damaged, the risk of misfire and alerting the enemy to his position was far too great. Explaining his decision to Dönitz afterwards, Prien flatly commented the following day that he "could hardly be expected to fight with a dummy rifle". Prien was not one to mince his words - even when addressing a Konteradmiral.

The disastrous fourth and fifth patrols in early 1940 were without doubt the most unproductive part of Prien's highly successful career - U-47 had spent a total of forty-three days at sea, expending most of its torpedoes with the net return of a single enemy vessel. It was clear that something had to be done; had even half the torpedoes fired at Bydgenfjord worked properly, the victory in Norway would have been achieved far sooner, and Prien would have achieved a feat that might even have surpassed his exploits at Scapa Flow six months previously. This fact was not lost on Dönitz, who acknowledged the effort made by the man who had become one of his most respected U-boat commanders.

Morale is restored

Over the Summer of 1940, Dönitz retained his firm belief in his crews, working overtime to restore morale and confidence while at the same time making strenuous efforts to resolve the problems with the torpedoes. The sensitive and complicated magnetic pistol was replaced with a pistol that fired on impact, though even this did not offer an immediate end to the problems.

The respect that the U-boat crews had for their Commander in Chief was to prove decisive, as they gamely steeled their nerves and set out again in spite of the continuing torpedo issues. That many of them managed to overcome these difficulties was testament to both their skill and resolve; Günther Prien proved to be a shining example, and was not found wanting. Over the course of the summer and early autumn, his fortunes were to change dramatically.

The Summer of 1940: The "Happy Time"

The Summer of 1940 was to see great successes for the German armed forces - France was swiftly conquered, and Britain was on its knees, awaiting the imminent invasion. This period was also to see what was called the "Happy Time" for the U-boat crews, with the Wolfpacks wreaking havoc among lightly-defended Allied shipping. Prien quickly forgot his disastrous fifth patrol in Norway, and put out from Kiel on 3 June hoping for better fortune. All seemed to start well when on 6 June, three days into the patrol, U-47 successfully rescued three Luftwaffe bomber crewmen whose aircraft had been shot down over the Atlantic; having been welcomed on board it must have been some experience for the airmen, who had to spend a month in unfamiliar conditions sharing the latrine with forty other men and eating nutritious submarine food!

The period following the rescue of the airmen saw Prien and his crew play the familiar old waiting game; more than a week passed with not a single enemy vessel in sight. Early on the morning of 14 June, the waiting was at an end as U-47 encountered an juicy target heading towards him - Convoy HX-48: forty-two vessels, in seven lines of six. It was not such an easy target though: in addition to the fast escort vessels, enemy aircraft continually buzzed overhead. Prien's attempt to stay out of sight while trying to maintain the chase was doomed to failure, as the poor speed of the Type VIIB while submerged allowed the convoy to inch away out of range. Every time he attempted to deliver an attack, there was something their to thwart him. After a fruitless three-hour chase the convoy could still be seen on the horizon, but following an emergency crash-dive to avoid a marauding Sunderland it had all but disappeared from view. All was not lost however, for at long last a tangible target appeared in the form of the British steamer Balmoral Wood, which had fallen away from the main convoy. One eel was launched, followed by a resounding explosion minutes later. Not long afterwards, the freighter had found its way to the bottom, leaving on the surface a sorry trail of debris - aircraft parts, wings and fuselages that had broken out of the crates that had contained them.

The sinking of the Balmoral Wood was to prove to be the first of a long list of victims in what was to be a highly successful outling; in stark contrast to the earlier fiasco in Norway this sixth patrol was to be Prien's longest and most successful in terms of both ships sunk and tonnage recorded, measuring in at a staggering 51,189 tons. In a particularly hot period between 21 and 30 June, U-47 accounted for six further enemy vessels - the British freighters San Fernando and Empire Toucan, the Panama-registered steamer Catherine, the Norwegian freighter M/S Lenda, the Dutch tanker Leticia, and the Greek freighter Georgios Kyriakides. During the attack on the San Fernando Prien made a series of uncharacteristic miscalculations that were to dramatically reduce his final tonnage estimation: in addition to underestimating the tonnage of the San Fernando itself (he calculated it to be the 12,100-ton Cadillac) he also thought that two more torpedoes had been successful in taking down another 7,000-ton freighter and the 5,600-ton Gracia. One can only assume that these miscalculations were driven by the spirit of competition that had started to develop between Prien and his former 1. WO Engelbert Endrass, now commander of U-46.

U-47's most significant victim on this patrol however was its eighth and final one, the British tranport Arandora Star, which before the war had been a well-known and popular cruise liner. Unbeknownst to Prien, the Arandora Star had on board over eighteen hundred people, the majority of whom were German and Italian prisoners, among them a number of civilian internees, on their way to the internment camps in Canada. Despite its cargo, there was nothing on the vessel that indicated its purpose; Prien therefore acted as he would have done with any other enemy vessel. Just after an hour after the single-torpedo attack on 2 July, the ship quickly sank in dramatic fashion, taking with her 805 lives, over seven hundred of which were Germans and Italians. The losses aboard the Arandora Star would have been far worse had other British vessels not arrived on the scene to pick up the stricken survivors. With the high command unaware of the loss of life, Prien was once more singled out for praise following his return to port on 6 July; nevertheless, given the fact that the Arandora Star was both armed and unmarked, he could hardly be blamed for his actions. There was another twist to the story of the sinking of the Arandora Star; according to Prien's wartime biographer Wolfgang Frank, the torpedo that accounted for the liner had been written off as a no-hoper and was fired only after Prien, attempting to top Endrass whose U-46 had returned to port having accounted for over 54,000 tons of enemy shipping, had persuaded his torpedo engineer Peter Thewes to tinker with the faulty eel. Such was fate: having seen ten torpedoes misfire in Norway, it was a dud that sent the Arandora Star to its doom. Frank summed up the contradiction succintly:

A whole book could be written about torpedoes. No weapon is so contrary. There are those which "must do the trick" and fail, others which have a right to misfire send 15,000 tons to the bottom.

(Wolfgang Frank, Enemy Submarine)

U-47 finally returned to port on 6 July, claiming a figure of 66,587 tons which was proudly emblazoned on both sides of the conning tower for all to see as the vessel rolled into port. The ten tonnage pennant flags fluttered equally proudly from the attack periscope. While the conning tower indicated a total of 66,587 tons, the total sum of all the figures on the ten pennant flags was 66,597 - which meant that either one of the pennants was wrong or there was a poor mathematician among the crew! Although the figures would be dramatically revised and taken back down to a totoal of 51,189 tons, Prien had achieved his goal in topping the figure posted by the "young pup" Endrass, whose final confirmed figure was calculated at 44,129.

After spending the best part of two months undergoing rest and refit, U-47 put out to sea for its seventh patrol at the end of August, and was to play a significant part in what was yet another killing spree for the U-boat fleet. Over the course of this thirty-one day patrol, Prien's boat dispatched seven enemy vessels for 34,973 tons, beginning with the unescorted Belgian cargo transport Ville de Mons sunk by torpedo on 2 September and the British steamer Titan, which was sent to the bottom two days later.

