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Map of Lost U-Boats.
U-869, the submarine profiled in the NOVA program "Hitler's Lost
Sub," was just one of the more than 1,100 Unterseeboote, or
U-boats, sunk, scuttled, captured, or otherwise lost to German forces during
World War II. Here, naval historian Timothy Mulligan describes 25 of the most
historically significant U-boats. Click on the map labels and plunge into the
fascinating and often tragic histories of some of Germany's most notorious "sea
wolves."
Notes
KzS = Kapitän zur See (Captain)
KK = Korvettenkapitän (Lt. Commander)
KL = Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant)
OL = Oberleutnant zur See (Lieutenant, j.g.)
Lt.z.S.d.R. = Leutnant zur See der Reserve (Ensign in the Reserves)
Admiral Karl Dönitz was head of Germany's U-boat service
A snorkel is a tube that houses air intake and exhaust pipes for use
with a submarine's diesel engine while the sub is submerged
Timothy Mulligan is a German naval historian and archivist at the National
Archives and Records Administration. His most recent book is Neither Sharks
Nor Wolves: The Men of Nazi Germany's U-Boat Arm 1939-1945 (Naval Institute
Press, 1999).
U-47 |
U-48 |
U-96 |
U-99 |
U-107 |
U-110 |
U-156 |
U-181 |
U-234 |
U-405 |
U-459 |
U-505 |
U-515 |
U-534 |
U-552 |
U-559 |
U-570 |
U-721 |
U-852 |
U-861 |
U-869 |
U-995 |
U-997 |
U-2336 |
U-2540
U-47
Probably
the best known U-boat of World War II because of her commander, KK
Günther Prien, who penetrated the British fleet anchorage at Scapa Flow in
October 1939 and sank the battleship Royal Oak at her berth there.
Overnight sensations in Germany, Prien and his crew established the
submariners' heroic public image in Germany for the rest of the war.
U-47 also sank 30 merchant vessels totaling 164,953 tons.
Type: VII B
Built: Germaniawerft, Kiel
Keel laid: 1 April 1937
Launched: 29 October 1938
Commissioned: 17 December 1938
Commander: KK Günther Prien
Fate: Originally believed lost in action with all 45 crewmen against British
destroyer HMS Wolverine south of Iceland on 7 March 1941. Subsequent
research, however, suggests the boat may have been lost in a diving accident
while in combat on that date. back to top
U-48
Most
successful U-boat of World War II. Sank 54 Allied merchant ships totaling
324,131 gross registered tons, plus one British warship (sloop), during 12
patrols under three different captains, all during the period September
1939-June 1941.
Type: VII B
Built: Germaniawerft, Kiel
Keel laid: 5 March 1938
Launched: 5 March 1939
Commissioned: 22 April 1939
Commanders:
KL Herbert Schulze, April 1939-May 1940 and December 1940-July 1941
KK Hans Rösing, May-August 1940
KL Heinrich Bleichrodt, August-December 1940
Fate: Scuttled 3 May 1945 at Neustadt back to top
U-96
A
successful U-boat whose exploits during one particular patrol in
October-December of 1941 provided the historical basis for the novel and film
Das Boot. Altogether sank 28 merchant ships totaling 190,181 tons before
being retired to training duties in 1944.
Type: VII C
Built: Germaniawerft, Kiel
Keel laid: 16 September 1939
Launched: 1 August 1940
Commissioned: 14 September 1940
Commanders:
KL Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, September 1940-March 1940
OL Hans-Jürgen Hellriegel, April 1942-March 1943
OL Wilhelm Peters, March-October 1943
Fate: Sunk at dock by U.S. air attack, 30 March 1945, Wilhelmshaven back to top
U-99
Commanded
by the most successful U-boat ace of World War II, KK Otto Kretschmer,
who sank most of his 41 Allied merchantmen totaling 238,768 tons while in
command of this submarine from April 1940 to March 1941. After the war
Kretschmer rose to a senior position in the Bundesmarine.
