Submarine trap
Submarine traps , also known as Q-Ships , Decoy Vessels , Special Service Ships or Mystery Ships , were ships that were used by Great Britain to fight German submarines , especially during the First World War . For this purpose they hid their sometimes heavy armament behind false deck structures and the like, giving the impression of being unarmed, sometimes even neutral (merchant) ships. An attacking submarine, which - like, at the beginning of World War common than the naval war on the German side still in compliance with the Prize Ordinance was passed - the Q-boat surfaced stopped to it and finally to sink to browse, to take over the occupation there, was instead attacked by his alleged victim himself. The term Q-Ship is derived from the Irish port city of Queenstown , from which many of these submarine traps operated.
background
The use of such a weapon pursues, in addition to the obvious objective of destroying enemy submersibles, the purpose of forcing a certain tactic on the enemy.
In a trade war in which submersibles fight merchant ships, the attackers had the advantage until the introduction of special tactics, technical aids and units.
The use of submarine traps seeks to disrupt this advantage by forcing the submersible underwater, where their range and efficiency are severely limited. Until shortly before the end of the Second World War (introduction of submarine class XXI and snorkel boats), the vehicles generally known as “submarines” were actually diving boats, that is, ships that went on the water surface whenever possible and only dived occasionally.
Having to attack under water, since every attack exposed exposes the boat to the risk of an attack, the respective submersible boats in large numbers pushing into a so-called " Unrestricted submarine war ". Under this doctrine, which, for example, Germany used in both and the USA in World War II, all ships in a certain area are attacked without detailed examination, which can quickly lead to errors, such as attacking neutral ships or enemy ships that are not attacked should be. Examples of this are the sinking of the RMS Lusitania and the Athenia . During the Pacific War , for example, Japanese troop transports that had American prisoners of war on board were torpedoed by American submersibles.
First World War
Great Britain
In 1915, Great Britain looked for a way to defend itself against German submarines that threatened maritime trade . The possibility of forming convoys was very limited due to the lack of suitable warships. Therefore, the idea was developed to use seemingly old, almost unseaworthy steamers , which should appear as a target easily submerged by artillery , to make German submarines surface and then to sink the vulnerable boats. This tactic promised success, since torpedoes were very expensive and submarines also had only a small torpedo capacity ( U 1 had three torpedoes on board, U 20 six). Unarmed ships were therefore mostly sunk with the on-board artillery, which at times, with the U-cruisers , was even very strong. Sometimes the Q-ships were even disguised as vessels of neutral nations, as these submarines from possible sinking of prize law to be stopped and searched had. For example, the U 27 and U 41 were sunk by the British submarine trap HMS Baralong , which pretended to be an American and therefore neutral ship.
In the event of a torpedo fire, submarine traps were usually loaded with wood, empty barrels and similar buoyant material, so that hours often passed before they went under. This should force submarines to surface after all and give the trap the opportunity to shoot down. Should this not work either, part of the crew, the so-called “Panic Party”, disembarked in mock wild panic in order to convince the submarine crew of the “authenticity” of the ship. Another conception of a U-trap envisaged a trawler that towed a submerged submarine. In the event of an attack, the target coordinates were passed on to the submarine via a telephone connection, which in turn was supposed to torpedo the attacking boat.
On June 23, 1915, U 40 was the first submarine to be sunk by a submarine trap consisting of the Taranaki trawler and the HMS C24 submarine. Overall, however, the success of the British submarine traps can be classified as rather low. Of 178 sunk German submarines, only 14 were verifiably destroyed by submarine traps, and another 60 were damaged. Of the 200 British submarine traps, however, 27 were sunk in return, and a Q-Ship sank its own British submarine, HMS J6 .
German Empire
The German auxiliary cruisers like Möwe or Wolf were not submarine traps. A total of five German submarine traps operated in the Baltic Sea, which were combined in the trade protection flotilla. The ship K , Crown Prince Wilhelm , was able to severely damage the Russian submarine Gepard in 1916 . The ship H , Hermann , was sunk by Russian destroyers during a convoy battle in June 1916 . Another submarine trap, which presumably also operated in the Baltic Sea, was the auxiliary ship A , the steamer Alexandra .
On the Doggerbank 1916-1917 the special group Schlieder operated under Oberleutnant zur See Viktor Schlieder (1889-1917) with the three outpost boats Bismarck , Kehdingen and Dithmarschen , which were disguised as Dutch fish steamer , unsuccessfully as submarine traps. In 1916/17 the Imperial Navy used two three-masted gaff schooners , the Belmonte and the Friedeburg , under the cover names Antje and Anna as submarine traps. Details are not known.
