German submarine fleet during World War II

In this article you will learn:

The submarine fleet of the Third Reich has its own interesting history.

Germany's defeat in the war of 1914-1918 brought it a ban on the construction of submarines, but after Adolf Hitler came to power, it radically changed the arms situation in Germany.

Creation of the Navy

In 1935, Germany signed a naval agreement with Great Britain, which resulted in the submarines being recognized as obsolete weapons, and thus Germany receiving permission to build them.

All submarines were subordinate to the Kriegsmarine - the Navy of the Third Reich.

Karl Demitz

In the summer of the same 1935, the Fuhrer appointed Karl Dönitz as commander of all submarines of the Reich; he held this post until 1943, when he was appointed commander-in-chief of the German Navy. In 1939, Dönitz received the rank of rear admiral.

He personally developed and planned many operations. A year later, in September, Karl becomes vice-admiral, and after another year and a half he receives the rank of admiral, at the same time he receives the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves.

It is he who owns most of the strategic developments and ideas used during submarine wars. Dönitz created a new supercaste, the “unsinkable Pinocchios,” from his subordinate submariners, and he himself received the nickname “Papa Carlo.” All submariners underwent intensive training and knew the capabilities of their submarine thoroughly.

Dönitz’s submarine combat tactics were so talented that they received the nickname “wolf packs” from the enemy. The tactics of the “wolf packs” were as follows: the submarines lined up in such a way that one of the submarines could detect the approach of an enemy convoy. Having found the enemy, the submarine transmitted an encrypted message to the center, and then it continued its journey in a surface position parallel to the enemy, but quite far behind it. The remaining submarines were centered on the enemy convoy, and they surrounded it like a pack of wolves and attacked, taking advantage of their numerical superiority. Such hunts were usually carried out in the dark.

Construction

The German Navy had 31 combat and training submarine fleets. Each of the flotillas had a clearly organized structure. The number of submarines included in a particular flotilla could vary. Submarines were often withdrawn from one unit and assigned to another. During combat trips to sea, command was occupied by one of the commanders of the submarine fleet task force, and in cases of very important operations, the commander of the submarine fleet, Befelshaber der Unterseebote, took control.

Throughout the war, Germany built and fully equipped 1,153 submarines. During the war, fifteen submarines were seized from the enemy, they were introduced into the “wolf pack”. Turkish and five Dutch submarines took part in the battles, two Norwegian, three Dutch and one French and one English were training, four Italian were transport and one Italian submarine was docked.

As a rule, the main targets of Dönitz's submarines were enemy transport ships, which were responsible for providing the troops with everything they needed. During a meeting with an enemy ship, the main principle of the “wolf pack” was in effect - to destroy more ships than the enemy could build. Such tactics bore fruit from the first days of the war across vast expanses of water from Antarctica to South Africa.

Requirements

The basis of the Nazi submarine fleet were submarines of the 1,2,7,9,14,23 series. At the end of the 30s, Germany mainly built submarines of three series.

The main requirements for the first submarines are the use of submarines in coastal waters, such were the second-class submarines, they were easy to maintain, well maneuverable and could dive in a few seconds, but their drawback was their small ammunition load, so they were discontinued in 1941.

During the battle in the Atlantic, the seventh series of submarines was used, the development of which was originally carried out by Finland; they were considered the most reliable, since they were equipped with snorkels - a device thanks to which the battery could be charged under water. In total, more than seven hundred of them were built. Submarines of the ninth series were used for combat in the ocean, since they had a long range and could even sail into the Pacific Ocean without refueling.

Complexes

The construction of a huge submarine flotilla implied the construction of a complex of defense structures. It was planned to build powerful concrete bunkers with fortification structures for minesweepers and torpedo boats, with firing points and shelters for artillery. Special shelters were also built in Hamburg and Kiel at their naval bases. After the fall of Norway, Belgium and Holland, Germany received additional military bases.

So for their submarines the Nazis created bases in Norwegian Bergen and Trondheim and French Brest, Lorient, Saint-Nazaire, Bordeaux.

In Bremen, Germany, a plant was installed for the production of series 11 submarines; it was installed in the middle of a huge bunker near the Weser River. Several bases for submarines were provided to the Germans by the Japanese allies, a base in Penang and on the Malay Peninsula, and an additional center for the repair of German submarines was equipped in the Indonesian Jakarta and the Japanese Kobe.

Armament

The main weapons of Dönitz's submarines were torpedoes and mines, the effectiveness of which was constantly increasing. The submarines were also equipped with 88 mm or 105 mm caliber artillery guns, and 20 mm anti-aircraft guns could also be installed. However, starting from 1943, the artillery guns were gradually removed, since the effectiveness of the deck guns decreased significantly, but the danger of an air attack, on the contrary, forced the power of anti-aircraft weapons to be strengthened. To effectively conduct underwater combat, German engineers were able to develop a radar radiation detector, which made it possible to avoid British radar stations. Already at the end of the war, the Germans began to equip their submarines with a large number of batteries, which allowed them to reach speeds of up to seventeen knots, but the end of the war did not allow them to rearm the fleet.

Fighting

Submarines took part in combat operations in 1939-1945 in 68 operations. During this time, 149 enemy warships were sunk by submarines, including two battleships, three aircraft carriers, five cruisers, eleven destroyers and many other ships, with a total tonnage of 14,879,472 gross register tons.

Sinking of the Coreages

The Wolfpack's first major victory was the sinking of the USS Coreages. This happened in September 1939, the aircraft carrier was sunk by the submarine U-29 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Shewhart. After the aircraft carrier was sunk, the submarine was pursued by accompanying destroyers for four hours, but U-29 was able to escape with almost no damage.

Destruction of Royal Oak

The next brilliant victory was the destruction of the Battleship Royal Oak. This happened after the submarine U-47 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Gunther Prien penetrated the English naval base at Scala Flow. After this raid, the British fleet had to be relocated to another location for six months.

Victory over Ark Royal

Another resounding victory of Dönitz's submarines was the torpedoing of the Ark Royal aircraft carrier. In November 1941, submarines U-81 and U-205 located near Gibraltar were ordered to attack British ships returning from Malta. During the attack, the Ark Royal aircraft carrier was hit; at first the British hoped that they would be able to tow the stricken aircraft carrier, but this was not possible, and the Ark Royal sank.