This was simply the prelude to what was to be a successful period for Prien, who made his way to the slow convoy SC-2 by 6 September, alongside the U-65 commanded by Kapitänleutlant Hans-Gerrit von Stockhausen. Early on the morning of the 7th, Prien launched his attack, striking three vessels - the British freighters Neptunian and José de Larrinaga and the Norwegian steamer D/S Gro - in just under one and a half hours. This burst was followed by the sinking of the Greek freighter Possidon two days later.

After its success against convoy SC-2, U-47 - which had only a single torpedo remaining - was assigned as weather boat, a mundane but essential task. On 20 September, it sighted the forty-ship convoy HX-72, and quickly called in a team of eight other boats. Its job done, U-47 was ordered back to port. Not to be outdone however, Prien joined in the attack, using his last torpedo against the British freighter Elmbank before turning the 88mm deck gun on the stricken vessel, which was eventually finished off by one of the other famous U-boats, U-99 - commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto Kretschmer.

U-47 returned to dock at the French base of Lorient on 25 September after yet another highly productive mission. The one blot had been the tragic loss of a crewman, Matrosen-Stabsobergefreiter Heinrich Mantyk, who had been swept overboard while manning the deck gun on 5th September.

The Assault on Convoy HX-79 and the award of the Oakleaves

With the tide beginning to turn against Germany following the comprehensive defeat of the Luftwaffe by the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain, U-boat chief Dönitz was desperate to have as many of his already small fleet out amongst the Allied convoys. Prien and his crew were only spared a fortnight's leave, and on 14 October were once more on their way to the cold waters of the North Atlantic. On 19 October, Prien sighted the convoy HX-79, en route from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was soon joined by four other boats, which then proceeded to join Prien in what was a concerted attack on the enemy procession.

Prien's first success came late on 19 October, when a torpedo found the underbelly of the Dutch steam freighter Bilderdijk. This was followed by an attack on both the British tanker Shirak and the motor freighter Wandby. While the Shirak was quickly finished off by U-48 commanded by Günther Bleichrodt, the Wandby was left mortally wounded, eventually sinking two days later. This furious all-out assault continued into the small hours of the following day, with U-47 turning on three British vessels in the space of just under two hours: the freighters La Estancia and Whitford Point, and the tanker Athelmonarch. While the tanker was able to escape further punishment, the two freighters quickly made their way to the ocean floor.

Fresh out of torpedoes, U-47 was ordered back to port, arriving on 23 October. The boat had been at sea for a mere ten days, by far the shortest of its combat patrols up to this point. Although Prien had claimed four enemy ships for a total of 22,014 tons, the propagandists back in Germany had credited him with eight ships for 50,500 tons, which - according to the propagandists, at least - took him over the magical 200,000 ton figure. This was to reach the ears of Hitler, who sent a telegram congratulating Prien on reaching this "milestone". After the successful assault on convoy HX-79, Prien returned to Germany to collect the Oakleaves to his Knight's Cross - he was the fifth to receive this award, and the first from the Kriegsmarine.

On 3 November 1940, just over a year after his success at Scapa Flow, the Kriegsmarine's newest Oakleaves recipient once again departed friendly shores. In addition to its regular crew, U-47 also had on board a journalist, Wolfgang Frank - whose job it was to provide an inside view of life on a submarine for enthusiastic readers back home in Germany - a role not dissimilar from that of Lothar-Günther Buchheim, the author of the classic novel Das Boot. While on the one hand Prien didn't shirk from receiving praise - much of which was richly deserved - he consciously avoided inflating his own achievements and reputation. Having got to know the famous U-boat commander, Wolfgang Frank himself confirmed this view, going on to say that Prien found much of the fawning adulation mildly amusing. In 1942 Frank went on to write a book of his experiences on board U-47, entitled Prien greift an - "Prien Attacks", which was later published in English with the title Enemy Submarine.

U-47 finally rolled into dock on 6 December, and the bad mood of the crew following this dismal ninth patrol was no doubt assuaged by the promise of home leave over Christmas and an overhaul of the submarine. Although still seen by the propagandists as the original U-boat "ace", Prien was to see his long-held position of "king of the aces" taken by Otto Kretschmer, whose U-99 was (mistakenly) credited for over two-hundred and fifty thousand tons.

U-47 goes missing

U-47's was to wait over a week for its next encounter, when it came upon the 20,638-ton British whaler Terje Viken, part of outbound convoy OB-293 on 7 March. Two torpedoes were fired at the whaler, both registering successful hits. Not long after launching this attack, Prien found himself among a pack of at least four enemy destroyers, among which was the Wolverine, commanded by Commander James Rowland.

No signal was received from U-47 from the time it had run into the British attack vessels. In what was to mark the beginning of a black period for the U-boat fleet, Prien was presumed missing after he had failed to report his position to BdU. The authorities back in Germany were shellshocked. A mere ten days later on 17 March, two of Prien's fellow aces were also to disappear from the scene: Joachim Schepke and U-100 were lost to the cold North Atlantic, while U-99 commander Otto Kretschmer and his crew were captured and taken prisoner by the British. Admiral Dönitz was heavily shaken by the loss of three of his finest, and propaganda minister Josef Goebbels wanted to keep the losses quiet for fear of seeing a massive drop in morale. Aware of the situation, the Allies dropped a number of leaflets over Germany, with the following:

Schepke - Kretschmer - Prien. What has become of these three officers, the most famous German U-boat commanders, the only ones on whom Hitler has bestowed the Oak Leaves Cluster to the Knight's Cross? Schepke is dead. German High Command had to admit it. Kretschmer is captured. German High Command had to admit it. And Prien? Who has heard anything of Prien recently? What does German High Command have to say about Prien? Where is Prien?

The decision to keep the loss of the Kriegsmarine's most popular U-boat commander away from the German public in all probability did more harm than good; questions were being asked, and following the dropping of the "Wo ist Prien" leaflet the Nazi propaganda machine had probably got itself into a fix it could very easily have avoided. The lack of news about Prien generated all sorts of fantastic gossip - including once rather incredible story about his turning anti-Nazi and ending up behind the wire of a concentration camp.

Like many other aces during the war, the destruction of U-47 has for a long time been a subject of debate among naval historians. Of all the case scenarios that have been postulated, the most likely is that the U-boat had been subjected to depth-charge attack by both the Wolverine and another destroyer, Verity, although no concrete evidence was or has ever been produced to confirm this. Other equally feasible explanations include crew error, structural failure or that the submarine might have been hit by a stray torpedo, possibly one of its own. Of course, this is all pointless in the clear light of war. What is clear is that Korvettenkapitän Prien failed to report to headquarters after March 7th, and that U-47 and its crew were never to be seen again.

The loss of Günther Prien and his fellow U-boat aces during the course of March 1941 precipitated the beginning of the end for the much-vaunted German U-boat fleet; the issue of morale had been set at such a high premium that Prien's death was not even officially announced until 23 May 1941 - over two months after U-47 had been reported missing in the cold expanse of the North Atlantic.

Although there would be many more aces produced by the U-boat arm during the course of the remainder of the war, none of them were to reach the high standards reached by the first group of sea-hunters; the beating heart had been torn out of Dönitz's fleet, and by the middle of 1941 the Allies were on top of the situation in the North Atlantic, a situation that was never to reverse. The hunters had, by this time, become the hunted.

