Unterseeboot 30 (1936) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Scuttled:	4 May 1945 Flensburg Fiord, Kupfermühlen Bay
Raised:	1948 Wreck broken up

German submarine U-30 was a Type VIIA 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

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 It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine.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 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. She was ordered on 1 April 1935 in violation of the Treaty of Versailles

Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...

, which prevented the construction and commissioning of any U-boats into the German navy, and as part of the German naval rearmament program known as Plan Z

Plan Z

Plan Z was the name given to the planned re-equipment and expansion of the Nazi German Navy ordered by Adolf Hitler on January 27, 1939...

. Built by AG Weser

AG Weser

Aktien-Gesellschaft Weser was one of the great German shipbuilding companies, located at the Weser River in Bremen. Founded in 1873 it was finally closed in 1983. Altogether, AG Weser built about 1400 ships of different types, including many war ships...

of Bremen

Bremen

The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...

on 24 January 1936, she was launched on 4 August 1936 and formally commissioned into the Kriegsmarine on 8 October. She sank the liner , the first ship sunk in World War II, on 3 September 1939, under the command of Fritz-Julius Lemp

Fritz-Julius Lemp

Fritz-Julius Lemp was a Kapitänleutnant with the Kriegsmarine during World War II and commander of , and . He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...

. She was retired from front-line service in September 1940 after undertaking eight war patrols and having sunk 17 vessels and damaging two others. After this U-30 served in a training role until the end of the war when she was scuttled. She was later raised and broken up for scrap in 1948.

Construction

U-30 was ordered by the Kriegsmarine on 1 April 1935 (as part of Plan Z and in violation of the Treaty of Versailles). Her keel was laid down on 24 January 1936 by AG Weser

AG Weser

, Bremen

Bremen

as Werk 911. U-30 was launched on 4 August 1936 and commissioned on 8 October under the command of Kapitänleutnant Hans Cohausz.

Like all Type VIIA submarines, U-30 had two MAN 6-cylinder 4-stroke M6V 40/46 diesel engine

Diesel engine

A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...

s totalling 2100 bhp as well as two Brown, Boveri & Cie

Brown, Boveri & Cie

Brown, Boveri & Cie was a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies.It was founded in Baden, Switzerland, in 1891 by Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri who worked at the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon. In 1970 BBC took over the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon...

GG UB 720/8 electric motors, that produced 750 shp and allowed her to travel at 17 knots (33.3 km/h) while surfaced and 8 knots (15.7 km/h) submerged. She had a range of 11470 nmi (21,242.4 km) at 10 knots (19.6 km/h) while on the surface and 175 nmi (324.1 km) at 4 kn (7.8 km/h) while submerged. U-30 had five torpedo tubes (four in the bow, one in the stern). She could also carry a total of eleven 533 mm (21 in) torpedoes or 22 TMA mines or 33 TMB mines and had a C35 88 mm gun/L45 deck gun

Deck gun

A deck gun is a type of artillery cannon mounted on the deck of a ship or submarine.The deck gun was used as a defensive weapon against smaller boats or ships and in certain cases where torpedo use was limited. Typically a crew of three; gunner, loader, and layer, operated the gun, while others...

that held 220 rounds. She was equipped with one C30 20 mm AA

2 cm FlaK 30

The Flak 30 and improved Flak 38 were 20 mm anti-aircraft guns used by various German forces throughout the Second World War. It was not only the primary German light anti-aircraft gun, but by far the most numerously produced German artillery piece throughout the war...

anti-aircraft gun. After being commissioned and deployed, U-30 was stationed in the German port city of 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:...

Service history

During her career U-30 was involved in eight war patrols and sank 16 merchant ships, totalling , and one auxiliary warship of . U-30 also damaged one ship totalling , and damaged the battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

. All of these attacks took place under the command of Kapitänleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp

Fritz-Julius Lemp

Fritz-Julius Lemp was a Kapitänleutnant with the Kriegsmarine during World War II and commander of , and . He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...

First patrol and the sinking of the Athenia

U-30 went to sea on 22 August 1939, before World War II began. U-30s career began on 3 September 1939, just 12 days after leaving the port of Wilhelmshaven and only 10 hours after Britain declared war on Germany, she sank the 13,581 ton passenger ship about 200 miles (321.9 km) west of the Hebrides while she was en route from Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

to Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The Athenia was the first ship sunk in World War II and out of 1,400 passengers, 112 of them, including 28 Americans, were killed. After sinking the Athenia, U-30 went on to sink two more vessels, the Blairlogie and the .

