 Type VIIC U-boat | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Nazi Germany | |
| Name | U-69 |
| Ordered | 30 May 1938 |
| Builder | Germaniawerft,Kiel |
| Cost | 4.439.000Reichsmark |
| Yard number | 603 |
| Laid down | 11 November 1939 |
| Launched | 19 September 1940 |
| Commissioned | 2 November 1940 |
| Fate | Sunk, 17 February 1943 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Type VIICsubmarine |
| Displacement | |
| Length |
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| Beam |
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| Height | 9.60 m (31 ft 6 in) |
| Draught | 4.74 m (15 ft 7 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed |
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| Range | |
| Test depth |
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| Complement | 4 officers, 40–56 enlisted |
| Armament |
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| Service record | |
| Part of: |
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| Identification codes: | M 25 172 |
| Commanders: |
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| Operations: |
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| Victories: | |
German submarineU-69 was the firstType VIICU-boat of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) duringWorld War II. This meant that compared to previous U-boats, she could travel further afield for longer, with a payload of fourteen torpedoes, an 8.8 cm (3.5 in)deck gun for smaller vessels and aflak gun for use against aircraft.U-69 was very successful, sinking over 72,000 gross register tons (GRT) of Allied shipping in a career lasting two years, making her one of the longest surviving, continuously serving, U-boats. Her most notable attack was on the civilian ferrySS Caribou, which sank off the coast ofNewfoundland five minutes after beingtorpedoed in October 1942, killing 137 men, women and children. She was rammed and sunk byHMS Fame on 17 February 1943.
German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorterType VIIB submarines.U-69 had a displacement of 769 tonnes (757 long tons) when at the surface and 871 tonnes (857 long tons) while submerged.[1] She had a total length of 67.10 m (220 ft 2 in), apressure hull length of 50.50 m (165 ft 8 in), abeam of 6.20 m (20 ft 4 in), a height of 9.60 m (31 ft 6 in), and adraught of 4.74 m (15 ft 7 in). While on the surface the submarine was powered by twoGermaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylindersuperchargeddiesel engines producing a total of 2,800 to 3,200 metric horsepower (2,060 to 2,350 kW; 2,760 to 3,160 shp); while twoAEG GU 460/8–27double-acting electric motors producing a total of 750 metric horsepower (550 kW; 740 shp) were use when the submarine was submerged. She had two shafts and two 1.23 m (4 ft)propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to 230 metres (750 ft).[1]
The submarine had a maximum surface speed of 17.7 knots (32.8 km/h; 20.4 mph) and a maximum submerged speed of 7.6 knots (14.1 km/h; 8.7 mph).[1] When submerged, the boat could operate for 80 nautical miles (150 km; 92 mi) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph); when surfaced, she could travel 8,500 nautical miles (15,700 km; 9,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).U-69 was fitted with five 53.3 cm (21 in)torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and one at the stern), fourteentorpedoes, one8.8 cm (3.46 in) SK C/35 naval gun, 220 rounds, and one2 cm (0.79 in) C/30anti-aircraft gun. The boat had acomplement of between forty-four and sixty sailors.[1]
She was built at theGermaniawerft inKiel during 1940, and was ready for service in November. After her warm up in theBaltic Sea (designed to give her an opportunity to train and repair minor faults), she was deployed into theAtlantic Ocean in February 1941.
U-69 departedKiel for her first patrol on 10 February 1941. Her route took her across theNorth Sea, through thegap between theFaroe andShetland Islands and into the Atlantic Ocean.
She encountered theMV Siamese Prince[2] southwest of the Faroe Islands on 17 February and sank her. No survivors were picked up, even though the crew were seen to reach the lifeboats.
The boat was attacked twice by aSunderland flying boat on the 22nd – no damage was sustained.
U-69's next victim wasEmpire Blanda,[3] sunk on the 19th.
Four days later (on the 23rd),Marslew[4] was similarly destroyed, 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) north northwest ofRockall. 13 men died, there were 23 survivors.
The submarine wasdepth charged for three hours by the escorts of convoyOB 288 on 24 February. She escaped without any damage and docked atLorient on the French Atlantic coast on 1 March.