Major Awards and Decorations
25.09.39 Awarded Iron Cross second class
17.10.39 Awarded Iron Cross first class
18.10.39 Awarded Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
20.09.40 Receives the Oakleaves to the Knight's Cross



u47.org | günther prien 12 IV 2023.
 
Old May 1st, 2023 #8
jagd messer
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Default Battle of the Atlantic

How the Battle of the Atlantic and WW II was lost.

book: GREY WOLF Dunstan and Williams:

P 4 & 5

ON THE EARLY MORNING of November 2, 1942 a convoy of forty-five ships designated SC – 107, heading eastbound out of New York, was approaching the ‘Black Pit’ – the seven hundred mile gap in the mid-Atlantic where shipping could not as yet be protected by Allied aircraft. Closing in on the convoy were thirteen U-boats of Gruppe Veilchen (Group Viola). At this time Allied naval assets had been diverted far south to take part in Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa. ConvoySC-107 was protected only by Canadian Escort Group C4, with just one Destroyer and four corvettes. Under the cover of darkness and bad weather, two U-boats slipped through the widely stretched cordon of escorts and maneuvered into attack positions.Cdr. Baron Siegfried von Forstner’s U-402 fired a salvo of torpedoes at a range of four hundred yards and one struck the freighter SS Empire Sunrise amidship damaging it badly.It would later be finished off by Lt. Cdr. Horst Uphoff’s U-84. Lt. Cdr. Herbert Schneider’s U-522 also penetrated the escort screen and sank no fewer than four vessels. By dawn, Gruppe Veilchen had sunk eight ships and damaged two more. The U-boats then slipped away to avoid detection but had to remain on the surface in order to keep up with the convoy.


Throughout the following day SC-107 tried to evade the wolf pack by changing course whenever fog or snowstorms provided any fleeting cover. Soon after the early sunset of November 3, U-89 (Cdr. Dietrich Lohmann) slipped into the centre of the convoy and launched five torpedoes. Two of them sunk their targets, including the convoy commodore’s ship, the 5,318 ton SS Jeypore, laden with ammunition. Around midnight, U-132 (Lt. Cdr. Ernst Vogelsang) unleashed a fan of five torpedoes towards the starboard flank of SC-107. Three ships were hit. Thirty minutes later one of these vessels, carrying munitions, exploded with such ferocity that surface ships some six miles away felt the blast and U-boats at depths of seventy metres were jolted by the shock wave – indeed U-132 and her crew were never heard from again. On November 5, a Royal Air Force B-24 Liberator long range bomber of No 120 Squadron arrived overhead and further naval escorts from Iceland rendezvoused with SC-107. When U-89 was damaged by air attack, Gruppe Veilchen broke off the battle. It had won a significant victory: in all, fifteen merchantmen out of forty two were sunk and four damaged, for a total of 107,958 tons of shipping lost.


During the month of November 1942 alone, a total of 730,000 tons of Allied shipping was sunk. During the whole of 1942, the Allies lost an estimated 1,661 ships and 6.5 million tons of cargo to U-boat attacks. About 87 U-boats were sunk but 238 new boats were commissioned and that year saw Dönitz’s fleet increased from 91 to 212 boats. Winston Churchill wrote , “The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril. ” He declared, “On their defeat hung the outcome of World War II. ”


P 13

ON OCTOBER 30, 1942, a week before Allen Dulles arrived in Bern, the badly damaged U-559 (Lt. Cdr. Hans Heidmann) was abandoned by its crew under the guns of the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Petard off the coast of Egypt. A British officer and two seamen swam across and risked their lives to clamber down inside. Two of them were dragged down to their deaths when the U-boat sank, but a sixteen-year-old canteen assistant named Tommy Brown survived – and with him, vital operating manuals for the latest four-rotor Enigma machine. This act of sacrificial courage won for Bletchley Park the means of breaking the codes that had defied the cryptanalysts since February. Their success was far from immediate and for months they could only decrypt U-boat signals after long delays, but by September 1943 they would be producing Ultra intelligence at their former speed. At the outset, the British were reluctant to share such sensitive information with their American counterparts in the OSS, but in time their cooperation gave birth to a massive signals intelligence-gathering organization that became one of the great Anglo-American achievements of the war.



'Ultra' determined the outcome of WW II.
 
Old May 23rd, 2023 #9
jagd messer
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Default


Baralong Incident

http://fact-index.com›b/ba/baralong_incident.html
Herbert ordered that all German survivors, including Wegener, should be executed on the spot. Although the British Admiralty tried to keep this atrocity a secret, news reached Germany and the "Baralong Incident" was used to justify increased cruelty at sea both during World War One and after.


On 18 October, 1914 the British U-boat E3 was torpedoed and sunk in the North Sea by the German U-boat U 27. This was the first decisive fight between U-boats in the First World War.


This boat was sunk by the Q-Ship HMS Baralong (Lieutenant Godfrey Herbert RN). Herbert ordered that all German survivors, among them the commander of SM U 27, should be executed on the spot. Although the British Admiralty tried to keep this event a secret, news spread to Germany and the infamous "Baralong incident" - a war crime which was never prosecuted - had its share in promoting cruelty at sea.




U 27 - German and Austrian U-boats of World War One ...
 
Old May 30th, 2023 #10
jagd messer
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Default Attack on the Royal Oak

Battle of Scapa Flow Attack on the Royal Oak



HMS Royal Oak, a dreadnought battleship of the Royal Sovereign class was a veteran of World War One.

Growing more desperate by the minute, Prien decides to alter course and sailed north to probe the northeast corner. As he grew closer, finally the silhouette of a large ship loomed in the horizon. Prien grabbed his night binoculars, berthed unusually close to the north shore, he could make out the unmistakable structure of a British battleship, the Royal Oak. About a mile behind her, lay another ship. Partially obscured by the hull, only the bow was visible. With nothing else to identify her with, Prien took her for the Repulse. Actually it was the old 6,900 ton Pegasus seaplane carrier, scheduled for a refit with experimental aircraft catapults intended for convoy duty.

By 12.55am, U-47 had closed in to a position 3,500 yards from the battleship. Still on the surface, all four bow tubes were made ready. Endrass did all the surface targeting. Since the Royal Oak was a certain kill, two torpedoes were aimed at the Repulse. Open tube doors…. Launch torpedoes….. Torpedoes one, two and three away….. The torpedo in tube four intended for Repulse jammed and did not leave its tube.

After a run of three and a half minutes, one small explosion was heard. The other two had either missed or misfired – a common flaw with early electric torpedoes. The hit blew a hole in the starboard side of the bow, near the anchor chains of Royal Oak. Nearly all of the 1,200 crew were asleep. Having aroused from their bunks, the men saw water gushing over like a fountain onto the forward upper deck. But Captain William Benn was told the most likely cause was an internal explosion. It was rumored that a refrigerator had blown up. Others thought it was a high flying German bomber that had dropped a bomb somewhere near the bow. No one considered a U-boat attack. In fact, the last thing on their minds was a German U-boat in Scapa Flow. No special precautions seemed necessary and none was taken. Then men soon went back to their bunks.