From the beginning of 1942, German submariners began to conduct military operations in US territorial waters. The cities of the United States were not dark even at night, cargo ships and tankers moved without military escort, so the number of destroyed American ships was calculated by the supply of torpedoes on the submarine, so the submarine U-552 sank seven American ships in one exit.

Legendary submariners

The most successful submariners of the Third Reich were Otto Kretschmer and Captain Wolfgang Lüth, who managed to sink 47 ships each with a tonnage of over 220 thousand tons. The most effective was the submarine U-48, whose crew sank 51 ships, with a tonnage of about 305 thousand tons. The submarine U-196, under the command of Eitel-Friedrich Kentrath, spent 225 days at sea for the longest time.

Equipment

To communicate with submarines, radiograms encrypted on a special Enigma encryption machine were used. Great Britain made every possible effort to obtain this device, since there was no other way to decipher the texts, but as soon as the opportunity arose to steal such a machine from a captured submarine, the Germans first destroyed the device and all encryption documents. However, they still succeeded after capturing U-110 and U-505, and a number of encrypted documents also fell into their hands. U-110 was attacked by British depth charges in May 1941, as a result of the damage the submarine was forced to surface, the Germans planned to escape from the submarine and sink it, but they did not have time to sink it, so the boat was captured by the British, and Enigma fell into their hands. and magazines with codes and maps of minefields. In order to keep the secret of the Enigma capture, the entire surviving crew of submariners was rescued from the water, and the boat itself was soon sunk. The resulting ciphers allowed the British to be aware of German radio messages until 1942, until Enigma was complicated. The capture of encrypted documents on board U-559 helped break this code. She was attacked by British destroyers in 1942 and taken into tow, and a new variation of Enigma was also found there, but the submarine quickly began to sink to the bottom and the encryption machine, along with two British sailors, sank.

Victory

During the war, German submarines were captured many times, some of them were also subsequently put into service with the enemy fleet, such as the U-57, which became the British submarine Graf, which carried out combat operations in 1942-1944. The Germans lost several of their submarines due to defects in the design of the submarines themselves. So the submarine U-377 sank to the bottom in 1944 due to the explosion of its own circulating torpedo; the details of the sinking are not known, since the entire crew also died.

Fuhrer's convoy

In the service of Dönitz, there was also another division of submarines, called the “Fuhrer Convoy”. The secret group included thirty-five submarines. The British believed that these submarines were intended to transport minerals from South America. However, it remains a mystery why at the end of the war, when the submarine fleet was almost completely destroyed, Dönitz did not withdraw more than one submarine from the Fuhrer Convoy.

There are versions that these submarines were used to control secret Nazi Base 211 in Antarctica. However, two of the convoy's submarines were discovered after the war near Argentina, whose captains claimed that they were transporting an unknown secret cargo and two secret passengers in South America. Some of the submarines of this “ghost convoy” were never discovered after the war, and there were almost no mentions of them in military documents, these are U-465, U-209. In total, historians talk about the fate of only 9 out of 35 submarines - U-534, U-530, U-977, U-234, U-209, U-465, U-590, U-662, U863.

Sunset

The beginning of the end for German submarines was 1943, when the first failures of Dönitz’s submariners began. The first failures were due to the improvement of the Allied radar, the next blow to Hitler’s submarines was the growing industrial power of the United States, they managed to build ships faster than the Germans sank them. Even the installation of the latest torpedoes on the 13 series submarines could not tip the scales in favor of the Nazis. During the war, Germany lost almost 80% of its submariners; at the end of the war, only seven thousand were alive.

However, Dönitz's submarines fought for Germany until the last day. Dönitz himself became Hitler's successor, later arrested and sentenced to ten years.

Until 1935, Germany, after its defeat in World War I, was prohibited from building submarines. With the advent of Adolf Hitler to power, the situation with weapons in Germany radically changed.

According to the naval agreement signed in 1935 with Great Britain, submarines were recognized as an obsolete type of weapon. And Germany receives permission to build them. As a result, by the end of the war the Third Reich owned 1,153 submarines.

Until 1943, the commander of the entire German submarine fleet was Karl Demitz, who then became the commander-in-chief of the German Navy.

It is he who owns most of the strategic developments and ideas used during submarine wars. Dönitz created a new supercaste, the “unsinkable Pinocchios,” from his subordinate submariners, and he himself received the nickname “Papa Carlo.” All submariners underwent intensive training and knew the capabilities of their submarine thoroughly.

Dönitz's submarine combat tactics were so talented that they received the nickname "wolf packs" from the enemy. And it looked like this: the submarines lined up in a certain way so that one of the submarines could detect the approach of an enemy convoy.

Then, having detected the enemy, the submarine transmitted an encrypted message to the center, and then it continued its journey in a surface position parallel to the enemy, but quite far behind him. The remaining submarines were centered on the enemy convoy, and they surrounded it like a pack of wolves and attacked, taking advantage of their numerical superiority. Such hunts were usually carried out in the dark.

As a rule, the main targets of Dönitz's submarines were enemy transport ships, which were responsible for providing the troops with everything they needed. During a meeting with an enemy ship, the main principle of the “wolf pack” was in effect - to destroy more ships than the enemy could build. Such tactics bore fruit from the first days of the war across vast expanses of water from Antarctica to South Africa.

It is generally accepted that the submarine fleet of the Third Reich was the most successful combat unit of the Wehrmacht. In support of this, the words of Winston Churchill are usually cited: “The only thing that really worried me during the war was the danger posed by German submarines. The “Road of Life” that passed through the boundaries of the oceans was in danger.”

In addition, the statistics of transport and warships of the anti-Hitler coalition allies destroyed by German submarines speaks for itself: in total, about 2,000 warships and merchant fleet vessels were sunk to the bottom. True, according to Doenitz, 2,759 ships were sunk. In this case, more than one hundred thousand enemy sailors died.

However, the loss figures for the German submarine fleet are no less impressive. 791 submarines did not return from military campaigns, which is 70% of the entire submarine fleet of Nazi Germany! Of approximately 40 thousand submarine personnel, according to the Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, from 28 to 32 thousand people died, that is, 80%.

