HMS FORESTER	HMS FORTUNE	U-27 sinking

No Men lost.

Commanders of U-27 include:

U-27 made only one Feindfahrt (war patrol) during which she was sunk by the two Royal Navy destroyers shown above.  The entire crew was rescued and taken prisoner of war.

SHIPS SUNK BY U-27 (Franz commanding):

  *  DAVARA was sunk by gunfire.
** RUDYARD KIPLING was sunk with scuttling charges.

NOTE – The 2 October 1939 issue of LIFE Magazine carried a photo of U-27 taken from the freighter WACOSTA when she was stopped and searched. The freighter did not carry any wartime cargo and was allowed to proceed but U-27 was sunk before the photograph was published in the magazine.

Conning tower emblem U-28

One Man lost. (see below)

Commanders of U-28 include:

Wilhelm Ambrosius	Günther Kuhnke	Heinz Marbach
Erich Krempl		Uwe Christiansen

FRIEDERICH GUGGENBERGER (269-1987)	HANS-RUDOLF RÖSING (313-1987)

NOTE – Sharkhunters Member’s names appear in bold capital letters followed by their Membership Number.

On her commissioning, U-28 was attached to the U-Flottille Saltzwedel and later to the famed 2nd U-Bootflottille until January 1941. She was then transferred to the 24th U-Bootflottille as a Schulboot (school boat) for training activities. While operating as a Frontboot (combat boat) she operated south of Ireland in September 1939; in the western English Channel in November 1939 and again in March 1940 and also in June 1940; operated off the North Channel in September 1940 and again in November 1940. She had a minelaying mission in the Bristol Channel on 5 December 1939 then to the southeast of the Isle of Wight on 7 March 1940.

U-28 was sunk by accident, probably a training diving accident, off Neustadt on 17 March 1944.  She was raised later in the same month but never repaired.  She was paid off (decommissioned) on 4 July 1944.

SHIPS SUNK BY U-28 (Kuhnke commanding):

  *  PROTESILAUS struck a mine laid on 13 November 1939.
** Kuhnke was not able to watch MATINA sink so she probably remained afloat but abandoned until U-31 came upon her on 29 October and sank her with a coup d’grace torpedo.

NOTE – On 11 September 1940, U-28 attacked several ships in Convoy OA.210.  The first torpedo supposedly struck an unidentified tanker and Kuhnke assumed a hit but there was no confirmation. However the 4,678 ton British steamer HARPEDON was hit and damaged. The last torpedo hit MAAS and sank her.

EULOTA	SARMATIA
ADAMANDIOS GEORGANDIS	MARDINIAN

NOTE – The only man lost from U-28 was Obergefreiter Bernhard Gabriel; killed on 13 October 1943.

Conning tower emblem U-29

U-29 outboard of U-28

No Men lost.

Commanders of U-29 include:

Hans-Georg Fischer	Karl-Heinz Marbach
OTTO SCHUHART (1366-1990)	GEORG LASSEN (184-1986)

NOTE – Sharkhunters Member’s names appear in bold capital letters followed by their Membership Number.

On her commissioning U-29 was attached to the U-Flottille Saltzwedel and later to the famed 2nd U-Bootflottille until January 1941.  She was then transferred to the 24th U-Bootflottille based in Memel as a Schulboot (school boat) for training activities.

U-29 had several Feindfahrt (war patrols) in the North Atlantic. On her first Feindfahrt she sank the 22,500 ton Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS COURAGEOUS west in the English Channel with the loss of 518 men.  This was the first major success for the U-Boats in the war. U-29 laid mines in the Bristol Channel off Milford Haven (England) on 1 December 1939 and again over the night of 2-3 March 1940. She operated off Trondheim in April 1940; in the western English Channel in June 1940; she refueled from the supply tanker BESSEL in Vigo, Spain on 21 June 1940; and she provided escort for the German raider SCHIFF 21 (WIDDER) to Brest, France over 29 through 31 October 1940.

German Raider WIDDER

SHIPS SUNK BY U-29 (SCHUHART commanding):

*   CATO struck a mine laid hours before by U-29.
** During this attack, U-29 fired at both PACIFIC RELIANCE and the 6,000 British tanker SAN FLORENTINO.  They heard only light detonations for hits on the tanker but B-Dienst (the German radio listening group) assumed that SAN FLORENTINO was sunk but there was no damage to her at all.

