Home Fruit trees Submarine fleet of the Third Reich. Disappeared submarines of the Third Reich and German settlers in South America. Destruction of the Royal Oak

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Submarine fleet of the Third Reich. Disappeared submarines of the Third Reich and German settlers in South America. Destruction of the Royal Oak

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

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

Target - Britain

By the fall of 1939, Germany possessed a very modest, albeit technically advanced, navy. Against 22 British and French battleships and cruisers, she was able to deploy only two full-fledged battleships "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" and three so-called "pocket" - "Deutschland", "Graf Spee" and "Admiral Scheer". The latter carried only six 280 mm guns, despite the fact that at that time the new battleships were armed with 8-12 305-406 mm guns. Two more German battleships, the future legends of the Second World War "Bismarck" and "Tirpitz" - total displacement of 50,300 tons, speed 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 team 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 for transport caravans and individual enemy warships.

England was directly dependent on the supply of food and raw materials from the New World, especially the United States, which was its main "supplier" in both world wars. In addition, the blockade would cut off Britain from reinforcements that were mobilized in the colonies, as well as prevent the landing of British troops 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 Navy, but also British aircraft, 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 were under repair until the very end of the war.

The main force relied on by the Third Reich in the battle at sea was submarines, less vulnerable to aviation and capable of sneaking up even on a very strong enemy. And most importantly, the construction of 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, in September 1939, the German submarine fleet (U-Bootwaffe) sank 41 ships with a total tonnage of 153,879 tons. Among them - the British liner "Athenia" (which became the first victim of German submarines in this war) and the aircraft carrier "Koreyges". Another British aircraft carrier, Arc-Royal, survived only due to the fact that 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 submarine under the command of Lieutenant Commander Gunter Prien entered the raid of the British military base Scapa Flow (Orkney Islands) and launched the battleship Royal Oak to the bottom. ...

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 order, their massive construction began. Over the next 5 years, 1108 submarines entered the German fleet.

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

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

In 1935, when Germany decided to recreate the submarine fleet, Dönitz was simultaneously appointed commander of the 1st submarine flotilla and received the strange title of "Fuehrer of submarines". It was a very successful assignment: 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 that returned to the base, attended the graduations of the school for submariners, and created special sanatoriums for them. For all this, he was highly respected by his subordinates, who called him "Pope Karl" (Vater Karl).

In 1935-38, the "underwater Fuhrer" developed a new tactic for hunting enemy ships. Until that moment, the submarines of all countries of the world operated one by one. Dönitz, having served as the 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 went, turning into a chain in the sea. The boat that found the enemy sent a report and attacked him, and the rest of the 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, which noticed the enemy entering the circle, began to lead the target, maintaining contact with the rest, 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 for their prey. After the discovery of the convoy, a group of submarines was concentrated parallel to its course. After making the first attack, she then overtook the convoy and turned to position for a new attack.

The best of the best

During World War II (up to May 1945), German submariners sunk 2,603 Allied warships and transport ships with a total displacement of 13.5 million tons. Among them are 2 battleships, 6 aircraft carriers, 5 cruisers, 52 destroyers and more than 70 warships of other classes. At the same time, about 100 thousand sailors of the military and merchant fleet were killed.

To counteract, the Allies concentrated over 3,000 warships and auxiliary ships, about 1,400 aircraft, and by the time of the landing in Normandy 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 good luck. And some did not return at all. If in 1940 twenty-three were lost, and in 1941 - thirty-six submarines, then in 1943 and 1944 the losses increased, respectively, to two hundred and fifty and two hundred and 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 sunk by them, which proved the high efficiency of the submarine fleet.

As in any war, this one also had its own aces. Gunther Prin became the first underwater corsair famous throughout Germany. On his account there are 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 Propaganda Ministry quickly created his cult - and Prien began to receive sacks of letters from enthusiastic admirers. Perhaps he could have become the most successful German submariners, but on March 8, 1941, his boat was killed in an attack by a convoy.

After that, 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 notorious Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock - 25 ships in total 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 was not killed during the air raid. After the war, Lehmann-Willenbrock served as a captain in the merchant fleet and distinguished himself in the rescue of the dying Brazilian bulk carrier "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 campaigns (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 an impressive support of the surface forces and naval aviation as the British. On the account of Her Majesty's submariners, only 70 combat and 368 German merchant ships with a total tonnage of 826,300 tons. Their allies, the Americans, sank 1,178 ships with a total tonnage of 4.9 million tons in the Pacific theater of war. Fortune was not favorable 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.

The Flying Dutchmen

The romantic halo of heroes on the one hand - and the dark reputation of drunkards and inhuman murderers on the other. Such were the German submariners on the shore. However, they got drunk in a splash only once every two or three months, when they returned from a campaign. It was then that they were in front of the "public", making 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 as a way to relieve the monstrous stress that the submariners received on each trip. And even despite the fact that the candidates for crew members passed, among other things, psychological selection, on the submarines there were cases of nervous breakdowns among individual sailors, who had to be reassured by the whole crew, or even simply tied to a berth.

The first thing that the submariners who had just put out to sea faced was the terrible cramped conditions. Especially this suffered the crews of the series VII submarines, which, being already cramped in design, were, in addition, packed to capacity with everything necessary for long voyages. The crew's berths and all the free corners were used to store food crates, 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 drastically 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 to shove them into the freed torpedo tube. Hence the reputation of inhuman monsters entrenched in the submariners.

The feeling of mercy was also dulled by constant fear for his own life. During the campaign, one had to constantly be wary of minefields or enemy aircraft. But the most terrible were enemy destroyers and anti-submarine ships, or rather, their depth charges, a close rupture of which could destroy the hull of the boat. At the same time, one could only hope for a quick death. It was much more terrible to receive heavy damage and irrevocably fall into the abyss, listening in horror as the compressible hull of the boat crackles, ready to break through in streams of water under a pressure of several tens of atmospheres. Or worse, forever go aground and slowly suffocate, realizing at the same time that there will be no help ...

Submarines. The enemy is above us

The film tells the story of a merciless and brutal submarine war in the Atlantic and the Pacific. The adversaries' use of the latest advances in 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.

