The U-Boats that Survived - The
Whole Story
This
is the story of the German U-Boats which surrendered at the end of WW2, as well
as those captured, interned, and raised afterwards.
by Derek Waller
Introduction
There are still four ex-Kriegsmarine
WW2 U-Boats in existence today (but all only as museum exhibits):
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Germany
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USA
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U-505 (Chicago)
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UK
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U-534 (Liverpool)
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However, at various times since the end
of WW2, there have been considerably more. The stark official war statistics give
the impression that 8 May 1945 marked the formal end of all the U-Boats, but
this was not so. The purpose of this paper (which is an update of one written
by the author in 1969 and published in the INRO Journal "Warship
International" in June 1970) is therefore to provide a comprehensive
record of all the German-built and German-commissioned U-Boats which
surrendered at the end of the war, or were interned and captured during the
war, or which have been raised since, and which were either used or scrapped
after being raised.
A total of 156 U-Boats surrendered to
the Allies at the end of the war in Europe in May 1945. Of these, 155 were
German-built U-Boats and one was a Dutch submarine used by the Germans (UD-5).
When the war with Japan ended in August 1945, seven of the Imperial Japanese
Navy's submarines which surrendered were either ex-German-built or
German-commissioned U-Boats. Also, two U-Boats were captured during the war: U-505 by the US Navy and U-570 by the Royal Navy.
The U-Boats which surrendered included U-1406 and U-1407, which were advanced
design Type XVIIB hydrogen peroxide-powered U-Boats which had surrendered in
Cuxhaven on 5 May 1945, but which were then scuttled in Cuxhaven harbour on 7
May 1945. As these two were raised in June 1945, they were included with all
the other U-Boats which had surrendered when decisions were made about the
ultimate fate of the Kriegsmarine’s U-Boat fleet.
Planning
for German Naval Disarmament
UK plans for German naval disarmament
were initially formulated in 1942 and 1943, and one of the highest priorities was
the objective of ensuring the total elimination of the Kriegsmarine at the end
of the war. It was assumed that Britain would occupy the north west zone in any
division of Germany, and that the Royal Navy would become responsible for the
main German naval bases. Thus the RN intended that, at the cessation of
hostilities, all surviving German U-Boats would quickly be moved to the UK
prior to their destruction. However, Allied agreement was necessary before any
final decisions were taken.
Despite this, the RN pressed ahead in
the first half of 1944 with detailed planning for the post-war transfer of all
the surviving German U-Boats to British ports. It was intended that the U-Boats
would be moved to the naval port at Lisahally in Lough Foyle in Northern Ireland
and to the naval anchorage in Loch Ryan in south-west Scotland, prior to the UK
seeking Allied agreement for the wholesale scrapping or sinking of the U-Boats
as early as possible after hostilities ended.
The
Surrender Process
On 4 May 1945 the Kriegsmarine had
ordered all U-Boats to cease operations and return to Norwegian ports.
Thereafter, the surrender of the U-Boats took place in two phases. First, there
was the surrender of all German armed forces in Holland, Denmark and northwest
Germany to Field Marshal Montgomery's 21st Army Group. This came into effect at
0800 hours on 5 May, and required all German forces to lay down their arms and
to surrender unconditionally, and it specifically included all naval ships.
Then there was the general German surrender
which came into effect on 9 May. This led, on 8 May, to the issue of the Allied
order that all U-Boats, including those in Norwegian and French ports, were to
surrender with effect from 0001 hours on 9 May. Those at sea were to head for
any one of a number of designated reception ports; the prime one of which
turned out in practice to be Loch Eriboll in the north west of Scotland.
Whilst 156 U-Boats surrendered to the
Allies on both sides of the Atlantic at the end of the war in Europe, initial
interest was focussed on those that were still at sea. A total of 49 U-Boats
put into Allied harbours or surrendered to Allied forces at sea on both sides
of the Atlantic. These were:
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Canada
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2
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USA
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5
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Argentina
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2
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Norway
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9
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Gibraltar
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2
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UK
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21
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Germany
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7
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Denmark
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1
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The last two U-Boats to surrender from
sea were U-530 (10 July) and U-977 (17 August) both of
which had sailed to Argentina, but which were then handed over to the USA.
Additionally, the captains and crew of
four of the U-Boats at sea on 8 May chose to scuttle their vessels rather than
to obey the surrender order:
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Scuttled in the
Elbe Estuary on 16 May
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Scuttled off
Nazare, Portugal on 20 May
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Scuttled off Amrum,
N Frisian Islands on 24 May
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Scuttled north west
of Porto, Portugal on 3 June
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Operation
Pledge
Operation Pledge covered the transfer
of the U-Boats which had surrendered in Europe in May 1945, either from sea or
in port, to the anchorages at Lisahally and Loch Ryan. In order to implement
Operation Pledge it was first necessary to organise suitable reception
arrangements, and these were set up in Loch Eriboll, which had no permanent RN
port facilities. The first U-Boat to surrender from sea arrived there on 10 May
and, between then and 18 May, a further 17 U-Boats arrived in Loch Eriboll.
None of these U-Boats spent long at
Loch Eriboll. Instead, they were moved quickly to Loch Alsh on the west coast
of Scotland, where the majority of the German crews were taken into captivity,
and from there the U-Boats were moved to Lisahally to await final disposal.
On 16 May, 15 U-Boats (U-278, U-294, U-295, U-312, U-313, U-318, U-363, U-427, U-481, U-668, U-716, U-968, U-992, U-997 and U-1165) had been sighted
off the north Norwegian coast whilst being moved to Trondheim from Narvik where
they had surrendered on 9 and 10 May. This Narvik group was intercepted on 17
May and, instead of being allowed to continue to Trondheim, was directed to
Loch Eriboll, arriving on 19 May. By midnight on 21 May, all had sailed for
Loch Alsh for onward movement to Lisahally.
Once the 15 U-Boats from Norway had
been processed at Loch Eriboll, the Operation Pledge reception organisation was
moved on 28 May to Scapa
Flow
in the Orkney Islands in order to process the remaining U-Boats that had
surrendered in Norwegian ports, and thus needed to be moved to either Lisahally
or Loch Ryan. The process was given added impetus because, as a consequence of
the withdrawal of U-Boats from the French Atlantic ports in mid-1944 as well as
the German Navy’s instruction on 4 May that all fully operational U-Boats in
German and Danish ports and waters should if possible proceed to Norway, by
mid-May the Norwegian ports were over-crowded with surrendered U-Boats. There
was an urgent need to clear the Norwegian ports, and on 24 May the Admiralty
ordered that all seaworthy U-Boats should be moved to the UK as soon as
possible.
The first group of 12 U-Boats (comprising
four from Horten and eight from Stavanger) arrived at Scapa Flow on 30 May and, after
processing, were sent to Lisahally and Loch Ryan. Between then and 5 June, a
further 52 U-Boats arrived from Norway at Scapa Flow, from where they were
transferred to either Lisahally or Loch Ryan.
