The war started badly for Germany when U30 under the command of Kapitan Leutnant Julius Lemp torpedoed, what he claimed, was an armed merchant cruiser. This turned out to be the passenger ship SS Athenia with 1,418 passengers. 117 were killed, some, as they were being lifted from the sea by the rescue boat the Knute Nelson which brought 430 survivors to neutral Galway port, Ireland.
America, Britain and Canada unleashed a vitriolic attack on Germany for sinking an unarmed passenger ship.
A Murderous Service
40,000 men served in the German U-Boat Kriegsmarine (sailor) service. Some 12,000 survived the war. U-Boats were cramped, damp and dangerous. Diesel powered submarines were easily detected by sonar with the resultant depth charges from British or American destroyers finishing them off. U-Boats did not readily escape.
U-Boats operated both east and west of Iceland where American escort destroyers reached the limit of their operating ranges prior to British escort destroyers meeting their convoys east of Iceland. In time flying boats and oil tankers allowed this escorting gap to be closed after 1943. Wolfpacks of U-Boats concentrated on sinking convoys in the North Atlantic. Long range German Condor reconnaissance aircraft aided convoy detection west of Ireland.
U-Boat Atlantic War
By February 1941 the number of front line U-Boats had increased to 22. In August 1941, U-Boots sank 56 ships totalling 267,618 metric tonnes; followed by record sinkings in October 1941 of 63 ships with 352,407 tonnes including the destruction of convoy Sc-7 during the night of 20 October 1941. Kapitan Leutnant Lemp was killed while attempting to sink his crippled U110 in 1941. HMS Bulldog retrieved the U110 Ultra coding machine, which helped to reduce shipping losses, late 1941.
During 1942 sinkings averaged 645,000 tonnes per month. 'Operation Drum-Beat' January to July 1942, off the eastern United States coast, sank 226 ships totalling 1.28 million tonnes. Only 55 front line U-Boats were available for the Atlantic war. German U-Boat pens were targetted by the US 8th Air Force from spring 1943. German U-Boat success peaked in March 1943, yet, the battle was broken off in May 1943.
The U-Boat War Lost
60 US Liberator bombers were based in southern Greenland specifically to cover the sea gap south of Greenland. H2S radar increased detection of U-Boats. Rapid decoding of German radio traffic turned the war against the U-Boat Wolfpack formations. By March 1943, Admiral Doenitz had 182 U-Boats in the Atlantic. From 16 to 20 March 1943, 43 U-Boats sunk 21 ships totalling 141,000 tonnes for the loss of one U-Boat. In May 1943, 44 freighters with 276,000 tonnes, were paid for with the loss of 41 U-Boats. Admiral Doenitz ordered the battle of the Atlantic discontinued.
Type XXI and XXIII U-Boats 1945
Germany built and launched ten ultra modern U-Boats in early 1945. They were electrically powered, set for silent submerged running, with an in built schnorkel to allow air exchange. They could not be detected by sonar and used hydrogen peroxide to propel torpedoes. These war winning machines arrived too late to redress the balance of power and win the war.
In Conclusion
Admiral Doenitz awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves to Iron Cross recipients KapitanLeutnants Lemp, Schulz and Wohlfahrt, pictured, acknowledging Germany's first three U-Boat Aces in 1941.
Sources
- U-Boot Archive TypeXXI and XXIII
- Das Boot (1981) a film with KL Jurgen Prochnow
- Karl Doenitz and U-Boot Aces
Michael Manning - ' The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity' W.B.Yeats