Karl Doenitz himself is the “Fuhrer of submarines,” and he lost two sons, who were submarine officers, and one nephew. That is why one of the Russian researchers of German submarines, Mikhail Kurushin, called his work “Steel Coffins of the Reich.” The whole point was that at some point the strong anti-submarine defense of the Allies did not allow German submarines to achieve their former successes.

Karl Doenitz himself wrote about this in his memoirs: “Events... unambiguously showed that the moment had come when the anti-submarine defense of both great naval powers surpassed the combat power of our submarines.”

There is one misconception according to which Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz personally gave the order on May 5, 1945 to scuttle all submarines of the Third Reich. However, he could not destroy what he loved most in the world.

Researcher Gennady Drozhzhin in his monograph “Myths of Underwater Warfare” cites a fragment of the Grand Admiral’s order. “My submariners!” it said. “We have six years of hostilities behind us. You fought like lions. But now the overwhelming enemy forces have left us almost no room for action. It is useless to continue resistance. Submariners whose military prowess has not weakened , are now laying down their arms - after heroic battles unparalleled in history."

From this order it was clear that Doenitz ordered all submarine commanders to cease fire and prepare to surrender in accordance with instructions to be received later.

It is interesting that in the service of Dönitz there was another division of submarines, called the “Fuhrer Convoy”. The secret group included thirty-five submarines. The British believed that these submarines were intended to transport minerals from South America. However, it remains a mystery why at the end of the war, when the submarine fleet was almost completely destroyed, Dönitz did not withdraw more than one submarine from the “Führer Convoy”.

There are versions that these submarines were used to control the secret Nazi Base 211 in Antarctica. However, two of the convoy's submarines were discovered after the war near Argentina, whose captains claimed to be carrying unknown secret cargo and two secret passengers to South America. Some of the submarines of this “ghost convoy” were never discovered after the war, and there were almost no mentions of them in military documents, these are U-465, U-209. In total, historians talk about the fate of only 9 out of 35 submarines - U-534, U-530, U-977, U-234, U-209, U-465, U-590, U-662, U863.

On one of the submarines that surrendered to the Americans on May 18, 1945 off the US coast, it was rumored that the corpses of three German generals who had committed suicide were discovered. In addition, a cargo of mercury worth six million dollars at then prices was discovered on the submarine.

By the way, when Norwegian amateur divers lifted U-843 from the bottom of the Kattegat Strait in 1858, a cargo of tin, molybdenum and rubber was found on board. From this operation, treasure hunters earned 35 million crowns, and the sale of the submarine hull alone brought them a whole million. In other submarines raised from the bottom of the sea, currency, uranium, and even opium were found.

Only by 1944 did the Allies manage to reduce the losses inflicted on their fleet by German submariners

German submarines of World War II were a real nightmare for British and American sailors. They turned the Atlantic into a real hell, where, among the wreckage and burning fuel, they desperately cried out for the salvation of the victims of torpedo attacks...

Target - Britain

By the fall of 1939, Germany had a very modest in size, although technically advanced, navy. Against 22 English and French battleships and cruisers, she was able to field only two full-fledged battleships, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and three so-called “pocket” battleships, Deutschland. "Graf Spee" and "Admiral Scheer". The latter carried only six 280 mm caliber guns - despite the fact that at that time new battleships were armed with 8–12 305–406 mm caliber guns. Two more German battleships, future legends of World War II, Bismarck and Tirpitz - total displacement of 50,300 tons, speed of 30 knots, eight 380-mm guns - were completed and entered service after defeat of the allied army at Dunkirk. For a direct battle at sea with the mighty British fleet, this was, of course, not enough. This was confirmed two years later during the famous hunt for the Bismarck, when a German battleship with powerful weapons and a well-trained crew was simply hunted down by a numerically superior enemy. Therefore, Germany initially relied on a naval blockade of the British Isles and assigned its battleships the role of raiders - hunters of transport caravans and individual enemy warships.

England was directly dependent on supplies of food and raw materials from the New World, especially the USA, which was its main “supplier” in both world wars. In addition, the blockade would cut off Britain from the reinforcements that were mobilized in the colonies, as well as prevent British landings on the continent. However, the successes of the German surface raiders were short-lived. Their enemy was not only the superior forces of the United Kingdom fleet, but also British aviation, against which the mighty ships were almost powerless. Regular air strikes on French bases forced Germany in 1941–42 to evacuate its battleships to northern ports, where they almost ingloriously died during the raids or stood in repair until the end of the war.

The main force that the Third Reich relied on in the battle at sea were submarines, less vulnerable to aircraft and capable of sneaking up on even a very strong enemy. And most importantly, building a submarine was several times cheaper, the submarine required less fuel, it was serviced by a small crew - despite the fact that it could be no less effective than the most powerful raider.

"Wolf Packs" by Admiral Dönitz

Germany entered World War II with only 57 submarines, of which only 26 were suitable for operations in the Atlantic. However, already in September 1939, the German submarine fleet (U-Bootwaffe) sank 41 ships with a total tonnage of 153,879 tons. Among them are the British liner Athenia (which became the first victim of German submarines in this war) and the aircraft carrier Coreyes. Another British aircraft carrier, the Arc Royal, survived only because the torpedoes with magnetic fuses fired at it by the U-39 boat detonated ahead of time. And on the night of October 13-14, 1939, the U-47 boat under the command of Lieutenant Commander Gunther Prien penetrated the roadstead of the British military base at Scapa Flow (Orkney Islands) and sank the battleship Royal Oak. .

This forced Britain to urgently remove its aircraft carriers from the Atlantic and restrict the movement of battleships and other large warships, which were now carefully guarded by destroyers and other escort ships. The successes had an effect on Hitler: he changed his initially negative opinion about submarines, and on his orders their mass construction began. Over the next 5 years, the German fleet included 1,108 submarines.

True, taking into account the losses and the need to repair submarines damaged during the campaign, Germany could at one time put forward a limited number of submarines ready for the campaign - only by the middle of the war their number exceeded a hundred.

The main lobbyist for submarines as a type of weapon in the Third Reich was the commander of the submarine fleet (Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote) Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891–1981), who served on submarines already in the First World War. The Treaty of Versailles prohibited Germany from having a submarine fleet, and Dönitz had to retrain as a torpedo boat commander, then as an expert in the development of new weapons, a navigator, a commander of a destroyer flotilla, and a light cruiser captain...