Hitler's War Machine - Submarines

The documentary from the Hitler War Machine series tells about submarines - the silent weapon of the Third Reich in the Battle of the Atlantic. Designed and built in secret, they were closer to victory than any other Germany. During World War II (up to May 1945), 2,603 Allied warships and transport ships were sunk by German submariners. At the same time, about 100 thousand sailors of the military and merchant fleet were killed. German submarines were a real nightmare for British and American sailors. They turned the Atlantic into a real hell, where, among the debris and burning fuel, they desperately cried out for the rescue of the victim of torpedo attacks. This time can be rightly called the heyday of the tactics of "wolf packs", which were directly developed for attacks on large transport caravans. The name fully corresponded to its essence - this is how wolves hunt their prey. After the discovery of the convoy, a group of submarines was concentrated parallel to its course. Having carried out the first attack, she then overtook the convoy and turned to position for a new attack.

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Harald Busch
Submarine fleet of the Third Reich. German submarines in a war that was almost won. 1939-1945

Part one
September 3, 1939 - Summer 1940

COMBAT OVERVIEW

By the beginning of the war, on September 3, 1939, Germany had only fifty-seven submarines at its disposal, and only twenty-two of them were large enough to sail into the Atlantic (class IX with a displacement of 740 tons and class VII - 517 tons). The rest belonged to class II, the so-called "Blindage" (250 tons) - it was with them in 1935 that Germany began to lay the foundation for its new submarine fleet. They were intended for coastal navigation, rather for the training of crews, rather than for operational use.

Since the disparity between the navies of England and Germany was too great to allow Germany to pose a direct challenge to British naval power, the command of the German navy came to the conclusion that the problem of eliminating English rule at sea could be solved by other means and, perhaps, successfully solved even before how the United States will carry out its threat to go to war.

In addition, in 1939, in contrast to the endless indecision of the German high command during the First World War, the policy of using submarines was clear from the very beginning. Attacks on enemy merchant ships were to begin immediately, using all available means, and this gave good reason to believe that in this way it would be possible to cause serious damage to Britain's sea routes.

The death of "Athenia"

Day 3 September 1939 found the submarines at sea in full readiness to take action. They were unlikely to have been informed that Britain had declared war on Germany when Chief Lieutenant Lemp, commander of U-30, spotted a passenger liner within torpedo range. Since he was outside the usual sea routes and, moreover, went anti-submarine zigzags, Lemp decided that this ship had troops on board, and, making sure that the ship was British, made a torpedo attack. The Athenia, sailing from England to the United States with passengers on board, sank, claiming one hundred and twenty-eight lives.

This fatal mistake had fatal consequences, as it gave the British government the opportunity to declare that from the very first day Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare. Although the behavior of the rest of the German submarines, strictly observing the rules of war, soon refuted this accusation, Britain insisted on it and repeated it to justify its own violations of international law.

The German government immediately denied this accusation and continued to deny later that Athenia was sunk by a German submarine. At the time, it was convinced of the truth of its words, for none of the submarines that went to sea reported the incident, and moreover, all received strict instructions to treat merchant ships in accordance with the laws of the maritime prize law.

Meanwhile, well aware of the consequences of his actions, Chief Lieutenant Lemp did not mention them in the radio message, and it was only when U-30 returned to base at the end of September that the boat commander verbally informed Doenitz that it was he who had sunk. Athenia ".

But instead of admitting the mistake and expressing regret, the German government continued to refuse to accept responsibility and instructed the high command of the navy to keep the story a closely guarded secret. Commodore Doenitz had no choice but to order Lemp to remove the dangerous page from the U-30 logbook and replace it with another one that did not contain any mention of the sinking of the English ship, so when the standard eight copies of the logbook were prepared , though in no way leaked out.

Although the logbooks are considered classified documents, they were available for study for training purposes (as indicated by the number of copies), so there was no other way to hide the incident with "Athenia", which was dictated by the highest military and political leadership. This whole story was investigated in detail at the Nuremberg Tribunal and remained the only known case of deliberate distortion of the logbook.

But the Ministry of Propaganda of the Reich went even further and, without informing the naval command of its intentions, came out with a profound conclusion that the explosion of the infernal machine placed on the ship at the direction of the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Winston Churchill, led to the death of the Athenia, in order to corroborate the accusation that Germany was the first to break the rules of war at sea!

A direct consequence of the Athenia incident, which had an impressive effect on the entire first phase of the submarine war, was an order forbidding passenger ships to sink, no matter what country they belonged to, whether they served the enemy side or not, went alone or as part of a convoy. To these restrictions on the freedom of action of submarines, others were soon added, which did not contribute to success. Since Germany during the "strange war" with France did not open fire first, submarines were forbidden to attack French ships.

The severity of the restrictions that these orders imposed on the operations of the submarine fleet was difficult to understand at a time when, I remember, first, the British expeditionary force was deployed in full swing to France, although the submarines were free to operate in the Channel, and secondly, at night it was impossible to determine the nationality of the ships. The second order was canceled on November 24, 1939, and the first, which prohibited the sinking of passenger ships, remained in force until the summer of 1940.

Blockade and counter-blockade

From the earliest days of hostilities, submarine warfare against merchant ships - the "supply war" as it was called - was a response to the British blockade of Germany. Immediately after the outbreak of the war, Britain published an extensive list of goods considered to be smuggled. A few days later, Germany issued the same list, but since Britain controlled the adjacent seas, it was able to control the cargo of ships from neutral countries that were stationed in its ports. Germany could only organize a counter-blockade with the help of submarines, which intercepted ships at sea and took their cargo in the form of prizes; in addition, submarines (mainly) and aircraft laid minefields.

On November 27, 1939, Britain extended its blockade of Germany by introducing a complete ban on imports of goods from neutral countries into the country. To reinforce the ban, she established the Navitert system and agreed with neutral countries that British observers would control their trade.