As with the U-Boats which had been
processed in Loch Eriboll, the 64 which were processed at Scapa Flow only remained there
for a short time, although as Scapa Flow was a fully
constituted Royal Naval base, they did then not need to transit via Loch Alsh
to disembark German prisoners, but instead were moved directly to either
Lisahally (14) or Loch Ryan (50). The last group of U-Boats left Scapa Flow on 6 June, and the
Operation Pledge reception force was then disbanded.
After 5 June there were still 35
seaworthy surrendered U-Boats in Norwegian (10) and German (25) ports. In the
latter case, they were all located at Wilhelmshaven, having been transferred
there from the Danish and other north German ports where they had surrendered
in early May. These U-Boats were transferred directly to either Lisahally or
Loch Ryan during June 1945.
Finally, the two U-Boats that had
surrendered from sea in Gibraltar were transferred (U-485 to Loch Ryan and U-541 to Lisahally), as
were the three that had surrendered from sea in Portland in the south of
England (U-249 and U-776 to Loch Ryan, and U-1023 to Lisahally). Thus,
by the end of July 1945, 137 seaworthy U-Boats had been transferred to
Lisahally and Loch Ryan, and UD-5 had been returned to the Dutch Navy. The
U-Boat that had been interned in Spain since September 1943 (U-760) was moved to Loch
Ryan on 23 July, and then only 10 remained in Norwegian (7), German (2) and
French (1) harbours.
Although these 10 U-Boats had all
surrendered, they were unfit for transfer to the UK. The seven in Norway were U-310, U-315, U-324, U-926, U-995, U-1202 and U-4706. The two in Germany
were U-1406 and U-1407 which had been
raised in Cuxhaven on 1 June and moved to a shipyard in Kiel to await decisions
concerning their disposal. The one in France was U-510 which was in St.
Nazaire.
The ex-Dutch submarine UD-5, which had
surrendered in Bergen in May 1945 and then been transferred to Lisahally, was
handed back to the Dutch Navy at Dundee on 13 July 1945 and re-commissioned as
0-27 (which was its original designation before capture) on the same day. 0-27
was used by the Dutch Navy until 14 November 1959, when it was struck from the
active list and sold for scrap.
The
Potsdam Agreement
After the German surrender in May 1945,
discussions continued between the Allies concerning the final disposal of all
the surviving German naval vessels. Initially the USSR wanted to be allocated
one third of all the warships, including U-Boats, but the demand was reduced to
30 U-boats in July, eventually reducing to 10 in August. This decision was made
on 1 August when Molotov, the Soviet Foreign Minister, agreed to the retention
of just 30 U-Boats in total, to be divided equally between the UK, the USA and
the USSR. At one stage in the discussions it had been suggested that France
should be allocated a share of the surrendered German warships, including
U-Boats, but this was vetoed by the USSR.
The result of these high-level
political discussions was the publication of the "Proceedings"
(Minutes) of the Potsdam Heads of State Conference which took place in Berlin
between 17 July and 2 August 1945. In respect of the U-Boats, the Proceedings
say that the UK, the USA and the USSR concluded that:
The
larger part of the German submarine fleet shall be sunk. Not more than thirty
submarines shall be preserved and divided equally between the USSR, UK and USA
for experimental and technical purposes.
It was also stated that:
The
Three Governments agree to constitute a Tripartite Naval Commission to submit
agreed recommendations to the Three Governments for the allocation of specific
German warships and that The Three Governments agreed that transfers shall be
completed as soon as possible, but not later than 15 February 1946.
The
Tripartite Naval Commission
The task of the Tripartite Naval
Commission (TNC), which began its work on 15 August 1945, was to select the 30
U-Boats which were to be transferred to the Allies, and to make recommendations
concerning the disposal of the remainder. There was therefore a review of the
135 U-Boats moored in Loch Ryan and at Lisahally (by then U-2518 and U-3017 had been moved to
the USA in early August), as well as the (then) 11 U-Boats in the USA,
including the five that had surrendered in America, the two that had
surrendered in Canada, and the two that had surrendered in Argentina. Also
included in the review were the two Type XVIIB U-Boats (U-1406 and U-1407) in the shipyard at
Kiel.
The TNC's staff visited the UK, the
USA, Canada, Trinidad (to inspect the two U-Boats that had surrendered in
Argentina during their transfer to the USA), Germany and Norway, as well as
Poland and the USSR, in August, September and October 1945 and, after
inspecting the surrendered U-Boats, decided which should be recommended for
allocation, and therefore transfer, to each of the three Allies.
By 10 October all the U-Boats had been
reviewed, and the TNC formally announced which 10 U-Boats were to be allocated
to each of the UK, the USA and the USSR, and that the remainder of the
surviving German U-Boat fleet was to be destroyed. It was however accepted that
there should be a degree of flexibility, and that bi-lateral exchanges of
individual U-Boats could be made as desired. Thus, there are a number of
differences between the original lists of U-Boats allocated to each of the
three Allies and those that were finally implemented - which were as follows:
As a result of these allocations by the
TNC, of the 135 U-Boats in the UK, eight were allocated to the UK, one to the
USA and 10 to the USSR. This therefore left 116 U-Boats in Loch Ryan and at
Lisahally awaiting final disposal by the Royal Navy.
Similarly, of the 11 U-Boats in the
western Atlantic, eight were allocated to the USA, including the two which had
surrendered in Argentina (U-530 and U-977) and one of the two
which had surrendered in Canada (U-889). The other one
which had surrendered in Canada (U-190) was allocated to
the UK. There were then two unallocated U-Boats in the USA awaiting final
disposal (U-805 and U-1228).
Of the two Type XVIIB U-Boats that had
surrendered, then been scuttled, and then been raised in Cuxhaven, U-1406 was allocated to the
USA and U-1407 was allocated to the
UK.
The TNC also made a number of important
decisions relating to the remaining U-Boats that had surrendered. These
included the statements that All unallocated submarines should be destroyed and
that All unallocated submarines which are afloat shall be sunk in the open sea
in a depth of not less that one hundred metres by 15 February 1946. Thus, when
taken together with the decision of the Potsdam Conference that The Three
Governments agreed that transfers shall be completed as soon as possible, but
not later than 15 February 1946, it was clear that urgent action was required
in order to implement such decisions, especially in view of the onset of winter
and the prospects of stormy seas in the North Atlantic.
This action was aided by the fact that
the TNC made decisions at its various Progress Meetings, rather than waiting
for the Final Report which was not agreed and signed until 6 December 1945. For
instance, at the 13th Meeting of the Commission on 10 October the initial
U-Boat allocations were agreed, but a decision about the fate of the
unallocated U-Boats was deferred. This was taken at the 18th Meeting of the
Commission on 29 October, when 15 February 1946 was designated as the date by
which all unallocated U-Boats were to be sunk.
A number of prompt executive actions
were therefore necessary to implement these decisions, including the transfer
of the 10 U-Boats in the UK to the USSR (in Operation Cabal), and the sinking
of 116 unallocated U-Boats located in the UK, as well as the two located in the
USA.