Type: VII B
Built: Germaniawerft, Kiel
Keel laid: 31 March 1939
Launched: 12 March 1940
Commissioned: 18 April 1940
Commander: KK Otto Kretschmer
Fate: Sunk 17 March 1941 in a convoy action north of the Hebrides by destroyer
HMS Walker. Most of the crew survived as prisoners of war. back to top
U-107
The
U-boat with the longest operational service in World War II, spending 750 days
at sea during 13 patrols from January 1941 to August 1944. She sank 38 ships
totaling 217,751 tons, including 14 vessels on one patrol, the most by any
World War II U-boat during a single war cruise.
Type: IX B
Built: AG Weser, Bremen
Keel laid: 6 December 1939
Launched: 2 July 1940
Commissioned: 8 October 1940
Commanders:
KK Günther Hessler, October 1940-November 1941
KL Harald Gelhaus, December 1941-May 1943
KL Volker Simmermacher, June 1943-August 1944
Lt.z.S.d.R. Karl-Heinz Fritz, August 1944
Fate: Sunk by British air attack 18 August 1944 while in passage from Lorient
to La Pallice with a load of snorkels for the U-boats based there. All
59 crewmen lost. back to top
U-110
The
U-boat from which the British recovered a vital Enigma encryption device and
accompanying documentation in May 1941, allowing the first critical Allied
breakthrough in reading U-boat radio communications during World War II. (For
more on the breaking of the Enigma, see Decoding Nazi Secrets.)
U-110's captain, KL Fritz-Julius Lemp, had sunk the first Allied
merchant ship of the war, the British liner Athenia, while in command of
U-30.
Type: IX B
Built: AG Weser, Bremen
Keel laid: 1 February 1940
Launched: 25 August 1940
Commissioned: 21 November 1940
Commander: KL Fritz-Julius Lemp
Fate: Badly damaged in a convoy action 9 May 1941 by depth charges from
corvette HMS Aubretia and forced to the surface. The crew abandoned
ship, but before she could sink, a boarding party from destroyer HMS
Bulldog went aboard, recovered the Enigma machine and other materials,
and set up a towline to tow her into captivity. U-110 foundered the next
day while still in tow. back to top
U-156
U-boat
that initiated an international rescue operation after sinking the
liner-transport Laconia in the South Atlantic, September 1942.
U-156 and three other submarines—two German and one Italian—rescued roughly 1,500 people from the Laconia. After an American bomber
attacked the subs, they broke off the rescue operation. Karl
Dönitz thereafter ordered his commanders to no longer offer assistance
to shipwrecked survivors (the "Laconia Order"), which led to Dönitz's
indictment as a war criminal at Nuremberg.
Type: IX C
Built: AG Weser, Bremen
Keel laid: 4 October 1940
Launched: 21 May 1941
Commissioned: 4 September 1941
Commander: KK Werner Hartenstein
Fate: Lost with all 53 hands to air attack by a U.S. Navy Catalina in the
Caribbean, 8 March 1943. back to top
U-181
Under
Wolfgang Lüth, the second-highest U-boat ace of the war, this U-boat
carried out a patrol that lasted 205 days, a record exceeded only by the
U-boats that transferred to the Far East. Altogether, sank 27 ships totaling
138,779 tons.
Type: IX D2
Built: AG Weser, Bremen
Keel laid: 15 March 1941
Launched: 30 December 1941
Commissioned: 9 May 1942
Commanders:
KK Wolfgang Lüth, May 1942-October 1943
KzS Kurt Freiwald, November 1943-May 1945
Fate: Undergoing repairs at Singapore when Germany surrendered, U-181
was taken over by the Japanese Navy and became submarine I-501.
Surrendered to the British at Singapore 15 August 1945 and scuttled there 16
February 1946. back to top
U-234
Cargo
U-boat bound for Japan when war ended, surrendered to U.S. authorities at sea
carrying a total cargo of 260 tons, including uranium oxide ore, mercury, and
the component parts for an Me 262 jet fighter.
Type: X B
Built: Germaniawerft, Kiel
Keel laid: 1 October 1941
Launched: 23 December 1943
Commissioned: 2 March 1944
Commander: KL Johann-Heinrich Fehler
Fate: Surrendered to destroyer escort USS Sutton east of
the Flemish Cap, 14 May 1945, after two Japanese passengers committed suicide.
Other passengers bound for Japan included several Luftwaffe officers and
technical specialists intended to improve Japanese aircraft defenses. The U.S.