Naturally, it was said that, although these measures would cause some damage to trade and restrict the rights of neutral countries, they would nevertheless save their ships and crews from danger, since they would provide more humane methods of warfare, because without these measures, ships would be confiscated. in the form of prizes right on the high seas. But in reality, the need to enter only strictly defined British ports exposed neutral ships and their crews to danger. The minefields protecting the approaches to the harbors did not meet their tasks, and Germany considered itself entitled to concentrate its attacks and laying minefields precisely on the paths that neutral ships were required to follow.

From the very first days of the war, British merchant ships were forced to follow the instructions of the Admiralty, violating the rights established by international law. Moreover, these ships were armed not only with self-defense weapons (in the eyes of the British, these were legal measures), but also with depth charges to destroy submarines. Faster ships, which at first did not participate in the convoys, were also equipped with special bomb throwers and Asdik systems. Therefore, the idea of distinguishing between defensive and offensive weapons, which Britain constantly insisted on before the war, but which was never officially implemented, now, in wartime, could not be realized any more.

The participation of British merchant ships in hostilities became more and more active. They were ordered to enter a blackout at night, radio immediately report the location of submarines they saw, and finally, as Churchill announced on October 1, 1939, their captains were instructed to ram the submarine when they met. In turn, the commanders of German submarines acquired the right in the future to attack without warning any merchant ship, if there was no doubt that it was armed. An addendum to this manual was released on October 17th. It clarified what was meant by "any enemy merchant court" and removed the mention of its weapons.

Thus, the submarines were not spared the danger of being attacked by "slow-moving vagabonds", on board of which, under cover, were batteries of guns. Such "trap ships" successfully sunk submarines during the First World War.

There remained the question of neutral ships with cargo for England. Getting to the surface, stopping the ship and examining it in search of contraband - all this became an extremely difficult and dangerous operation for submarines, at least in coastal areas saturated with ships, where the submarine was easy to spot and intercept. So with the beginning of the war, this procedure lasted only a month, and on September 30, 1939, this procedure was canceled.

Soon, on January 6, 1940, President Roosevelt was notified of the establishment of the Pan American Security Zone. Germany, on the other hand, identified "operational areas" in which any vessel encountered could be sunk. The first of these included the maritime area around the Shetland and Orkney Islands and off the east coast of Scotland.

Nevertheless, the steps of the Reich to expand the operational activities of the submarines ran into the growing effectiveness of the British defense. The existing technical devices were improved, more and more new ones appeared, the number of ships with specially trained teams of hunters for German submarines increased. According to British sources, Navy Captain F.J. Walker, who died in 1944 while commanding two escort groups, destroyed more than thirty German submarines. It was an outstanding example of offensive tactics in the defense of convoys. But the skill was acquired not only by patrol ships and other submarine hunters. Escort ships - cruisers, destroyers, later corvettes and frigates, and then the merchant ships themselves - constantly improved their skills of avoiding submarines and self-defense during torpedo attacks.

So the performance of the tasks facing the submarines became more and more dangerous. Increasing demands were made on the accuracy and consistency of the submarine crew's actions, on the skill and courage of each individual commander. The most dangerous enemy was aviation. At first, the only planes circling the sea were the bulky Sunderland flying boats, and they were easy to get away with a simple dive. Then, in addition to aircraft carriers, dry cargo ships and escort cruisers began to be equipped with landing pads, and finally, when fast modern coast-based aircraft with a range of at least six hundred miles appeared, the British coastal defense became enemy number one for German submarines.

Mining

In addition to the individual successes of submarines sinking enemy warships, in addition to their presence on the supply routes of Britain, surprisingly successful results were achieved in the first few months of the war. Even before Germany announced its operational areas, mining began. In this work, since it did not require a long stay at sea, small, 250 tons in displacement, class II boats were used - each of them carried six to eight mines instead of ordinary torpedoes.

The main mining areas lay to the west, in the northern and southern straits between England and Northern Ireland (North and St George's), at the Firth Clyde on the way to the English Channel, and in the east - on narrow shipping lanes along the English coast, protected from the sea by minefields, and especially in the estuaries of the Thames and Tyne. Having made their way through the holes in the defense network, the submarines could place mines on the shipping lanes, preferably in their narrowest places, next to the entrance buoys and, if possible, right at the entrance to the harbor.

It was common for half of the mines to find their targets. So, for example, six mines one after another damaged or sank three ships - an incredibly high percentage of luck. It was at this time that Lieutenant-Commander Shepke received the nickname Master Key from his friends, for he was more fortunate than the others, and his submarine laid mines in the most vulnerable places of enemy communications.

These mining operations cost extremely little losses, but as a result Britain had to re-trawl on what were considered safe fairways, which were now clogged with vessels. But despite all efforts to get rid of the mines, the losses continued, prompting protests from neutral countries.

At first, the enemy was bewildered by a new type of magnetic mines, but the principle of their action was soon clarified, and countermeasures were immediately taken. We will return to this later.

New submarine strategy

For a time, magnetic mines remained Germany's most effective blockade of Britain. This lasted until the combination of three new factors changed the entire strategy of submarine warfare.

The most important of these was the fall of France and the German occupation of French ports from Dunkirk to Bordeaux, which forced England to lay all overseas routes of communication along the main sea artery between northern Ireland and the west of Scotland, although Britain used to make extensive use of the English Channel, the Bristol Bay and the Strait of Saint Georg. At the same time, the coastal areas of Britain, including the western shores of Scotland, were reliably covered by aviation. Finally, when Germany declared certain areas where enemy ships would sink without warning as its field of operations, it gave submarines new freedom of action. Now they could attack at any time of the day, on the surface or submerged.

The first factor contributed to the shift of the center of gravity of enemy shipping further north. The second forced the submarines to operate to the west, and the lifting of restrictions on submarine warfare made it possible for Commodore Doenitz to use the tactics that he had created and worked out even before the war against the North Atlantic convoys. Finally, in contrast to the first months of the war, when, according to British data, 97 percent of all losses of merchant ships occurred during daylight hours, submarines now attacked both at night and on the surface. Thus, they minimized the danger of being pursued by enemy ships equipped with asdiq systems, hydrophones and depth charges.