In the darkness, U-47 was preparing to strike again. Prien thought that one torpedo had struck the Repulse and the other two had missed the Royal Oak. He did not believe a miss was possible at point blank range, and attributed it to faulty torpedoes. While tubes one to three were being loaded and the jammed tube four was being serviced, Prien swung the U-boat around and fired his stern torpedo at the Royal Oak. It too missed. Unbelievable! Any commander would have cursed his luck and relented that the stars were against him. But not Prien. He was determined to finish the job.

At 1.25am, tubes one and two had been loaded. The jammed tube four was now serviced and ready to go. Edging into a closer position, he fired all three torpedoes at the Royal Oak – which he mistakenly identified as unharmed. All three found its target within ten seconds of each other, blowing three holes amidships on her starboard side. The blasts set off a series of raging fires which ignited the cordite magazine, causing it to go off with a fiery orange blast right up through the decks.


The path of attack and escape taken by U-47 in the daring attack of Scapa Flow.

As was recalled by a survivor, “The chap standing alongside me, all he had on was a singlet and a pair of pants and when this flame struck, he went up like a match. Fortunately, I had my wooly trousers on and my service jersey, and it saved my body. I was burnt on the hands, the face, the back of the neck and all my hair had gone”.

Taking water through the holes, the Royal Oak almost immediately listed 45 degrees to starboard. Her great 15 inch guns squirmed in the weight, her 15 inch shells each weighed a ton and a half – came off their racks in the magazine room and were going boom, boom, boom. Water gushed in below decks, uncontrollable raging fires on the upper decks, and chaos throughout while survivors clambered to get out through the port side. Thirteen minutes later, she rolled over and sank, taking with her 833 sailors and officers of her 1,200-man crew – among them Rear Admiral Henry Evelyn Blagrove, the commander of the 2nd Battle Squadron.

Across the Flow, the sleepy moonless night had awaken to a euphoria of activity. A few vessels began rescue operations, searchlights were all switched on and pointed upwards, all eyes were on the skies, searching and looking for the elusive aircraft that had caused much devastation. No one was looking for a U-boat.

Over a mile away, Prien spied at the hellish scene from the conning tower of his boat. “He’s finished”, he said. Its time to make a getaway.

Next: Retreat From Scapa Flow

Scapa Flow Attack on the Royal Oak
uboataces.com›battle-scapa-flow6.shtml
HMS Royal Oak,
 
Old October 2nd, 2023 #11
jagd messer
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Default Möltenort U-Boat Memorial

Möltenort U-Boat Memorial


Möltenort U-Boat Memorial (U-Boot-Ehrenmal Möltenort).

The U-Boot-Ehrenmal Möltenort (Möltenort U-Boat Memorial) in Heikendorf near Kiel is a memorial site belonging to the German War Graves Commission, commemorating the soldiers who died serving in U-Boat units during the Firstand Second World Wars, along with all victims of submarine warfare. The memorial also honours U-Boat soldiers from the Bundeswehr who have been killed in action since. The memorial site is an emblem of Heikendorf.

Monument


U-Boat war badge.

The monument was built on the former Möltenorter Schanze (Möltenort Fieldwork) in Heikendorf and dedicated on 8 June 1930. After suffering structural damage, it was rebuilt in 1938. It consists of a 15.3-metre-high pillar, at the top of which sits a 4.8-metre-high eagle (designed by Fritz Schmoll). Extensive rust penetration was discovered in the internal steel supporting structure of the eagle in 2000, rendering renovation work necessary. Since 12 July 2001, the original eagle with its galvanised, copper-coated iron skin has been replaced by a recast bronze version similar to it (designed by the firm Noack from Berlin). The eagle was removed again in March 2012 for necessary reinforcement work after the detection of signs of fatigue in the supporting structure. The planned date of its return – initially scheduled to be six weeks later – was subjected to repeated delays thereafter; eventually, on 25 April 2013, the eagle was able to reassume its position.

The U-Boot war badge is affixed to the pillar; until 1945 its position had been occupied by a swastika. This was made unrecognisable by the filling-in of the spaces between its arms – even today, however, it can still be made out behind the badge.


Plaques


Commemorative plaques.

In an arched gallery area, the names of fallen German U-Boat men of the German Imperial Navy and the Kriegsmarine, along with those of soldiers who died serving in the German Navy, are displayed on 115 bronze plaques.

The number of fallen U-Boat men in the German Navy is stated on two plaques as follows:


1914–1918


4.744 Gefallene
200 verlorene U-Boote
(1914–1918
4,744 dead
200 U-Boats lost)
--------


1939–1945

30.002 Gefallene
739 verlorene U-Boote
(1939–1945
30,002 dead
739 U-Boats lost)[1]

References


Möltenort U-Boat Memorial Foundation, images 1999-016 and 1999-017


External links

Möltenort U-Boat Memorial Foundation


See also

• Laboe Naval Memorial

Coordinates: 54.3794°N 10.1947°E

Categories:
World War I memorials in Germany


Buildings and structures in Plön (district)



Naval monuments and memorials




World War II memorials in Germany




U-boats


Möltenort U-Boat Memorial - Wikipedia

02 X 2023.
 
Old February 17th, 2024 #12
jagd messer
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Default WW1 Sinking of RMS Leinster and SS Dundalk

The Sinking of RMS Leinster and SS Dundalk

600 people died in the Irish Sea when two ships were torpedoed by German U-boats. The attacks happened just weeks before the end of the War. NEWS • 20 Oct 2018.



On the morning of 10 October 1918, the Royal Mail Ship, Leinster, left Dún Laoghaire on its usual voyage to Holyhead. The mailboat was a central part of the economy of Dún Laoghaire and operated as a highly efficient floating postal sorting office and passenger ship - at a time when sea travel between Ireland and Britain was the only option for travellers. It was a model of efficiency. It was one of four sister ships named after the four provinces of Ireland.





On that morning the Leinster carried about 180 civilians, 77 crew, some 500 soldiers and 22 postal workers. It left punctually at 09:00, as it normally did to avoid penalties for delayed sailings that affected the efficient distribution of post and parcels throughout Britain. Between 09:30 and 09:40 it had passed the Kish lightship – there was no lighthouse then. Breakfast had been served and the postal workers were busy in the sorting room. No one on board had any idea that the Leinster was sailing to its doom. Unbeknownst to them, the ship was now in the sights of U-Boat 123, commanded by Robert Ramm. In 1917, the Allies had begun concentrating their naval protection on ships in the Atlantic, leaving ships like the Leinster vulnerable. Some protection was thought to be offered by the ship's camouflage but it sailed into the Irish Sea unescorted.




It was passengers on the upper deck who spotted the first torpedo, which missed. The second torpedo did not. It blew apart the postal sorting room. The ship altered course but a third torpedo then struck. The fate of Leinster and many on board was sealed. Crowded lifeboats and drifting wood used as rafts were the only option for survivors as the ship sank quickly. There were other ships nearby, but none could offer any assistance. Admiralty rules strictly forbad any ship attempting rescue less it would become another target for an enemy unseen beneath the waves. It was many hours before a rescue attempt could be organised.




There are stories of heroism. William Maher was a Boer War veteran and a strong swimmer. Louisa Toppin and her daughter, Dorothy, aged 13 were among those whom Maher saved. As both mother and daughter slipped repeatedly from a raft, Maher dove again and again into the water. Both survived and Mrs Toppin went on to have Maher recognised with a parchment from the Royal Humane Society and a watch inscribed: "To William Maher from Dorothy Toppin as a small token of gratitude for saving her life. Leinster Disaster, 10th October, 1918". Maher died in 1953, aged 78. No headstone marks the grave in which he and his wife, Elizabeth, are buried in Deansgrange Cemetery.