This then left just eight surrendered
and unallocated U-Boats still afloat. These were the ones which were too
unseaworthy for transfer to the UK in Operation Pledge, and which therefore
remained in the European ports where they had surrendered. One was in France,
and seven were in Norway. However, the TNC had no direct jurisdiction over the
ultimate fate of these U-Boats, and its Final Report simply says that the three
Governments (UK, USA and USSR) "requested" that any U-Boats remaining
in other countries should be scrapped or sunk by 15 February 1946.
As far as France was concerned, and
despite the recommendation of the TNC, U-510 was repaired and
taken into use by the French Navy. In the case of Norway, whilst U-310, U-315, U-324 were scrapped as
requested, the TNC's recommendation was ignored in respect of the other four (U-926, U-995, U-1202 and U-4706), and there were
repaired and taken into use by the Norwegian Navy. These actions have given
rise to the belief that the U-Boats concerned were formally allocated to France
and Norway by the TNC. This was not so, and their retention was contrary to the
agreements made between the 3 Allied Governments - which had no formal
jurisdiction over France and Norway.
The Allied agreements had however also
been breached by the USSR which, contrary to its own commitments, failed to
destroy a number of uncompleted U-Boats which had been found in the shipyards
in Danzig and then been quietly and quickly moved to Libau in Latvia. There was
therefore no incentive for the UK and the USA to put pressure on France and
Norway to scrap the remaining surrendered, but unallocated, U-Boats located in
those two countries.
Operation
Deadlight
The Royal Navy's Operation Deadlight,
which was the executive action which led to the sinking of 116 German U-Boats
off Northern Ireland between 27 November 1945 and 12 February 1946, was the
culmination of the long-held determination of the British Government to ensure
the elimination of the German Navy's submarine fleet.
As these 116 U-Boats were to be
scuttled at sea, and because the imminent onset of winter and its associated rough
seas in the area to the north west of Loch Ryan and Lough Foyle would make the
towing and sinking of the U-Boats a hazardous task, it was decided that the
action should be initiated without delay. This would also achieve the deadline
of 15 February 1946 laid down by the TNC.
The RN Commander-in-Chief at Rosyth was
given the task of making the detailed arrangements for the disposal of the
remaining U-Boats. An initial planning meeting to determine the necessary
actions was held on 5 November, and the formal order for Operation Deadlight was issued on 14
November; it being defined as a plan for scuttling 110 U-Boats from Loch Ryan
(86) and Lisahally(24) in deep water off the north west coast of Ireland,
starting on 25 November.
The "error" in Annex A of the
Deadlight Operation Order, which listed only 110 U-Boats, has caused
considerable confusion ever since, despite the fact that the UK's 1946 Naval
Estimates (Cmd 7054) gave the correct figure of 116. The six U-Boats missing
from the Annex A list, which were all located at Lisahally, were U-975, U-1023, U-2351, U-2356, U-2502 and U-3514.
Of the 116 U-Boats, 86 were moored in
Loch Ryan and 30 were tied up to pontoons at Lisahally, and the individual
U-Boats which were sunk during Operation Deadlight were:
Ex-Loch Ryan (86)
U-143, U-145, U-149, U-150, U-155, U-170, U-218, U-245, U-249, U-255, U-281, U-291, U-293, U-295, U-298, U-299, U-312, U-313, U-318, U-328, U-368, U-369, U-427, U-481, U-483, U-485, U-532, U-539, U-637, U-680, U-716, U-720, U-739, U-760, U-773, U-775, U-776, U-778, U-779, U-806, U-826, U-868, U-907, U-928, U-956, U-968, U-978, U-991, U-992, U-994, U-997, U-1002, U-1004, U-1005, U-1009, U-1019, U-1052, U-1061, U-1102, U-1103, U-1104, U-1110, U-1163, U-1194, U-1198, U-1203, U-1230, U-1233, U-1271, U-1272, U-1301, U-1307, U-2321, U-2322, U-2324, U-2325, U-2328, U-2329, U-2334, U-2335, U-2337, U-2345, U-2350, U-2354, U-2361 and U-2363.
Ex-Lisahally (30)
U-244, U-278, U-294, U-363, U-516, U-541, U-668, U-764, U-802, U-825, U-861, U-874, U-875, U-883, U-901, U-930, U-975, U-1010, U-1022, U-1023, U-1109, U-1165, U-2336, U-2341, U-2351, U-2356, U-2502, U-2506, U-2511 and U-3514.
The aim, as set out in the 14 November
Operation Order, was that all the U-Boats should be towed (unmanned) to a
designated position 130 miles to the north west of Lough Foyle, where they
would then be sunk. The prime method was to be by demolition charges, however
if weather conditions allowed, 36 were to be sunk by RAF and Fleet Air Arm
aircraft, and others were to be sunk by RN submarines. If any of these methods
of disposal failed, then the U-Boats were to be sunk by gunfire.
The plan was to dispose of all the
U-Boats from Loch Ryan first, and then to deal with those from Lisahally. It
would take two days for the towed U-Boats to reach the designated scuttling
area. So, though the first sailing from Loch Ryan took place on 25 November,
the first sinkings (U-2322, U-2324, U-2328, U-2345 and U-2361) actually took place
on 27 November 1945.
As expected, the weather was
particularly bad in November and December 1945, and the planned disposal
arrangements did not work on the majority of occasions, especially as far as
the plans for sinking the U-Boats with demolition charges were concerned. There
were major problems with the towing of the unmanned, unmaintained and, in many
cases, almost unseaworthy U-Boats.
Comparison of the planned disposal
arrangements with what actually happened shows the scale of disruption wrought
by the weather. Only two of the U-Boats were sunk by demolition charges, only
seven by submarines and only 13 by aircraft. Of the remainder, some 50%
foundered under tow before they ever reached the designated scuttling area.
These either sunk directly or were sunk by gunfire, some of them in positions
very close to the entrances to Loch Ryan and Lough Foyle. As it turned out to
be far too dangerous to follow the demolition procedure, the remainder were
sunk by gunfire.
There were three distinct phases to
Operation Deadlight. The 86 U-Boats from Loch Ryan were sunk between 27
November and 30 December 1945, 28 of the U-Boats from Lisahally were sunk
between 29 December 1945 and 9 January 1946, and the remaining two U-Boats from
Lisahally (U-975 and U-3514) were sunk on 10 and
12 February 1946 respectively.
The sinking of the 116 U-Boats (which
included U-760) and the completion
of Operation
Deadlight
on 12 February 1946 thus marked the end of virtually all of the Kriegsmarine’s
surviving serviceable U-Boats which had surrendered at the end of WW2 in Europe.
The Allies had been allocated 30 for technical purposes (including the two
raised Type XVIIBs), one had been returned to Holland (UD-5), and two others (U-805 and U-1228) had been sunk off
the west coast of the USA in February 1946. Thus 148 of the 156 German U-Boats
which had surrendered had been disposed of and, with the exception of the eight
that remained in Norwegian (7) and French (1) ports, the long-held
determination of the British Government to ensure the elimination of the German
submarine fleet had been achieved.
