Operation Regenbogen (U-boat)
Encyclopedia
Regenbogen was the code name for the planned mass scuttling
of the German
U-boat
fleet, to avoid surrender, at the end of World War II.
was collapsing under the Allied
onslaught.
The Soviets
had captured Berlin
, and on 29 April Hitler
had committed suicide. He had appointed Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz
as Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. US Forces from the west and Soviet forces
from the east had already met at
Torgau
, cutting the Reich in two, while in the north 21st Army Group was poised to capture Hamburg
and the other German ports.
The state of the German navy, the Kriegsmarine (KM), was no better. Of its capital ships only survived, sheltering at Copenhagen
; only the U-Boat Arm was capable of continuing the fight. The KM had approximately 470 U-boats remaining. Some 170 of these were operational U-boats (Front boats), based mainly in occupied Norway
, and another 200 home-based boats in various stages of building, commissioning and working up; these were mainly in the north German ports and on the Baltic
.
As head of the KM, and as commander of the U-boat Arm, Donitz was keen that his U-boat force should not be surrendered. However as the new German leader he was keen to extricate Germany from the war and, if possible, avoid Allied, particularly Soviet, retribution. To that end he had opened negotiations with the western Allies, through Field Marshal Montgomery
commander of Allied 21 Army Group, in North Germany.
As the Allies closed in on the North German ports the KM started to destroy what was left to prevent its capture, while all servicable boats were ordered to bases in Norway. During May a final massacre of U-boats fleeing to Norway took place; 23 U-boats were destroyed or damaged beyond repair in transit in the first week of May.
Against this backdrop Donitz and the U-boat Arm made plans for a mass scuttle of his U-boats, to be carried out on receiving the code-word "Regenbogen".
On 1 May 1945 3 U-boats were wrecked at Warnemunde
, outside Rostock
on the Baltic coast, the first of a wave of scuttling boats and destroying facilities.
On 2 May a further 32 U-boats were scuttled at Travemünde
, near Lübeck
.
On 3 May Donitz sent is chief aide Friedeburg
to Montgomery at Lüneburg
to open negotiations for an armistice with the western allies. This was refused, as Freidberg was not empowered to agree to an unconditional surrender, upon which the Allies insisted. Also on 3 May another 39 boats were wrecked, 32 at Kiel
and another 7 at Hamburg, on the North Sea
coast.
On 4 May the Supreme Allied Commander, Eisenhower
allowed the German forces in Northwest Europe, including naval forces, to surrender to Montgomery and 21 Group; for this, Montgomery insisted that German naval forces, including the U-Boat Arm, be surrendered intact. This would come into effect at 8 am on 5 May. Meanwhile on 4 May, four more boats, two in the Kiel Canal
and two at Flensburg
, were scuttled.
In the early hours of 5 May the Regenbogen order was given, only to be countermanded 8 minutes later, to avoid jeopardizing the surrender negotiations, and later that day all operational U-boats were ordered to cease hostilities. Despite this a further 87 boats were destroyed on 5 May; 64 on the Baltic (41 at Gelting
Bay, 13 at Flensburg and 10 at various other points), while on the North Sea coast 23 boats were disposed of, 13 at Wilhelmshaven
and 10 in the Weser estuary
.
On 6 May there were no further sinkings, but on 7 May the two Walther boats were wrecked at Cuxhaven. Over the last week at least 195 U-boats had been scuttled.
On 8 May Germany surrendered unconditionally; the remaining naval units, including the surviving U-boats, surrendered to Allied forces. At least 150 U-boats were surrendered to the Allied navies, either at sea or at their operational bases. 52 boats were surrendered at sea, either on patrol or in transit, and 98 in port, mostly in Norway and at bases in Germany, Denmark and France. Four U-boats and their crews fled to neutral ports rather than do this; two ( and ) to Portugal and two ( and ) to Argentina
.
Tarrant gives the same.
Blair gives 222 scuttled and 174 surrendered.
Neistle lists 195 scuttled and 150 surrendered. A number of U-boats disposed of were not in commission; some had not yet been commissioned, some had been de-commissioned. The discrepancies are mainly accounted for depending on whether these are included or not.
Most sources give a number of U–boats scuttled at the end of the war, and describe the Regenbogen order, conflating the two.
Kemp describes the scuttle as an act of defiance, and quotes "Ali" Cremer's
order to scuttle rather than surrender her.
It is questionable, however, to what extent the effect the order had, or even if it was given at all. To take Cremer's case in point, Neistle lists U-2519 as being scuttled on 3 May at Kiel, before the surrender negotiations were complete, and at least 24 hours before the Regenbogen order was given.
Dan van der Vat states the order was given at 1.34 Am on 5 May, but countermanded eight minutes later by Donitz.
