SM U 38

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SM U 38
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German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge)
U 38
Technical specifications
Submarine type: Two-hull ocean-going boat
Series: U 31 - U 41
Displacement: 680 tons (above water)
870 tons (under water)
Length: 64.70 m
Width: 6.32 m
Max. Diving depth: 50 m
Drive: Diesel engines 2 × 925 PS
E-machines 2 × 550 PS
Armament 2 bow tubes / 2 stern tubes / 6 torpedoes
1 × 10.5 cm (artillery)
Crew: 4 officers
35 men
Speed: 16.5 knots (above water)
9.5 knots (under water)
Calls: 21 patrols
Successes: 137 ships with a total of 299,985 GRT (excluding warships)
Whereabouts: Delivered to France on February 23, 1919, broken up in Brest in July 1921

SM U 38 was a German submarine of the Imperial Navy .

history

SM U 38 was commissioned on June 12, 1912 and laid down in the Germania shipyard in Kiel. The launch took place on September 9, 1914, the delivery on December 15, 1914.

Calls

On August 4, 1915, U 38 ran from Heligoland on its sixth patrol. Together with U 27 , it was intended for a special task. Three German prisoners of war were to be taken on board on the north coast of Wales . They had escaped from their camp at Denbigh , only 40 miles from the coast. The whole action had been prepared for a long time through a secret exchange of messages with the leader of the submarines (FdU), Frigate Captain Hermann Bauer . On the night of August 14th to 15th, 1915, Lieutenant von Hennig (Commander of U 18 ) and Tholens (First Officer of SMS Mainz ), along with an army officer, were to be picked up by a submarine. On the evening of August 13, U 38 and U 27 met in Liverpool Bay . Both commanders agreed that U 38 should carry out the task. U 27 (Kapitänleutnant Bernd Wegener ) ran south through the St. George's Channel to continue the trade war. Six days later it fell, west of the Isles of Scilly , the Q-Ship HMS Baralong victim (see baralong incidents ).

At the agreed time, U 38 waited in vain off the north Welsh coast at Great Ormes Head. The next night, Lieutenant Max Valentiner made a second attempt, which also failed. It wasn't until twelve years later that it turned out that the three German officers were at the meeting point at the right time. A rock jutting out into the sea divides the beach at Great Ormes Head into two bays. Unfortunately, the submarine had been waiting in front of the other bay than the one in which the three refugees were staying. Although the two parties were only a hundred meters apart and repeatedly gave light signals, they could not see each other. The three Germans were caught again that same night. U 38 now continued the journey. It came in again on August 29 and sank a total of 22 steamers, five fish steamers and three sailors with 74,194 GRT. It was the most successful war voyage in the waters around Great Britain .

The seventh voyage (October 20 - November 11, 1915) took U 38 , at the request of the commander, into the Mediterranean , where the boat came to the U-Flotilla Pola . This time 14 ships with 47,460 GRT were sunk. The next operations took place from the bases in Cattaro and Pola . Among them was an unusual order: On December 9, 1915 left U 38 Cattaro to supply the Islamic Senussi - the Order of material and personnel. The Senussi fought in the Libyan desert against the British and Italian colonial powers, which was in the interests of the Central Powers . For this purpose, U 38 towed the smaller submarine UC 12 loaded with cargo . In the Strait of Otranto , the tow had to be released due to enemy surface forces. The two boats could not find each other afterwards, so U 38 continued its journey alone to finally reach Bardia on the Libyan coast.

Later, U 38 to Mediterranean Division by Konstantin Opel laid. From there, the boat made two trips in the Black Sea in the summer of 1916 , but they were unsuccessful. The 13th patrol took U 38 back to Cattaro on September 7, 1916, with a further 24 ships with 50,113 GRT being sunk. On the next mission, the boat pushed into the Atlantic. The French gunboat Surprise and the French submarine transporter Kanguroo were sunk in the roadstead of Funchal ( Madeira ) . To save fuel, Valentiner had his boat towed by the Norwegian prize of Solvang at times . On December 23, 1916, U 38 entered Cattaro again. In addition to the Surprise and the Kanguroo , it had sunk 12 merchant ships of 31,710 GRT. Valentiner was awarded the Pour le Mérite three days later . After the 18th voyage, he gave up command of U 38 in September 1917. With this boat he had sunk 134 merchant ships with 290,282 GRT and a warship with 627 t.

U 38 made three more patrols by the end of the war. A total of 137 merchant ships with 299,985 GRT and one warship with 627 t were sunk on 21 patrols. Only U 35 and U 39 were even more successful.

Victims of U 38 (selection)

  • The liner Armenian (8825 GRT)
  • Together with U 20 the horse transporter Anglo-Californian (7333 GRT)
  • The French troop carrier France IV (4025 BRT)
  • The British troop carrier Eloby (6545 BRT)
  • The Italian passenger ship Ancona (8210 GRT)
  • The liner steamer Persia (7974 GRT)
  • The Clan Macfarlane (4823 GRT)
  • The Glengyle (9395 GRT)
  • The Coquet (4396 GRT)
  • The Japanese liner Yasaka Maru (10,932 GRT)
  • The British steamer Springwell with 5593 tons sunk on February 9, 1916 .
  • On November 25, 1916, the Greek steamer Michael sunk with 2,410 tons.
  • On November 26, 1916, the US steamer Chemung sunk with 2,615 tons.
  • On December 4, 1916, the French gunboat Surprise (627 t) sunk
  • The French steamer Datia sunk on December 4th, 1916 .
  • On December 4th, 1916, the submarine mother ship Kanguroo sunk

Commanders

  • Max Valentiner - December 5, 1914 to September 15, 1917
  • Wilhelm Canaris - September 16 to November 15, 1917
  • Hans-Heinrich Wurmbach - November 16, 1917 to January 18, 1918
  • Clemens Wickel - January 19 to November 11, 1918

literature

  • Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. License issue. Manfred Pawlak Verlags GmbH, Herrschingen 1990, ISBN 3-88199-687-7 .
  • Bodo Herzog, Günter Schomaekers: Knights of the deep, gray wolves. The most successful submarine commanders in the world. 2nd expanded, supplemented and corrected edition. Verlag Welsermühl, Wels et al. 1976, ISBN 3-85339-136-2 .
  • Max Valentiner : 300,000 tons sunk! My submarine rides. Ullstein, Berlin et al. 1917 ( Ullstein-Kriegsbücher 29, ZDB -ID 1037532-6 ).
  • Max Valentiner: The Horror of the Seas. My submarine adventures. Amalthea-Verlag, Leipzig et al. 1931.
  • Max Valentiner: U 38. Viking trips of a German submarine. Ullstein, Berlin 1934.

Web links

Commons : SM U 38  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Werner Neulen: Feldgrau in Jerusalem . 2nd edition, Munich: Universitas, 2002, p. 102. ISBN 3-8004-1437-6