Lawrence Paterson - The U-Boat War: A Global History 1939-45

Contents

Dedicated to Opus

There are many that should be mentioned, but my word-count is unforgiving. I would like to express my thanks to the U-boat veterans that it has been my pleasure to know over the years. Among them, I would especially like to mention Horst Bredow, Georg Seitz, Volkmaar Knig, Gerhard Buske, Herbert Waldschmidt, Hans-Rudolf Rsing, Jrgen Oesten, Hans-Joachim Krug, Georg Hgel, Ludwig Stoll, Wolfgang Pohl, Wolfgang Hirschfeld, Bernard Geissman and Ernst Gthling. Thanks to my wife Anna, Megan, James and Mumbles and Mr Mumbles Paterson, Maggie Bidmead and Paul Milner, for access to his incredible photo collection.

ASDIC Term applied to the sonar equipment used for locating submerged submarines. A powerful and effective weapon, it emitted a distinct ping when locating the target. ASDIC is an acronym for Anti-Submarine Detection Committee, the organization that began research into this device in 1917.

ASW Anti-Submarine Warfare.

AZ (German) Aufschlagzndung ; impact trigger for the Pi1 pistol fitted to both G7a and the G7e torpedoes.

BdU (German) Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote ; Commander U-boats.

Eel (German) aal ; slang expression for torpedo.

EK (German) Eisernes Kreuz ; the Iron Cross, awarded in either First or Second Class.

Enigma Coding machine used by German armed forces throughout the Second World War.

FdU (German) Fhrer der Unterseeboote ; Flag Officer for submarines, responsible for a particular geographical region.

G7a German torpedo propelled by compressed air.

G7e German torpedo propelled by electric motor.

HF/DF High Frequency Direction Finding; radio direction finder for locating high-frequency U-boat transmissions (colloquially known as being DFed).

IWO See Wachoffizier below.

KG (German) Kampfgeschwader ; Luftwaffe bomber group.

Kriegsmarine (German) Navy of the Third Reich.

KTB (German) Kriegstagebuch ; War Diary. Kept by the commander during a U-boats patrol and later entered into official records.

LI (German) Leitendre Ingenieur , Chief Engineer.

Luftwaffe (German) Air Force.

MGK (German) Marinegruppenkommando ; geographic command posts (e.g. MGK West, MGK Nord etc) for naval surface and land-based forces.

MZ (German) Magnetzndung ; magnetic trigger for the Pi1 pistol fitted to both the G7a and the G7e torpedoes.

OKM (German) Oberkommando der Marine ; Supreme Navy Command.

OKW (German) Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ; Supreme Armed Forces Command.

RK (German) Ritterkreuz ; Knights Cross. Highest level of the Iron Cross award for valour, augmented with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds for further meritorious award.

SKL Seekriegsleitung ; Naval High Command.

UZO U-Boot-Ziel-Optik ; surface targeting device introduced in 1939 that electrically transmitted targeting information from a pair of mounted binoculars to the torpedo calculator.

Wachoffizier (German) Watch Officer. There were three separate U-boat watch crews, each consisting of an officer or senior NCO, Petty Officer and two ratings. The ships First Watch Officer (IWO) would be the Executive Officer (second in command); the Second Watch Officer (IIWO), the ships designated Second Officer; and the Third Watch Officer (IIIWO), often the Obersteuermann (Navigation Officer). The duties of the IWO included torpedo and firing system care and maintenance as well as control of surface attacks; the IIWO handled administration regarding food and supplies as well as the operation of deck and flak weapons.

Wehrmacht (German) Armed Forces.

Wintergarten (German) Nickname given to the open railed extension astern of the conning tower, Eisbbuilt , to accommodate increased flak weaponry. Known to the Allies as a bandstand.

The crews of five merchant ships and three escorting armed trawlers that comprised convoy EN491 could have been forgiven for some level of complacency. The date was 7 May 1945, and the small cluster of ships had departed the Scottish port of Methil shortly after 2000hrs that evening, an interim stop in the voyage from Hull to Belfast, expected to take three days. The month had begun with unsettled weather; frequent rain showers and thunderstorms had swept across the United Kingdom until the evening of departure from Methil, when a fresh high-pressure system brought a warmer breeze to the British eastern seaboard. In Europe, the war that had raged since 1939 was but hours from ending. Hitler was dead, and partial surrender documents had already officiated over the preceding days for various geographical combat areas, before the final instrument of complete unconditional German surrender was signed earlier that day at SHAEF headquarters within the red brick building housing the Collge Moderne et Technique de Reims . The final capitulation would come into effect at 2301hrs (Central European Time) the following day, 8 May. U-boats had already been ordered to cease offensive operations four days previously on 4 May.

Captain Johannes Lglands 23-year-old Norwegian merchant ship Sneland I carried 2,800 tons of coal bound for Northern Ireland, sailing as Number 2 ship in the small starboard column and also serving as the convoy commodores ship for what would be one of the last wartime convoys. Immediately ahead rode the newer Canadian merchant ship Avondale Park , skippered by Captain James Cushnie and also carrying coal to Belfast.

As the ships sailed into the Firth of Forth, it is thought likely that the defensive Indicator Loop System comprising two sets of electric cables laid a mile apart on the estuary may have registered the passing of an unexpected large metal object that evening, but the trace had been disregarded as no credible threat at this extremely late stage of the war. If so, it was a grievous mistake. Indeed, at 2145hrs that evening, the war at sea had claimed another victim in the English Channel when a Norwegian minesweeper was torpedoed and sunk by the ageing Type VII U-boat U1023 with only ten of its 32-man crew rescued in Lyme Bay.

The unidentified craft that had activated the magnetic loop and was steadily approaching EN491 was the small electro-U-boat U2336 , captained by Kapitnleutnant Emil Klusmeier. This 32-year-old officer had started his naval service in 1930, three years before the accession of the National Socialist Party to power in Germany and five years before the Reichsmarine was renamed Kriegsmarine. Serving as a senior non-commissioned officer within U-boats from 1937, he received promotion to officer one year later. By October 1940, he was transferred to Dnitzs operational staff where he remained until 1944 and his return to sea as commander-in-training aboard Karl Boddenbergs U963 ; their single war patrol together aborted due to the D-Day landings. Klusmeier had then returned to shore and wrote the operating manual for the newly developed and technologically advanced Type XXIII U-boat expected to shortly enter service, Klusmeier volunteering to take one to sea as commander and prove his theoretical instructions correct. Circumstances prevented active operations until, on 1 May, U2336 finally slipped from Larvik bound for the British east coast.

A little before 11 oclock, the first of two fired torpedoes slammed into the Avondale Park s laden hull. The ships 17-year-old cabin deck boy Sydney Rapley later recalled the unexpected attack: We had come down through the Pentland Firth and on the evening of May 7 I took the helmsman a cup of cocoa and biscuits. I went The stricken ship began to go down; Chief Engineer Anderson and Donkeyman William Harvey were both killed after being trapped below decks while on engine room watch. Captain Cushnie and 35 other survivors abandoned ship and were rescued by HMT Valse (T-151) and Leicester City (FY-223). Fearing a mine strike and to avoid collision with the sinking Canadian vessel, Captain Lgland swung Sneland I to port when the second torpedo struck the starboard side near No. 2 hatch. Fatally holed, the ship was gone within two minutes, taking Lgland and six others to the bottom and leaving 22 survivors to be rescued. Avondale Park took longer to sink, finally going down on an even keel in 51 metres of water, thereby becoming the last vessel to be destroyed by aggressive U-boat action of the Second World War.