German submarine U-57 (1938)
Encyclopedia
German submarine U-57 was a Type IIC 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...
of the German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
that served in the Second World War. She was produced by Deutsche Werke AG
Deutsche Werke
Deutsche Werke was a German shipbuilding company founded in 1925 when Kaiserliche Werft Kiel and other shipyards were merged. It came as a result of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I that forced the German defence industry to shrink...
, 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...
. Ordered on 17 June 1937 she was laid down later that year on September 14th. She was launched 3 September 1938 and was commissioned on 29 December 1938 under the command of Oblt. Claus Korth.
U-57 was initially assigned to 5th U-boat Flotilla during her training period, until 31 December 1939, when she was re-assigned to 1st U-boat Flotilla for a front-line combat role. U-57 made eleven war patrols, sinking twelve ships for a total 66,384 GRT (this includes one ship sunk by mines and another badly damaged and declared a total loss).
U-57 along with U-58
German submarine U-58 (1939)
German submarine U-58 was a Type IIC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine that served in the Second World War. She was produced by Deutsche Werke AG, Kiel. Ordered on 17 June 1937 she was laid down later that year on September 29th as werk 257. She was launched 12 October 1938 and was commissioned on...
were both used for test purpose during August 1943 to test a new flooding valve schnorchel
Submarine snorkel
A submarine snorkel is a device which allows a submarine to operate submerged while still taking in air from above the surface. Navy personnel often refer to it as the snort.-History:...
head that Deutsche Werke AG
Deutsche Werke
Deutsche Werke was a German shipbuilding company founded in 1925 when Kaiserliche Werft Kiel and other shipyards were merged. It came as a result of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I that forced the German defence industry to shrink...
had constructed in June 1943. For the test the schnorchel replace the aft periscope
Periscope
A periscope is an instrument for observation from a concealed position. In its simplest form it consists of a tube with mirrors at each end set parallel to each other at a 45-degree angle....
. The initial testing was successful and a collapsible schnorchel forward of the bridge was envisaged for the Type VIIC boats.
First, Second, and Third Patrols
U-57Kiel
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...
on 5 September 1939. Leaving Kiel later the same day, U-57 commenced her second patrol in the North Sea and along the Swedish coastline. The patrol terminated without any kills on 18 September 1939 at Kiel. Her third patrol of the war began 25 October 1939 and took U-57 into the North Sea and north of the British Isles. Due to her small size she did not break out into the Atlantic Ocean, however. This unsuccessful patrol terminated at Kiel on 5 November 1939.
Fourth Patrol
The submarine's luck changed during her fourth war patrol. She had been at sea five days, when the 1,566 ton Lithuanian steam merchant Kaunas was sighted. At 20.15 hours on 17 November 1939 U-57 torpedoed her, and she sank 6.5 miles west-northwest of the Noordhinder light vessel. Two days later, the U-Boat crossed paths with her second victim, the 1,383 ton British steamer Stanbrook. At 02.13 hours U-57 fired a single torpedo at her. The torpedo ran hot in the tube and had to be launched manually, but still managed to hit its target. Stanbrook broke in two and sank quickly taking all 20 of her crew down with her. U-57 terminated this patrol 23 November 1939 at Kiel.Fifth Patrol
The veteran U-Boat was shifted to WilhelmshavenWilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea.-History:...
prior to her next patrol. Setting out from that port on 7 December 1939, travelling along the northern European coast. On 13 December, U-57 encountered her only victim of the patrol, the 1,173 ton Estonian steam merchant Mina travelling without escort. A first torpedo fired at 19.03 hours missed, but the second at 19.15 found its mark and the old cargo ship broke in two. The stern section sank immediately, and the bow went down within 30 seconds. Of the crew of seventeen there were no survivors. U-57 made port at Kiel on 16 December 1939.
Sixth Patrol
Departing Kiel after the new year (16 January 1940), U-57 sailed for the northeast coast of England. On 20 January 1940, a small convoy of five steamers with a single escort was sighted. U-57 attempted to attack the lead ship but the distance to target was too short and the torpedo missed. A second torpedo (utilizing a magnetic fuse) fired at 20.26 hours struck the second ship, the 1,328 ton Norwegian steam merchant Miranda. The explosion broke Miranda's keel and she sank within five minutes. Of her crew of seventeen, three men survived and were picked up the next day by the armed boarding vessel HMS Discovery II and landed at KirkwallKirkwall
Kirkwall is the biggest town and capital of Orkney, off the coast of northern mainland Scotland. The town is first mentioned in Orkneyinga saga in the year 1046 when it is recorded as the residence of Rögnvald Brusason the Earl of Orkney, who was killed by his uncle Thorfinn the Mighty...
. This patrol ended at Wilhelmshaven on 25 January 1940.
