Sea Wolves

U-96 arriving at St. Nazaire (WWII)
(Source)

World War I began on the 28th of July, 1914. A little over a month later, a warship of the Royal Navy was struck and sunk by a self-propelled torpedo fired from a German submarine. HMS Pathfinder had the dubious distinction of being the first ship of any type to be sunk by a self-propelled torpedo fired by a submarine in wartime. She would not be the last.

HMS Pathfinder
(Source)

At the beginning of September 1914, Otto Hersing, Commanding Officer of U-21, ventured to the Firth of Forth, home to the major British naval base at Rosyth. Hersing is known to have penetrated the Firth of Forth as far as the Carlingnose Battery beneath the Forth Bridge. At one point the periscope was spotted and the battery opened fire but without success. Overnight Hersing withdrew from the Forth, patrolling the coast from the Isle of May southwards. On the morning of 5 September, he observed HMS Pathfinder on a SSE course, followed by elements of the 8th Destroyer Flotilla. At midday, the destroyers altered course back towards the Isle of May while Pathfinder continued her patrol. Shortly thereafter, Hersing spotted Pathfinder on her return journey through his periscope and resolved to make an attack.

At 1543 U-21 fired a single 50 cm Type G/6 torpedo at a range of 2,000 yards. At 1545 lookouts spotted a torpedo wake heading towards the starboard bow and the officer of the watch, Lieutenant-Commander Favell, attempted to take evasive action by ordering the starboard engine be put astern and the port engine at full ahead while the wheel was turned hard a port. Since the vessel was traveling at a mere five knots, however (due to a shortage of coal throughout the Royal Navy at the time), the manoeuvre was not in time and the torpedo struck the ship beneath the bridge. The detonation apparently set off cordite bags in the forward magazine which caused a second, more massive explosion within the fore section of the ship, essentially destroying everything forward of the bridge. Broken in two, Pathfinder instantly began sinking, dragging most of her crew down with her and leaving a massive pall of smoke to mark her grave. The vessel sank so quickly, in fact, that there was insufficient time to launch lifeboats. (Indeed, the remains of a lifeboat davit and rope can still be seen on the wreck, demonstrating the speed with which the vessel sank.) (Source)

Loss of HMS Pathfinder, September 5th 1914

William Lionel Wyllie

Slightly over two weeks later the Royal Navy lost three more ships to a U-Boat attack.

HMS Cressy

HMS Aboukir

HMS Hogue

At 06:00 on 22 September, the weather had calmed and the ships were patrolling at 10 knots, line abreast, 2 nautical miles apart. Lookouts were posted for submarine periscopes or ships and one gun either side of each ship was manned. U-9 had been ordered to attack British transports at Ostend but had been forced to dive and shelter from the storm. On surfacing, she spotted the British ships and moved to attack. At 06:20, U-9 fired a torpedo at the middle ship from a range of 550 yd and struck HMS Aboukir on the starboard side, flooding the engine room and causing the ship to stop immediately. No submarines had been sighted, so Drummond assumed that the ship had hit a mine and ordered the other two cruisers to close in to help. After 25 minutes, Aboukir capsized and then sank five minutes later. Only one lifeboat could be launched, because of damage from the explosion and the failure of steam-powered winches needed to launch them.

U-9 rose to periscope depth from her dive after firing the torpedo, to observe two British cruisers engaged in the rescue of men from the sinking ship. Weddigen fired two more torpedoes at HMS Hogue, from 300 yards. As the torpedoes left the submarine, her bows rose out of the water and she was spotted by Hogue, whose gunners opened fire before the submarine dived. The two torpedoes struck Hogue and within five minutes Captain Wilmot Nicholson gave the order to abandon ship; after ten minutes she capsized before sinking at 07:15. Watchers on HMS Cressy had seen the submarine, opened fire and made a failed attempt to ram, then turned to pick up survivors. At 07:20, U-9 fired two torpedoes toward Cressy from her stern torpedo tubes at a range of 1,000 yards. One torpedo missed and the submarine turned and fired her remaining bow torpedo at 550 yards. The first torpedo struck the starboard side at around 07:25, the second the port beam at 07:30. The ship capsized to starboard and floated upside down until 07:55.

Two Dutch sailing trawlers in the vicinity declined to close with Cressy for fear of mines. Distress calls had been received by Commodore Tyrwhitt, who, with the destroyer squadron, was already at sea returning to the cruisers, now that the weather had improved. At 08:30, the Dutch steamship Flora approached the scene (having seen the sinkings) and rescued 286 men. A second steamer—Titan—picked up another 147. More were rescued by two Lowestoft sailing trawlers, Coriander and J.G.C., before the destroyers arrived at 10:45, 837 men were rescued while 1,397 men and 62 officers—mostly part-timers from the Royal Naval Reserve, including Robert Johnson, the Captain of Cressy had been killed. The destroyers began a search for the submarine, which had little electrical power remaining to travel underwater and could only make 14 knots on the surface. The submarine submerged for the night before returning home the next day. (Source)

HMS Aboukir sinking.