German submarines sunk by submarine traps
| Boat no. | date | Submarine trap | place | comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U 37 | April 1915 | unknown submarine trap | English Channel | controversial; no details |
| U 40 | June 23, 1915 | Towing train Taranaki - HMS C 24 | North Sea | |
| U 23 | July 20, 1915 | Towing train Prinzess Luise - HMS C 27 | North Sea | |
| U 36 | July 24, 1915 | Prince Charles | Shetland Islands | |
| UB 4 | August 15, 1915 | Inverlyon | English Channel | |
| U 27 | August 19, 1915 | Baralong | irish south coast | |
| U 41 | September 24, 1915 | Wyandra ex Baralong | Isles of Scilly | |
| U 68 | March 22, 1916 | Farnborough | southwest of Ireland | |
| UB 13 | April 24, 1916 | Telesia ; Mine trawl | controversial | |
| UC 3 | May 26, 1916 | Hobbyhawk ( Telesia ); Mine trawl | ||
| UB 19 | November 30, 1916 | Penshurst | English Channel | |
| UB 37 | January 14, 1917 | Penshurst | English Channel | |
| U 83 | February 17, 1917 | Farnborough | southwest of Ireland | |
| UC 18 | February 19, 1917 | Lady Olive | English Channel | Submarine trap sank a few hours later |
| U 85 | March 12, 1917 | Privet | English Channel | |
| UB 39 | May 17, 1917 | Glen | English Channel | controversial |
| UC 29 | June 7, 1917 | Pargust | southwest of Ireland | |
| U 88 | September 17, 1917 | Glenfoyle | North Sea | controversial |
| UB 63 | January 28, 1918 | WS Bailey | North Sea | controversial |
| U 34 | November 9, 1918 | Privet and destroyer | Strait of Gibraltar | last German warship loss in World War I (controversial) |
| Sources: Rehder: U-Bootsfallen , p. 156; Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 , p. 127 | ||||
British submarine traps lost in World War I
- King Stephan , April 25, 1916 North Sea by submarine
- Remembrance , August 14, 1916 by U 38 in the Mediterranean
- Fame , November 19, 1916 due to a collision in the North Sea
- Perugia , December 3, 1916 by U 63 in the Gulf of Genoa
- Kent County , December 8, 1916 by submarine mine off Lowestoft
- Lady Olive , February 19, 1917 by UC18 in the English Channel
- Warner , March 13, 1917 by U 61 off the Irish west coast
- Margit , April 4, 1917 by submarine in the Mediterranean
- Lady Patricia , May 20, 1917 by U 46 in the Atlantic
- Zylpha , June 15, 1917 by U 82 south west of Ireland
- Salvia (sloop) June 20, 1917 by U 94 west of Ireland
- Bayard , June 29, 1917 due to a collision in the English Channel
- Mona , 4th July 1917 mistakenly blown up by its own occupation in the Mediterranean
- Asama , July 16, 1917 by U-boat at Quessant sunk
- Bracondale , August 7, 1917 by U 44 in the Atlantic
- Dunraven , August 10, 1917 by UC 71 entering the English Channel
- Bergamot (Sloop), August 13, 1917 by U 84 in the Atlantic
- Else , August 14, 1917 by submarine in the Atlantic
- Ethel and Millie , August 15, 1917 by UC 63 in North Sea
- Nelson , August 15, 1917 likewise
- Bradford City , August 16, 1917 by submarine in the Strait of Messina
- Vala , August 20, 1917 by UB 54 in the Atlantic
- Glenfoyle , September 18, 1917 by submarine in the Atlantic
- Begonia (Sloop), October 1917, probably sunk in the Atlantic by submarine
- Peveril , November 6, 1917 by submarine outside the Strait of Gibraltar
- Candytuft (Sloop), November 18, 1917 by submarine in the Mediterranean
- Arbutus (sloop) December 16, 1917 by UB 65 in the Bristol Channel
- Wellholme , January 30, 1918 by K-boat in the English Channel
- Westphalia , February 11, 1918 by U 97 Irish Sea
- Brown Mouse , February 28, 1918 burned in Lyme Bay , English Channel
- Willow Branch , April 25, 1918 by submarine cruisers east of Cape Verde Islands
- Ocean Fisher , June 16, 1918 by submarine mine in North Sea
- Stockforce , July 30, 1918 by submarine in the English Channel
- MJ Headley capsized while coal in Cardiff Harbor October 4, 1918
Second World War
Submarine traps were also used in World War II, but they could not repeat the successes from World War I. The Royal Navy was preparing for war broke out ten ships according to who could submerge any submarine, three of these ships fell, however submarine attack victim.