In 1935, when Germany decided to recreate the submarine fleet, Dönitz was simultaneously appointed commander of the 1st U-boat Flotilla and received the strange title of “U-boat Führer.” This was a very successful appointment: the submarine fleet was essentially his brainchild, he created it from scratch and turned it into the most powerful fist of the Third Reich. Dönitz personally met each boat returning to base, attended the graduations of the submariner school, and created special sanatoriums for them. For all this, he enjoyed great respect from his subordinates, who nicknamed him “Papa Karl” (Vater Karl).

In 1935-38, the “underwater Fuhrer” developed new tactics for hunting enemy ships. Until this moment, submarines from all countries of the world operated alone. Dönitz, having served as commander of a destroyer flotilla that attacks the enemy in a group, decided to use group tactics in submarine warfare. First he proposes the "veil" method. A group of boats was walking, turning around in the sea in a chain. The boat that discovered the enemy sent a report and attacked him, and the other boats rushed to her aid.

The next idea was the "circle" tactic, where the boats were positioned around a specific area of ​​the ocean. As soon as an enemy convoy or warship entered it, the boat, which noticed the enemy entering the circle, began to lead the target, maintaining contact with the others, and they began to approach the doomed targets from all sides.

But the most famous was the “wolf pack” method, directly developed for attacks on large transport caravans. The name fully corresponded to its essence - this is how wolves hunt their prey. After the convoy was discovered, a group of submarines was concentrated parallel to its course. Having carried out the first attack, she then overtook the convoy and turned into position for a new strike.

The best of the best

During World War II (until May 1945), German submariners sank 2,603 ​​Allied warships and transport vessels with a total displacement of 13.5 million tons. These include 2 battleships, 6 aircraft carriers, 5 cruisers, 52 destroyers and more than 70 warships of other classes. In this case, about 100 thousand sailors of the military and merchant fleet died.

To counteract this, the Allies concentrated over 3,000 combat and auxiliary ships, about 1,400 aircraft, and by the time of the Normandy landings they had dealt a crushing blow to the German submarine fleet, from which it could no longer recover. Despite the fact that the German industry increased the production of submarines, fewer and fewer crews returned from the campaign with success. And some did not return at all. If twenty-three submarines were lost in 1940, and thirty-six submarines in 1941, then in 1943 and 1944 the losses increased, respectively, to two hundred fifty and two hundred sixty-three submarines. In total, during the war, the losses of German submariners amounted to 789 submarines and 32,000 sailors. But this was still three times less than the number of enemy ships they sank, which proved the high efficiency of the submarine fleet.

Like any war, this one also had its aces. Gunther Prien became the first famous underwater corsair throughout Germany. He has thirty ships with a total displacement of 164,953 tons, including the aforementioned battleship). For this he became the first German officer to receive oak leaves for the Knight's Cross. The Reich Ministry of Propaganda promptly created a cult of him - and Prien began to receive whole bags of letters from enthusiastic fans. Perhaps he could have become the most successful German submariner, but on March 8, 1941, his boat was lost during an attack on a convoy.

After this, the list of German deep-sea aces was headed by Otto Kretschmer, who sank forty-four ships with a total displacement of 266,629 tons. He was followed by Wolfgang L?th - 43 ships with a total displacement of 225,712 tons, Erich Topp - 34 ships with a total displacement of 193,684 tons and the well-known Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock - 25 ships with a total of with a displacement of 183,253 tons, which, together with its U-96, became a character in the feature film "U-Boot" ("Submarine"). By the way, he did not die during the air raid. After the war, Lehmann-Willenbrock served as a captain in the merchant marine and distinguished himself in the rescue of the sinking Brazilian cargo ship Commandante Lira in 1959, and also became the commander of the first German ship with a nuclear reactor. His boat, after the unfortunate sinking right at the base, was raised, went on trips (but with a different crew), and after the war was turned into a technical museum.

Thus, the German submarine fleet turned out to be the most successful, although it did not have such impressive support from surface forces and naval aviation as the British one. Her Majesty's submariners accounted for only 70 combat and 368 German merchant ships with a total tonnage of 826,300 tons. Their American allies sank 1,178 ships with a total tonnage of 4.9 million tons in the Pacific theater of war. Fortune was not kind to the two hundred and sixty-seven Soviet submarines, which during the war torpedoed only 157 enemy warships and transports with a total displacement of 462,300 tons.

"Flying Dutchmen"

The romantic aura of the heroes on the one hand - and the gloomy reputation of drunkards and inhuman killers on the other. This is how German submariners were represented on the shore. However, they got completely drunk only once every two or three months, when they returned from a campaign. It was then that they were in front of the “public”, drawing hasty conclusions, after which they went to sleep in the barracks or sanatoriums, and then, in a completely sober state, prepared for a new campaign. But these rare libations were not so much a celebration of victories, but a way to relieve the terrible stress that submariners received on every trip. And even despite the fact that candidates for crew members also underwent psychological selection, on submarines there were cases of nervous breakdowns among individual sailors, who had to be calmed down by the whole crew, or even simply tied to a bed.

The first thing that submariners who had just gone to sea encountered was terrible cramped conditions. This especially affected the crews of series VII submarines, which, being already cramped in design, were also packed to capacity with everything necessary for long-distance voyages. The crew's sleeping places and all free corners were used to store boxes of provisions, so the crew had to rest and eat wherever they could. To take additional tons of fuel, it was pumped into tanks intended for fresh water (drinking and hygienic), thus sharply reducing its ration.

For the same reason, German submariners never rescued their victims desperately floundering in the middle of the ocean. After all, there was simply nowhere to place them - except perhaps to shove them into the vacant torpedo tube. Hence the reputation of inhuman monsters that stuck with submariners.

The feeling of mercy was dulled by constant fear for one’s own life. During the campaign we had to constantly be wary of minefields or enemy aircraft. But the most terrible thing was the enemy destroyers and anti-submarine ships, or rather, their depth charges, the close explosion of which could destroy the hull of the boat. In this case, one could only hope for a quick death. It was much more terrible to receive heavy injuries and fall irrevocably into the abyss, listening in horror to how the compressed hull of the boat was cracking, ready to break through with streams of water under pressure of several tens of atmospheres. Or worse, to lie aground forever and slowly suffocate, realizing at the same time that there will be no help...