Blair on the other hand describes the order as being given "according to some sources", and queries "whether it was true or not", but believes some "ambiguous orders of some kind" were issued. But he also states the scuttle began on 5 May, while Neistle is clear it started 4 days earlier, at beginning of the month.
Certainly by 1am on 5 May at least 76 boats had already been wrecked, about half the total. On 5 May, and subsequently, another 89 were wrecked/scuttled, all in North German ports.
Neistle gives the total of U-boats scuttled as 195, of which half were destroyed before, and half after, the Regenbogen order was given. Of the boats destroyed, most (184) were non-operational "Home" boats in North German ports.
11 were Front boats, and these include those fatally damaged in the May massacre and subsequently scuttled by their crews.
On 8 May 1945 the surviving U-boats were surrendered to the Allied navies, either at sea or at their operational bases in Norway and on the North Sea coast, ending the Kriegsmarine's war at sea.
Scuttling
Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull.This can be achieved in several ways—valves or hatches can be opened to the sea, or holes may be ripped into the hull with brute force or with explosives...
of the German
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...
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...
fleet, to avoid surrender, at the end of World War II.
Background
At the beginning of May 1945 Nazi GermanyNazi 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...
was collapsing under the Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
onslaught.
The Soviets
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
had captured Berlin
Battle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin, designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, was the final major offensive of the European Theatre of World War II....
, and on 29 April Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
had committed suicide. He had appointed Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz
Karl Dönitz
Karl Dönitz was a German naval commander during World War II. He started his career in the German Navy during World War I. In 1918, while he was in command of , the submarine was sunk by British forces and Dönitz was taken prisoner...
as Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. US Forces from the west and Soviet forces
1st Ukrainian Front
The 1st Ukrainian Front was a front—a force the size of a Western Army group—of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War.-Wartime:...
from the east had already met at
Elbe Day
Elbe Day, April 25, 1945, was the date Soviet and American troops met at the River Elbe, near Torgau in Germany, marking an important step toward the end of the World War II in Europe. The first contact was made between patrols near Strehla, when First Lieutenant Albert Kotzebue crossed the River...
Torgau
Torgau
Torgau is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen.Outside Germany, the town is most well known as the place where during the Second World War, United States Army forces coming from the west met with forces of the Soviet Union...
, cutting the Reich in two, while in the north 21st Army Group was poised to capture Hamburg
Hamburg
-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...
and the other German ports.
The state of the German navy, the Kriegsmarine (KM), was no better. Of its capital ships only survived, sheltering at Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
; only the U-Boat Arm was capable of continuing the fight. The KM had approximately 470 U-boats remaining. Some 170 of these were operational U-boats (Front boats), based mainly in occupied Norway
Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany started with the German invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940, and ended on May 8, 1945, after the capitulation of German forces in Europe. Throughout this period, Norway was continuously occupied by the Wehrmacht...
, and another 200 home-based boats in various stages of building, commissioning and working up; these were mainly in the north German ports and on the Baltic
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
.
As head of the KM, and as commander of the U-boat Arm, Donitz was keen that his U-boat force should not be surrendered. However as the new German leader he was keen to extricate Germany from the war and, if possible, avoid Allied, particularly Soviet, retribution. To that end he had opened negotiations with the western Allies, through Field Marshal Montgomery
Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, PC , nicknamed "Monty" and the "Spartan General" was a British Army officer. He saw action in the First World War, when he was seriously wounded, and during the Second World War he commanded the 8th Army from...
commander of Allied 21 Army Group, in North Germany.
As the Allies closed in on the North German ports the KM started to destroy what was left to prevent its capture, while all servicable boats were ordered to bases in Norway. During May a final massacre of U-boats fleeing to Norway took place; 23 U-boats were destroyed or damaged beyond repair in transit in the first week of May.
Against this backdrop Donitz and the U-boat Arm made plans for a mass scuttle of his U-boats, to be carried out on receiving the code-word "Regenbogen".
The Operation
During May the Kriegsmarine started to scuttle its U-boats ahead of the advancing Allied armies.On 1 May 1945 3 U-boats were wrecked at Warnemunde
Warnemünde
Warnemünde is a sea resort and northmost district of Rostock in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, situated on the Baltic Sea in the northeast of Germany at the estuary of the river Warnow.- History :...
, outside Rostock
Rostock
Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders...
on the Baltic coast, the first of a wave of scuttling boats and destroying facilities.
On 2 May a further 32 U-boats were scuttled at Travemünde
Travemünde
Travemünde is a borough of Lübeck, Germany, located at the mouth of the river Trave in Lübeck Bay. It began life as a fortress built by Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, in the 12th century to guard the mouth of the Trave, and the Danes subsequently strengthened it. It became a town in 1317 and in...