Seventh Patrol
Departing Wilhelshaven on 8 February 1940, U-57 began a patrol in the North Sea off the ShetlandShetland Islands
Shetland is a subarctic archipelago of Scotland that lies north and east of mainland Great Britain. The islands lie some to the northeast of Orkney and southeast of the Faroe Islands and form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The total...
and Orkney Islands
Orkney Islands
Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...
in support of Operation Nordmark. On 14 February 1940, U-57 sent her first of two valentines to the British people, torpedoing the 10,191 tanker Gretafield (a straggler from convoy HX-18). The ship was hit by a single torpedo at 01.35 hours southeast of Noss Head. A second torpedo at 01.48 set her ablaze and killed ten of her 41-man crew. The ship master and thirty crew abandoned ship and were picked up by the armed trawlers HMS Peggy Nutten and HMS Strathalladale and landed at Wick
Wick, West Sussex
Wick is a community in the Arun district of West Sussex, England. Originally a separate village, it now forms part of the built up area around Littlehampton. It lies on the A284 road 0.6 miles north of the town centre....
. Gretafield was a tough ship however, and did not sink; her still-burning hulk drifted ashore at Dunbeath
Dunbeath
Dunbeath is a village in south-east Caithness, Scotland on the A9 road.It was the birthplace of Neil Gunn , author of The Silver Darlings, Highland River etc., many of whose novels are set in Dunbeath and its Strath...
a few days later. On 19 March 1940 the beached hull broke in two and was declared a total loss.
The evening of 21 February found U-57 tracking another target, the 4,996 ton British steam merchant Loch Maddy, a straggler from convoy HX-19. A single torpedo hit her amidships and she was abandoned (but did not sink) 92 miles southwest of Rockall
Rockall
Rockall is an extremely small, uninhabited, remote rocky islet in the North Atlantic Ocean. It gives its name to one of the sea areas named in the shipping forecast provided by the British Meteorological Office....
. Four of her crew died in the attack, the remaining 35 were picked up by the destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
and landed at Scapa Flow
Scapa Flow
right|thumb|Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern endScapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. It is about...
. Loch Maddy drifted through the night and was hit by a Coup de Grâce from U-23 the following day. He bow sank but the stern was taken in tow by the rescue tug and beached at Inganess Bay. Her cargo was salved and the vessel was declared a total loss.
Victorious, U-57 returned to Wilhelmshaven on 25 February 1940.
Eighth Patrol
On 14 March 1940, U-57 cast off for her eight patrol, a 16 day cruise in the North Sea. In the twilight hours of March 25th, the submarine fired a single torpedo at the British steam tanker Daghestan, which had been damaged five days earlier by bombs from German aircraft. Two crew members and one gunner were lost in the sinking; the remaining 28 crew and the ship master escaped and were picked up by the armed trawlers and and landed at LynessLyness
Lyness is a village on the east coast of the island of Hoy, Orkney.During the 1920's Lyness was briefly the headquarters of the metal salvage firm of Cox and Danks's raising of the German High Seas Fleet, scuttled by the Germans on June 21st 1919 during the Armistice.During the Second World War it...
. Turning toward home, U-57 made port at Wilhelmshaven on 29 March 1940.
Ninth Patrol
Beginning her ninth and longest patrol on 4 April 1940, U-57 proceeded again into the north sea near both the British and Norwegian coasts. Despite 34 days at sea no ships were attacked on this patrol and the submarine returned to Kiel on 7 May 1940. Kapitänleutnant Claus Korth left the boat to commission the nearly completed U-93 and was replaced by Oberleutnant zur See Erich Topp. Her base of operations was transferred from Wilhelmshaven to BergenBergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
.
Tenth Patrol
Under new command, U-57 sortied from Bergen on 15 July 1940 and prowled the North Sea. In the pre-dawn hours of 17 July (04.10 hours) the neutral and unescorted Swedish steam merchant O.A. Brodin was hit on the port side by a single torpedo from U-57. Most of the crew abandoned ship in a single lifeboat as she developed a heavy list. The first and third officers remained behind to search for three missing crew members, but they were forced to leave after five minutes. Forty-five minutes later, the ship sank vertically and the submarine was seen to surface and clear the area. The 21 survivors were picked up later that day by the armed trawlers and and landed at Kirkwall.Later the same day, U-57 spotted convoy HX-55A and attacked at 22.22 hours. The 8,652 ton British steam merchant Manipur was sunk with a loss of 14 men. The ship master and 65 others were pulled from the water by and landed at Rosyth
Rosyth
Rosyth is a town located on the Firth of Forth, three miles south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the town has a population of 12,790....
. Low on munitions, U-57 briefly made port back at Bergen before continuing her patrol two days later.
Ordered to a new base in Lorient
Lorient
Lorient, or L'Orient, is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-History:At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, U-57 sailed north of the British Isles and down the west coast. At 08.07 hours, two torpedoes were fired at the 2,161 ton Swedish merchant Atos, which was travelling unescorted. The second torpedo fired hit her in the engine compartment and her boilers exploded; she sank within three minutes. Despite the rapid demise of their vessel, only one person was killed. 21 cremembers and six passengers survived and were picked up by the Icelandic trawler Skutull. The submarine called at Lorient on 7 August 1940.