There were many tragic stories too. Edward Lee of Blackrock had lost a son, Joe, at Gallipoli. His brother, Tennyson, was wounded there three days later. Now Edward Lee faced the dreadful task of writing to Tennyson in London to tell him his other brother Ernest had been on board the Leinster. Ernest had boarded the Leinster to rejoin the Royal Army Medical Corps in France.

There is no account of him, dead or alive.....Oh the horror of it. Your poor mother is bearing up as well as can be expected but God alone knows the sorrow we feel. We fear the worst as we can get no news at all today. Mother and Ted join in unified love to our dear, dear boy. Your loving and affectionate Father, Edward Lee

John Brophy of Phibsborough went to Dún Laoghaire to search for his brother Mathew's, body and later recounted seeing bodies in piles on the pier, "their heads hanging one to the left, one to the right". He did not find his brother. He subsequently arranged for an empty coffin to be buried in his father's grave in Glasnevin. His niece, Marie Comiskey, says when John Brophy became older and ill his decision bore heavily on him. "He wondered if he had done the right thing in telling his mother and sister-in-law that there was no body in the coffin".




One hundred years on, the records of how many were on the Leinster are still being probed and the death toll updated. As of six weeks ago, the figure stands at 564. Robert Ramm and his young crew left the Leinster to its fate but theirs was also soon to be sealed. Shortly after, their U-Boat was mined off the Orkney Islands in Scotland. For many of the mostly teenaged crew, death was prolonged.




Four days later another Irish ship, the SS Dundalk, would also become a target. The Dundalk was one of a number of ships plying the route to Britain. Livestock and horses for the war effort went one way, coal the other. On the night of 14 October, the ship left Liverpool with 32 passengers and crew on board. The Dundalk too was unescorted and an easy target. At about 11.10pm, as the passengers and crew were settling down for the night, a torpedo struck. The scene was similar to that of the aftermath of the Leinster. A sister ship, the SS Carlingford, passed afterwards but could offer no assistance because the U-Boat was still on the surface, its crew surveying the scene. The Carlingford's captain, Gerard Hughes, would endure much criticism and animosity on his return to Dundalk and subsequently emigrated to ship on the Great Lakes of North America. He paid a high price for following orders.




Margaret Creegan, the only woman crew member, was among those who died. She had survived another torpedo attack on the Dundalk a year previously. This Sunday, those lost on the Dundalk will be remembered at a special service in the town's St Patrick's Cathedral, where a plaque records their names. The death toll in the Irish Sea for that week in October 1918 was almost 600. For them, the end of the war came just weeks too late.





rte.ie:
The Sinking of RMS Leinster and SS Dundalk-

17 II 2024.


Tragedy was happening all round.
 
Old February 19th, 2024 #13
jagd messer
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Default the Empress of Britain and U 32

Operation taking place to recover gold bullion from sunken WWII ship


An operation to recover tonnes of gold bullion believed to be on board a ship which sank off the coast of Donegal in 1940 is said to be making substantial progress.

Will Carrier, Operations Manager with Atlantic Subsea Ventures, the company behind the salvage operation, has told RTÉ news that they hope to see results in four to six weeks. Mr Carrier was speaking on board the North Sea Giant, the huge vessel involved in the salvage operation, which docked in Killybegs, Co Donegal, R. of Ire. this morning for a crew change.

ASV has researched many WW1 and WW2 ships which were believed to be carrying gold to finance the war effort when they sank. This operation is focused on the Empress of Britain, once a luxurious ocean liner, it was requisitioned for the war in 1939.

In October of 1940 the ship sank after being attacked, first by a German bomber and then by a U Boat, over 100km off the coast of Donegal. Its location was found in 1995 but given the depth of the water there 500 m, a salvage operation was not feasible.

Now, however, ASV is using high tech equipment developed for the oil and gas industry to try to find and recover the gold believed to be on the sunken vessel. It is using remotely operated vehicles and specialised cutting equipment to cut into the thick hull of the ship which was designed to withstand the ice fields around Newfoundland.

Mr Carrier estimates there could be half a billion euro worth of gold with the vessel 500 m down at the bottom of the sea. He says the company would like to land the gold in Ireland. However, under current legislation the company would have to leave the gold with the Receiver of Wrecks for a year and a day and pay a levy of 7.5% on the total value of the cargo.

Mr Carrier said ASV is investing hugely in the recovery operation and would need to see a change in the law to make it feasible to land the gold in Ireland. He said they know there are no claims on the gold so they want to be able to move it on directly and pay a lower levy, in the region of 4% on its value, to the Government. The current law is probably archaic, he says, and was designed for smaller vessels like trawlers. If the changes were made, he said, it would create a substantial income for the Irish taxpayer as there are many more wrecks out there which the company would like to salvage and Ireland would be the most convenient location to land the cargo.

Mr Carrier also said that there is a potential environmental hazard created by many of the wrecks which are lying on the seabed for about 80 years. No one is monitoring them and the possibility of fuel leaking into the ocean is real. ASV is currently working with the Irish Coastguard in relation to this, according to Mr Carrier but he would like to see a closer partnership which would see his company put out a permanent survey vessel in areas where the wrecks are located.



Operation taking place to recover gold from sunken ship
28 May 2019.


U 32 and the Sinking of the Empress of Britain – and Her Own End shortly afterwards

On 24 October 1940, the Type VII A U-boat U 32 under the command of Oberleutnant zur See (= Lieutenant) Hans Jenisch left Lorient for the North Atlantic Ocean, which eventually should be it´s last combat patrol. Around noon on the 26 October the U-boat received a message saying that the Empress of Britain, a passenger liner under Canadian flag of 42,348 GRT and being used as troop-carrier, has been damaged by bombs from a German Luftwaffe aircraft about 300 nmi west off the northern tip of Ireland. The Commanding Officer of U 32 decided not to act in response to the message, since the reported position was too far off the departure track of U 32 towards its assigned area of operation, and also, the message was not clear enough. Moreover, another U-boat, U 31, was believed to operate in the neighbourhood of the incident reported.


When the message of the bomb attack was repeated early next morning, with the additional information of the Empress of Britain being in flames and unable to move, Jenisch decided to change course and intercept the crippled vessel.



Commander of U 32 – Oberleutnant zur See (Lieutenant) Hans Jenisch.

How did the bombing of the Empress of Britain happen in the first place?

The troop-carrier was enroute to Liverpool coming from Suez, Egypt, where a contingent of forces had been disembarked. There were 416 crewmembers on board, plus two more gunners to operate the AA-guns, and some 205 passengers, mostly members of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force and their families. Because of the high speed the Empress of Britain was able to steam, no escorts were tasked to accompany her. About 09.20 a.m. on 26 October 1940 a Luftwaffe four-engined Focke Wulff 200 (Fw 200) under the command of Oberleutnant (= Flight Lieutenant) Bernhard Jope spotted the vessel some 70 nmi off the Aran Islands at Irelands western coast. Straight away, Jope carried out several attacks, while Master Charles Havard Sapsworth ordered full speed ahead for his Empress of Britain, and to open fire from his AA-guns against the aircraft. The crew of the FW 200 managed to drop several 250 kg bombs on the troop-carrier.