Submarines. The enemy is above us

The film tells about the merciless and brutal war of submarines in the Atlantic and on Pacific Ocean. The use by opponents of the latest achievements of science and technology, rapid progress in radio electronics (the use of sonars and anti-submarine radars) made the struggle for superiority under water uncompromising and exciting.

War machine Hitler - Submarines

The documentary film from the series "Hitler's War Machine" will tell about submarines - the silent weapons of the Third Reich in the Battle of the Atlantic. Designed and built in secrecy, they came closer to victory than any other in Germany. During World War II (until May 1945), German submariners sank 2,603 ​​Allied warships and transport vessels. In this case, about 100 thousand sailors of the military and merchant fleet died. German submarines were a real nightmare for British and American sailors. They turned the Atlantic into a real hell, where among the wreckage and burning fuel they desperately cried out for the salvation of the victims of torpedo attacks. It would be fair to call this time the heyday of the "wolf pack" tactics, which were specifically developed for attacks on large transport convoys. The name fully corresponded to its essence - this is how wolves hunt their prey. After the convoy was discovered, a group of submarines was concentrated parallel to its course. Having carried out the first attack, she then overtook the convoy and turned around in position for a new strike.

The submarine U-47 returns to port on October 14, 1939 after a successful attack on the British battleship Royal Oak. Photo: U.S. Naval Historical Center

German submarines of World War II were a real nightmare for British and American sailors. They turned the Atlantic into a real hell, where, among the wreckage and burning fuel, they desperately cried out for the salvation of the victims of torpedo attacks...

Target - Britain

By the fall of 1939, Germany had a very modest in size, although technically advanced, navy. Against 22 English and French battleships and cruisers, she was able to field only two full-fledged battleships, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and three so-called “pocket” battleships, Deutschland. "Graf Spee" and "Admiral Scheer". The latter carried only six 280 mm caliber guns - despite the fact that at that time new battleships were armed with 8-12 305-406 mm caliber guns. Two more German battleships, future legends of the Second World War “Bismarck” and “Tirpitz” - a total displacement of 50,300 tons, a speed of 30 knots, eight 380-mm guns - were completed and entered service after defeat of the allied army at Dunkirk. For a direct battle at sea with the mighty British fleet, this was, of course, not enough. This was confirmed two years later during the famous hunt for the Bismarck, when a German battleship with powerful weapons and a well-trained crew was simply hunted down by a numerically superior enemy. Therefore, Germany initially relied on a naval blockade of the British Isles and assigned its battleships the role of raiders - hunters of transport caravans and individual enemy warships.

England was directly dependent on supplies of food and raw materials from the New World, especially the USA, which was its main “supplier” in both world wars. In addition, the blockade would cut off Britain from the reinforcements that were mobilized in the colonies, as well as prevent British landings on the continent. However, the successes of the German surface raiders were short-lived. Their enemy was not only the superior forces of the United Kingdom fleet, but also British aviation, against which the mighty ships were almost powerless. Regular air strikes on French bases forced Germany in 1941-42 to evacuate its battleships to northern ports, where they almost ingloriously died during raids or stood in repair until the end of the war.

The main force that the Third Reich relied on in the battle at sea were submarines, less vulnerable to aircraft and capable of sneaking up on even a very strong enemy. And most importantly, building a submarine was several times cheaper, the submarine required less fuel, it was serviced by a small crew - despite the fact that it could be no less effective than the most powerful raider.

"Wolf Packs" by Admiral Dönitz

Germany entered World War II with only 57 submarines, of which only 26 were suitable for operations in the Atlantic. However, already in September 1939, the German submarine fleet (U-Bootwaffe) sank 41 ships with a total tonnage of 153,879 tons. Among them are the British liner Athenia (which became the first victim of German submarines in this war) and the aircraft carrier Coreyes. Another British aircraft carrier, the Arc Royal, survived only because the torpedoes with magnetic fuses fired at it by the U-39 boat detonated ahead of time. And on the night of October 13-14, 1939, the U-47 boat under the command of Lieutenant Commander Günther Prien penetrated the roadstead of the British military base at Scapa Flow (Orkney Islands) and sank the battleship Royal Oak.

This forced Britain to urgently remove its aircraft carriers from the Atlantic and restrict the movement of battleships and other large warships, which were now carefully guarded by destroyers and other escort ships. The successes had an effect on Hitler: he changed his initially negative opinion about submarines, and on his orders their mass construction began. Over the next 5 years, the German fleet included 1,108 submarines.

True, taking into account the losses and the need to repair submarines damaged during the campaign, Germany at a time could put forward a limited number of submarines ready for the campaign - only by the middle of the war their number exceeded a hundred.

The main lobbyist for submarines as a type of weapon in the Third Reich was the commander of the submarine fleet (Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote) Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891-1981), who served on submarines already in the First World War. The Treaty of Versailles prohibited Germany from having a submarine fleet, and Dönitz had to retrain as a torpedo boat commander, then as an expert in the development of new weapons, a navigator, a commander of a destroyer flotilla, and a light cruiser captain...

In 1935, when Germany decided to recreate the submarine fleet, Dönitz was simultaneously appointed commander of the 1st U-boat Flotilla and received the strange title of “U-boat Führer.” This was a very successful appointment: the submarine fleet was essentially his brainchild, he created it from scratch and turned it into the most powerful fist of the Third Reich. Dönitz personally met each boat returning to base, attended the graduations of the submariner school, and created special sanatoriums for them. For all this, he enjoyed great respect from his subordinates, who nicknamed him “Papa Karl” (Vater Karl).

In 1935-38, the “underwater Fuhrer” developed new tactics for hunting enemy ships. Until this moment, submarines from all countries of the world operated alone. Dönitz, having served as commander of a destroyer flotilla that attacks the enemy in a group, decided to use group tactics in submarine warfare. First he proposes the "veil" method. A group of boats was walking, turning around in the sea in a chain. The boat that discovered the enemy sent a report and attacked him, and the other boats rushed to her aid.

The next idea was the "circle" tactic, in which boats were positioned around a specific area of ​​the ocean. As soon as an enemy convoy or warship entered it, the boat, having noticed the enemy entering inside the circle, began to lead the target, maintaining contact with the others, and they began to approach the doomed targets from all sides.

