German Naval Power in World War II Album

U-34 emblem during hard winter of 1940-41. Beneath it is the training boat emblem.

German M-class minesweeper M-6.

M-class minesweeper M-17.

U-boat U-739 Type VIIC.

Painting of Estonian merchant ship SS Merisaar's lifeboat approaching German submarine U-99 in July 1940 after the sub fired shots to halt the ship.

Canadian seamen raise the White Ensign over U-190 in St. John's, Newfoundland in 1945, after she surrendered to the RCN. Note the Schnorkel below the edge of the conning tower. 

The surrendered German Type IXC/40 submarine U-805 is escorted to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, New Hampshire, on 14 May 1945. (US Navy photo)

U-boat U-642, which was sunk in the Mediterranean in July 1944.

Admiral Hipper.

  

Aboard the Schleswig-Holstein, Werner Henke, left, directs one of the first shots of World War II at Polish fortifications outside Danzig, 1 September 1939.

Schnellboot laying an EMB contact mine.

Heinkel He 115 floatplane in the air as a Scharnhorst-class battleship and destroyer escort head out to the Atlantic.

Conning tower of the U-756 from above. Commissioned in December 1941, never scored any hits. It was lost with the entire crew 18 days into her first combat patrol on September 1, 1942 in the North Atlantic after an attack by the Flower Class corvette HMCS Morden.

U-152 breaking through the ice.

German heavy cruiser Deutschland, circa 1940.

"Neger" human torpedo inspected by an Allied serviceman on the Anzio beachhead in April 1944.

U-47 was a German Type VII-B U-boat that was commanded by submarine ace Gunther Prien. Prien's greatest achievement was to sneak his U-boat into the British harbor of Scapa Flow, not six weeks into the war, sinking the battleship HMS Royal Oak with the loss of over 800 lives.

Type VIIC submarine U-660 surfacing after being depth charged by HMS Lotus (K139) and HMS Starwort (K20) off Oran, Algeria, 12 November 1942. The crew scuttled the boat. Two crew members died, 45 survived.

U-617 ran aground near Melilla, at position 35.38N, 03.27W, after British air attack on 12 September 1943. Wreck destroyed by gunfire from the British ship HMS Hyacinth and the Australian ship HMAS Wollongong.

Bay of Biscay. 5 June 1942. Outward bound German U-71 under attack by machine gun fire from a Sunderland captained by Flight Officer S. R. C. Wood of No. 10 Squadron RAAF had been forced to surface by depth charges from the Sunderland. The submarine had regained trim with its bows awash and, although severely damaged, was able to return to its base at La Pallice, Bordeaux, because the Sunderland had no more depth charges.

U-1060 on the rocks of Fleina in the Vegafjord, Norway.

A Type VII (U-953) and a Type IX (U-861) submarine alongside each other outside the submarine pens at Trondheim after the war. May 19, 1945.

U-570, a Type VIIC submarine, 1943. (Imperial War Museum photo)

U-534 at Birkenhead Docks, Merseyside, England.

U-530.

U-459, a Type XIV supply submarine known as a "Milch Cow," sinking after being attacked by Vickers Wellington aircraft.

U-237 breaching the surface, North Atlantic, 1942.

U-199 under attack by Brazilian Air Force PBY Catalina. Note the "short" conning tower of a early Type IX D2, 31 July 1943.

U-boat U-117 attacked and sunk off the Azores by aircraft from USS Bogue, 7 August 1943.

Chief of the German U-boat arm Karl Dönitz observing the arrival of U-94 at St. Nazaire in June 1941.

U-52, a Type VIIB submarine.

U-45.

U-37.

U-36.

U-32, circa 1937. Note the boat's number on the conning tower which was removed on the commencement of hostilities.

Type IIB submarine U-18 being re-assembled at the Galați shipyard. Starting late 1942 she served in the 30th U-boat Flotilla, after being transported in sections along the Danube to the Romanian port of Galați. She was then re-assembled by the Romanians at the Galați shipyard and sent to the Black Sea.