Three bombs grazed the vessel, whereas two bombs hit directly. The first bomb penetrated the vessel´s “Mayfair” lounge, the second hit the upper deck damaging several life boats. Immediately, fire started and thick black smoke began to cover the outer decks. At the same time, the crew of the FW 200 tried to neutralize the defensive AA-fire from the vessel. In fact, the strafing by the Fw 200 caused some damage and killed several persons on board the Empress of Britain.




Soon after the return of Jope´s Fw 200 the Germans realized what ship has been attacked actually. Naval and Air Force headquarters were alerted immediately. However, it was not clear yet whether the Empress of Britain had sunk or whether she was still afloat.


In fact, the troop-carrier had not sunk yet. The hull was still alright, but the Fw 200 bombs had caused a blaze which quickly spread without any chance to get it under control. The fire destroyed many of the life saving appliances and most of the fire-fighting equipment. Already half hour after the bomb hits Captain Sapsworth ordered to abandon ship. The British destroyer Echo and the Polish destroyer Burza as well as the British ASW sloop Cape Arcona, all having rushed to the scene, managed to rescue most of the crew and the passengers. Just a few crew members stayed behind to save their vessel.


The main engine had shut down due to the blaze raging through the vessel. The ship could not be driven by own forces any longer and was drifting at the rough seas without any propulsion. The British destroyer Broke reached the scene at the forenoon of the 27 October. At once, Brokecame alongside the Empress of Britain, sending few men on board the troop-carrier to tie together both ships with the help of the remaining crew of the Empress. Soon after, the British tugs Marauder and Thames arrived and quickly started towing the Empress. Escorted by the Broke and the Sardonyx which was another destroyer having approached in haste, the towing train moved with a speed of about 4 kn slowly towards Northern Ireland. Additionally, “Sunderland” seaplanes in rotation covered the convoy from the air.



The “Empress of Britain” – 42,348 GRT


Meanwhile, U 32 tried to close to the crippled vessel. About noon on the 27 October the masts of the troop-carrier came in sight due in good visibility. The Commanding Officer did not decide to submerge to save valuable time, as now even the Empress of Britain came over the horizon clearly to be seen.


The vessel was surrounded by several other mast tips from destroyers, and there were sea planes circling above the vessel. Soon a sea plane approached and forced U 32 to dive quickly. During the following afternoon the Commanding Officer could spot through his periscope repeatedly aircraft above the crippled vessel. Having set to maximum underwater speed U 32 closed to its target gradually. At evening dawn the U-boat surfaced but lost sight to the Empress. Since further optical search was unsuccessful Jenisch decided to submerge again for attempting to re-detect the vessel by means of hydrophone. Objects were detected quickly, but, as it was established, they were rather distant, about 20 nmi apart.


About midnight of 27 / 28 October the Empress of Britain came in sight again. Two tugs towed the huge ocean liner, and one destroyer each was spotted at portside and starboard side. U 32 followed the crippled vessel for about 2 hours, with course and speed of the convoy being determined firmly. Suddenly, both destroyers opened up a gap while manoeuvring, allowing U 32 to penetrate the screen and to take attack position. The attack was executed textbook-like, with the U-boat launching one torpedo each against the forward and the stern mast of the 232 meters long Empress. When U 32t urned away the first torpedo experienced an advanced ignition after having passed the minimum safety distance of 125 meters. Immediately Jenisch turn back towards the target and launched a third torpedo, this time aiming at the middle funnel of the Empress.



U 32 1940 in Lorient


U 32 came rather close to its target while carrying out this maneuver, allowing it to observe many details on board the Empress, which still was on fire by the FW 200 bombs of the 26th of October. When U 32 turned away again the second and the last torpedo launched hit almost at the same time, causing the boiler of the Empress to explode. The steam mushroom cloud following that raised high above the vessel. The Empress of Britain quickly started to heel towards its portside taking a 15° list. The tugs casted off their ropes, while the destroyers were searching for the U-boat with their spotlights in the area of the assumed attack position portside ahead. At the same time, pre-flooded but still at the surface U 32 used its electric engines to sail in the wake of the Empress, to slowly fall behind. The further scenario could be monitored from the conning tower of the U-boat. The destroyers were continuing to search for the U-boat around the crippled vessel and fired now and then, but obviously without having any firm detection of U 32. A “Sunderland” seaplane passed over the U-boat at low altitude, but did not see anything due to the little speed of the boat.


In the meantime the list of the Empress increased, until the vessel capsized after some 10 minutes, to sink eventually. The 42,348 GRT Empress of Britain was the biggest vessel ever in World War II being sunk by a German U-boat. 25 crewmembers and 20 passengers of the Empress lost their lives due to the air attack, the following fire and the sinking of U 32.


However, the crew of U 32 could not enjoy its success for long. Two days later, on 30 October, the boat operated in the Northern Atlantic west off Ireland, waiting for a convoy reported eastbound. The convoy was not found, instead an individual steamer was detected, whom the Commanding Officer considered being a straggler of the convoy. About noon, Jenisch attacked, but also this torpedo experienced advanced ignition, revealing the U-boat´s position. The vessel turned away and tried to make way with full speed. Laborious manoeuvres began to reach a forward attack position, while visibility changed permanently.


This lasted for several hours, enabling U 32 to reach an underwater attack position not before the evening. Meanwhile, the merchant vessel had called for help. Consequently, the U-boat executing its attack was detected and pursued by two destroyers. These were the new British destroyers Harvester and Highlander, both being equipped with state-of-the-art ASW devices. Two series of depth charges hit U 32, one at 120 m, another one at 80 m diving depth.


The pressure hull experienced several leakages and the U-boat took in quite a lot of water, particularly in its aft section. The complete electric power generation was dead and the compressed air system was not tight any longer, causing compressed air to float into the inner boat. Overpressure generated by this inside the U-boat became almost unbearable. When the compressed air remaining had fallen to just 30 units of plus pressure the Commanding Officer ordered “Get to the surface” in the knowledge that this was to be the last chance for that, although two destroyers would be waiting for them up there.


Once having surfaced the U-boat crew managed to start the diesel engines, despite heeling down by the stern. However, the rudder was jammed at hard angle, enabling the U-boat to navigate in circling manoeuvres only. Another torpedo was fired at one of the destroyers, but the discharge pressure was not sufficient enough. Therefore, the torpedo left the U-boat with some delay only and subsequently missed its target. The second destroyer tried to ram U 32, but failed to do so. Both destroyers fired at the U-boat with all guns until it started to sink.


The head was already washed over by sea water and there was no real chance left to U 32 to defend itself any longer. Hence, the Commanding Officer ordered to abandon ship. Oberleutnant zur See Hans Jenisch and the Chief Engineer, Leutnant (Ing) Anton Thimm, made sure that all men had left the boat, before they opened the decompression valves, to then leave the boat as well. Shortly afterwards U 32 straightened up once more, with the bow rising to the skies. Then it sank over its stern. Nine crewmembers of the 42 strong crew fell, some by the destroyer´s shelling, others by drowning. The majority of the crew was rescued by the Harvester about one hour after the sinking.