Navy used U-234 for experimental trials and then sank her off Cape Cod,
November 1946. back to top
U-405
Engaged
in a death duel with an American destroyer, each vessel sinking the other in a
battle later fictionalized in the novel and film The Enemy Below.
Type: VII C
Built: Danziger Werft, Danzig
Keel laid: 8 July 1940
Launched: 4 June 1941
Commissioned: 17 September 1941
Commander: KK Rolf-Heinrich Hopmann
Fate: Sank after the destroyer USS Borie depth-charged, rammed, and
struck her by gunfire north of the Azores, 1 November 1943. Following ramming,
both warships remained temporarily locked together, and some fighting took
place at close quarters before the U-boat broke away and sank with all 49
hands. USS Borie succumbed the next day from damage suffered, with the
loss of 27 officers and seamen. back to top
U-459
First
and most productive of the Type XIV supply tanker or "milch-cow" U-boats, which
resupplied front-line U-boats with fuel, torpedoes, and provisions at sea, thus
considerably extending the U-boats' effectiveness and range. Resupplied a total
of 65 U-boats in her first five patrols, March 1942-June 1943.
Type: XIV
Built: Deutsche Werke, Kiel
Keel laid: 23 November 1940
Launched: 13 September 1941
Commissioned: 15 November 1941
Commander: KK Georg von Wilamovitz-Moellendorf
Fate: Sunk by British air attack in the Bay of Biscay 24 July 1943, with the
loss of her captain (a former U-boat commander in World War I) and 18 men. The
remaining 41 crewmen were recovered as prisoners of war. back to top
U-505
Only
U-boat captured in action during World War II and the first enemy warship
boarded and captured by the U.S. Navy since the War of 1812. The captured
Enigma encryption machine and accompanying documentation in June 1944 greatly
facilitated subsequent Allied decryption efforts for the remainder of the war.
(For more on the breaking of the Enigma, see Decoding Nazi Secrets.)
Her second commanding officer, KL Peter Zschech, committed suicide on
board during a depth-charge attack 24 October 1943.
Type: IX C
Built: Deutsche Werft, Hamburg
Keel laid: 12 June 1940
Launched: 24 May 1941
Commissioned: 26 August 1941
Commanders:
KK Axel-Olaf Loewe, August 1941-September 1942
KL Peter Zschech, September 1942-October 1943
OL Paul Meyer (temporary), October-November 1943
OL Harald Lange, November 1943-June 1944
Fate: Captured at sea 4 June 1944 west of the Azores by U.S. Navy Task Group
22.3, after being forced to the surface by depth-charge attack. Boarding
parties from destroyer USS Pillsbury and later the light aircraft
carrier USS Guadalcanal kept the U-boat afloat, and it was eventually
towed to Bermuda. In 1954, U-505 was awarded to the Chicago Museum of
Science and Industry, where it remains today as the best preserved and most
originally furnished of the four museum U-boats, the others being U-534,
U-995, and U-2540. (For more about U-505, see
Resources.) back to top
U-515
A
highly successful late-war U-boat that, from September 1942 to April 1944, sank
24 merchantmen, totaling 144,864 tons, and two warships. The same task group
that captured U-505 sank U-515.
Type: IX C
Keel laid: 7 May 1941
Launched: 2 December 1941
Commissioned: 21 February 1942
Commander: KK Werner Henke
Fate: Sunk following attacks by naval aircraft from carrier USS
Guadalcanal and depth charges and gunfire from destroyer escorts USS
Pillsbury, USS Pope, and USS Chatelain southeast of the
Azores, 9 April 1944. Sixteen crewmen were lost in the sinking; the remaining
44 were rescued and made prisoners of war. Commander Henke was killed 15 June
1944 in a suicidal escape attempt at Ft. Hunt, Virginia. back to top
U-534
Most
recently salvaged U-boat, now on display in Liverpool, England.