Defective German torpedoes

From the outset of the war, submarine commanders often faced torpedo attack failures, even when it seemed impossible to miss the target. There was no need to look for the reasons for a long time: it was the defects of the German torpedoes.

The commanders themselves often understood what was the reason, but their complaints were always met with official answers that "the negative result is explained by inaccurate installation of the magnetic detonator, as a result of which the position of the submarine changes at the time of the shot in relation to the magnetic pole." But it turned out that the submarine commanders were right after all.

In addition to the so-called torpedo-A, operating on compressed air, which were used for firing from long distances and during night attacks, at the beginning of the war, torpedo-E (they appeared at the end of the First World War) with electric motors remained in service. If torpedo-A left a trail of air bubbles, which revealed the source of the attack and thereby allowed the enemy to evade danger, then torpedo-E did not leave a trace on the water, and when a new method of firing was used - “without ripples”, then their breakup was a complete surprise.

But in the head part of these torpedoes there were contact-type detonators - they, in their mass, were replaced by new, newly created remote magnetic fuses, which worked when they hit the ship's magnetic field and exploded under the bottom of the ship, in the most vulnerable place.

The advantages of such fuses were obvious. If the previous ones needed contact with the side of the ship, now the torpedo worked under the keel, even without contact with the hull. The explosion tore out a huge piece of the skin, there was practically no chance of salvation, and the ship quickly went to the bottom.

But remote magnetic detonators have also proven to be unreliable. The explosion of the charge occurred either prematurely, then with a delay, and sometimes it did not exist at all, and the torpedo-E, it happened, could not at all overcome the depth from which they were released. However, the main factor preventing the torpedoes from finding their targets was countermeasures taken by the enemy against magnetic mines, which the German naval command did not know at the time.

To reduce the voltage of the magnetic field that is constantly present on the ship's hull, the British braided it vertically and horizontally with electric cables, which periodically passed the current generated by the ship's generators - these methods were called "Remove Gauss" and "Erase". Both the one and the other so effectively reduced the magnetic field of the ship that the magnetic fuses of the torpedoes did not work.

The British battleship Worspite, stationed in Narvik, was attacked by German torpedoes at least five times, and each time the torpedoes missed the target.

On another patrol in November and December 1939, six torpedoes fired by Lieutenant Commander Prine's boat also missed their mark. And the rest of the submarines also had similar cases. The captains returning after the Norwegian campaign, verbally reporting to Doenitz about the failures of torpedo attacks, did not choose words and phrases until he made a categorical demand for the authorities to understand the reasons for torpedo failures; to do this was required to urgently and radically eliminate the cause of the malfunction.

The torpedo school immediately set to work, revealing the flaws. The magnetic fuse was removed from service and replaced with an old contact fuse. But even now, torpedoes often missed their mark.

It turned out that, in addition to low-quality magnetic fuses, the mechanism built into the torpedo that kept it at a depth also left much to be desired.

To assess the severity of such malfunctions, suffice it to say that in order to inflict maximum damage, the torpedo must hit the target as low as possible below the waterline. Any mistake in determining the depth may not sink the vessel, or, which quite often happens, the torpedo will miss the target altogether.

Until the summer of 1941, that is, until the moment when the defects of the magnetic fuse were finally eliminated, the submarine commanders had to deal with E torpedoes equipped with contact detonators.

Experience soon brought forth another difficulty. During practical shooting in peacetime, newly fired torpedoes were used, and the question of their combat effectiveness after storage did not arise. But now it turned out that after several weeks in the holds of a boat that went on patrol, they still need repairs. And to all the difficult duties of submarine commanders, the task of regularly checking all torpedo mechanisms was added. If the torpedo was already loaded into the torpedo tube, it was required to remove it by three-quarters of its length, recharge the batteries and check the accuracy of all its mechanisms every forty-eight hours.

While all of these measures helped to reduce torpedo failures and early or delayed firing of charges, the premature explosion of a torpedo fired by U-39 into the aircraft carrier Arc Royal, 150 miles west of the Hebrides on September 14, 1939, caused the first loss of a submarine. boats in this war.

The size and success of the submarine forces

In the period between the outbreak of the war and the late summer of 1940, when the French ports of the Atlantic became the bases of the submarine fleet, new boats coming off the stocks did not have time to replenish the losses, and the total number of submarines in service was constantly falling. During this period, the number of submarines capable of going out on patrol ranged from three to five, and a few days after Christmas 1940 there was only one boat at sea. The rest either stood at the docks, or prepared for the campaigns. But from spring to the end of 1941, the submarine fleet was replenished by ten boats a month, and then twenty boats and more entered service.

Nevertheless, by the summer of 1940, 2.5 million registered tons of the enemy had been sunk - at the expense of the loss of only seven boats. An impressive achievement. The accuracy of the first figure is confirmed by almost the same sunk tonnage data published after the war in England, as well as by scrupulous reports from submarine commanders (unlike Luftwaffe pilots).

If during operations in the Mid or South Atlantic, where ships often went without convoy and unarmed and submarine commanders almost always managed to identify a torpedo ship and stay on the surface until it sank, in more remote areas they encountered certain difficulties. The tonnage of the ship had to be determined by its vague outlines in the night, and the fate of the ship - by the place and nature of the torpedo explosion, as well as by the state of the ship in those few minutes while the boat was going to dive. In these circumstances, one cannot help but be surprised at the accuracy of the data on the sunk tonnage.

MILITARY ACTIONS OF PATROLES

Combat feats

One can hardly be proud of the first successful attack carried out by a submarine during the Second World War, but the second, which took place on 16 September 1939 off the west coast of Ireland, where Lieutenant-Commander Schuhardt sank the aircraft carrier Brave, was the first powerful blow subdivision of new submarines of the German Navy.

But decisive proof that submarines were once again, as they were twenty years ago, the most formidable weapon in the war against Britain, was provided by Lieutenant Commander Prien (then a lieutenant) when his U-47 penetrated into the heavily guarded main anchor anchorage of the British fleet at Scapa Flow and sank the battleship Royal Oak.