The Highlander began to search for survivors as well, in response to a request by the Commanding Officer of U 32. Three hours later the Highlander actually managed to find four more men and took them on board. The treatment of the German U-boat men on board the British destroyers was exemplary. The survivors of U 32 remained in PoW camps in England and Canada for the remainder of the war.


Text: Hans-Joachim Röll and Deutsches U-Boot Museum – Pictures: Deutsches U-Boot-Museum


The Empress of Britain - Deutsches U-Boot-Museum

19 II 2024.
 
Old February 20th, 2024 #14
Farwell Kirk
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Check out the website - uboat.net - if you are interested in U Boats. Great info from both World Wars.
 
Old 4 Weeks Ago #15
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Default How Nazi Germany Surrendered Enriched Uranium for the United States' Atomic Bomb.

How Nazi Germany Surrendered Enriched Uranium for the United States' Atomic Bomb. Carter Plymton Hydrick.



Newly discovered Nazi Waste Confirms Critical Mass Research!

In 2011, the United Kingdom's Daily Mail reported 126,000 barrels of radioactive uranium waste left over from the Nazi atomic bomb program was discovered 2000 feet underground in salt mines outside of Hamburg, Germany. The find - which turned the traditional history of the Atomic Bomb on its head - has been rattling historians ever since. Researcher and author Carter Plymton Hydrick predicted fifteen years ago the stockpile existed. Now read the update with all the latest information in this third edition of Critical Mass.

On May 19, 1945, eleven days after the surrender of Nazi Germany in Europe, a lone U-boat was escorted into Portsmouth Naval Yard , New Hampshire. News reporters covering the surrender of U-234 were ordered contrary to all previous and later U-boat surrender procedures, to keep their distance from crew members and passengers of U-234 - on threat of being shot by the attending Marine guards.

Why the tight security? Buried in the nose of the mammoth boat, sealed in cylinders "lined with gold," was 560 kilograms, 1,120 pounds of enriched uranium oxide labeled "U235" - the fissile material from which atom bombs are made.

Dr Delmar Bergen (retired), former Los Alamos National Laboratory director of the Nuclear Weapons Program, confirms the uranium on board U-234 was enriched and used in the atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan, counter to all previous understanding of these events. Read critically acclaimed Critical Mass to learn the real story of the birth of nuclear weapons and the Nuclear Age and to gain a better understanding of what our 21st Century might have looked like had the uranium fallen into different hands.



This Enriched Uranium and 'Operation Paperclip' was in exchange for freedom for Martin Bormann and others.

No doubt Stalin would have offered a deal like Generalfeldmarschall Von Paulus got.

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Old 4 Weeks Ago #16
Ray Allan
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U-234's commander Johann-Heinrich Fehler should have dumped overboard the 1,200 lbs. of uranium oxide his boat was carrying so the US wouldn't get it and have it sent to the Manhattan Project. The Little Boy and Fat Man bombs would not have been ready when they were had that happened. Might have have delayed them by a couple of months due to lack of fissile material. Perhaps Fehler didn't know exactly what the material was for other than Japanese scientific research.

https://uboat.net/boats/u234.htm
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Old 4 Weeks Ago #17
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Friedrich 'Fritz' Grade, the chief engineer (Leitender Ingenieur--LI) of U-96 died in October 2023 at age 107. He was the last survivor of U-96. His character in Das Boot was called 'The Chief,' played by Klaus Wennemann.

https://the110club.com/friedrich-gra...23-t30022.html
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Old 4 Weeks Ago #18
jagd messer
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Default U-234

U-234

Type
XB

Ordered 7 Dec 1940
Laid down 1 Oct 1941 F. Krupp Germaniawerft AG, Kiel (werk 664)
Launched 23 Dec 1943
Commissioned 2 Mar 1944 Kptlt. Johann-Heinrich Fehler
Commanders
2 Mar 1944 - 19 May 1945 Kptlt. Johann-Heinrich Fehler (German Cross in Gold)

Career

1 patrol
2 Mar 1944 - 28 Feb 1945 5. Flottille (training)
1 Mar 1945 - 8 May 1945 33. Flottille (active service)
Successes No ships sunk or damaged

Fate
Surrendered at Portsmouth, New Hampshire on May 19 1945 (Waller & Niestlé, 2010).

Post war information (see more post-war boats):
Arrived at Portsmouth Navy Yard, NH on 19 May 45. Minor refit. Used for limited trials in early 1946. U-234 was sunk by a torpedo from USS Greenfish during trials approximately 40 miles north-east off Cape Cod, on the US east coast on 20 Nov 1947.

Final location


Blue marker shows the final fate of the boat after the war. Orange marker shows German surrender. Map is click-able and zoom-able.

General notes on this boat

U-234 suffered bomb damage while under construction in 1942. After the loss of U-233 in July 1944 it was decided not to use U-234 as a mine-layer. She was then rebuilt as a cargo-carrier for the Germany-Japan route. On 25 March 1945 she left Kiel and a few days later reached Kristiansand, Norway.

On 15 April 1945 she left Norway and was en-route to Japan with important cargo (including Me 262 jet fighter drawings and 560 kg of uranium oxide) as well as several high ranking German experts on various technologies, including two Messerschmitt production engineers, plus two Japanese officers returning home from Germany. When Kptlt. Fehler heard the surrender orders he decided to head for the USA and surrender. However, as per tradition, the Japanese men took their own lives via sleeping pills rather than being captured.

Me 262 fighter aircraft on board?
Update 11 Dec 2012. Despite many rumours to the contrary, U-234 was not carrying any aircraft on board. A great many publications (including uboat.net for a long time) have suggested there were either one Me 262, two Me 262's or even three Messerschmitt aircraft on board, but they are all incorrect.

Instead, the cargo comprised three elements. Items for the Japanese Army and Navy, including mercury, optical glass, lead, zinc, steel, brass, thallium, uranium oxide and a very large number of Me 262-related technical drawings, production plans, patterns, forms and templates: considerable quantities of stores and ammunition for the German U-Boats and U-Boat bases that were still operational in the Far East: and several tons of diplomatic mail for the German Embassy in Tokyo.

The most significant element of this cargo, which the British and Americans knew about in advance via ULTRA intercepts, were the Me 262 documents which, with the help of the two Messerschmitt engineers, could have enabled the Japanese to set up factories designed to produce up to 500 Me 262s a month within two years. Unfortunately, many authors (and other net sites) have confused aircraft documents with aircraft hardware.

Schnorchel-fitted U-boat
This boat was fitted with a Schnorchel underwater-breathing apparatus in November 1944.


Men lost from U-boats
Unlike many other U-boats, which during their service lost men due to accidents and various other causes, U-234 did not suffer any casualties (we know of) until the time of her loss.

U-boat.net
27 II 2024.

Read 'Critical Mass' by Hydrick and I would expect West German Authorities would have blanked out what the real cargo of U-Boot 234 was.


Chief Gunners Mate Joe Vibert prepares to raise the American Ensign aboard U-234 - LCDR Thomas Nazro, CO of USS Sutton looks on.



Kapitänleutnant Johann-Heinrich Fehler, CO of U-234, (in the white cap center of photo) talks with LCDR Narzo on the bridge of the USS Sutton.