USSR
There are several aspects to the
post-war history of U-Boats in the USSR, all of which stem from the fact that
when the war in Europe ended in May 1945, no U-Boats surrendered in the Baltic
ports controlled by the USSR; all serviceable U-Boats had been transferred to
the western end of the Baltic in the face of the Red Army's advance.
First, 11 uncompleted U-Boat hulls had
been captured in the local shipyards when the Red Army entered Danzig on 30
March 1945. These were then all towed to Libau, with the USSR maintaining that
they were simply submarine hulks and that they were therefore going to be
scrapped for the metal. Also, the USSR argued that, like U-505 which had been
captured by the US Navy during the war, these uncompleted U-Boats had been
captured during the war and that they were therefore outwith the jurisdiction
of the TNC.
Despite these assurances, it was
suggested that there was no need for any additional U-Boats to be transferred
to the USSR as part of the TNC allocation. Predictably, this was not well
received, and the TNC (by default) accepted the Soviet assurance that these
U-Boat hulls would be scrapped. Thus the 11 uncompleted U-Boats were listed in
the TNC's Final Report, being defined as unallocated submarines afloat and
therefore scheduled to be sunk not later than 15 February 1946.
This may have been the case with the
three Type VIICs (Hull Nos: G-146 (U-1174), G-148 (U-1176) and G-149 (U-1177)), but the remaining
eight (Hull Nos: G-1680 to G-1686 (U-3535 to U-3542)), which were all
Type XXI U-Boats, were not sunk or otherwise destroyed until later. All eight
were allocated Soviet Navy alfa-numeric designations but, despite this, there
is no evidence that they were ever used operationally. U-3535 to U-3539 were sunk off Cape
Ristna in Estonia in August 1947, and U-3540 to U-3542 were broken-up in
February 1948.
Second, the TNC allocated 10 U-Boats to
the USSR (U-1057, U-1058, U-1064, U-1231, U-1305, U-2353, U-2529, U-3035, U-3041 and U-3515), and the transfer
of these from the UK to the USSR in 1945/46 was code named Operation Cabal. It
involved their delivery by the Royal Navy from Lisahally to the
Soviet-controlled Baltic port of Libau in Latvia, and began on 24 November when
nine of the U-Boats (less U-3515) sailed from Moville
at the mouth of Lough Foyle. Five of these nine U-Boats made the transit under
their own power (U-1057, U-1058, U-1064, U-1305 and U-1231), and four (U-2353, U-2529, U-3035 and U-3041) were towed.
U-3515 was a late
substitute for U-3514, which had collided
with another U-Boat just before the transfer was due to start. The Soviet
Embassy in London therefore agreed that U-3515 should be transferred
instead; thus accounting for the latter's late sailing (under tow) on 6
December.
The five U-Boats which sailed under
their own power, but with escorts, had a relatively trouble-free journey to
Libau. However, it was a different matter for those that were under tow. The
four which set out on 24 November experienced bad weather on route, and all had
problems with their towing gear. Thus only seven of the U-Boats (U-1057, U-1058, U-1064, U-1231, U-1305, U-2353 and U-2529) arrived at Libau on
4 December. The remaining three (U-3041, U-3035 and U-3515) all suffered
considerable delays due to a combination of poor weather, technical defects and
the towing problems. U-3041 did not arrive in
Libau until 10 December, and U-3035 did not arrive until
14 December. Lastly, the transfer of U-3515 was beset with
problems, the final one of which was a delay in Rosyth Dockyard with "a
serious defect", the exact nature and cause of which is unclear, but
sabotage may have been involved. Because of this and more bad weather, the
departure of U-3515 from Rosyth was
delayed until 26 January, and it did not arrive in Libau until 2 February 1946.
These 10 U-boats were then used by the
Soviet Navy's South Baltic Fleet under a variety of alpha-numeric designations
until their own submarine designs made the German ones obsolete. In general,
these 10 U-Boats were used operationally until 1955, when they were placed in
reserve and employed on a variety of non-operational tasks. Five of them were
scrapped in the late 1950’s, but U-1231 was not broken-up
until January 1968, and U-2529 and U-1064 were not scrapped
until September 1972 and March 1974 respectively. U-1057 and U-1305 were not scrapped,
but instead sunk in nuclear bomb tests in 1957 and 1958.
Third, the TNC’s Final Report of 6 December
1945 highlighted a number of U-Boats that had been scuttled in
Soviet-controlled waters before the end of the war, and directed that they
should be destroyed. They included U-18 and U-24 which had been
scuttled at Constanza in the Black Sea. Despite this, U-18 and U-24 were raised, but it
is unlikely that they were put into service with the Soviet Navy, and they were
both sunk off Sevastopol by the Soviet submarine M-120 on 26 May 1947.
The Soviets also found a number of sunk
and damaged U-Boats in various Baltic ports (including U-4, U-10, U-21, U-108 and U-902), but none were put
into operational use before they were broken-up, mostly in-situ. Finally, the
Soviet Navy salvaged U-250 which had been sunk
in the Gulf of Finland in July 1944. On 25 September 1944 it was taken to
Kronstadt near Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and, though it was given the
designation TS-14, it was scrapped on 20 August 1945.
USA
In May 1945 five U-boats surrendered
from sea in the USA. These were:
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Surrendered on 19
May in Portsmouth Navy Yard, NH
|
|
|
Surrendered on 15
May in Portsmouth Navy Yard, NH
|
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|
Surrendered on 14
May at Fort Miles, Lewes, Delaware
|
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|
Surrendered on 16
May in Portsmouth Navy Yard, NH
|
|
|
Surrendered on 17
May in Portsmouth Navy Yard, NH
|
Additionally, two of the U-Boats that
had been transferred from Norwegian and German ports by the Royal Navy to
Lisahally in Operation Pledge to await decisions about their final disposal,
were quickly handed over to the US Navy. These were U-2513, which had
surrendered on 9 May in Norway, and U-3008, which had
surrendered from sea in Germany on 21 May. They were taken over by the USN on
30 July, and sailed for the USA on 6 August. The Atlantic crossing was made on
the surface, and in company with a US Navy tug. On 16 August both U-Boats
diverted into the Argentia US Naval Base in Newfoundland, Canada, U-3008 for rudder repairs
and U-2513 to land two sick
crewmen. On 20 August they departed Argentia, and arrived at the US Navy
Submarine Base at Groton, New London on 22 August. They were then moved from Groton
to the Portsmouth Navy Yard, with U-2513 arriving on 5
September, and U-3008 on 14 September.
U-1406, which was a Type
XVIIB hydrogen peroxide-powered U-Boat, had surrendered in Cuxhaven on 5 May
and then, in contravention of the Surrender Agreement, had been scuttled in
Cuxhaven harbour on 7 May. It was raised on 1 July and towed to the
Howaldt-Werke shipyard in Kiel. On 14 September it was loaded onto the US
freighter SS Shoemaker and transported to the Portsmouth Navy Yard as deck
cargo, arriving there on 11 October 1945.