At the end of the First World War, attempts at such a raid were made twice, and both times the submarines died. Submarine command documents for September 1939 show that this project was brought to life again after accurate information about the conditions for the basing of ships in Scapa Flow came - it was delivered by German reconnaissance aircraft and the commander of a mini-submarine patrolling in this area. From September 8, active preparations for the raid began, led by Commodore Doenitz.

Kirk Sound is one of the narrowest passages in Scapa Flow; it was an offshoot of the larger Hill Sound. The sub's crew had the only opportunity to penetrate the strait by slipping past the patrol ships blocking it in the narrowest place. And if you pave the way skillfully and decisively, then it is quite possible that a small ship could overcome it.

It was decided that an attempt should be made, firstly, on the new moon, when there is almost complete darkness, and secondly, at high tide, which will help the submarine to enter the strait and then leave it. Both of these conditions were met by the night of October 13-14.

So, even if the boat has to swim up so as not to scratch the bottom, it will still try to penetrate the Scapa Flow water area on a tidal wave. She will have very little time to carry out an attack against large ships at anchorages, after which the boat will have to fight its way back to the exit, fighting the tidal current until it reaches its maximum head.

The tide in the Pentland Firth between Scotland and the Orkney Islands and in the smaller straits between the islands is very strong; its maximum speed is ten knots, while a class VII submarine squeezed out on the surface a maximum speed of fifteen to sixteen knots, in a submerged state it could hold seven knots for a short time, its cruising speed was three to four knots, and if it had to "crawl" without making a noise, the speed dropped even more. So that, on a powerful tidal wave, without letting the enemy know about your presence, with a turtle move, carry such a structure as a submarine along a narrow aisle, bypass two ships sunk in the most inappropriate places, all the time changing speed and direction in accordance with the pattern of the coast and the state of the river bed - all this required an extraordinary skill!

Gunther Prin was the perfect fit for such a murderous raid. Of all the submarine commanders who were in the ranks at that time, he had the most experience of sea voyages and, before coming to the submarine, served in the merchant fleet, where he received a captain's license. Moreover, he possessed such personal qualities that could ensure success: a cold head, nerves of steel, intelligence and, moreover, energy and courage.

But instead of plunging into the darkness of the new moon, the sky was brightly lit by the aurora on the night of the raid. However, Prien decided not to give up on the attempt. The tide has reached its most favorable phase, and if the attack is postponed, who can guarantee, he wondered, that the following nights will not be as bright from the auroras? In the meantime, the British fleet can withdraw from the anchorages and leave Scapa Flow.

Finally, the preparations were over, and his team froze in anticipation, ready to take action. The postponement of the operation will undoubtedly deprive the team of morale, and it may take several weeks to re-plan and prepare the attack, if it succeeds at all.

Changing course abruptly, Prien steered his U-47 on the surface along the narrow Kirk Sound. The low tide had already passed, and the tide was powerfully arriving inland. The submarine scratched the side of the second of the sunken ships, but there was no damage.

Penetrating Scapa Flow, Prien slowly moved to the southwest, where the main anchorage was located. It was empty. On the very day that U-47 lay at the bottom of the Pentland Firth, waiting for nightfall, the British fleet went to sea.

Having passed the defensive structures of Sound, Prien missed the British destroyer guarding the anchorage, and, changing course, went in search of the northern coast of Scapa Flow, where, for a start, he found two heavy ships standing side by side near the coast. From this angle it was difficult to see the outlines of the superstructures, but in one of them he recognized the Royal Oak. He mistook the other for "Repals", although later it turned out that it was the outdated aircraft carrier "Pegasus".

Despite the murderous glow of the aurora borealis — the waters of Scapa Flow, surrounded by tall, dark silhouettes of hills, glistened like a mirror — Prien floated almost to the surface and stabbed. Of the five torpedoes fired, only one hit the target, and from the submarine's bridge it seemed to hit the bow of the Royal Oak.

Oddly enough, after the explosion, which could not be doubted, the expected reaction from the defense did not follow, and for some time everything was calm. Having fired the last torpedo from the stern apparatus, Prien stepped back from the target and prepared for the second salvo of this most dangerous night operation. Slowly moving forward - not at full speed, as prudence and a pre-determined course of action would require - he did not go to Kirk Sound, beyond which lay the safety of the high seas, but stopped in the middle of the main anchorage of the British fleet, brightly lit by the flashes of the northern shine. Then he waited until the empty tubes of the torpedo tubes were loaded with five other torpedoes already equipped.

Twenty minutes later - a record time, but not for Prin, who stood at the exit of the enemy mousetrap, knowing that now the guards would double their vigilance - he was informed that the torpedo tubes were ready for battle, and he turned around for a new attack. This time, keeping at the same depth, he closed the range of the shot. A torpedo salvo hit the target, and the Royal Oak was thrown into the air by a monstrous explosion.

Now the enemy has finally reacted. Believing that the submarine was in no way able to penetrate the anchorage, the Scapa Flow defenses most likely assumed that the first explosion was not the result of a torpedo attack, but an explosion somewhere in the Royal Oak hold. Later, they changed their minds, and the sirens of aerial danger sounded in the air. In the meantime, the submarine "U-47" remained unnoticed, and no one was looking for it.

But now all of Scapa Flow was seething with feverish activity. Searchlights skimmed across the water, tracer bullets flying in low parabolas. The hunt for the impudent burglar began in earnest.

Meanwhile, the submarine turned to retreat. Destroyers appeared from the southeast. One of them walked at a sharp angle, cutting off the path to Kirk Sound. Scapa Flow flickered with the lights that the pursuit vessels winked at each other. Prien huddled ashore, heading for the southern end of Kirk Sound, so that the boat could hide in the thick shadow of the surrounding hills as it went. But the light on the raft of the destroyer was getting closer and closer ...

Suddenly, on the coastal road, a truck engine roared at full speed. He braked sharply, and the beam of his headlights slid over the gray hull and cone of the wheelhouse. But then the driver turned around and rushed in the direction from which he had arrived. Why? Did he notice the dark hull against the silvery background of the sea? Did you recognize him? What will happen now? Plagued by uncertainty, Prien stood on the bridge, listening to the water hiss and gurgles along the sides. Although both the diesel engine and the electric motors were working at full power, the boat at maximum speed could only with difficulty overcome the power of the tidal wave flying through the narrowness of the Sound, and the shore sailed behind the stern with weary unhurriedness.

