UNDER SIX FLAGS

A HISTORY OF THE MERCHANT SUBMARINE & U-CRUISER "DEUTSCHLAND-U155"

De: Andy South

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Of the thousands of U-boats conceived or constructed before 1945, only two were built as cargo submersibles, and of those two, only one was to serve additionally as a combat U-boat. She would, in the latter role, sink merchant ships in the Atlantic, before becoming after the surrender, a tourist attraction. That lone craft was the U-Deutschland.

By 1915, after nearly a year of war, the German war machine was beginning to suffer the first hunger pangs, as the raw materials it required, were consumed, but not easily replaced. The British trade blockade of the North Sea was slowly ensuring that amongst other items, the fundamental materials for the construction of weapons was becoming scarce in Germany. The German merchant fleet had been driven in 1914 by the British from the world’s oceans. Now, unless a way could be found to circumvent the blockade, the war could be lost. If German merchant ships were unable to sail on the seas surface, maybe a submersible cargo ship could solve the dilemma?

A fleet of seven merchant U-boats were conceived by the arms manufacturer, Krupp’s. But of those seven only two were to be completed in their original roles, the Deutschland and her sister, the Bremen. The merchant submarines would be able to carry only a fraction of the cargo their surface bound rivals could, but what they were to transport would be selected by value other than quantitative.

Between July and November 1916, the Deutschland was to make two trading voyages to the USA, before the irreparable decline in German-USA relations rendered an imminent third voyage impossible. With a war against the USA becoming unavoidable the Imperial German navy took the Deutschland in hand and converted her to the role of the navy’s first U-cruiser.

Over the course of three war patrols, the newly renamed Deutschland, the U-155, would sink 43 ships, totalling of 120,434 tons. She would complete the longest patrol for a WW1 U-boat and be commanded by the oldest U-boat captain of the conflict. She would emerge from the war with an impressive record.

Following the Armistice, she was surrendered to the British and exhibited on the river Thames in London. Then she would be sold to one of the shadiest politicians to walk the corridors in Parliament, who would see her as an opportunity to line his own pockets.

After a popular tour of English ports, she was placed into dock for scrapping. But before she was finally rendered down to ‘razor blades’, an internal explosion would kill a number of teenage apprentices who rather than working, decided to play cards and smoke.

This volume follows the Deutschland’s career, from a shipyard in Kiel, to a beach on a Scottish river. It’s tracing her trading voyages and war patrols, before examining her post war tour as war trophy.

Included within the volume there are more than two hundred plus photos, hull plans and over forty cartoons relating to the Deutschland’s career. Many of the cartoons, (in combination with newspaper photos), are seeing the first light of day in over a century. They illustrate the strength of US public feeling as the Deutschland was feted during her time in the USA.

This is the telling of a unique tale and of a unique craft, and tells her entire life’s story, from a shipyard in Kiel, to that beach on the river Clyde.