The two U-Boats that surrendered from
sea in Argentina, U-530 which had
surrendered on 10 July and U-977 which had
surrendered on 17 August, were both taken to the USA in September 1945. U-977 was taken over by a
US Navy crew and, after having to repair the engines whilst at sea, it arrived
at the US Navy Yard in Boston on 13 November. Similarly, U-530 was towed, with a US
Navy crew on board, to the US Navy Yard at Boston. On their journey north, both
U-Boats called at Rio de Janeiro, where they were inspected by the President of
Brazil, and they then called at Trinidad, where they were inspected by the
Tripartite Naval Board for the Western Hemisphere on 3 October.
The result of the TNC's review was that
U-234, U-530, U-858, U-873, U-889, U-977, U-1105, U-1406, U-2513 and U-3008, eight of which were
already in the possession of the US Navy, and one of which (U-889) was located in
Canada, were formally allocated to the USA for use by the US Navy. Thus only
one more U-Boat needed to be moved across the Atlantic. This was U-1105, which had been
transferred from Lisahally to the UK Royal Navy Submarine Base at Gosport on
the south coast of England on 5 August. It was handed over to the US Navy on 15
December, left Gosport on 19 December 1945, and arrived at the US Navy Yard in
Portsmouth, NH on 2 January 1946. U-889 was transferred from
Canada to the USA on 10 January 1946, arriving at the Portsmouth Navy Yard on
11 January.
Of the 11 U-Boats located in the
western Atlantic area, the two which were deemed by the TNC to be in the
poorest condition (U-805 and U-1228) were declared
surplus to requirements and, as a result and in accordance with the agreed
disposal agreement, they were scuttled by the US Navy off Cape Cod (U-805 on 8 February 1946
and U-1228 on 5 February 1946).
The 10 U-Boats which had been allocated
to the USA were used for a variety of purposes by the US Navy in the late
1940s, during which time the US President Harry Truman even went to sea in U-2513 on 21 November 1946.
They were then disposed of as follows:
|
Sunk on 20 Nov 1947
by US S/M Greenfish off Cape Cod.
|
|
|
Sunk on 20 Nov 1947
by US S/M Toro off Cape Cod.
|
|
|
Sunk on 20 Nov 1947
by US S/M off Cape Cod.
|
|
|
Sold for scrap in
New York on 10 Mar 1948. Broken up in 1948.
|
|
|
Sunk on 20 Nov 1947
by a US S/M off Cape Cod.
|
|
|
Sunk on 13 Nov 1946
by US S/M Atule off Cape Cod.
|
|
|
Decommissioned on
11 February 1946. Sunk on 18 Nov 1948 after demolition tests in Chesapeake
Bay. Raised in July/August 1949, and sunk again on 21 December 1949 at the
mouth of the Potomac River.
|
|
|
Decommissioned in
July 1949 at Portsmouth, NH. Moved to Key West, FL in 1951 for use as a
target for surface warship trials, and sunk on 7 Oct 1951 off Key West by
destroyer USS Robert A Owens.
|
|
|
Decommissioned on
18 June 1948 at Portsmouth Navy Yard, NH. Technical tests and trials were
carried out until 1952. It was scuttled in a series of demolition tests in
May 1954. The hulk was then raised and towed to the US Navy dry dock at
Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico where it was sold for scrap to Loudes Iron &
Metal Co on 15 September 1955. Loudes took possession of it on 17 January
1956, and it was subsequently broken up in Puerto Rico in 1956.
|
UK
Of the 10 U-boats allocated to the UK
by the TNC, eight were at Lisahally, one was in Barrow-in-Furness and one was
in Canada. The latter (U-190), which had
surrendered from sea in Bay Bulls, Newfoundland, was then given to the Royal
Canadian Navy, and two others (U-2326 and U-2518) were transferred to
France.
Of the remaining seven U-boats
allocated to the UK one, U-1407, which had
surrendered in Cuxhaven on 5 May and then been scuttled in Cuxhaven harbour on
7 May, but raised on 1 June and taken to Kiel, was towed from Kiel to the
Vickers Shipbuilding Yard in Barrow, where it was refitted with a complete set
of new machinery (captured in Germany). It was commissioned into the Royal Navy
on 25 September 1945 as HMS Meteorite.
The seven U-boats were used for a
variety of trial and experimental purposes by the Royal Navy between 1946 and
1948 before being sold for scrap in 1949, as follows:
|
Arrived at the
Thomas Ward shipyard at Hayle, Cornwall on 28 June 1949, and broken up during
1950.
|
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|
Broken up by
Clayton and Davie ship-breakers at Dunston on the River Tyne in June, 1949.
|
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|
Arrived at the
Thomas Ward shipyard at Briton Ferry, Glamorgan, S Wales on 12 May 1949, and
broken up during 1949.
|
|
|
Sold for scrap to
Thomas Young’s shipyard, Sunderland in April 1949.
|
|
|
Broken up by Thomas
Ward Ltd in the Vickers Yard at Barrow, in December 1949.
|
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Sold for scrap to
John Leigh and Co, Belfast in April 1949.
|
|
|
Broken up by J Cashmore
and Co in Newport, S Wales in late 1949.
|
Some 50 years later another U-Boat came
to the UK. This was U-534, which had been sunk
in an air attack in the Baltic east of Anholt Island on 5 May 1945. It was
located by divers in 1986, and raised on 23 August 1993. It was first taken to
Hirtshals in northern Denmark, and then it was transported to Liverpool where
it arrived on 30 May 1996. The intention was to renovate U-534 and display it in
the Maritime Museum at Birkenhead. However this was not possible for financial
reasons and, instead, the U-Boat was cut into 4 separate sections and is now on
public display at the Woodside Ferry Terminal at Birkenhead, near Liverpool.
Japan
At the time of the German surrender in
Europe in May 1945, there were six U-Boats in the Far East, all of which were
then taken over by the Japan and commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy
(IJN).
|
surrendered in
Singapore on 5 May and became I-501
|
|
|
surrendered in
Surabaya, Java on 5 May and became I-506
|
|
|
surrendered in
Batavia, Java on 5 May and became I-505
|
|
|
surrendered in
Singapore on 5 May and became I-502
|
|
|
U-IT-24
|
surrendered in
Kobe, Japan on 9 May and became I-503
|
|
U-IT-25
|
surrendered in
Kobe, Japan on 9 May and became I-504
|
Additionally, U-511 was already in
service with the IJN, having been one of two U-Boats gifted from Germany to
Japan during the war. It was handed over to the IJN in Penang on 20 July 1943
before being moved, with Japanese liaison staff on board, to Kure, Japan where
it arrived on 7 August. It was commissioned as RO-500 on 16 September 1943, and
then used by the IJN for training purposes, first at Kure and then at the Otake
submarine school and the Maizuru Naval Base. On 15 August 1945, rather than
surrendering immediately, RO-500's crew decided to join the fight against the
USSR, and it departed from Maizuru on 18 August. However, the C-in-C of the IJN
submarine force learned about this and instructed RO-500 to return to Maizuru
on the same day.