Again the destroyer appeared nearby: the navigation lights on the mast illuminated its lean, hungry hound; the silhouette of the battleship loomed against the dim sky, cut by the flashes of aurora borealis. On the bridge the lights of the semaphore came to life - the lamps of Oldis. Did the destroyer signal to all the other hunters that it had found the low outline of a submarine breaking through the surf in front of it? The lookout on her bridge involuntarily closed his eyes, expecting the blinding beam of the searchlight from the destroyer, and then the orange panels of flame from its cannons ...

"Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye" No. 24, 2007 published an article by V. T. Kulinchenko "Take away gold with submarines" (Secret transport operations of submariners of the Third Reich). Here is a summary of this article.

Dozens of books and hundreds of articles have been written about the hostilities of the submarine fleet of the Third Reich. But much more modest is the list of printed works devoted to transport shipments, which were carried out with the help of German submarines. Meanwhile, they, for example, delivered Zeiss optics, instruments, weapons and German specialists to Japan. However, the transportation of such goods was not limited to ...

Uranium supplies

In Japan, even before the outbreak of the war in the Pacific in December 1941, work was carried out with uranium-235, but its reserves were not enough for full-fledged experiments. In 1943, a request was sent from Tokyo to Berlin for the allocation of two tons of uranium ore. At the end of the same year, a certain German submarine took on board one ton of this raw material. However, she did not reach her destination.

The number and fate of this submarine are still unknown. In all likelihood, it lies somewhere on the ocean floor. Until recently, it was believed that Nazi Germany did not send any more uranium to the Land of the Rising Sun. But it turned out that this is not so ...

When Hitler realized that the war against the USSR and Stalin's western allies was lost, he began to rely on any kind of "secret weapon". The Germans clearly did not have time with the creation of the atomic bomb. Perhaps, it was believed in Berlin, the Japanese would be able to do this if they were helped.

And on March 25, 1945, under cover of night, the U-234 submarine, loaded with half a ton of enriched uranium-235, quietly leaves Kiel. In addition to uranium, the submarine was carrying a disassembled Me-262 jet and parts of V-2 missiles. 0 only two people on the ship knew the objectives of the campaign - the commander Lieutenant Commander Johann-Heinrich Fechler and the second officer Karl-Ernst Pfaff.

U-234 was still on its way when Nazi Germany finally collapsed. Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz orders all German submarines at sea to surrender. Nevertheless, U-234 continued to follow its route across the Atlantic. The commander successfully evaded American and British anti-submarine forces, but soon realized that the submarine could no longer reach Japan. Fechler gathered his officers and asked the only question: what to do? The decision was made unanimously - to stop the campaign and capitulate.

On May 14, 1945, U-234 appeared on the radar screen of American destroyers. At a speed of 14 knots, the submarine approached the US Navy ships ...

Operation Tierra del Fuego

Even before 1944, Operation Tierra del Fuego began. Under cover of darkness on the piers of the North German bases, cordoned off by the SS, special envoys of the General Directorate of the Imperial Security Service (RSHA) controlled the loading of sealed boxes on submarines. They were housed in torpedo compartments and mined. If there was a danger of submarine capture in the ocean, this secret cargo would be blown up along with torpedoes. For this emergency, there was the strictest order, and Nazi fanatics from the SS special detachments were included in the submarine crews, on whom they could rely: they would rather go to the bottom than be captured.

The boxes on the submarines were filled with currency, gold, and jewelry. In the course of Operation Tierra del Fuego, the Nazis managed to smuggle truly gigantic wealth to South America, which the Spanish conquistadors never dreamed of. In addition to money, Argentina alone received 2511 kg of gold, 87 kg of platinum, and 4638 carats of diamonds. What did it all go for? There is no answer to this question yet.

Mystery of the submarine U-534

Only relatively recently it became known that during the Second World War there was a top-secret formation of German submarines, which received the name "Fuehrer's Convoy". It included 35 submarines.

At the end of 1944 in Kiel, torpedoes and other weapons were removed from the submarines included in the Fuehrer's Convoy, since they were strictly forbidden to engage in combat while sailing. Only unmarried sailors were selected for the crews of the submarines, who, in addition, did not have a single close relative alive. According to the instructions of Hitler and Dönitz, the submarine commanders must demand from each subordinate to give a "vow of eternal silence."

Containers with valuables and documents, huge reserves of provisions were loaded onto submarines from the "Fuehrer's Convoy". In addition, the submarines took on board mysterious passengers.

The commander of one of these U-977 submarines, Heinz Schaeffer, was captured. During numerous interrogations conducted by representatives of the American and British special services, he did not give out significant information about the submarines of the "Fuehrer's Convoy". The book of memoirs written by him in 1952 also did not contain anything sensational. But the fact that Schaeffer knew a certain secret confirms his letter addressed to the "old comrade" captain zur see (captain 1st rank) Wilhelm Bernhart, dated June 1, 1983: "... What will you achieve when you tell the truth about What was our mission? And who will suffer because of your revelations? Think about it!

Of course, you don't intend to do it just for the money. I repeat again: let the truth sleep with our submarines at the bottom of the ocean. This is my opinion ... ".

Was the letter talking about the "treasures of the Reich" or something else? It seemed that the answer to this question would be received after the discovery of the U-534 submarine at the bottom of the Danish Straits. Back in 1986-1987, all the newspapers in the world published materials about this sensational find by Augé Jensen, a Dane professionally engaged in the search for sunken ships. It was he who found the German submarine.

U-534, which left Kiel on May 5, 1945, transported, according to the media, a substantial part of the gold reserves of the Third Reich, secret German archives and about forty prominent Nazis. U-534 commander Herbert Knollau was ordered to head for Latin America. However, thousands of sea mines placed by the Allies along the coast of Germany and northern European countries prevented the submarine from sailing at night or underwater. The submarine was attacked by British aircraft near Anholt Island, where she sank at a depth of 60 meters. But 47 crew members managed to escape. It was they who later told about the cargo of U-534.