U-9, circa 1936. U-9 was a Type IIB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. Her keel was laid down on 8 February 1935, by Germaniawerft in Kiel as yard number 543. She was launched on 30 July 1935 and commissioned on 21 August, with Korvettenkapitän Hans-Günther Looff in command. She was sunk by soviet bombs on 20 August 1944. Her wreck was later raised by the Soviets, repaired and recommissioned as TS-16 but was broken up in December 1946 because of her poor performance.

U-boat Type IIA U-2 in Kiel 1935. U-2 was a Type IIA U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. Her keel was laid down 11 February 1935 by Deutsche Werke of Kiel as yard number 237; she was launched on 1 July and commissioned on 25 July 1935 with Oberleutnant zur See (Oblt.z.S.) Hermann Michahelles in command.

U-boat U-2 Type IIA at a shipyard.

Engelbert Endrass (2 March 1911 – 21 December 1941) was a German U-boat commander in World War II.

U-848 attacked by aircraft from VPB-107.

U-848 under attack in South Atlantic (10-09 S, 18-00 W) during second pass of Lt. Charles A. Baldwin, USNR, PB4Y-1, 107-B-12, of VB-107, 1943. Sailors take cover around the conning tower of the Type IXC submarine. A depth bomb explodes in the distance. Note the two twin 2cm Flak 38 guns in the conning tower and the 10.5cm SKC/32 deck gun.

U-boat U-16, 1 January 1939. U-16 was a Type IIB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine that served during World War II. It was launched on 28 April 1936, under the command of Heinz Beduhn, with a crew of 23. Its last of four commanders was Horst Wellner.

HMS Broadway also helped chalk up a second German torpedo slinger when on 12 May 1943 she joined frigate HMS Lagan and aircraft from escort carrier HMS Biter in destroying U-89 off the Azores.

German warships T-24 and Z-24 under attack by Bristol Beaufighters on 24 August 1944.

German destroyer Z24 and torpedo boat T24 under attack by Bristol Beaufighters off Le Verdon-sur-Mer, 24 August 1944. The attack would spell the end for both ships. 

Type XXI boats under construction in the Blohm und Voss slips, May 1945, indicate the level to which German submarine production had progressed.

Sinking of German U-boat.

Sinking of a German U-boat.

British soldiers with captured German submarines of the newest kind. Northern Germany, April 1945.

U-3008 (Type XXI) at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, between 2 and 21 June 1945. The two Type IX submarines with the boat are U-806 (far left) and U-155. The light cruiser Nürnberg is in the far left center.

Engelbert Endrass (left) greets his closest friend Erich Topp, returning from patrol in May 1941.

U-37, Type VII U-boat, Baltic.

The former German submarine, USS U-2513. View of the submarine's sail, taken at an Atlantic Coast port on 5 November 1946, during a visit by Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the Chief of Naval Operations.

Admiral Otto von Schrader, Admiral of the Norwegian West Coast, distributes Iron Crosses to crew members of U-703, at Bergen, Norway, following the battle against convoy PQ-17.

Gerhard Bigalk (26 November 1908 – 17 July 1942) was a captain with the Kriegsmarine during World War II and commander of U-751. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Bigalk died on 17 July 1942 when U-751 was sunk with all hands by depth charges dropped by a Whitley bomber from No. 502 Squadron RAF and a Lancaster bomber from No. 61 Squadron RAF in the North Atlantic north-west of Cape Ortegal, Spain. Bigalk received a posthumous promotion to Korvettenkapitän on 5 April 1945. As commander of U-751 Gerhard Bigalk is credited with the sinking of five ships for a total of 21,412 gross register tons (GRT), further damaging one ship of 8,096 GRT and sinking one warship of 11,000 long tons (11,000 tonnes). Photo taken at St. Nazaire, 15 June 1942.

Kapitanleutnant Otto Ites, captain of U-94, was responsible for the second torpedo strike on the Imperial Transport. On 25 March 1942, Ites launched four torpedoes at the tanker, and two struck home. Although this time the ship did not cleave in half, she was listing badly to port, causing Captain Smail to give the order to abandon ship. This was still not the end for the Imperial Transport; she was once again repaired and quickly back to transporting oil for the remainder of the war.

German Battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau underway during the Channel Dash in February 1942.

The Capture of U-110 by the Royal Navy, 9 May 1941.

A U-boat shells a merchant ship which remained afloat after being torpedoed.