Our Polish correspondent Paweł reminded me the other day that  "the enemy gets their own fullbore." (No doubt a reference to CDR Salamander's excellent Fullbore Friday feature at his place. An example of which is here.) Is there any honor involved in fighting against an incompetent enemy? Isn't that akin to clubbing baby seals?

In both World Wars the enemy was anything but incompetent. Especially those sailors who served in Germany's Ubootwaffe ¹. In both wars they nearly brought Britain to her knees. It was, to paraphrase the Duke of Wellington, a damned near run thing. ²

When you mention "U-Boats ³" most people think of World War II, while some might remember that the sinking of RMS Lusitania was a proximate cause of the United States entering World War I. (Though not really, Lusitania went down in May of 1915, the U.S. entered the war in April of 1917. Though the sinking did shift public opinion in the U.S. against the Germans ⁴.) Of Germany's top five submarine captains (based on tonnage sunk), four are from World War I.

World War I U-Boat Aces:

Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière (1886–1941) was the most successful U-boat commander of World War I and of any submarine commander in history. Between 1915–18, he made 14 patrols in command of U-35, sinking 189 merchant vessels and two gunboats. He transferred to U-139 in May 1918 and sank a further five merchant ships, making 194 ships sunk totalling 453,716 GRT ⁵. After serving as an instructor in the Turkish Navy between 1932–38, he returned to the Kriegsmarine and during World War II served as naval commandant for western France with the rank of Vizeadmiral. He was killed in February 1941 when his aircraft crashed on take off at Le Bourget Airport, Paris.

Walther Forstmann (1883–1973) commanded U-12 and U-39 on 47 patrols and sank 146 ships for a total of 384,304 GRT. In 1921 he qualified as an attorney and worked in the steel and coal industries, as well as being active in the German People's Party. Forstmann served on the staff of the Kriegsmarine during World War II.

Max Valentiner (1883–1949) commanded U-38 and U-157, and sank 150 ships for a total of 299,300 GRT. Listed as a war criminal by the Allies for a series of incidents, including the sinking of SS Persia, Valentiner went into hiding for a while at the end of the war. During World War II, Valentiner was commander of a unit inspecting new U-boats before commissioning.

Otto Steinbrinck (1888–1949) commanded several submarines during World War I, sinking a total of 231,614 GRT of shipping. After the war he worked in the iron and steel industry. Steinbrinck joined the Nazi Party in 1933, and became a member of the SS, rising to the rank of Brigadeführer, while remaining active in industry. In 1945, he was arrested and faced charges at the Flick Trial. In December 1947, he was sentenced to six years imprisonment in Landsberg Prison, but died two years into his sentence.

Hans Rose (1885–1969) commanded U-53 between 1916–18, sinking 79 merchant ships for a total of 213,987 GRT, as well as USS Jacob Jones, the first American destroyer to be lost during the war. Rose commanded a U-boat training unit in 1940.

















World War II U-Boat Aces:

Otto Kretschmer (1912–1998) was the most successful of the World War II Aces of the Deep. As commander of U-35, U-23 and U-99 he sank 47 merchant ships totalling 272,043 tons in a remarkably short period of time, being captured in March 1941 and spending the rest of the war in the Bowmanville POW camp, Canada. After the war, he rejoined the Bundesmarine, and became the Chief of Staff of the NATO Command COMNAVBALTAP in May 1965. He retired in September 1970 with a rank of Flottillenadmiral. During his time as a U-boat commander, he was given the nickname "The Tonnage King" because of his high GRT record.

Wolfgang Lüth (1913–1945) was given command of U-9 in December 1939, going on to command U-13, U-138, U-43, and U-181, and sinking 46 merchant ships for a total 225,204 tons in 15 patrols, including one of 205 days, the second longest of the war. In January 1944 Lüth took command of the 22nd U-boat Flotilla, before being appointed commander of the Naval Academy Mürwik in July. Lüth was mistakenly shot and killed by a German sentry on 13 May 1945.

Erich Topp (1914–2005) commanded U-57 and U-552 in 1940–41, and sank 35 merchant ships for a total of 197,460 tons. He commanded the tactical training unit 27th U-boat Flotilla from late 1942, and served briefly as commander of the Type XXI Elektroboote U-3010 and U-2513 just before the end of the war. He rejoined the Bundesmarine in 1956, reaching the rank of Konteradmiral before retiring in 1969.