But the rise of the submarine was delayed. In 1993, they started talking about it again in connection with the U-534 project, developed by specialists from the Dutch company Smith Tak. One of its leaders, Vardlo, giving an interview to reporters in July 1993, said that work would begin in the near future to raise the submarine. "We talked with each of the nineteen living crew members," Vardlo said. "Unfortunately, everyone who was privy to the" cargo secret "and knew about the exact route of the submarine died long ago. there was nothing special. "

Another 14 years have passed, and U-534 has not been raised. Why? It is likely that there are still people, moreover influential, for whom the appearance of U-534 on the surface is not very desirable.

In this article, you will learn:

The submarine fleet of the Third Reich has an interesting history.

The defeat of Germany in the war of 1914-1918 brought her a ban on the construction of submarines, but after the coming of Adolf Hitler to power, it radically changed the situation with weapons in Germany.

Creation of the Navy

In 1935, Germany signed a naval agreement with Great Britain, which resulted in the recognition of submarines as obsolete weapons, and thus obtaining permission for their construction by Germany.

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

Karl Demitz

In the summer of the same 1935, the Führer appoints Karl Dönitz as the commander of all Reich submarines, in this post he was until 1943, when he was appointed commander-in-chief of the German Navy. In 1939 Dönitz was promoted to Rear Admiral.

He personally developed and planned many operations. A year later, in September, Karl becomes vice admiral, and a year and a half later 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 supercast "unsinkable Pinocchio" from his submarine subordinates, and he himself received the nickname "Papa Carlo". All submariners underwent intensive training, and knew the capabilities of their submarine thoroughly.

Dönitz's submarine 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 were lined up in such a way that one of the submarines could detect the approach of an enemy convoy. The submarine that found the enemy transmitted an encrypted message to the center, and then it continued its journey already on the surface, parallel to the enemy, but quite far behind him. The rest of the submarines were aimed at the center of the enemy convoy, and they surrounded him like a pack of wolves and attacked, taking advantage of the numerical superiority. Such hunts were usually carried out in the dark.

Building

The German Navy was armed with 31 combat and training flotilla of the submarine fleet. Each of the flotillas had a well-organized structure. The number of submarines included in a particular flotilla could change. Submarines were often withdrawn from one unit and brought into another. During combat missions to the sea, he was in command of one of the commanders of the operational group of the submarine fleet, and in cases of very important operations, control was taken over by the commander of the submarine fleet Befelshaber der Unterseebote.

Throughout the war, Germany built and fully manned 1,153 submarines. During the war fifteen submarines were withdrawn 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, stood at the docks.

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

Requirements

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

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

During the battle in the Atlantic, the seventh series of submarines was used, which were originally developed by Finland, they were considered the most reliable, since they were equipped with snorkels - a device thanks to which it was possible to charge the battery under water. In total, more than seven hundred of them were built. To conduct combat in the ocean, submarines of the ninth series were used, since they had a long range and could even sail to the Pacific Ocean without refueling.

Complexes

The construction of a huge submarine flotilla meant the construction of a complex of defensive structures. It was planned to build powerful concrete bunkers with fortifications 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 the Norwegian Bergen and Trondheim and the French Brest, Lorient, Saint-Nazaire, Bordeaux.

In Bremen, Germany, a plant for the production of series 11 submarines was equipped; it was equipped 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 Indonesian Jakarta and Japanese Kobe.

Armament

The main weapons of Dönitz's submarines were torpedoes and mines, the effectiveness of which was constantly increasing. Also, the submarines were equipped with artillery guns of 88-mm or 105-mm caliber, and anti-aircraft guns with a caliber of 20 mm could also be installed. However, starting in 1943, the artillery guns were gradually removed, since the effectiveness of the deck gun significantly decreased, but the danger of an air attack, on the contrary, forced the power of anti-aircraft weapons to be increased. For the effectiveness of 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 the fleet to be re-equipped.

Fighting

Submarines took part in combat operations in 1939-1945 in 68 operations. During this time, 149 enemy warships were sunk by submarines, of which two battleships, three aircraft carriers, five cruisers, eleven destroyers and many other ships, with a total tonnage of 14879472 gross register tons.

Drowning Korejges

The first major victory of the wolf pack was the sinking of the aircraft carrier Koreyges. This happened in September 1939, the aircraft carrier was sunk by the U-29 submarine under the command of Lieutenant Commander Shewhart. After the sinking of the aircraft carrier, the submarine was chased by the accompanying destroyers for four hours, but the U-29 was able to slip out, almost without damage.

Destruction of the 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 entered the British naval base in Skala Flow. After this raid, the British fleet had to be relocated to another location for six months.

Arc Royal Defeat

The torpedoing of the Ark Royal aircraft carrier was another resounding victory for Dönitz's submarines. 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 aircraft carrier "Ark Royal" was hit, at first the British hoped that they could tow the damaged aircraft carrier, but this did not work, and the "Ark Royal" sank.

From the beginning of 1942, German submariners began to conduct military operations in the territorial waters of the United States. 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 stock of torpedoes on the submarine, so the U-552 submarine sank seven American ships in one exit.

Legendary divers

The most successful submariners of the Third Reich were Otto Kretschmer and Captain Wolfgang Lut, who managed to sink 47 ships each with a tonnage of over 220 thousand tons. The most productive was the U-48 submarine, whose crew sank 51 ships, with a tonnage of about 305 thousand tons. The longest time in the voyage was the submarine U-196, under the command of Eitel-Friedrich Kentrat, which stayed on the voyage for 225 days.