Following the attack, the German Ministry of Propaganda checked incoming reports from both London and the German Naval High command. Having been told by the Kriegsmarine that there was not a single U-boat in the vicinity of the Athenia on the day of her sinking, the Propaganda Ministry promptly denied all allegations that any German U-boat had sunk the Athenia. Instead, the Germans claimed that the British torpedoed their own vessel in an attempt to bring the United States into the war on the side of the Allies

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...

.

In order to calm down any American response to the sinking of the Athenia, Joachim von Ribbentrop

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...

, the German Foreign Minister, arranged a meeting between Grand Admiral Erich Raeder

Erich Raeder

Erich Johann Albert Raeder was a naval leader in Germany before and during World War II. Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank—that of Großadmiral — in 1939, becoming the first person to hold that rank since Alfred von Tirpitz...

and the American naval attaché on 16 September 1939. During the meeting, Raeder assured the attaché that he had received reports from every German submarine at sea and "as a result of which it was definitely established that the Athenia had not been sunk by a German U-boat". Raeder then asked the attaché to inform the American government. However, not every submarine had returned to port and all U-boats maintained radio silence while at sea.

Once U-30 arrived at port on 27 September, Admiral Karl Doenitz met Lemp while he was getting off of the U-boat. Doenitz later said that Lemp looked "very unhappy" and that he told the Admiral that he was in fact responsible for the sinking of the Athenia. Lemp had mistaken the Athenia for an armed merchant cruiser

Armed merchantmen

Armed merchantman is a term that has come to mean a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in long distance and high value...

, which he claimed was zig-zagging. Doenitz later received orders that the Athenia affair was to be kept a "total secret", the High Command of the Navy (OKM) were not to court-martial Lemp as they considered his actions in good-faith, and that any other political explanations about the sinking of the Athenia were to be handled by the OKM who would deny any allegations that a German U-boat had sunk the vessel. In order to keep the sinking of the Athenia a secret, Doenitz had U-30s log altered in order to erase any evidence about the truth of U-30s sinking of the Athenia. It was not until the Nuremberg trials

Nuremberg Trials

The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....

in 1946 that the truth about the fate of the Athenia was brought forth publicly by the Germans.

Second patrol

As a result of the investigation undertaken by the German General Staff following the sinking of the Athenia, U-30 remained in port until 9 December 1939 when she was finally allowed to put to sea again for her second war patrol. It lasted only six days, however, during which time she travelled up to the southern coast of (then neutral) Norway before returning to Wilhelmshaven on 14 December 1939. During the voyage U-30 did not encounter any enemy vessels and consequently she returned to port without any claims.

Third patrol

U-30s third patrol was much more prosperous. Having left Wilhelmshaven on 23 December 1939, she journeyed into the North Sea. U-30 then circumnavigated the British Isles and travelled south down to the southern coast of Ireland. It was off of the west coast of Scotland that U-30 sank her first enemy vessel during her third patrol, the 325 ton anti-submarine trawler , on 28 December 1939. That same day, U-30 hit a much bigger target, the British battleship . Following the sinking of the Barbara Robertson, U-30 fired a torpedo at the British battleship and damaged her, killing four crewmembers. The next three ships that U-30 sank were hit by mines from the U-boat, the El Oso, sunk on 11 January, the Gracia, damaged on 16 January, and the Cairnross, sunk on 17 January. Meanwhile, U-30 returned to her home port of Wilhelmshaven on 17 January 1940.

Fourth patrol

The fourth patrol that U-30 undertook began on 11 March 1940 when she left Wilhelmshaven for the west coast of Norway in preparation for the German invasion of that nation

Operation Weserübung

Operation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign...

. For a period of 20 days, U-30 traveled up the Norwegian coast in search of any Allied convoys, she did not find any and returned to Wilhelmshaven on 30 March 1940.

Fifth patrol

Like her fourth patrol, U-30s fifth patrol ended without any losses. She put to sea on 3 April 1940 to support the German invasion of Norway and Denmark (codenamed Operation Weserubung). For 32 days, U-30 travelled up the west coast of Norway. She then headed east to Scotland in order to intercept British warships that were heading north to defend Norway. She failed to encounter any vessels, however, and returned to Wilhelmshaven, arriving there on 4 May 1940.