On 26 July 1945, the USA, UK and China
had released the Potsdam Declaration announcing their proposed terms for
Japan's surrender, which included the statement that: The Japanese military
forces shall be completely disarmed. After the Japanese surrender on 15 August,
and in order to implement this policy, the US Government's "Post-Surrender
Policy for Japan" included the statements that: Japan's ground, air and
naval forces shall be disarmed and disbanded and Naval vessels shall be
surrendered and shall be disposed of as required by the Supreme Commander. As a
result, all IJN submarines which surrendered were to be demolished, scuttled,
or otherwise destroyed.
The seven ex-U-boats flying the
Japanese flag which surrendered to the Allies in August 1945 were:
|
U-181
(I-501) |
Taken over by the
IJN at Seletar Naval Base, Singapore and commissioned as I-501, with the
intention of using it for operations. However, other than some short crew
training sorties, this did not prove possible before it surrendered at
Seletar on 16 August 1945, and was captured there by the Royal Navy in
September 1945. On 15 February 1946 it was towed by HM Tug Assiduous to the
Straits of Malacca, off Singapore, where it was scuttled by the frigate HMS
Loch Glendhu.
|
|
U-195
(I-506) |
Taken over by the
IJN in Surabaya, Java and commissioned into the IJN as I-506. Because of a
lack of Japanese crew, it never left its moorings. It surrendered in Surabaya
in August 1945, and for a time its diesel engines were used to provide
electricity for the city. It was scuttled by the Royal Navy in the Bali Sea,
east of Kangean Island, on 15 February 1946.
|
|
U-219
(I-505) |
Taken over by the
IJN in Batavia (now Jakarta), Java and moved to Surabaya for servicing and to
be commissioned into the IJN as I-505. It then returned to Batavia where it
surrendered in August 1945. It was sunk by gunfire from the Royal Netherlands
Navy destroyer HNMS Kortenaer (ex-HMS Scorpion) south of the Sunda Strait,
between Java and Sumatra, on 3 February 1946.
|
|
U-511
(RO-500) |
Surrendered to US
forces at Maizuru, Japan, on 18 August 1945. Sunk by the USN in Wakasa Bay
near Maizuru in the Sea of Japan on 30 April 1946.
|
|
U-862
(I-502) |
Taken over by the
IJN at Seletar Naval Base, Singapore and commissioned as I-502 with the
intention of using it for operations. However, other than some short crew
training sorties, this did not prove possible before it surrendered at
Seletar on 16 August 1945, where it was captured by the Royal Navy in
September 1945. On 15 February 1946 it was towed into the Straits of Malacca,
off Singapore, by HM Tug Growler and scuttled there by the frigate HMS Loch
Lomand.
|
|
U-IT-24
(I-503) |
This ex-Italian
submarine (Commandante Cappellini) which had been captured by the IJN at
Singapore on 10 September 1943, and then handed over to the Kriegsmarine on
22 October 1943, was itself captured whilst being overhauled in dock at Kobe
after the German surrender, and then taken over by the IJN. Though it was
commissioned into the IJN as I-503 it took no part in operations. It was
captured in the Mitsubishi Shipyard, Kobe by US forces on 2 September 1945,
and subsequently sunk by the USN on 16 April 1946 in the Kii Suido between
the Japanese islands of Honshu and Shikolu.
|
|
U-IT-25
(I-504) |
This ex-Italian
submarine (Luigi Torelli) which had been captured by the IJN at Singapore on
10 September 1943, and then handed over to the Kriegsmarine on 22 October
1943, was itself captured in Kobe after the German surrender, and then taken
over by the IJN. Though it was commissioned into the IJN as I-504 it was
undergoing an overhaul at the time and took no part in operations. It was
captured at the Kawasaki Shipyard, Kobe by US forces on 2 September 1945, and
subsequently sunk on 16 April 1946 by the USN in the Kii Suido.
|
Norway
After the completion of Operation
Pledge, there were seven U-Boats in Norway which, although they had
surrendered, had been found to be too unseaworthy to be transferred to the UK.
They were U-310, U-315, U-324, U-926, U-995, U-1202 and U-4706. However, the TNC
had no direct jurisdiction over the ultimate fate of these U-Boats, and its
Final Report simply “requested” that any U-Boats remaining in other countries [including
Norway] should be scrapped or sunk by 15 February 1946.
There were also seven other
decommissioned/damaged (war loss) U-boats in Norwegian harbours (U-92, U-228, U-256, U-437, U-622, U-985 and U-993), and the TNC's
Final Report specified that all 14 of these U-Boats should be scrapped or sunk
by 15 February 1946. The latter seven were scrapped as requested, and U-310, U-315 and U-324 were scrapped in
March 1947 when it was found that they would be too costly to renovate.
However, Norway chose to ignore the TNC in the case of the other four, and thus
U-926, U-995, U-1202 and U-4706 were repaired and
taken over by the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1948 with a view to their future use.
One of the U-Boats which had been
repaired (U-4706 which had been
renamed Knerten), was found to be unsuitable for use, and it was sold to the
Royal Norwegian Yacht Club on 14 April 1950 for use as a storeroom, before
being scrapped in 1954. In contrast, the other three were commissioned into the
RNoN: U-926 as Kia on 10 January
1949, U-995 as Kaura on 1
December 1952, and U-1202 as Kinn on 1 July
1951.
After use by the RNoN for 10 or more
years, these three ex-U-boats were disposed of as follows:
|
Decommissioned in
March 1964, and scrapped in West Germany
|
|
|
Decommissioned on
15 December 1962, and sold to the German Navy Association in October 1965 for
the symbolic price of one Deutsche Mark. On 2 October 1971 it became a museum
ship at the Laboe Naval Memorial near Kiel, where it remains on display.
|
|
|
Decommissioned on 1
June 1961, and scrapped at Hamburg in 1963.
|
Canada
The two U-Boats that surrendered from
sea in Canada were U-190, which had
surrendered on 14 May in Bay Bulls, Newfoundland, and U-889 which had
surrendered on 13 May in Shelburne, Nova Scotia.
Of these, U-889 was moved to
Halifax, Nova Scotia on 15 May but, after trials with the Royal Canadian Navy,
it was then allocated to the USA as part of the Tripartite agreement. However,
whereas when U-889 was inspected by the
Tripartite Naval Board in September 1945, it was found to be fully operable, it
was in a non-operational condition when transferred to the US Navy in January
1946.
U-190, which had been
allocated to the UK and then gifted to Canada, was moved to Halifax on 25 May
and remained in Canada with the RCN. Its first task in summer 1945 was to
undertake a publicity tour of the ports and communities along the St Lawrence
River and in the Gulf of St Lawrence and thereafter, operating out of Halifax,
it was used as an anti-submarine training vessel. U-190 was paid-off on 24
July 1947, and on 21 October 1947 (Trafalgar Day) it was towed to the spot
where, on 16 April 1945, it had torpedoed and sunk the minesweeper HMCS
Esquimalt. The ceremonial sinking was designed as a publicity event involving a
joint air and sea assault, however U-190 sank less than 20
minutes after the start of the operation, and before the surface forces could
get involved.
