Some musings on the R1155

[Yorkie]

I've just read a remarkable book which Joe recommended to me called 'Operation Drumbeat' about Germany's U Boat attacks along the coast of America in WW2. (It's out of print, having first been published in 1991, but often available cheaply on Amazon for example, which is where I got mine). I hadn't appreciated how heavy the losses of U Boats were. Of 863 U Boats that sailed on patrols, 754 did not return to their bases. Of 39,000 men who served in them 27,491 are on the seabed in their iron coffins and another 5,000 were taken prisoner. But by May 1945, U Boats had sunk 2,775 Allied merchant ships amounting to 14.5 million tons.

I'd always imagined that U boats spent most of their time submerged but they didn't. Their electric motors used when submerged only ran for 7 hours and slowed the boat down to a snail's pace, so really, they were submersible surface craft. When depicted in American films U Boat crew members were all smartly dressed in uniform and cleanshaven, but life just wasn't like that. Water was so scarce that the was none for washing, cleaning teeth or shaving, and space was so scarce that the men rotated on shifts, three men sleeping in turns in each bunk. The stench which accumulated over many weeks at sea can only be imagined.

I'm not singing the praises of U boat crews - the same could of course be said of Allied submariners. Which ever side they were on, they did all that was asked of them, as did all those who served.