Sixth patrol

U-30s sixth patrol was the first patrol in which she sank any enemy ships since her third patrol. Having left Wilhelmshaven on 8 June 1940, she once again entered the North Sea in an attempt to sink any Allied ships in the area. For 32 days, U-30 circumnavigated the British Isles and sank five enemy ships in the Bay of Biscay. The first to be sunk was the 4,876 ton British vessel, Otterpool which was sunk on 20 June 1940. Two days later, the 3,999 ton Norwegian vessel Randsfjord was sunk. On 28 June, the British ship Llanarth was torpedoed and was followed by the Beignon on 1 July and the Egyptian Angele Mabro on 6 July. Following these attacks, U-30 headed to port. Instead of returning to Wilhelmshaven, however, U-30 put in to 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...

, in France, which had been captured after the Fall of France. In doing so, it became the first German U-boat to enter the port.

Later patrols and retirement

U-30 began her first patrol operating from Lorient and her seventh overall on 13 July 1940. During a period of 12 days, U-30 travelled as far south as Portugal and sank the 712 ton British ship Ellaroy on 21 July 1940. Three days later, on 24 July, U-30 returned to Lorient, having experienced a malfunction with its engine. Following this it became clear that the boat was suffering a number of mechanical difficulties and as a result it was decided that she would need to be used sparingly. For her next patrol it was decided that she would leave from Lorient, but would return to Germany instead.

The eighth and last war patrol that U-30 was to undertake began on 5 August 1940 when she left Lorient to patrol the North Atlantic. In 26 days, U-30 travelled north of the British Isles, into the North Sea and entered the German port city of Kiel on 30 August 1940. During that time, she sank the Swedish vessel Canton on 9 August and the British steam merchant Clan Macphee on 16 August 1940. Both of these attacks took place off of the west coast of neutral Ireland. After these successes, however, the U-30 once again experienced engine troubles and was forced to end its patrol early, returning to Germany. Before she arrived, however, Lemp received word that he had been awarded the Ritterkreuz (Knights Cross) for the boat's previous war patrols.

Following her eighth patrol, U-30 was retired from front-line service on 15 September 1940 and was assigned to training flotillas in the Baltic for the rest of World War II. After her retirement, many of U-30s experienced crewmembers, including her captain, Lemp, were transferred to the. In the last months of the war the U-30 was used as a range boat before being scuttled by her crew on 4 May 1945 at Flensburg in Kupfermühlen Bay, in order to avoid surrendering the boat to Allies as part of Operation Regenbogen

Operation Regenbogen (U-boat)

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.-Background:At the beginning of May 1945 Nazi Germany was collapsing under the Allied onslaught....

. The wreck of the U-boat was later raised and broken up in 1948.

Raiding career

During her service in the German Kriegsmarine, U-30 sank 16 commercial ships for a loss of , and one warship for a loss of . U-30 also damaged one commercial ship totalling , and damaged the battleship

Battleship

HMS Barham.

Date	Ship	Nationality	Tonnage	Fate
3 September 1939		Great Britain	13,581	sunk
11 September 1939	Blairlogie	Great Britain	4,425	sunk
14 September 1939		Great Britain	5,200	sunk
28 December 1939	HMS Barbara Robertson	Great Britain	325	sunk
28 December 1939		Great Britain	31,100	damaged
11 January 1940	El Oso	Great Britain	7,267	sunk
16 January 1940	Gracia	Great Britain	5,642	damaged
17 January 1940	Cairnross	Great Britain	5,494	sunk
7 February 1940	Munster	Great Britain	4,305	sunk
9 February 1940	Chagres	Great Britain	5,406	sunk
8 March 1940	Counsellor	Great Britain	5,068	sunk
20 June 1940	Otterpool	Great Britain	4,876	sunk
22 June 1940	Randsfjord	Norway	3,999	sunk
28 June 1940	Llanarth	Great Britain	5,053	sunk
1 July 1940	Beignon	Great Britain	5,218	sunk
6 July 1940	Angele Mabro	Egypt	3,154	sunk
21 July 1940	Ellaroy	Great Britain	712	sunk
1 August 1940	Canton	Sweden	5,779	sunk
16 August 1940	Clan Macphee	Great Britain	6,628	sunk

External links

U-30 at u-boot-archiv.de

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