HMS COURAGEOUS	HMS COURAGEOUS
PACIFIC RELIANCE	DIMITRIS
ATHELLAIRD	EURYMEDON

U-29 was scuttled by her own crew off Flensburg Bay while under command of Arco-Zinneberg in the unofficial Operation Regenbogen (Rainbow) against orders from Großadmiral Karl Dönitz.  Sometime between 1947 and 1953 she was raised by the Allies and broken up.

     
Various conning tower emblems used by U-30.  Above left was the first that Lemp used but it was replaced by the floppy-eared puppy after a little dog on the dock grabbed a piece of line, ran off but was jerked to a halt when the line went tight. The crew adopted the dog.

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. In the case of U-30, several survivors tell their stories as well.

U-30 pre-war

U-30 inboard of U-28 pre-war

No Men lost.

Commanders of U-30 include:

Wearing his makeshift Knights Cross made by his crew while at sea after he received radio message that he was to be awarded the medal on his return.	Formal photo of Lemp on receipt of his Knights Cross	Lemp in white cap with Admiral Karl Dönitz

NOTE – Sharkhunters Member’s names appear in bold capital letters followed by their Membership Number.

Kplt KURT BABERG (270-1987)	Oberfunkmaat GEORG HÖGEL (240-1987)

Both BABERG and HÖGEL were at our 1987 Sharkhunters 1st Annual Convention held in Key Largo, Florida.  The history we got in the speech by GEORG HÖGEL is funny, and it puts a human face on the war.  It is first-person history found nowhere else.  GEORG attends our Sharkhunters ‘Patrols‘ in Germany, and all the conning tower emblems used by Sharkhunters on our web pages as well as in our monthly KTB Magazine are all from the pen of GEORG HÖGEL, a highly talented artist.

U-30 was attached to the U-Flottille Saltzwedel then to the famed 2nd U-Bootflottille based at Lorient, France.  She had a minelaying mission in Liverpool Bay on 6 January 1940 then a patrol west of the Bay f Biscay over June and July 1940.

U-30 had a unique and interesting combat career during which she;
*  torpedoed the battleship HMS BARHAM on 28 December 1939 (no appreciable damage);
*  had an engagement with a Royal Navy submarine on 13 March 1940;
*  recovered the crew of a downed German aircraft on 29 March 1940;
*  rescued thirteen survivors from the Swedish SS HAGAR on 3 May 1940 after the ship struck a British mine;
*  refueled from supply ship MAX ALBRECHT in El Ferrol Harbor, Spain on 25 June 1940;
*  was the first U-Boat into combat in World War II;
*  fired the first torpedo in World War II when she attacked a rock they mistook for a cruiser;
*  sank the first ship in World War II, the liner ATHENIA;

liner ATHENIA

*  was the first U-Boat into Reykjavik Harbor in WW II when they disembarked two wounded men – a crewmember and an RAF pilot;
*  rescued a turkey and named his Alfons (great story further on);
*  was the first U-Boat into a captured French port (Lorient).

SHIPS SUNK BY U-30 (Lemp commanding):

*  The sinking of ATHENIA, the first ship sunk in World War II, caused a storm of propaganda back and forth with England denouncing the action and the German Propaganda Ministry trying to convince the world that ‘agents of Churchill‘ placed a time bomb aboard the ship to make Germany look bad.  Karl Dönitz ordered Lemp to expunge all mention of this action from the logbook of U-30 and it was GEORG HÖGEL who had to tear the pages out of his radio log.