Argentina
The two U-Boats which surrendered from
sea in Argentina were U-530 which surrendered on
10 July 1945 in Mar del Plata, and U-977 which surrendered on
17 August 1945, also in Mar del Plata. They had chosen to "escape" to
Argentina rather than to obey the Allied surrender instructions, and the crews
were therefore surprised when they and their U-Boats were handed over to the US
authorities very soon after they arrived in Mar del Plata. On 28 July U-530 was towed from Mar
del Plata to the Rio Santiago Naval Base at Ensenada, near Buenos Aires,
arriving on 29 July. The two U-Boats were subsequently allocated to the USA by
the TNC.
France
In the course of the debates which led
to the Potsdam Agreement, the UK had suggested that a share of the German fleet
should be allocated to France, but this was vetoed in July 1945 by the USSR
when it was made clear that a four-way division to include France was
unacceptable. Indeed, during the same debates, the French Navy had indicated
informally that it was anxious to obtain the 16 partially completed U-Boats
found in the Deschimag AG -Weser shipyard in Bremen. However, this suggestion
also failed to gain Allied support. Thus the French Navy gained no advantage
from the Tripartite division of the German surface fleet, and were allocated no
U-Boats by the TNC.
The only U-boat that surrendered afloat
in France on 9 May 1945 (U-510) was unseaworthy,
and it therefore remained in St Nazaire rather than being moved to the UK and
sunk in Operation Deadlight. However, whilst U-510 was specifically
earmarked to be sunk by 15 February 1946 in the TNC's Final Report of 6
December 1945, the TNC had no direct jurisdiction over France, which decided
not to follow the recommendation. Instead, U-510 was repaired and
commissioned as Bouan on 24 June 1947. It served with the French Navy until it
was taken out of service on 1 May 1959. The TNC's Final Report also listed four
decommissioned/sunk (war loss) U-boats in French harbours (U-178, U-188, U-466 and U-967), and these were all
destroyed by France. There were also 10 other such U-Boats which were not
mentioned in the TNC’s Final Report, and it was three of these (U-123, U-471 and U-766) which were
subsequently raised and/or refitted and taken over by the French Navy.
The UK decided that it did not need all
of the 10 U-Boats that it had been allocated by the TNC, and so the Royal Navy
agreed that one of its Type XXIII U-Boats (U-2326) and one of its Type
XXI U-Boats (U-2518) would be
transferred on a 2-year loan to the French Navy. The transfer of the two
U-Boats from the Royal Navy to the French Navy, which was code-named
"Operation Thankful" involved their move from Lisahally on 5 February
1946, and ended with their handover in Cherbourg on 13 February 1946.
Of these two, U-2326 was used by the
French Navy for schnorkel trials, but was lost with all hands on 6 December
1946 when it failed to surface after a deep diving test off Toulon. The other
boat, U-2518, remained in France
after the 2-year loan period expired, and was commissioned into the French Navy
as Roland Morillet on 9 April 1951. It was used operationally until 15 April
1967, when it was placed in reserve. It was decommissioned on 12 October 1967
and sold to ship breakers in La Spezia, Italy for scrapping on 21 May 1969.
The three damaged and decommissioned
U-boats repaired and recommissioned by the French Navy were U-123 which had been paid
off and abandoned at Lorient in August 1944, U-471 which had been sunk
in an air raid on Toulon in August 1944, and U-766 which had also been
paid off and abandoned at La Pallice in August 1944. These three U-boats were
given the French names Blaison, Mille and Laubie respectively, and served for
many years in the French Navy. Blaison (U-123) was placed in
reserve in August 1957 before being paid-off on 18 August 1959, Mille (U-471) was withdrawn from
service on 9 July 1963, and Laubie (U-766) was decommissioned
in 1961 after being seriously damaged in the third collision of its career. It
was paid-off on 11 March 1963 and scrapped on 17 October 1962.
During the war, two incomplete French
submarines, Africaine and Astree, had been taken over by the Germans in June
1940 but, although they were given the designations UF-l and UF-3 respectively
on 5 May 1941, they were never completed and commissioned into the
Kriegsmarine. After the war, the French resumed the construction of these two
submarines, and they were commissioned into the French Navy. Africaine was launched
on 7 December 1946, withdrawn from service on 1 July 1961, and scrapped on 28
February 1963. Astree was commissioned in October 1949, withdrawn from service
in 1962, and scrapped on 27 November 1965.
West
Germany
The then West Germany raised and put
into service three U-boats which had been scuttled by their crews at the end of
the war.
U-2365 had been scuttled in
the Baltic north west of Anholt Island on 8 May 1945 and was raised in June
1956. It was commissioned into the W German Navy on 15 August 1957 as Hai
(S-170), and used for training until 14 September 1966 when it was lost in the
North Sea, off Heligoland, near the Dogger Bank in a marine accident. It was
raised a week later (on 19 September), but was decommissioned on 24 September,
and scrapped at Emden in 1968.
U-2367 had been scuttled in
the Baltic south east of Schleimunde on 9 May 1945 and was raised in August
1956. It was commissioned into the W German Navy on 1 October 1957 as Hecht (S-171). It was
decommissioned on 30 September 1968 at Kiel, and scrapped there in 1969.
U-2540 had been scuttled
near Flensburg on 4 May 1945 and was raised in June 1957. It was rebuilt at
Kiel, and commissioned into the W German Navy as a research vessel on 1
September 1960. It was decommissioned on 28 August 1968 for engineering work,
and recommissioned again in May 1970 as Wilhelm Bauer and then used for
experimental purposes. It was damaged in an under-water collision with a
destroyer on 6 May 1980, taken out of use on 18 November 1980, and finally
retired on 15 March 1982. It was then acquired by the German Maritime Museum at
Bremerhaven and has been on display there since 27 April 1984.
East
Germany
The then East Germany raised two
U-boats, but did not commission either into service. A Type VIIC U-Boat (U-1308) which had been
scuttled by its crew on 1 May 1945 was raised off Warnemunde in February 1953.
In November 1953 it was taken to Stralsund in the Baltic, but it was found to
be beyond repair and was broken up in early 1955. The other was a Type XXIII (U-2344) which had been sunk
in the Baltic off Heiligenhaven on 18 February 1945 after a collision with U-2336. It was raised on 22
January 1955 for intended use as an anti-submarine warfare training target.
However, although U-2344 was taken to Rostock
for refit, it was found to be beyond repair, and was broken up in 1958.
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia raised, commissioned and
operated U-IT-19 (ex- Italian Nautilo) under the name of P-802 Sava. U-IT-19
was one of the Italian submarines captured (intact) by the Germans in Pola
after the Italian surrender in September 1943, but it was not commissioned into
the Kriegsmarine. It was sunk in Pola during a USAAF air attack on 9 January
1944, but in 1947 it was raised and repaired by Yugoslavia and taken into
service with the Yugoslav Navy until 1968, and finally broken up in 1971. There
were reports in the 1950’s that U-81, which had been sunk
in Pola on the same day as U-IT-19, had also been raised and put into service
with the Yugoslav Navy. However, these reports were not confirmed, and it is
most likely that it was just raised and scrapped as beyond repair.
