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            Conning tower emblem U-9
SHARKHUNTERS International
History of the German submarine U-9

Much of this information, the data, the photos etc. comes directly from the veterans, the veterans' organizations and is the most accurate available anywhere..............much of this information is not even known elsewhere.
 

U-9 pre-war	U-9 at sea early in the war

                    No men lost

Commanders of U-9 include:

    
                 Lüth

      NOTE - Sharkhunters Member's names and Membership Number appear in bold capital letters.

*  Wolfgang Lüth was the second most successful combat submarine commander of World War II and he earned the Knights Cross with Oak Leaf, Crossed Swords and Diamonds.  He was the first U-Bootfahrer to earn this very high award.  More than a week after the end of the war, he was walking from the headquarters of Großadmiral Karl Dönitz in the naval academy at Flensburg/Mürwick late at night.  In the dark, the sentry challenged for the password.  Deep in thought, Lüth did not hear the sentry and so did not return the password.  Following the standing orders put in place by Lüth himself - the sentry fired, killing Wolfgang Lüth instantly.  A Board of Inquiry quickly cleared the sentry of any wrongdoing.  A rumor persisted that Lüth was so despondent at the crushing defeat of the Third Reich that he deliberately did not return the password, thereby wanting to be shot dead.  Korvettenkapitän REINHARD HARDEGEN (102-LIFE-1985) knew Lüth quite well and he told us that this was not true - Lüth did not want to die; he was just so deep in thought that he did not hear the sentry.  It was one of those terrible wartime accidents known as 'Friendly Fire'.

**  When Deecke was in command of U-584, he put four agents ashore in June 1942 at Ponte Vedre Beach, Florida (by Jacksonville) as the second half of Operation PASTORIUS, the plan to disrupt aluminum and aircraft production in the USA.

U-9 was initially attached to U-Bootflottille Weddigen then to the 1st U-Bootflottille based then in Kiel.  She had several mine laying operations in the North Sea - in particular off Cromarty Firth on 10 February 1940.  She operated off Norway in April 1940 during the Norway Invasion.  She operated off Holland in May 1940 then in October 1942, she was decommissioned, disassembled and taken by truck over the Autobahn then by barge down the Donau (Danube) river to Romania where she was rebuilt, recommissioned on 28 October 1942 and attached to the 30th U-Bootflottille operating in the Black Sea.
 

                  SHIPS SUNK BY U-9 (Lüth commanding)

FLANDRIA	SIGURD FAULBAUMS

*    SAN TIBURCO struck a mine in the field laid by U-9 over the night 9/10 February 1940.
**  SIGURDS FAULBAUMS was a German ship that had been captured by the British.
               She was en route to England as a Prize of War when she was sunk by Lüth.
 

                  SHIPS ATTACKED BY U-9 (Petersen commanding)

+      Small fishing boat sunk by 20mm gunfire
++    Fired GNAT and observed large explosion after two minutes thirty-one seconds in a small convoy.  There
            was a heavy oil smell in the area the next day.  Post war records indicate that this was probably the
            Torpedoboat ZASCITNIK (T-411) but it is possible that it was a damaging hit of the Torpedoboat STORM.
+++   U-9 saw one torpedo hit and explode on the bow of the ship.  No confirmation.

On 25 May 1944, they fired at a large ship of 9,000 tons and heard an explosion after eleven and a half minutes.  There was no confirmation and this was probably an end-of-run detonation.
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Deepest thanks to our friends at the U-Bootskameradschaft Kiel for allowing us to bring their sacred book containing the names of all 28,863 U-Bootfahrer who were lost in action during World War II here to the USA where we carefully copied all the names of the fallen and list them here on our site.  Ours is the only website in the world that lists all these names.
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Many thanks to our friend and Sharkhunters Member since 1987 GEORG HÖGEL for all the conning tower emblems used in our monthly KTB Magazine and also here on the pages of our website.  GEORG was radioman aboard U-30, the first boat into combat, the first to sink a ship (the liner ATHENIA) and the first into an occupied French port.  When that Skipper (Lemp) took command of U-110, GEORG was one of the former crew to transfer to the new boat under Lemp.  After the war, he was Professor of Art at a major German university.