Type: IX C/40
Built: Deutsche Werft, Hamburg
Keel laid: 20 February 1942
Launched: 23 September 1942
Commissioned: 23 December 1942
Commander: KL Herbert Nollau
Fate: After an undistinguished career in training and weather-reporting duties,
U-534 departed Copenhagen on 5 May 1945 bound for Norway but was sunk by
British aircraft in the Kattegat with the loss of three crewmen. In 1986 the
U-boat was located near the Danish island of Anholt and brought to the surface
by a consortium of Dutch and Danish salvagers on 23 August 1993. In 1996 the
British Warship Preservation Trust acquired the boat and brought her to
Liverpool, where she is now part of the Historic Warships Museum at Birkenhead
Docks. (For more on U-534, see Resources.) back to top
U-552
The
"Red Devil" boat captained by Erich Topp, third-highest U-boat ace, under whose
command the U-boat sank 26 merchantmen totaling 141,058 tons. Also sank the
first American warship lost in the war, the destroyer USS Reuben
James.
Type: VII C
Built: Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Keel laid: 1 December 1939
Launched: 14 September 1940
Commissioned: 4 December 1940
Commanders:
KK Erich Topp, December 1940-August 1942
KL Klaus Popp, September 1942-July 1944
OL Günther Lube, July 1944-May 1945
Fate: Retired to training duties April 1944. Scuttled at Wilhelmshaven 2 May
1945. back to top
U-559
U-boat
from which codebooks and valuable cryptographic materials were recovered before
sinking, facilitating, in late 1942, the second major Allied breakthrough in
reading German U-boat communications. (For more on the breaking of the Enigma,
see Decoding Nazi Secrets.)
Type: VII C
Built: Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Keel laid: 1 February 1940
Launched: 8 January 1941
Commissioned: 27 February 1941
Commander: KL Hans Heidtmann
Fate: While operating in the eastern Mediterranean, U-559 came under
attack by several British warships and an aircraft on 30 October 1942. Fatally
damaged and forced to the surface, the sub was abandoned. A British boarding
party from destroyer HMS Petard recovered the cryptographic materials,
but the vessel sank before the cipher machine could be brought out. Eight
German crewmen and two British seamen were lost, and 37 German survivors were
taken prisoner. back to top
U-570
U-boat
with the dubious distinction as the only one to surrender in action during the
war.
Type: VII C
Built: Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Keel laid: 21 May 1940
Launched: 20 March 1941
Commissioned: 15 May 1941
Commander: KL Hans-Joachim Rahmlow
Fate: With many of her green crew seasick from heavy seas during her maiden
voyage, U-570 was damaged by air attack south of Iceland on 27 August
1941. She surfaced and surrendered to the circling British Hudson aircraft.
British vessels eventually arrived to take her in tow to Iceland and later
recommissioning in the Royal Navy as HMS Graph. The capture provided the
Allies invaluable technical intelligence on U-boat capabilities. Submarine
scrapped 1947. back to top
U-721
A
training boat that never entered operational service but that, with other
training and advanced-model submarines that never saw action, played a role in
evacuating German civilians as the Red Army entered Germany. In late February
1945, U-721, by using every inch of available space on board,
successfully evacuated about 100 civilian refugees and wounded soldiers from
the port of Hela (now Hel, Poland).
Type: VII C
Built: H.C. Stülcken & Sohn, Hamburg
Keel laid: 16 November 1942
Launched: 23 July 1943
Commissioned: 8 November 1943
Commanders:
OL Otto Wollschläger, November 1943-December 1944
OL Ludwig Fabricius, December 1944-May 1945
Fate: Scuttled by her own crew 5 May 1945. back to top
U-852
The
only U-boat in World War II whose crew is known to have killed shipwrecked
Allied survivors.
Type: IX D2
Built: A.G. Weser, Bremen
Keel laid: 15 April 1942
Launched: 28 January 1943
Commissioned: 15 June 1943
Commander: KL Heinz-Wilhelm Eck
Fate: On her only patrol, U-852 sank the Greek steamer Peleus, 13
March 1944, and her crew attempted to kill the survivors to conceal her
presence. After she proceeded into the Indian Ocean, British aircraft fatally
damaged her off the Somali coast on 2-3 May 1944, and she beached herself near
Ras Mabber, Somaliland. British forces captured her crew, and in October 1945,
a British court in Hamburg subsequently tried, condemned, and executed the
captain and two of his officers for war crimes. The court also convicted two
other crewmen and sentenced them to prison terms. back to top
U-861
The
last U-boat to travel to the Far East and return safely more than a year after
her departure.