But the most famous was the “wolf pack” method, directly developed for attacks on large transport caravans. The name fully corresponded to its essence - this is how wolves hunt their prey. After the convoy was discovered, a group of submarines was concentrated parallel to its course. Having carried out the first attack, she then overtook the convoy and turned into position for a new strike.

The best of the best

During World War II (until May 1945), German submariners sank 2,603 ​​Allied warships and transport vessels with a total displacement of 13.5 million tons. These include 2 battleships, 6 aircraft carriers, 5 cruisers, 52 destroyers and more than 70 warships of other classes. In this case, about 100 thousand sailors of the military and merchant fleet died.

To counteract this, the Allies concentrated over 3,000 combat and auxiliary ships, about 1,400 aircraft, and by the time of the Normandy landings they had dealt a crushing blow to the German submarine fleet, from which it could no longer recover. Despite the fact that the German industry increased the production of submarines, fewer and fewer crews returned from the campaign with success. And some did not return at all. If twenty-three submarines were lost in 1940, and thirty-six submarines in 1941, then in 1943 and 1944 the losses increased, respectively, to two hundred fifty and two hundred sixty-three submarines. In total, during the war, the losses of German submariners amounted to 789 submarines and 32,000 sailors. But this was still three times less than the number of enemy ships they sank, which proved the high efficiency of the submarine fleet.

Like any war, this one also had its aces. Gunther Prien became the first famous underwater corsair throughout Germany. He has thirty ships with a total displacement of 164,953 tons, including the aforementioned battleship). For this he became the first German officer to receive oak leaves for the Knight's Cross. The Reich Ministry of Propaganda promptly created a cult of him - and Prien began to receive whole bags of letters from enthusiastic fans. Perhaps he could have become the most successful German submariner, but on March 8, 1941, his boat was lost during an attack on a convoy.

After this, the list of German deep-sea aces was headed by Otto Kretschmer, who sank forty-four ships with a total displacement of 266,629 tons. He was followed by Wolfgang Lüth - 43 ships with a total displacement of 225,712 tons, Erich Topp - 34 ships with a total displacement of 193,684 tons and the well-known Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock - 25 ships with a total displacement of 183 253 tons, which, together with its U-96, became a character in the feature film “U-Boot” (“Submarine”). By the way, he did not die during the air raid. After the war, Lehmann-Willenbrock served as a captain in the merchant marine and distinguished himself in the rescue of the sinking Brazilian cargo ship Commandante Lira in 1959, and also became the commander of the first German ship with a nuclear reactor. His boat, after the unfortunate sinking right at the base, was raised, went on trips (but with a different crew), and after the war was turned into a technical museum.

Thus, the German submarine fleet turned out to be the most successful, although it did not have such impressive support from surface forces and naval aviation as the British one. Her Majesty's submariners accounted for only 70 combat and 368 German merchant ships with a total tonnage of 826,300 tons. Their American allies sank 1,178 ships with a total tonnage of 4.9 million tons in the Pacific theater of war. Fortune was not kind to the two hundred and sixty-seven Soviet submarines, which during the war torpedoed only 157 enemy warships and transports with a total displacement of 462,300 tons.

"Flying Dutchmen"

In 1983, German director Wolfgang Petersen made the film “Das U-Boot” based on the novel of the same name by Lothar-Günter Buchheim. A significant portion of the budget covered the cost of recreating historically accurate details. Photo: Bavaria Film

The submarine U-96, made famous in the film "U-Boot", belonged to the famous VII series, which formed the basis of the U-Bootwaffe. A total of seven hundred and eight units of various modifications were built. The “seven” traced its pedigree to the UB-III boat from the First World War, inheriting its pros and cons. On the one hand, the submarines of this series saved as much useful volume as possible, which resulted in terrible cramped conditions. On the other hand, they were distinguished by the extreme simplicity and reliability of their design, which more than once helped sailors to the rescue.

On January 16, 1935, Deutsche Werft received an order for the construction of the first six submarines of this series. Subsequently, its main parameters - 500 tons of displacement, cruising range of 6250 miles, diving depth of 100 meters - were improved several times. The basis of the boat was a durable hull divided into six compartments, welded from steel sheets, the thickness of which on the first model was 18-22 mm, and on modification VII-C (the most massive submarine in history, 674 units were produced) it already reached 28 mm in the central part and up to 22 mm at the extremities. Thus, the VII-C hull was designed for depths of up to 125-150 meters, but could dive to 250, which was unattainable for Allied submarines, which dived only to 100-150 meters. In addition, such a durable body could withstand hits from 20 and 37 mm shells. The cruising range of this model has increased to 8250 miles.

For diving, five ballast tanks were filled with water: bow, stern and two side light (outer) hulls and one located inside the durable one. A well-trained crew could “dive” underwater in just 25 seconds! At the same time, the side tanks could take an additional supply of fuel, and then the cruising range increased to 9,700 miles, and on the latest modifications - up to 12,400. But in addition to this, the boats could be refueled on the voyage from special tanker submarines (IXD series).

The heart of the boats - two six-cylinder diesel engines - together produced 2800 hp. and accelerated the ship on the surface to 17-18 knots. Underwater, the submarine ran on Siemens electric motors (2x375 hp) with a maximum speed of 7.6 knots. Of course, this was not enough to get away from destroyers, but it was quite enough to hunt slow-moving and clumsy transports. The main weapons of the “sevens” were five 533-mm torpedo tubes (four bow and one stern), which “fired” from a depth of up to 22 meters. The most frequently used “projectiles” were the G7a (steam-gas) and G7e (electric) torpedoes. The latter was significantly inferior in range (5 kilometers versus 12.5), but they did not leave a characteristic mark on the water, and their maximum speed was approximately the same - up to 30 knots.

To attack targets inside convoys, the Germans invented a special FAT maneuvering device, with which the torpedo made a “snake” or attacked with a turn of up to 130 degrees. The same torpedoes were used to fight off the destroyers that were pressing on the tail - fired from the stern apparatus, it came towards them head-on, and then turned sharply and hit the side.

In addition to traditional contact torpedoes, torpedoes could also be equipped with magnetic fuses to detonate them as they passed under the bottom of the ship. And from the end of 1943, the T4 acoustic homing torpedo, which could be fired without aiming, came into service. True, in this case, the submarine itself had to stop the screws or quickly go to depth so that the torpedo did not return.