Spain
Two U-boats were interned in Spain
during the War. One was U-760 which had initially
been interned in Vigo in northern Spain, before being moved to El Ferrol, near
Corunna, where it remained until July 1945. U-760 was then handed over
to the Allies, moved to Loch Ryan, and then sunk in Operation Deadlight. The
other was U-573 which had been
interned in Cartagena in south east Spain after being badly damaged by air
attack north west of Algiers on 1 May 1942. This U-Boat was decommissioned by
the Kriegsmarine on 2 August 1942, but then purchased by Spain in 1943. After
repair, it was commissioned into the Spanish Navy on 15 November 1947 as the
Spanish submarine G-7. On 15 June 1960 it was re-designated as S-01 and served
in the Spanish Navy until it was decommissioned on 2 May 1970 before being
broken up for scrap. Additionally, U-167, which was sunk near
the Canary Islands on 6 April 1943, was raised by the Spanish Navy in 1951, but
was scrapped as being of no further use.
Italy
Other than U-IT-24 (ex-Commandante
Cappellini) and U-IT-25 (ex-Luigi Torelli) which surrendered under the Japanese
flag (see above), whilst Italy was responsible for raising several of the
sunken Italian U-IT submarines during the clearance of the Italian harbours
after 1945, only one U-Boat (U-IT-7) was found to be of any further substantive
use. U- IT-7 (originally Bario) had been captured by the Germans in an
unfinished state at Monfalcone on 9 September 1943. However, whilst it was
launched on 23 January 1944, it was damaged at Monfalcone during an air raid on
16 March 1945 and scuttled on 1 May 1945. Whilst it was raised later in 1945,
it was not until 1953 that it was taken in hand for reconstruction and
modernization. It was relaunched as Bario on 21 June 1959, had its name changed
to Pietro Calvi and commissioned into the Italian Navy on 16 December 1961. It
was then used for training until it was laid up in 1971, and it was finally
discarded in April 1973.
Additionally, two 92-ton midget
submarines which had been allocated U-IT numbers, but which were never used by
the Kriegsmarine, were in evidence post-May 1945. The first of these was
U-IT-17 (ex-CM1) which had been captured by the Germans in Monfalcone on 9
September 1943. It was transferred to the Italian Fascist Navy and completed on
4 January 1945. Thereafter it was taken over by a partisan crew and moved south
to re-join the R Italian Navy in April 1945. It was discarded on 1 February
1948, and then broken up.
The second one was U-IT-18 (ex-CM2)
which had been captured by the Germans in an unfinished state at Monfalcone on
9 September 1943. It was never completed, and was damaged on its slipway in a
USAAF air raid on 25 May 1944. It was scuttled on 1 May 1945, but then
refloated in October 1950. In 1951 it was transferred to the Naval Museum at
Trieste in 1951 - where it was on display for several years.
Sweden
On 5 May 1945 whilst in transit from
the Baltic to Norway, U-3503 was damaged during
an attack by RAF aircraft in the Kattegat. As a result, it took refuge in
Swedish territorial waters and entered Vinga on 6 May. On the evening of 8 May,
the U-Boat began to sink (probably scuttled by the crew), eventually sinking in
the Gothenburg Skerries in 8/9 fathoms of water. Despite this, it was listed by
the TNC as having sunk in shallow water in the British Zone of north Germany.
In early 1946 the Swedish Government therefore asked the TNC for permission to
raise and scrap U-3503. This request was
granted, and the retrieval operation started on 3 May. The U-Boat was raised on
24 August and moved to Gothenburg where it was docked on 27 August. It was then
made watertight and transferred to the Nya Varvet Swedish Navy Yard in
Gothenburg for investigation and dismantling, finally being totally scrapped by
July 1947.
The Two
U-Boats that were Captured
U-570, which was captured
by UK forces on 27 August 1941, was renamed HMS Graph on 29 September 1941, and
used operationally by the RN during 1942 and 1943. It was placed in reserve in
February 1944, and then sent to the scrap yard in March 1944. However, while on
the way to the scrap yard on 20 March it was wrecked on the Island of Islay off
the west coast of Scotland after breaking adrift from the tow during a storm.
The U-Boat that had been captured by
the USA was U-505, which had been
forced to the surface on 4 June 1944 by a US Navy escort carrier task group 150
miles off the west coast of Africa. U-505 was then towed to
the Port Royal Bay US Navy Base in Bermuda for technical examination. U-505 was kept in Bermuda
for the remainder of the war and, because of the security imperative to
maintain the illusion that she had been sunk rather than captured, it was
temporarily renamed as USS Nemo. After the war, U-505 was moved to the US
Navy Yard at Portsmouth, NH for use in gunnery and torpedo target practice.
However this proposed fate came to the attention of Admiral Gallery (who had
commanded the carrier USS Guadalcanal when U-505 was captured), and
through his initiative the U-Boat was eventually donated by the US Government
to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, being dedicated as a permanent
exhibit and war memorial on 25 September 1955 - where it remains on display.
The
Remaining Unserviceable U-Boats
When the war ended there were many
U-boats in or near French, Norwegian, and German harbours (especially the
latter) which had been damaged, decommissioned, destroyed, scrapped or scuttled
during the course of the war. Others had not been completed in the German
shipyards where they were being built or assembled. These U-boats had to be
cleared from these harbours, and either broken up for scrap metal or sunk in
deep water and, as a result of this clearance process, there have been many
reports that U-Boats other than those specifically mentioned above have been
raised since 1945. However, no significant historical fact is ignored by
discounting them.
Conclusion
156 Kriegsmarine U-Boats surrendered at
the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, and seven ex-U-Boats in service with
the IJN surrendered at the end of the war in the Far East. Today only one of
those U-Boats still survives (U-995) where it is on
display at Laboe, near Kiel. There are three others in museums. U-505, which was captured
by the USN in 1944, and U-534 and U-2540, both of which were
raised after the war.
All the others have either been sunk or
scrapped, the main element of which was in Operation Deadlight when, between
November 1945 and February 1946, the Royal Navy sunk/scuttled 116 U-boats in
the North Atlantic to the north west of Northern Ireland. After the war, 30
U-Boats were allocated equally between the UK, the USA and the USSR, where they
were used for various testing and experimental purposes before being sunk or
scrapped.
An important point of this article has
been to show that, despite the generally successfully accomplished British aim
of ensuring the early and total destruction of all the U-Boats, a limited
number remained operational for several years after the end of the war in a
variety of Navies. Indeed, it was not until 1970 that U-573 was retired after
service with the Spanish Navy, and it was not until 1971 that the last of them
(U-IT-7) was retired from the Italian Navy.
Footnote
I have recently written a series of detailed articles explaining various elements of the story of the U-Boats which surrendered, all of which have been published on the website uboat.net, as has my original (1970) INRO article. They are:
I have recently written a series of detailed articles explaining various elements of the story of the U-Boats which surrendered, all of which have been published on the website uboat.net, as has my original (1970) INRO article. They are:
This article was published on 10 Jan 2011.
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