Equipment

For communication with the submarines, radiograms were used, encrypted on a special encryption machine "Enigma". Great Britain made every possible effort to obtain this device, since it was impossible to decipher the texts in another way, however, as soon as the opportunity arose to steal such a machine from a captured submarine, the Germans first of all destroyed the device and all encryption documents. However, they still managed to do this after the capture of 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 damage the submarine was forced to surface, the Germans planned to escape from the submarine and sink it, but they did not manage to sink it, so the boat was captured by the British, and the Enigma fell into their hands and magazines with codes and maps of minefields. In order to keep the secret about the capture of the Enigma, the entire surviving crew of submariners was rescued from the water, the boat itself was soon sunk. The ciphers obtained allowed the British to keep abreast of German radiograms until 1942, until the Enigma was complicated. The capture of encrypted documents aboard U-559 helped break this cipher. She was attacked by British destroyers in 1942 and taken in tow; a new variation of the Enigma was also found there, but the submarine began to quickly sink to the bottom and the encryption machine, along with two British sailors, drowned.

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 conducted combat operations in 1942-1944. The Germans lost several of their submarines due to the presence of defects in the structure of the submarines themselves. So the submarine U-377, went 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 subdivision of submarines, called the "Fuehrer's Convoy". The secret group consisted of 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 "Fuehrer's 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 an unknown secret cargo and two secret passengers to South America. Some of the submarines of this "ghost convoy" were never found after the war, and there was almost no mention 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 drowned them. Even the installation of the latest torpedoes on the 13th 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.

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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

Target - Britain

By the fall of 1939, Germany possessed a very modest, albeit technically advanced, navy. Against 22 British and French battleships and cruisers, she was able to deploy only two full-fledged battleships "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" and three so-called "pocket" - "Deutschland", "Graf Spee" and "Admiral Scheer". The latter carried only six 280 mm guns - despite the fact that at that time the new battleships were armed with 8-12 305-406 mm guns. Two more German battleships, the future legends of the Second World War "Bismarck" and "Tirpitz" - total displacement of 50,300 tons, speed 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 team 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 for transport caravans and individual enemy warships.

"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, in September 1939, the German submarine fleet (U-Bootwaffe) sank 41 ships with a total tonnage of 153,879 tons. Among them - the British liner "Athenia" (which became the first victim of German submarines in this war) and the aircraft carrier "Koreyges". Another British aircraft carrier, Arc-Royal, survived only due to the fact that 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 submarine under the command of Lieutenant Commander Günther Prien entered the raid of the British military base Scapa Flow (Orkney Islands) and launched the Royal Oak battleship to the bottom.

True, given the losses and the need to repair submarines damaged during the cruise, Germany could simultaneously put forward a limited number of submarines ready for the cruise - only by the middle of the war their number exceeded a hundred.

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 discovery of the convoy, a group of submarines was concentrated parallel to its course. After making the first attack, she then overtook the convoy and turned to position for a new attack.

The best of the best

To counteract, the Allies concentrated over 3,000 warships and auxiliary ships, about 1,400 aircraft, and by the time of the landing in Normandy 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 good luck. And some did not return at all. If in 1940 twenty-three submarines were lost, and in 1941 - thirty-six submarines, then in 1943 and 1944 the losses increased, respectively, to two hundred and fifty and two hundred and 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 sunk by them, which proved the high efficiency of the submarine fleet.

After that, 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 notorious Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock - 25 ships with a total displacement of 183 253 tons, which, together with his U-96, became a character in the feature film "U-Boot" ("Submarine"). By the way, he was not killed during the air raid. After the war, Lehmann-Willenbrock served as a captain in the merchant fleet and distinguished himself in the rescue of the dying Brazilian bulk carrier "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 campaigns (but with a different crew) and after the war was turned into a technical museum.

The Flying Dutchmen

In 1983, German director Wolfgang Petersen directed Das U-Boot based on the novel of the same name by Lothar-Gunther Buchheim. A large part of the budget covered the cost of reconstructing the historically accurate details. Photo: Bavaria Film

Famed in the U-Boot movie, the U-96 submarine belonged to the illustrious Series VII that formed the basis of the U-Bootwaffe. In total, seven hundred and eight units of various modifications were built. Its pedigree "seven" led from the boat UB-III during the First World War, inheriting its pros and cons. On the one hand, in the submarines of this series, the useful volume was saved as much as possible, which entailed a terrible crowding. On the other hand, they were distinguished by the extreme simplicity and reliability of the design, which more than once rescued the sailors.

On January 16, 1935, Deutsche Werft received an order for the construction of the first six submarines of this series. As a result, its main parameters - 500 tons of displacement, cruising range of 6250 miles, immersion depth of 100 meters - improved several times. The basis of the boat was a strong 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 the history of the submarine, 674 units were produced) already reached 28 mm in the central part and up to 22 mm at the ends. Thus, the VII-C hull was designed for depths of up to 125-150 meters, but it could dive up to 250, which was inaccessible for the Allied submarines, diving only 100-150 meters. In addition, such a sturdy hull could withstand hits from 20 and 37 mm shells. The cruising range of this model has grown to 8250 miles.

For immersion, 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" under the water 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 with the latest modifications - up to 12,400. But in addition, the boats could refuel on the voyage from special submarine tankers (IXD series).

The heart of the boats - two six-cylinder diesels - together produced 2800 hp. and accelerated the ship on the surface to 17-18 knots. Under the water, the submarine was driven by Siemens electric motors (2x375 hp) with a maximum speed of 7.6 knots. Of course, this was not enough to get away from the destroyers, but it was quite enough to hunt slow and clumsy transports. The main weapon of the "sevens" were five 533-mm torpedo tubes (four bow and one stern), which "fired" from a depth of up to 22 meters. Torpedoes G7a (steam-gas) and G7e (electric) were most often used as "shells". The latter was significantly inferior in cruising range (5 kilometers versus 12.5), but did not leave behind a characteristic trace on the water, but 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 the help of which the torpedo wrote out a "snake" or attacked with a turn up to 130 degrees. With the same torpedoes they fought off the destroyers who were pressing on the tail - fired from the stern apparatus, she walked towards them "head to head", 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 at the time of passage under the bottom of the ship. And from the end of 1943, the T4 acoustic homing torpedo entered service, which could be fired without aiming. True, at the same time, the submarine itself had to stop the propellers or quickly go to a depth so that the torpedo did not return.

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