The boats were armed with both bow 88-mm and stern 45-mm guns, and later a very useful 20-mm anti-aircraft gun, which protected it from the most terrible enemy - British Air Force patrol aircraft. Several "sevens" received FuMO30 radars, which detected air targets at a distance of up to 15 km and surface targets up to 8 km.

They drowned in the depths of the sea...

Wolfgang Petersen's film “Das U-Boot” shows how the life of submariners who sailed on Series VII submarines was arranged. Photo: Bavaria Film

The romantic aura of the heroes on the one hand - and the gloomy reputation of drunkards and inhuman killers on the other. This is how German submariners were represented on the shore. However, they got completely drunk only once every two or three months, when they returned from a campaign. It was then that they were in front of the “public”, drawing hasty conclusions, after which they went to sleep in the barracks or sanatoriums, and then, in a completely sober state, prepared for a new campaign. But these rare libations were not so much a celebration of victories, but a way to relieve the terrible stress that submariners received on every trip. And even despite the fact that candidates for crew members also underwent psychological selection, on submarines there were cases of nervous breakdowns among individual sailors, who had to be calmed down by the whole crew, or even simply tied to a bed.

The first thing that submariners who just went to sea encountered was terrible cramped conditions. This especially affected the crews of series VII submarines, which, being already cramped in design, were also packed to capacity with everything necessary for long-distance voyages. The crew's sleeping places and all free corners were used to store boxes of provisions, so the crew had to rest and eat wherever they could. To take additional tons of fuel, it was pumped into tanks intended for fresh water (drinking and hygienic), thus sharply reducing its ration.

For the same reason, German submariners never rescued their victims desperately floundering in the middle of the ocean. After all, there was simply nowhere to place them - except perhaps to shove them into the vacant torpedo tube. Hence the reputation of inhuman monsters that stuck with submariners.

The feeling of mercy was dulled by constant fear for one’s own life. During the campaign we had to constantly be wary of minefields or enemy aircraft. But the most terrible thing was the enemy destroyers and anti-submarine ships, or rather, their depth charges, the close explosion of which could destroy the hull of the boat. In this case, one could only hope for a quick death. It was much more terrible to receive heavy injuries and fall irrevocably into the abyss, listening in horror to how the compressed hull of the boat was cracking, ready to break through with streams of water under pressure of several tens of atmospheres. Or worse, to lie aground forever and slowly suffocate, realizing at the same time that there will be no help...

IN This century, Germany twice unleashed world wars, and the same number of times the victors divided the remains of its military and merchant fleets. This was the case in 1918, when the recent allies did not consider it necessary to allocate to Russia its due share of the spoils. But in 1945 this no longer worked out; although British Prime Minister William Churchill proposed simply destroying the surviving ships of the Nazi Kriegsmarine. Then the USSR, Great Britain and the USA received, in addition to surface warships and auxiliary vessels, 10 submarines of various types - however, later the British transferred 5 to the French and 2 to the Norwegians.
It must be said that specialists from these countries were very interested in the features of German submarines, which was understandable. Having entered the Second World War with 57 submarines, the Germans built 1153 until the spring of 1945, and they sent to the bottom 3 thousand ships with a total capacity of more than 15 million tons and over 200 warships. So they have accumulated considerable experience in using underwater weapons, and they have worked hard to make it as effective as possible. So the Allies wanted to learn as much as possible about German submarines - maximum diving depth, radio and radar equipment, torpedoes and mines, power plants and much more. It is no coincidence that even during the war there was a formal hunt for Nazi boats. So, in 1941, the British, having taken the surfaced U-570 by surprise, did not sink it, but tried to capture it; in 1944, the Americans acquired the U-505 in a similar way. In the same year, Soviet boat crews, having tracked the U-250 in the Vyborg Bay, sent it to the bottom and hastened to raise it. Inside the boat they found encryption tables and homing torpedoes.
And now the winners have easily acquired the latest designs military equipment -krieg-smarine". If the British and Americans limited themselves to studying them, then in the USSR a number of trophies were put into operation in order to at least partially compensate for the losses of the submarine fleet, mainly the Baltic.

Figure 1. Series VII boat. Magazine "Technology-Youth" 1/1996
(In the humble opinion of the site’s author, the picture shows a Series IX boat without a 100 mm caliber bow gun, but with two 20 mm machine guns and one 37 mm rapid-fire gun behind the wheelhouse)

According to German sailors, boats of the VII series were the most successful of those intended for operations in the open ocean. Their prototype was the B-lll type submarine, whose design was worked out during the First World War and improved by 1935. Then the VII series was produced in 4 modifications and a record number of ships were handed over to the fleet - 674! These boats had an almost silent underwater movement, which made them difficult to detect by means of hydroacoustics, their fuel reserve allowed them to travel 6,200 - 8,500 miles without refueling, they were distinguished by good maneuverability, and their low silhouette made them inconspicuous. Later, the VII series was equipped with electric torpedoes that did not leave a characteristic bubble mark on the surface.
The Baltics first became acquainted with the VII series boat when they lifted the U-250. Although it was given the Soviet designation TS-14. but they did not begin to restore it; the depth charges caused too much damage. The same ones, of the same type, that they received during the division of trophies were put into service and included in the middle ones. U-1057 was renamed N-22 (N-German), then S-81; U-1058 - in N-23 and S-82, respectively; U-1064- in N-24 and S-83. U-1305 - in N-25 and S-84. All of them finished their service in 1957 - 1958, and the S-84 was sunk in 1957 after testing atomic weapons near Novaya Zemlya - it was used as a target. But the S-83 turned out to be a long-liver - converted into a training station, it was finally excluded from the fleet lists only in 1974.
The U-1231 belonged to the IXC series, the Germans built 104 of them. It was delivered to the fleet in 1943 and the Soviet sailors accepted it in 1947. “The appearance of the boat was pathetic,” recalled Fleet Admiral, Hero of the Soviet Union G.M. Egorov. The hull was rusty, the upper deck, covered with wooden blocks, even collapsed in some places, and the condition of the instruments and mechanisms was no better, it was downright depressing.” It’s not surprising that the repairs dragged on until 1948.” after which the “German” was renamed N-26. According to Egorov, in terms of tactical and technical characteristics, the trophy was not very different from domestic submarines of this class, but noted some peculiarities. These included hydrodynamic lag. measuring the speed of the incoming water flow, the presence of a snorkel - a device that supplied air to the diesel engines when the boat was under water, hydraulic, rather than pneumatic or electric, mechanism control systems, a small reserve of buoyancy that ensures rapid immersion, and a device for bubble-free shooting. On - Since 1943, the Germans began to commission small boats of the XXIII series, intended for operations in shallow water areas of the North and Mediterranean seas. Those who fought against them. they found that these were ideal boats for short-term operations near the coast. They are fast, have good maneuverability, and are easy to operate. Their small size makes it difficult to detect and defeat them.” Comparing U-2353. renamed N-31 with domestic “babies”, experts discovered a lot of interesting things, which, obviously, were taken into account when creating post-war ships of this class.