The boat's second foray was to the mid-Atlantic. She sankCoultarn southwest ofIceland on 30 March. She then attacked and damagedThirlby, which had beenen route fromSt. Johns, Newfoundland toHull. The ship had also probably been hit by atorpedo fired byGerman submarine U-46. This weapon was a dud. (The ship was further damaged by a bomb from a German aircraft on 10 April).[5]
U-69 returned to Lorient on 11 April.
The boat's next sortie was to theWest African coast. She laid mines offLagos andTakoradi and made full use of the failure of the allies to enforceconvoy systems.
One of her victims was the neutral American shipSS Robin Moor[6] operating 750 miles (1,210 km) off the British port ofFreetown,Sierra Leone. The sinking ofRobin Moor caused President Roosevelt to brand Germany an "international outlaw" and to require Germany and Italy to close all of their consulates in the United States except for their embassies.[7] Before the sinking,Robin Moor's passengers and crew were allowed thirty minutes to board lifeboats, then the submarine torpedoed, shelled and sank the ship. The survivors then drifted without rescue or detection for up to eighteen days. When news of the sinking reached the US, few shipping companies felt truly safe anywhere. AsTime magazine noted in June 1941, "if such sinkings continue, US ships bound for other places remote from fighting fronts, will be in danger. Henceforth the US would either have to recall its ships from the ocean or enforce its right to the free use of the seas."[8] In October 1941, federal prosecutors in theespionage case against a group of 33 defendants known as the "Duquesne Spy Ring" adduced testimony thatLeo Waalen had submitted the sailing date ofRobin Moor for radio transmission to Germany, five days before the ship began her final voyage. Waalen was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison for espionage and a concurrent 2-year term for violation of theForeign Agents Registration Act.
U-69 also sankTewkesbury about 540 nautical miles (1,000 km; 620 mi) south of theCape Verde Islands on the same date (21 May). Her master was awarded theOBE for his actions, but never knew about it; he was lost whenNewbury went to the bottom on 15 September.
She then sankSangara inAccra harbour on 31 May 1941. The ship went down in 33 ft (10 m) of water, her bow was still visible. (The vessel was salvaged in 1943 and her cargo sold, she wasbroken up in 1947).
Robert Hughes was lost to amine laid byU-69 on 4 June.
The submarine sankRiver Lugar 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) southeast of theAzores on 27 June 1941 andEmpire Ability on that same day.
On the return journey,U-69 was engaged in what was an ultimately successful gun-duel withRobert L. Holt southwest of theCanary Islands on 3 July 1941. She fired 102high explosive and 34 incendiary rounds from her deck gun, 220 rounds from her 20mm anti-aircraft weapon and 400 rounds from herMG 34 machine gun at the merchantman.
The boat returned to France, toSt. Nazaire on 8 July.
Unfortunately, it was nearly a year before they sank another ship, due to the tightening of convoys in the second half of 1941 and some frustratingly short patrols, called off because of mechanical failure or sickness on the boat.
Patrol number four was relatively short, lasting barely a week and hardly leaving theBay of Biscay.
U-69's fifth patrol took her northwest of St. Nazaire towardsGreenland; although longer, it was also unsuccessful.
The boat's sixth patrol was uneventful.
During her seventh outing, she was depth charged for several hours by escorts of a convoy on 21 March, west of Ireland. She escaped without any damage.
U-69 added to her tally when she sank the tiny four-masted sailing vesselJames E. Newsom off the United States' seaboard with her guns. She sank a further three ships that month, making use of the "Second Happy Time" to add to her score.
On one of them,Lise, the first mate, the Norwegian Hangar Lyngås, survived a total of four torpedoings.
