German submarine U-1018
Encyclopedia
German submarine U-1018 was a German Type VIIC/41
German Type VII submarine
Type VII U-boats were the most common type of German World War II U-boat. The Type VII was based on earlier German submarine designs going back to the World War I Type UB III, designed through the Dutch dummy company Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw den Haag which was set up by Germany after...
U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
, built during World War II for service in the Battle of the Atlantic. The U-boat was fitted with the Schnorchel underwater-breathing apparatus which enabled her to stay under-water for extended periods thus avoiding detection by enemy warships.
Construction
She was completed in HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
in April 1944, and spent the rest of 1944 training with the 31st U-boat Flotilla. An accident took place during U-1018's work-up period in the Baltic on 17 June which killed one crew member (Obersteuermann Walter Nellsen) and wounded two. In December 1944, she was moved from Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
to Horten
Horten
is a town and municipality in Vestfold county, Norway—located along the Oslofjord. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Horten. The municipality also includes the villages of Borre, Åsgårdstrand, Skoppum, and Nykirke....
in Norway to join 11th U-boat Flotilla, before departing on 21 January 1945 to patrol the Western Approaches
Western Approaches
The Western Approaches is a rectangular area of the Atlantic ocean lying on the western coast of Great Britain. The rectangle is higher than it is wide, the north and south boundaries defined by the north and south ends of the British Isles, the eastern boundary lying on the western coast, and the...
of the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
under the command of Kptlt. Walter Burmeister.
Combat role
On 27 February 1945 she attacked convoy BTC 81 about seven miles from Lizard Point, CornwallLizard Point, Cornwall
Lizard Point in Cornwall is at the southern tip of the Lizard Peninsula. It is situated half-a-mile south of Lizard village in the civil parish of Landewednack and approximately 11 miles southeast of Helston....
(at 49°55′N 05°22′W). U-1018 launched a torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
which hit the Norwegian freighter SS Corvus
SS Corvus
SS Corvus was a 1,317 GRT Norwegian steamship built in Copenhagen in 1920/21 by Kjøbenhavns Flydedok & Skibsværft A/S for the Norwegian passenger ship company Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab of Bergen, which was attacked and sunk by two German U-boats in the Western Approaches of the English Channel...
which sank within a few minutes, resulting in the death of five of the freighter's Norwegian crew, a 16-year old British cabin boy, Thomas Boniface, and two British Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
gunners, (part of the DEMS
Dems
DEMS may refer to:*Democratic Party *Deepika English Medium School*Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships...
gun crew) including former professional footballer Charlie Sillett
Charlie Sillett
Charles Thomas "Charlie" Sillett was an English professional footballer who played as a full back for Southampton in the 1930s...
.
The convoy escort ships immediately launched heavy counter-attacks. Less than two hours later, U-1018 was sunk by depth charge
Depth charge
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon intended to destroy or cripple a target submarine by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a preselected depth in the ocean. Depth charges can be dropped by either surface ships, patrol aircraft, or from...
s dropped by under the command of Cdr. Benjamin Andrew Rogers, RD, RNR. Only two members of the crew of 53 survived.