Eleventh Patrol
Sailing again on 14 August 1940, U-57 initiated her final (and most successful) patrol of the war. Ten days later at 00.42 hours on 24 August 1940, the U-Boat encountered convoy OB-202 25 miles northeast of Malin Head. Firing all three of her loaded torpedoes at the convoy, she sank the British merchants Cumberland and Saint Dunstan, and heavily damaged the Havildar (also British). Following the attack, Cumberland remained afloat and tried to reach port, but ultimately sank 8 miles from Inishtrahull IslandInishtrahull Island
Inishtrahull is located approx north-east of Malin Head, Inishowen, County Donegal. It is the most northerly island of Ireland. The most northerly landfall of Ireland, the Tor Beg rock is located another one kilometer to the North West of Inishtrahull. Inishtrahull has an area of...
. Saint Dunstan's crew abandoned ship. She remained afloat in the morning so she was re-boarded and taken in tow. While under tow she sank on August 27th with a loss of 14 men. The 49 remaining survivors were picked up by the British rescue ship Copeland and transferred to , and later to and landed at Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
.
The following day, U-57 expended her remaining torpedoes against a straggler from convoy HX-65B, the 7,468 ton motor tanker Pecten. Both torpedoes hit, one in the engine room and the other just abaft the bridge and she disappeared in a cloud of smoke, sinking by the stern in 90 seconds. The ship master and 47 crew were lost; only eight survived the sinking on rafts that flaoted free. The merchant Torr Head from the same convoy picked up the survivors while the convoy escorts (unsuccessfully) counter attacked. Out of torpedoes, the veteran U-Boat returned to port at Brunsbüttel.
Fate
On 3 September 1940 U-57 sank at BrunsbüttelBrunsbüttel
Brunsbüttel is a town in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany that lies on the mouth of the Elbe river, near the North Sea. It is the location of the western entrance to the Kiel Canal, the eastern entrance being located at Kiel-Holtenau...
after an accidental collision with the Norwegian steamship . Six out of the twenty-five crew were killed. In September 1940 she was raised, repaired and returned to service on 11 January 1941 and assigned to 22nd U-boat Flotilla as a school boat. On 1 July 1944 she was reassigned to 19th U-boat Flotilla, also as a school boat.
U-57 was scuttled on 3 May 1945 at Kiel after the German surrender.
Commanders
- 29 Dec 1938 - 4 Jun 1940 Kptlt. Claus KorthClaus KorthClaus Korth was a Korvettenkapitän with the Kriegsmarine during World War II and commander of U-57 and U-93. He is also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...
(Knight's CrossKnight's Cross of the Iron CrossThe Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was a grade of the 1939 version of the 1813 created Iron Cross . The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was the highest award of Germany to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership during World War II...
) - 5 Jun 1940 - 15 Sept 1940 Oblt. Erich ToppErich ToppRear Admiral Erich Topp was the third most successful of German U-Boot Experten commanders of World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...
(Knights Cross) - 11 Jan 1941 - 16 May 1943 Wilhelm Eisele
- 17 May 1943 - 31 Jul 1944 Oblt. Walter Zenker
- 1 Aug 1944 - 3 May 1945 Oblt. Peter Kühl
Raiding History
| Date | Ship | Nationality | Tonnage | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Nov 1939 | Kaunas |  Lithuania |
1,566 | Sunk |
| 19 Nov 1939 | Stanbrook |  United Kingdom |
1,383 | Sunk |
| 13 Dec 1939 | Mina |  Estonia |
|1,173 | Sunk |
| 20 Jan 1940 | Miranda |  Norway |
1,328 | Sunk |
| 26 Jan 1940 | United Kingdom |
8,240 | Sunk* | |
| 14 Feb 1940 | Gretafield | United Kingdom |
10,091 | Damaged** |
| 21 Feb 1940 | Loch Maddy | United Kingdom |
4,996 | Damaged |
| 25 Mar 1940 | Daghestan | United Kingdom |
5,742 | Sunk |
| 17 Jul 1940 | Manipur | United Kingdom |
8,652 | Sunk |
| 17 Jul 1940 | O.A. Brodin |  Sweden |
1,960 | Sunk |
| 3 Aug 1940 | Atos | Sweden |
2,161 | Sunk |
| 24 Aug 1940 | Cumberland | United Kingdom |
10,939 | Sunk |
| 24 Aug 1940 | Havildar | United Kingdom |
5,407 | Damaged |
| 24 Aug 1940 | Saint Dunstan | United Kingdom |
5,681 | Sunk |
| 25 Aug 1940 | Pecten | United Kingdom |
7,468 | Sunk |