**  FANAD HEAD was stopped in accordance with the ‘Prize Rules‘ and the ship’s crew was told by Lemp to get on the other side of U-30 so they would not be harmed when he torpedoed their ship, which they did.  They had no bread aboard U-30, so they remembered the days of World War I when they would board enemy ships and take what they needed before sinking them, so Lemp sent four men aboard to look for bread and he had one other man in a rubber boat to bring back whatever the men found.  Every case they found marked ‘bread‘ contained milk!  Suddenly two planes appeared, SKUA dive bombers, so Lemp had to dive but he had U-30 pointed directly at the side of FANAD HEAD but there was not enough room for the boat to dive before hitting the freighter.  Lemp ordered full reverse while still flooding.  U-30 was able to dive safely, but to the men he left aboard FANAD HEAD and the one in the dinghy, it appeared that the submarine had sunk.  They were running at 30 meters when a bomb hit directly above them, so Lemp took the boat deeper – down to sixty meters but again a bomb hit directly above them.  What was going on, GEORG thought – then Lemp was heard to ask, “Bootsmann, how many meters line you have to the dinghy boat?” The reply from the bootsmannsmaat solved the riddle – “Eighty meters line.”  Every twist and turn made by U-30 underwater was mirrored by the rubber boat on the surface, showing the two dive bombers where the boat was.  Lemp gave orders – the boat shot to the surface and the bootsmannsmaat, with a knife clenched in his teeth in true pirate fashion, leapt out of the hatch, cut the line, dropped back in the boat and slammed the hatch behind him.  The boat dived again. Soon it was clear and Lemp surfaced the boat.  To his surprise he found that he now had six men on the ship when he put only four U-Bootfahrer on FANAD HEAD. One SKUA had been too low when he released his bomb and the concussion of his own bomb blew him out of the air.  Both of the aircrew were injured, but one was very badly injured.  Lemp got all his men and the two British airmen aboard and with U-30 a few hundred meters off the beam of FANAD HEAD, fired at her.  GEORG was tracking the torpedo on the sound gear and he reported that the torpedo was running straight for the target.  It hit, detonated and blew FANAD HEAD in half, both halves sinking immediately.  With that, GEORG heard Lemp shout a curse; unusual for the very calm and proper Lemp and at that moment is sound gear picked up two sets of high-speed screws coming in fast.  When FANAD HEAD sank, Lemp saw two Royal Navy destroyers coming in fast.  He had not been able to see them before FANAD HEAD sank because they were coming from the other side.  When the ship sank, they were clearly visible and Lemp realized that these destroyers must have been part of a Royal Navy task force which also included the aircraft carrier that launched the two short-range dive bombers.  He took U-30 deep and they rode out the counter-attack.  They later landed the wounded British airmen and one wounded U-Bootfahrer at Iceland.

***  Ran onto mines laid by U-30 in January 1940.

****  Not absolutely certain this was SEA GLORY.

BLAIRLOGIE	FANAD HEAD	OTTERPOOL
RANDSFJORD	CLEARTON	CLAN MacPHEE

On 28 December 1939, U-30 was on her way to lay mines in Liverpool Bay and so had only one torpedo aboard – and the 31,100 ton Royal Navy battleship HMS BARHAM (right) sailed in her path.  Not wanting to miss this golden opportunity, Lemp fired his only torpedo. The torpedo hit and detonated properly but probably did no more than scratch the pain on the battleship.

On 15 January 1940, the 5,642-ton British steamer GRACIA was damaged when she ran onto a mine planted by U-30.

There are many stories from combatants and survivors alike.  Some of them are below.

There is an incredible and lengthy history attached to U-30, much of it told to us by GEORG HÖGEL. Click on his photo to read his memories of the war – some sad, some very funny. Click his photo here.

Eleven-year-old Russel Park was a passenger aboard ATHENIA that fateful September night in 1939.  Here he recounts what took place.  Click the photo of ATHENIA here to read this first-person story.

Art students Thomas Fielder and John Bernard were passengers aboard ATHENIA that fateful 3rd of September 1939.  Click on the photograph here and read his story of survival on the high seas as only one of the pair survived.

Cathleen Schurr had worked in England since graduating from an American college and she was reluctant to leave her adopted country, but war clouds were gathering very fast so she decided to leave England.  She only got a ticket aboard ATHENIA because someone had canceled thereby leaving a vacant berth.  She felt fortunate to have gotten this one last ticket…

Cathleen Schurr tells her survival story aboard the rescue ship CITY OF FLINT after ATHENIA went down.

U-30 was scuttled by her own crew off Flensburg Bay while under command of Schimmel in the unofficial Operation Regenbogen (Rainbow) against orders from Großadmiral Karl Dönitz. Sometime between 1947 and 1953 she was raised by the Allies and broken up.

HMS ANTELOPE (H-36)

1st sinking – All Hands Lost, the ship’s crew plus 13 others

2nd sinking – Four Men Lost

There was a multi-page article in the 2 July 1937 issue of Die Wehrmacht entitled
 “24 Hours On Board U-31”
Here are some of the photos:

				Photo above – Clemens Laar, the author of this article, peers over the bridge while underway. Photo left are the officers. From left are: Leutnant zur See Klaus Korth, Kapitänleutnant (Ing) Bahn, Kapitänleutnant Rolf Dau

In the Kiel Kanal at Brunsbüttle. The U-Boat support ship WEICHSEL is astern of U-31.		Navigation training on the compass
Two other reporters aboard		The Watch Officer prevents the cameraman from falling overboard as he gets another shot

Commanders of U-31 include:

NOTE – Sharkhunters Member’s names appear in bold capital letters followed by their Membership Number.