, near Lübeck
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
.
On 3 May Donitz sent is chief aide Friedeburg
Hans-Georg von Friedeburg
Hans-Georg von Friedeburg was the deputy commander of the U-Boat Forces of Nazi Germany and the last Commanding Admiral of the Kriegsmarine....
to Montgomery at Lüneburg
Lüneburg
Lüneburg is a town in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of fellow Hanseatic city Hamburg. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, and one of Hamburg's inner suburbs...
to open negotiations for an armistice with the western allies. This was refused, as Freidberg was not empowered to agree to an unconditional surrender, upon which the Allies insisted. Also on 3 May another 39 boats were wrecked, 32 at 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...
and another 7 at Hamburg, on the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
coast.
On 4 May the Supreme Allied Commander, Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
allowed the German forces in Northwest Europe, including naval forces, to surrender to Montgomery and 21 Group; for this, Montgomery insisted that German naval forces, including the U-Boat Arm, be surrendered intact. This would come into effect at 8 am on 5 May. Meanwhile on 4 May, four more boats, two in the Kiel Canal
Kiel Canal
The Kiel Canal , known as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal until 1948, is a long canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.The canal links the North Sea at Brunsbüttel to the Baltic Sea at Kiel-Holtenau. An average of is saved by using the Kiel Canal instead of going around the Jutland Peninsula....
and two at Flensburg
Flensburg
Flensburg is an independent town in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the region of Southern Schleswig...
, were scuttled.
In the early hours of 5 May the Regenbogen order was given, only to be countermanded 8 minutes later, to avoid jeopardizing the surrender negotiations, and later that day all operational U-boats were ordered to cease hostilities. Despite this a further 87 boats were destroyed on 5 May; 64 on the Baltic (41 at Gelting
Gelting
Gelting is a municipality in the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated near the Baltic Sea, approx. 33 km northeast of Schleswig, and 30 km east of Flensburg....
Bay, 13 at Flensburg and 10 at various other points), while on the North Sea coast 23 boats were disposed of, 13 at Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven
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:...
and 10 in the Weser estuary
Estuary
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
.
On 6 May there were no further sinkings, but on 7 May the two Walther boats were wrecked at Cuxhaven. Over the last week at least 195 U-boats had been scuttled.
On 8 May Germany surrendered unconditionally; the remaining naval units, including the surviving U-boats, surrendered to Allied forces. At least 150 U-boats were surrendered to the Allied navies, either at sea or at their operational bases. 52 boats were surrendered at sea, either on patrol or in transit, and 98 in port, mostly in Norway and at bases in Germany, Denmark and France. Four U-boats and their crews fled to neutral ports rather than do this; two ( and ) to Portugal and two ( and ) to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
.
Conclusion
Various figures are given for the numbers of U-boats involved during this period; Kemp gives 218 scuttled, and 154 surrendered;Tarrant gives the same.
Blair gives 222 scuttled and 174 surrendered.
Neistle lists 195 scuttled and 150 surrendered. A number of U-boats disposed of were not in commission; some had not yet been commissioned, some had been de-commissioned. The discrepancies are mainly accounted for depending on whether these are included or not.
Most sources give a number of U–boats scuttled at the end of the war, and describe the Regenbogen order, conflating the two.
Kemp describes the scuttle as an act of defiance, and quotes "Ali" Cremer's
Peter-Erich Cremer
Peter-Erich Cremer was a German U-boat commander during the Second World War. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...
order to scuttle rather than surrender her.
It is questionable, however, to what extent the effect the order had, or even if it was given at all. To take Cremer's case in point, Neistle lists U-2519 as being scuttled on 3 May at Kiel, before the surrender negotiations were complete, and at least 24 hours before the Regenbogen order was given.
Dan van der Vat states the order was given at 1.34 Am on 5 May, but countermanded eight minutes later by Donitz.
Blair on the other hand describes the order as being given "according to some sources", and queries "whether it was true or not", but believes some "ambiguous orders of some kind" were issued. But he also states the scuttle began on 5 May, while Neistle is clear it started 4 days earlier, at beginning of the month.
Certainly by 1am on 5 May at least 76 boats had already been wrecked, about half the total. On 5 May, and subsequently, another 89 were wrecked/scuttled, all in North German ports.
Neistle gives the total of U-boats scuttled as 195, of which half were destroyed before, and half after, the Regenbogen order was given. Of the boats destroyed, most (184) were non-operational "Home" boats in North German ports.
11 were Front boats, and these include those fatally damaged in the May massacre and subsequently scuttled by their crews.
On 8 May 1945 the surviving U-boats were surrendered to the Allied navies, either at sea or at their operational bases in Norway and on the North Sea coast, ending the Kriegsmarine's war at sea.