Figure 2. Series XXIII boat. Magazine "Technology-Youth" 1/1996
(These boats managed to fight, although not very effectively, in the spring of 1945. None of them were sunk during military campaigns. Why there is no opportunity to ride this ship in the best simulator SilentHunter2 is unclear...)

But the most valuable were 4 submarines of the XXI series. The Germans intended to hand over 30 units to the fleet every month in order to replenish the Kriegsmarine with 233 ships of this type in 1945. They were designed based on more than 4 years of combat experience, and, I must say, quite successfully, having managed to significantly improve the traditional diesel-electric design. First of all, they developed a superbly streamlined hull and wheelhouse; to reduce water resistance, the bow horizontal rudders were made collapsible, and the snorkel, antenna devices and artillery mounts were made retractable. The buoyancy reserve was reduced, and the capacity of the new batteries was increased. Two propulsion electric motors were connected to the propeller shafts through reduction gearboxes. Submerged, the XXI Series boats briefly reached speeds of over 17 knots - twice as fast as any other submarine. In addition, they introduced two more electric motors for a silent, economical speed of 5 knots - is it for nothing that the Germans called them “electric boats”. Under diesel engines, snorkel and electric motors, the “twenty-first” could travel more than 10 thousand miles without surfacing. By the way, the head of the snorkel protruding above the surface was covered with synthetic material and was not noticed by enemy radars, but submariners detected their radiation from afar, using a search engine receiver

Figure 3. Series XXI boat. Magazine "Technology-Youth" 1/1996
(Boats of this type did not manage to fire a single combat salvo under the banners of the Reich. And this is good... even very good)

That was interesting too. that boats of this type were built in parts at several enterprises, then 8 sections of the hull were assembled from blanks and combined on a slipway. This organization of work made it possible to save almost 150 thousand working hours on each ship. “The combat qualities of the new boats promised to correspond to the changing conditions of the war in the Atlantic and lead to a change in the situation in favor of Germany,” noted G. Bush, who served in the Nazi submarine fleet. “The threat posed by new types of German submarines, especially the XXI series, was very real if the enemy sent them to sea in large numbers,” echoed the official historian of the British fleet S. Roskill.
In the USSR, captured submarines of the XXI series were given their own “project 614”, U-3515 was renamed N-27, then B-27; U-2529 in N-28 and B-28, respectively, U-3035 in N-29 and B-29, U-3041 in N-30 and B-30. In addition, another two dozen boats under construction were seized at the shipyards in Danzig (Gdansk), but it was considered inappropriate to complete them, especially since serial production of Soviet big boats 611th project. Well, the mentioned four served safely until 1957 - 1958, then became training, and the B-27s were scrapped only in 1973. Note that the technical discoveries of German designers were used not only by Soviet, but also by English, American, and French specialists - when modernizing their old and designing new submarines.
Back in 1944, in the Romanian port of Constanta, 3 German small boats of the II series, which began service back in 1935 - 1936, were captured by their crews. With a surface displacement of 279 tons, they had three torpedo tubes. They were picked up and examined, but they were of no particular value. Four Italian ultra-small SV submarines, sent by the Nazis to help the Nazi ally, also became trophies there. Their displacement did not exceed 40 tons, length 15 m, armament consisted of 2 torpedo tubes. One. SV-2, renamed TM-5, was sent to Leningrad, and there it was handed over to the employees of the People's Commissariat of Shipbuilding for study, but the rest were not used in this capacity.
A different fate awaited the two submarines that the Soviet Union received during the division of the fleet of fascist Italy. "Marea", like "Triton". was built in 1941 in Trieste, in February 1949 it was accepted by the Soviet crew. I-41, then S-41, with a displacement of 570 tons (underwater 1068 tons), was close to the domestic pre-war medium-sized boats of the “Shch” type. Until 1956, she remained part of the Black Sea Fleet, then she was turned into a blank, on which divers practiced ship-lifting techniques. "Nikelio", "Platino" type, in terms of tactical and technical characteristics was close to our medium boats of the IX series. It was completed in 1942 in La Spezia, in the Soviet fleet it was called I-42, later - S-42. She was excluded from the list of ship personnel of the Black Sea Fleet at the same time as her “countrywoman”, turned into a training unit, and then sold for scrap. From a military and technical point of view, Italian ships could not be compared with German ones. In particular, the commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine, Grand Admiral K. Dönitz, noted: “they had a very long and high wheelhouse, which day and night gave a noticeable silhouette on the horizon... there was no shaft on it for the influx of air and the removal of exhaust gases,” radio and hydroacoustic equipment were also far from perfect. By the way, this explains the high losses of the Italian submarine fleet.
When the Red Army entered the territory of Romania in 1944, the Bucharest authorities hastened to renounce their Berlin allies and go over to the side of the winners. Nevertheless, the submarines “Sekhinul” and “Marsuinul” became trophies and, accordingly, received the names S-39 and S-40. There was also a third. “Dolphinul”, built in 1931 - already in 1945. returned to former owners. The S-40 was removed from the lists after 5 years, and the S-39 the following year was also given to the Romanians.
Although domestic submarine shipbuilding has a long tradition and before the Great Patriotic War the fleets were replenished with very successful submarines, studying foreign experience turned out to be useful. Well, the fact that the trophies remained in service for about 10 years is explained by this. that mass construction of new generation ships had begun, the designs of which were developed by Soviet specialists.

Original: “Technology-Youth”, 1/96, Igor BOECHIN, article “Foreign Women”