U-31 was attached to the U-Flottille Saltzwedel then to the famed 2nd U-Bootflottille.  She patrolled the North Atlantic and the North Sea in September and December 1939, had a minelaying mission off Loch Ewe in the North Minch on 27 October 1939 and again on 21 January 1940.  She was sunk on 11 March 1940 by RAF aircraft with all hands plus 13 other naval personnel lost.

U-31 was raised and recommissioned on 30 July 1940 when she began her second life, again attached to the 2nd U-Bootflottille.  On her first Feindfahrt (war patrol) she had an engagement with a British submarine on 8 October 1940 with no outcome.  She was sunk the second time on 3 November 1940 by HMS ANTELOPE (H-36) with four men lost and all others captured.

U-31 was the first submarine to attack a convoy in World War Two and she was the first submarine in that war to be sunk twice.

SHIPS SUNK BY U-31 (Habekost commanding):

  *  Habekost heard multiple detonations and assumed that he hit another ship in Convoy OB.4 but all hits were against AVIEMORE.
** Both minesweepers struck mines laid by U-31 on 27 October 1939 in Loch Ewe.

AVIEMORE		HAZELSIDE
ARCTURUS		HMS NELSON  ***

***  The battleship HMS NELSON was damaged on 4 December 1939 when she ran onto a mine laid by U-31 on 27 October.

SHIPS SUNK BY U-31 (Prellberg commanding):

***  MARTINA was hit and incapacitated by U-28 (Kuhnke) on 26 October but she did not sink.  U-31 found her three days later and sank her with a coup d’grace torpedo.UNION JACK

Men lost on U-31 (2nd sinking).

Maschinengefreiter Konstantin Aker was lost 2 November 1940 in an accident

HMS HARVESTER (above) was ordered by the Brazilian Navy in 1938 from the Vickers-Armstrong yard and was laid down on 3 June 1938  She was going to be named JURURA but when war broke out, she was requisitioned by the British Admiralty on 5 September 1939, launched 29 September under the name HMS HANDY.  Since there was already another HMS HANDY in the Royal Navy, her name was changed to HMS HARVESTER on 27 February 1940.		HMS HIGHLANDER (above) was ordered by the Brazilian Navy and was laid down on 28 September 1938 and was going to be named JAGUARIBE.  The Admiralty requisitioned this ship on 5 September 1939 due to the opening of the war.

Men Lost – see below.

Commanders of U-32 include:

NOTE – Sharkhunters Member’s names appear in bold capital letters followed by their Membership Number.

Werner Lott		Hans Jenisch

U-32 was attached to the U-Flottille Saltzwedel then to the famed 2nd U-Bootflottille.  She completed two Feindfahrten (war patrols) in the North Atlantic, laid mines in the Bristol Channel on 17 September 1939; laid mines in the Firth of Clyde in January 1940; laid mines north of Liverpool Bay.  There were more operations in the North Channel in January 1940 and in the Irish Sea in March 1940.

SHIPS SUNK BY U-32 (Büchel commanding):

KENSINGTON COURT		LUNA
MARWARRI		LOCHGOIL

SHIPS DAMAGED BY U-32 (Büchel commanding):

Both MARWARRI and LOCHGOIL were damaged when they ran onto mines laid by U-32 in 17 September 1939.

SHIPS SUNK BY U-32 (Jenisch commanding):

LAGAHOLM		ELI KNUDSEN		CHELSEA

1.   COUNSELLOR sank when she ran onto a mine in the field laid by U-32 on 7 March.
2.   SALVORA and FARO-ONS were sunk by gunfire.

TANCRED		HAULERWIJK

		Hulk under tow

SHIPS DAMAGED BY U-32 (Jenisch commanding):

3.  Jenisch attacked ships in the Dakar Task Force and thought he had hit and damaged the Armed Merchant
Cruiser SCYTHIA (below left) but he actually hit and slightly damaged the light cruiser HMS FIJI (below right).

RMS SCYTHIA		HMS FIJI

4.  CORRIENTES was hit by U-32 on 26 September 1940 and abandoned by her crew but the ship remained afloat.  U-37 came upon her on 28 September 1940 and sank her with a coup d’grace torpedo.

COLLEGIAN		CORRIENTES

Men lost on U-32