The United States Navy , which was surprised by the German company Paukenschlag after entering the war in December 1941 , also used submarine traps. After rapidly increasing losses, the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Fleet asked the Commander of the Eastern Sea Frontier to specially equip several ships in order to be able to use them against submarines. This resulted in the "Project LQ".
Five ships were turned into submarine traps:
- the fishing boat MS Wave , which first became the auxiliary minesweeper USS Eagle and then the USS Captor ,
- the cargo ships SS Evelyn and SS Carolyn (two sister ships) that became USS Asterion and USS Atik ,
- the tanker SS Gulf Dawn , which became the USS Big Horn , and
- the schooner Irene Myrtle , which became the USS Irene Forsyte .
However, these five ships were completely unsuccessful. Only the Atik met the submarine U 123 on March 27, 1942 , which had arrived off the American coast under its commander Reinhard Hardegen . U 123 torpedoed the Atik and then emerged to sink the supposed merchant ship with the on-board cannon. The Q ship immediately opened fire, whereupon U 123 carried out an alarm diving maneuver. The Atik stopped to take her "Panic Party" back on board, which enabled the submarine to sink the submarine trap with a second underwater attack. The battle cost all 141 crew members of the Atik their lives, the damage to the submarine was so minor that it could continue its patrol . Only one ensign from U 123 was seriously injured by the Atik gunfire and died shortly after the Atik was sunk .
Q ships, including the USS Anacapa , were also used in the Pacific .
Shortly after this failure and the finding that the other American submarine traps were hardly seaworthy, the use of the other Q-ships was stopped.
Navy
The German Navy , especially in the early years of the war, converted at least 13 former merchant or fishing ships into submarine traps under the general designation special ships .
| Ship number | Surname |
|---|---|
| 7th | Seagull (Aug - Oct 1939) |
| 8th | Birka |
| 12 | Dr. Heinrich Wiegand (TSK 6) |
| 13 | Mob-FD Saturn (1940) |
| 17th | Alster (TSK 1) |
| 19th | Rila |
| 24 | Mob FD Mars |
| 27 | Messina (TSK 3) |
| 29 | Lola (June - August 1944) |
| 31 | Mob-FD Jupiter |
| 35 | Oldenburg (TSK 5) |
| 40 | Schürbeck (TSK 2) |
| 43 | Capri (TSK 4) |
literature
- Tony Bridgland: Sea Killers in Disguise. The story of the Q-Ships and Decoy Ships in the First World War. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1999, ISBN 1-55750-895-X
- Gordon Campbell : My mystery ships , London (Hodder & Stoughton) 1928. German translation by Edgar Spiegel von und zu Peckelsheim as Wir jagen deutsche U-Boats , Gütersloh (Bertelsmann) 1937.
- Bodo Herzog : German U-Boats 1906–1966 . Karl Müller, Erlangen 1993, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 .
- Jacob Rehder: U-boat traps. With 12 illustrations and sketches, lists of the submarines that fell victim to the submarine traps and the lost submarine traps , Munich (Lehmann) 1935.
- Bernd Schwarz: The German submarine traps of the First World War , in: Strandgut. Materials for Shipping History , No. 5, 1984, pp. 137–152.
- David Greentree / Peter Dennis: Q Ship vs U-Boat: 1914-18 , Osprey Publishing 2014. ISBN 978-1-78200-284-0
Movies
- Heroes of the Untersee (Q-Ships), GB 1928, directed by Geoffrey Barkas , Michael Barringer .
- Morgenrot , D 1933, directed by Gustav Ucicky
- Seas Beneath , USA 1931, directed by John Ford .
- Suicide Fleet , USA 1931, directed by Albert S. Rogell .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Sources: Rehder: U-Bootsfallen , p. 157; Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 , p. 128.
- ↑ Kenneth M. Beyer: Q-Ships versus U-Boats. America's Secret Project. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, USA, 1999, ISBN 1-55750-044-4 .
- ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/km/schiff-x.htm
- ↑ Ship 43 was initially supposed to be the Falkenberg steamer , but it turned out to be unsuitable.