Type: IX D2
Built: AG Weser, Bremen
Keel laid: 15 July 1942
Launched: 29 April 1943
Commissioned: 2 September 1943
Commander: KK Jürgen Osten
Fate: U-861 departed Kiel on 20 April 1944 bound for the U-boat base at
Penang on the Malayan peninsula, carrying supplies for the base and tin for the
Japanese. She arrived at Penang 23 September 1944 after sinking en route four
Allied merchantmen (over 22,000 tons). On 15 January 1945 she began the return
trip with a load of rubber. Despite the lack of a snorkel, she eluded Allied
patrols and arrived in Trondheim on 24 April 1945. U-861 was then turned
over to British control and scuttled north of Ireland on 8 December 1945. back to top
U-869
Most
recent discovery of a U-boat, whose actual location and fate underscore the
uncertainties of World War II submarine warfare.
Type: IX C/40
Built: Deschimag AG Weser, Bremen
Keel laid: 5 April 1943
Launched: 5 October 1943
Commissioned: 26 January 1944
Commander: KL Hellmut Neuerburg
Fate: Originally believed to have been lost off Casablanca on 28 February 1945
by depth-charge attacks by the destroyer USS Fowler and the French
sub-chaser L'Indiscret. The positive identification of her
remains about 60 miles east of the New Jersey coast indicates she never
received the change in orders diverting her to the Gibraltar approaches and was
possibly sunk by one of her own acoustic torpedoes. back to top
U-995
Preserved
today as a memorial on the beach at Laboe outside Kiel. During the war she
operated entirely in Arctic waters against Allied and Russian forces, sinking
two merchantmen and several light craft.
Type: VII C/41
Built: Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Keel laid: 25 November 1942
Launched: 22 July 1943
Commissioned: 16 September 1943
Commanders:
KL Walter Köhntopp, September 1943-October 1944
OL Hans-Georg Hess, October 1944-May 1945
Fate: Surrendered at Trondheim 9 May 1945. Later given to Norway and
commissioned into the Norwegian Navy as the Kaura, December 1952. In
1965 offered for return by Norway to the Federal Republic of Germany, where she
was placed before the German Navy Memorial at Laboe and opened to the public in
March 1972. (For more on U-995, see Resources.) back to top
U-997
U-boat
whose captain and crew disobeyed the order of Karl Dönitz to
surrender in May 1945 and instead proceeded to Argentina (as did U-530),
arriving August 1945.
Type: VII C
Built: Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Keel laid: 24 July 1942
Launched: 31 March 1943
Commissioned: 6 May 1943
Commanders:
KL Hans Leilach, May 1943-March 1945
OL Heinz Schäffer, March-August 1945
Fate: Served primarily as a training boat until April 1945, when she departed
home waters for Norway and operations off the British coast. On news of the
surrender, most of the crew voted to try for Argentina, which they reached on
17 August 1945 after 105 days at sea, the last 66 entirely submerged with the
aid of a snorkel. The crew and boat were interned and turned over to
U.S. authorities, who sank U-997 off the American east coast 13 November
1946. back to top
U-2336
Advanced-model
(Type XXIII) U-boat that sank the last vessels of the U-boat campaign in the
Firth of Forth in Scotland on 7 May 1945. Type XXIII boats later served in the
Bundesmarine.
Type: XXIII
Built: Deutsche Werft, Hamburg
Keel laid: 27 July 1944
Launched: 10 September 1944
Commissioned: 30 September 1944
Commanders:
OL Jürgen Vockel, September 1944-March 1945
KL Emil Klusmeier, April-May 1945
Fate: Surrendered at Kiel 14 May 1945. Sunk north of Ireland 2 January 1946. back to top
U-2540
A salvaged and restored advanced-model U-boat, open to the public in
Bremerhaven.
Type: XXI
Built: Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Keel laid: 29 October 1944
Launched: 13 January 1945
Commissioned: 24 February 1945
Commander: OL Rudolf Schultze
Fate: As with virtually all of the advanced Type XXI U-boats, U-2540 did
not make an operational patrol before war's end. Scuttled 4 May 1945 off
Flensburg, Germany, the boat was raised in 1957 and recommissioned into the
Bundesmarine as experimental U-boat Wilhelm Bauer. Since 1983 she has
been a floating museum associated with the Deutsche Schiffahrtsmuseum at
Bremerhaven. (For more on the museum, see Resources.)
back to top
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