Heinrich Liebe (1908–1997) commanded U-38 between 1938–41, sinking 34 ships for a total of 187,267 GRT. In 1941 Liebe was assigned to the staff of Oberkommando der Marine, and from August 1944 was on the staff of the BdU. After the war Liebe returned to his hometown in the Soviet sector. As he refused to train Soviet submariners, he was allowed only a series of menial occupations.

Viktor Schütze (1906–1950) commanded U-25 and U-103, sinking 35 merchant ships totalling 180,073 tons, before being appointed commander of the 2nd U-boat Flotilla in August 1941. He became the FdU Ausbildungsflottillen ("Commander of the Training Flotillas") in the Baltic Sea in March 1943. He spent a year in Allied captivity after the war.











Two other WWII U-Boat commanders who were in the top ten I will mention because -

1. Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock (#6 in GRT in WWII, BTW that's his boat in the opening photo) was the technical advisor for the movie Das Boot (one of my favorite movies) and
2. Günther Prien, who gained lasting fame for sneaking his boat into Scapa Flow and sinking HMS Royal Oak at anchor.

Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock (1911–1986) commanded the U-8, U-5, and U-96, sinking 25 merchant ships for a total of 179,125 tons. In May 1942 Willenbrock took command of the 9th U-boat Flotilla, transferring to the 11th U-boat Flotilla in December 1944. After spending a year in captivity after the German surrender, Willenbrock served as captain on merchant ships, and from 1964 commanded the German nuclear-powered freighter Otto Hahn. Willenbrock acted as advisor to the film Das Boot, based on an account of one of his own war patrols in U-96.

Günther Prien (1908–1941) was given command of U-47 in December 1938, and sank over 30 Allied merchant ships for a total of 162,769 GRT. His most famous exploit was infiltrating the British Home Fleet's base at Scapa Flow in October 1939 and sinking the battleship HMS Royal Oak - which won him the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the first U-boat commander to do so. Prien was lost when U-47 went missing on 7 March 1941 during an attack on Convoy OB 293 south of Iceland. He was given the nickname "The Ace of Aces".

HMS Royal Oak, capsized in Scapa Flow
(Source)

Both sides paid a heavy price in the World Wars -

World War I Losses:

Allied -

• 5,000 merchant ships sunk
• 15,000 merchant sailors killed
• 104 warships sunk
• 42 warships damaged
• 61 Q-ships sunk

German -

• Total operational boats: 351
• Total sunk in combat: 178 (41 by mines, 30 by depth charges and 13 by Q-ships)
• Other losses: 39
• Completed after Armistice: 45
• Surrendered to Allies: 179
• Men lost in U-boats: 515 officers and 4894 enlisted men

World War II Losses:

Allied -

• 36,200 sailors killed
• 36,000 merchant seamen killed
• 3,500 merchant vessels
• 175 warships
• 741 RAF Coastal Command Aircraft lost in anti-submarine sorties

German -

• 28,000 German U-boat crew of the total 40,900 men recruited into the service lost their lives and 5,000 became POWs
• 783 submarines lost
• 47 other warships lost

To borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill ⁶ -

The U-Boat men, warriors who will hold their place in military annals ... daring and skillful opponents ...

Recommended reading:

• British and German submarine statistics of World War II (Naval Historical Society of Australia)
• German U-Boat Casualties in World War Two (Naval History and Heritage Command)
• Sinking HMS Royal Oak (Learning History)

1 - Ubootwaffe, the submarine branch of the German Navy, Kriegsmarine.
2 - The actual quote was "It has been a damned serious business... Blucher and I have lost 30,000 men. It has been a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life. ... By God! I don't think it would have been done if I had not been there." (Source)
3 - English for the German abbreviation "U-Boot" which stands for Unterseeboot, the German word for submarine.
4 - See this article.
5 - GRT = Gross Register Tonnage
6 - Today Churchill pays a tribute to the man who smashed the British Desert flank in 1941, with dire consequences for Greece. That man was Erwin Rommel, "a German warrior who will hold his place in their military annals ... a daring and skilful opponent ... a great general." (Source)
Editor's Note - I don't mention the Japanese submarine force in this post as during the war, Japan managed to sink about 1 million tons of merchant shipping (184 ships), compared to 1.5 million tons for Great Britain (493 ships), 4.65 million tons for the U.S. (1,079 ships) and 14.3 million tons for Germany (2,840 ships). The Americans and the Germans were the heavy hitters in WWII submarine warfare. (Source)