U-boat Archive - U-234 Photographs

 
Old 1 Week Ago #19
jagd messer
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Default The surrender of German U-Boats and Operation Deadlight at Lisahally, Co. Londonderry. Northern Ireland.

The surrender of German U-Boats and Operation Deadlight at Lisahally, Co. Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

On Monday 14th May 1945, the first defeated German U-boats sailed into Lisahally, Co. Londonderry Northern Ireland, surrendering to Admiral Sir Max Horton.

On Monday 14th May 1945, 8 German U-Boats entered Lough Foyle bound for the Royal Naval jetty at Lisahally, Co. Londonderry. Rather than fear or panic in the maiden city, the mood was one of celebration. The port was not under attack. The fearsome Kriegsmarine had surrendered and brought an end to the Battle of the Atlantic.

Admiral Sir Max Horton oversaw the surrender. Although Horton’s base was at Derby House, Liverpool, England, it was he as Commander in Chief of the Western Approaches who chose the Co. Londonderry port as the historic site. The U-Boats flew the Royal naval White Ensign from their decks as British seamen kept an eye on the U-Boats’ skeleton crews passing Culmore Point.



The choice of a port in Co. Londonderry as the venue for the U-Boats’ surrender was significant. The area played an important role in the Battle of the Atlantic. Churchill had once called the U-Boats his “greatest fear”. Throughout the Battle of the Atlantic, they carried out attacks on Allied shipping, threatening to cut off supplies to Britain. Airfields and ports in Co. Londonderry were central to the Allies’ war on the U-Boat wolfpacks.



Imperial War Museum Photo: A 28896 (Part of the Admiralty Official Collection). An armed guard watches over some of the surrendered U-boats gathered at Lisahally in Co. Londonderry on 14th May 1945.

The importance of Co. Londonderry as a site of the United Kingdom’s westernmost port increased after the fall of France in 1940. H.M.S. Ferret came into existence in 1940. In the next 3 years, the number of ships passing through Lishally was greater than Liverpool, Glasgow, and Belfast combined. During this time, some of the Allies’ most famous U-Boat hunters served in Derry/Londonderry including Donald MacIntyre, Johnnie Walker, Peter Gretton, and Evelyn Chavasse. The Battle of the Atlantic raged on throughout the Second World War, lasting from the sinking of S.S. Athenia on 3rd September 1939 to the sinking of 2 ships in the Firth of Fourth on 7th May 1945.


Undefeated and spotless, you lay down your arms after heroic battle without equal.

Grand Admiral Karl Donitz – May 1945.


The Surrender

In total, more than 100,000 died during the Battle of the Atlantic before Hitler’s successor Grand Admiral Karl Donitz surrendered. Donitz instructed all U-Boat captains to surrender to the nearest Allied warship before raising a black flag. Most captains obeyed although some scuttled their own craft rather than surrender.


All U-boats. Attention all U-boats. Cease fire at once. Stop all hostile action against Allied shipping.

Grand Admiral Karl Donitz – May 1945.

H.M.S. Hesperus, H.M.C.S. Theford Mines, and U.S.S. Paine escorted those first 8 U-Boats into Lough Foyle. Oberleutnant Klaus Hilgendorf, commander of U-1009 lead the way. The 3 Allied vessels represented the British, Canadian, and American contributions to the Battle of the Atlantic. Admiral Sir Max Horton had flown over the Irish Sea from R.A.F. Speke, Lancashire, England to R.N.A.S. Eglinton, Co. Londonderry.


A German U-boat crew unloads ammunition and supplies before Operation Deadlight in Lisahally in Co. Londonderry on 14th May 1945.


On the banks of the River Foyle, he joined a distinguished group including Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Sir Basil Brooke and Colonel Dan Bryan, the head of Irish Intelligence. This was a recognition that the effort in the Battle of the Atlantic was not only a British one. Sailors, airmen, soldiers, US Marines, and members of the Women’s Royal Navy from H.M.S. Ferret also attended. Airmen from Eglinton, Maydown, and Ballykelly and Royal Navy from H.M.S. Gannet and H.M.S. Shrike stood side by side.

On surrendering, the German U-Boat crews boarded trains and Allied forces escorted them to Prisoner of War Camps in Co. Down. By the end of the surrender, between 40 and 60 U-Boats stood docked at Lisahally, Co. Londonderry awaiting their destruction in Operation Deadlight.









As the U-Boats awaited their fate, locals had a chance to explore. Father Arthur O’Reilly was 13-years-old and taking a break from exam studies when an officer of the Royal Navy showed him around one of the submarines.

He allowed me to look through the periscope and I could see people walking on the quay. You could identify people. I was amazed at the technology. You could see people’s features.

Father Arthur O’Reilly – 2015.

In 2015, the city of Derry/Londonderry marked the 70th anniversary of the surrender of the U-Boats at Lishally, Co. Londonderry. Displays included artifacts from the 1940s, photographs, and equipment including a U-Boat commander’s binoculars. Events took place across the city, in the Guildhall, the Tower Museum, and the Harbour House where re-enactors and tour guides brought the 1940s to life.

Among those to visit was 91-year-old Muriel Nevin. She had been at Lisahally with the Women’s Royal Navy in May 1945 and recalled her time with Canadian and American service personnel as well as a meeting with a U-Boat commander.

I quickly came over to Northern Ireland and was posted with the A36 and A37 Fleet Air Squadron in Maydown. The atmosphere was great. Everybody helped everybody, no matter who you were.

Muriel Nevin – Former WRNS at Maydown – 2015.

While other events of 1945 such as Victory in Europe Day or Victory in Japan Day are more widely celebrated, the surrender of the U-Boats was crucial to the Allies. Had the Nazis been victorious in the Battle of the Atlantic, the Allies would likely have suffered defeat. With the surrender of the U-Boats at Lisahally, the almost 6-year long Battle of the Atlantic, and the Second World War in Europe came to an end. The ports and airbases of Co. Londonderry can never downplay their role in securing that victory.





The surrender of German U-Boats and Operation …

WebOn Monday 14th May 1945, the first defeated German U-boats sailed into Lisahally, Co. Londonderry, surrendering to Admiral Sir Max Horton. On Monday 14th May 1945, 8 German U-Boats entered Lough Foyle …
16 III 2024.




Operation Deadlight – The Royal Navy Scuttled 116 Captured U-Boats After WWII.

Operation Deadlight was a post-World War II undertaking by the Allies, primarily led by the British Royal Navy, to scuttle over 100 captured German U-boats in the North Atlantic.

The Execution of Operation Deadlight


Plans to Raise the U-Boats



Operation Deadlight - The Royal Navy Scuttled 116 Captured U …

Web20 Jan 2024 · The core of Operation Deadlight involved towing the U-boats to the designated scuttling area, approximately 100 miles northwest of Ireland, in the deep …


There is no doubt that it was the breaking of the Enigma, the interception and decoding of highly-secret German naval communications codenamed
"Ultra", by the British that enabled the Allies through England to win WW2.

A sad end, to such a brave and glorious force the U-boat Kriegsmarine.


Another fuller and better article article on this at PRONI / Public Records Office Northern Ireland.

Last edited by jagd messer; 1 Week Ago at 02:59 PM.
 
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