Easily the most controversial action byU-69 was the destruction of the civilian ferrySS Caribou in theCabot Strait at 3:21 a.m. Atlantic Summer Time, on 14 October 1942.[9] The submarine had been in the area for a few days, and sank the SSCarolus the day before, with the loss of eleven lives. Early that morning,Caribou was spotted, primarily because her coal-fired steam boilers emitted a long solid black smoke trail, and was silhouetted against the phosphorescent sky. While sitting in wait on the surface, Gräf launched one torpedo, which hit. The stricken vessel's boilers exploded soon after being hit, and the ship sank in approximately five minutes, trapping most of the crew and passengers in the ship.[9]
Caribou departedNorth Sydney, Nova Scotia, on 13 October 1942, heading for its home portPort aux Basques inNewfoundland. She made this trip three times a week as part of the SPAB convoy series (SPAB for Sydney-Port aux Basques) organized byHMCS Protector. The one-ship coastal convoy was escorted byHMCS Grandmère, aBangor-class minesweeper.[9]
Controversy surrounded HMCSGrandmère's actions immediately after the sinking in the localCape Breton Island media.[10] Instead of searching for the survivors right away, she engaged the U-boat in combat, almost ramming her, and firing six depth charges.Grandmère pursuedU-69 for close to two hours, then turned back to look for survivors.[9] During this time, some survivors of the sinking died from exposure in the cold Atlantic. As noted in a dispatch a few weeks later by the Flag Officer of the Newfoundland Force, Commodore H. E. Reid,Grandmère was following normal operational doctrine by going after the submarine, and not stopping to pick up survivors. If she had stopped, she would likely have been sunk as well byU-69.[10]
In all 57 military personnel, 31 merchant seamen and 49 civilians — including many women and children — were killed in the sinking, totalling 137 persons lost (most were trapped in the ship, and drowned).[11] The sinking was also one of the few times that military censorship was immediately lifted, in an attempt to prevent rumours and speculation. The sinking made news across North America that week and was used effectively as a rallying cry for Victory Bond campaigns. The sinking was possibly the most significant in Canadian and Newfoundland waters, not because ofCaribou's tactical importance; but rather, the U-boat war was on display to Canadians and Newfoundlanders on their home front.[9]
On 17 February 1943, while operating with wolf-packHaudegen,U-69 was involved in an attack on convoyONS 165 in the middle of the North Atlantic. Located byHF/DF and radar, she was forced to the surface by depth charges and then rammed by thedestroyerHMS Fame. None of her 46 crew survived the sinking.
U-69 was unusual in that she had two ships' emblems. The first, adopted on commissioning, was chosen by her first commander, Metzler. This consisted of the wordHorrido (Tally-Ho) and the three two-flag signal groups for the letters L M A (German:leck mich am Arsch,lit. 'lick my arse', a reference toGotz von Berlichingen’s famous retort).[12] The second came about when the7th flotilla adoptedPrien's bull emblem as its flotilla insignia.U-69's new first officer, who had not seen the insignia before, found a picture of a cow on a French cheese box, and had that painted on the conning tower, complete with the motto on the box "la vache qui rit" (the laughing cow). When Metzler saw it, he decided to keep it, as it raised a laugh with all who saw it, and the crew adopted the slogan as a war-cry;U-69 thereafter became known as the "laughing cow".[13]
U-69 took part in sevenwolfpacks, namely:
| Date | Ship | Nationality | Tonnage | Fate[14] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 February 1941 | Siamese Prince |  United Kingdom | 8,456 | Sunk |
| 19 February 1941 | Empire Blanda | United Kingdom | 5,693 | Sunk |
| 23 February 1941 | Marslew | United Kingdom | 4,542 | Sunk |
| 30 March 1941 | Coultarn | United Kingdom | 3,759 | Sunk |
| 3 April 1941 | Thirlby | United Kingdom | 4,887 | Damaged |
| 21 May 1941 | Robin Moor |  United States | 4,999 | Sunk |
| 21 May 1941 | Tewkesbury | United Kingdom | 4,601 | Sunk |
| 31 May 1941 | Sangara | United Kingdom | 5,445 | Total loss |
| 3 June 1941 | Robert Hughes | United Kingdom | 2,879 | Sunk (mine) |
| 27 June 1941 | Empire Ability | United Kingdom | 7,603 | Sunk |
| 27 June 1941 | River Lugar | United Kingdom | 5,423 | Sunk |
| 3 July 1941 | Robert L. Holt | United Kingdom | 2,918 | Sunk |
| 1 May 1942 | James E Newsom |  Canada | 671 | Sunk |
| 12 May 1942 | Lise |  Norway | 6,826 | Sunk |
| 13 May 1942 | Norlantic | United States | 2,606 | Sunk |
| 21 May 1942 | Torondoc | Canada | 1,927 | Sunk |
| 5 June 1942 | Letitia Porter |  Netherlands | 15 | Sunk |
| 9 October 1942 | Carolus | Canada | 2,375 | Sunk |
| 14 October 1942 | Caribou |  Newfoundland | 2,222 | Sunk |
Guardian of the Gulf : Sydney, Cape Breton, and the Atlantic wars.
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in February 1943 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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