Das U-Boot im color

I have secured permission from Edward Tambunan, the guy who runs ''Das U-Boot im color'' on Facebook to upload onto our forum some of his colourised images of WW11 U-Boats. They are superb images, and very cleverly done...I'll upload some of them, and I hope you'll enjoy looking at them.

Each image has a small description of the boat in question, I'll add that as well.

There's a lot of them, so don't expect them all at once, it'll take me some time to get them downloaded onto my hard drive, and then transfer them over to here.

(With grateful thanks to Edward for allowing me to copy his images)


Richard
(ADMIN)

The U-125 was a Type IXC U-boat of German Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down at the AG Weser as 'werk' 988 on 10 May 1940, launched on 10 December and commissioned on 3 March 1941.

In seven patrols, she sank 17 ships for a total of 82,873 gross register tons (GRT). The boat was a member of three wolfpacks.

She was sunk on 6 May 1943 east of Newfoundland by ramming by the British destroyer HMS Oribi and gunfire from the British corvette HMS Snowflake. 54 dead (all hands lost).

U-455 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during World War II. She was laid down on 3 September 1940, launched on 21 June 1941 and commissioned on 21 August 1941 with Kapitänleutnant Hans-Henrich Giessler in command of a crew of 51.

Her service began with the 5th U-boat Flotilla, a training outfit. She was transferred to the 7th flotilla for operations at the beginning of 1942 and again to the 29th flotilla in March 1944.

She carried out ten patrols and was a member of six wolfpacks; she sank three ships for a total of 17,685 GRT.

She was lost, probably in the Ligurian Sea (north of Corsica), on 6 April 1944. Her wreck was discovered in 2005, off Genoa. She had previously been thought to be near La Spezia.

ORP Orzeł was the lead ship of her class of submarines serving in the Polish Navy during World War II. Her name means Eagle in Polish.

She was laid down 14 August 1936 at the Dutch shipyard De Schelde, as the Job No. 205; launched on 15 January 1938, and commissioned on 2 February 1939. She was a modern design (designed by the joint venture of Polish and Dutch engineers), albeit quite large for the shallow waters of the Baltic Sea

At the beginning of the invasion of Poland Orzeł had been deployed on patrol in a designated strategic zone of the Baltic Sea. Due to the German invasion, Orzeł was unable to return to the Polish naval bases at Hel near the major port city of Gdynia.

Orzel's crew decided to head to Tallinn, Estonia as a result of an unidentified illness from which their captain, Lieutenant-Commander Henryk Kłoczkowski, had been suffering since September 8. ORP Orzeł reached Tallinn on 14 September 1939 and on 15 September the captain was forced to leave the submarine to undergo hospital treatment. Under the Hague Convention of 1907, section XIII, Article 12, "belligerent ships" could enter a neutral port but were forbidden from remaining there for "more than twenty-four hours." At the insistence of Germany, the Estonian military authorities boarded the ship, interned the crew, confiscated all the navigation aids and maps, and commenced removing all her armaments. However, only fifteen of her twenty torpedoes were removed before the hoist cable parted; this was because it had been secretly sabotaged by her new commander, former chief officer, Lieutenant Jan Grudzinski.

The crew of Orzeł conspired together to carry out a daring escape. Around midnight on 18 September, the submarine's Estonian guards were overpowered, the mooring lines were cut, and Orzeł got under way. The alarm was raised, and her conning tower was peppered by machine-gun fire. Running half-submerged, Orzeł ran aground on a bar at the harbour mouth, where artillery fire damaged her wireless equipment. Grudzinski managed to get the boat off the bar by blowing her tanks, and she proceeded out of the Gulf of Finland, intending to sail for a British port, the crew having heard a radio report that the Polish submarine Wilk had been welcomed in Britain.

Orzel escaped from Tallinn with two Estonian guards on board as hostages. The Estonian and German press covering the Orzeł incident declared the two captured guards missing at sea. Grudzinski set them ashore in Sweden, providing them with clothing, money, and food for their safe return to homeland. The Polish crew believed that those returning from the underworld "deserve to travel first class only". The escape of the submarine Orzeł was used by the Soviet Union and Germany to challenge Estonian neutrality.

The U-302 was a Type VIIC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 2 April 1941 at the Flender Werke yard at Lübeck as 'werk' 302, launched on 25 April 1942 and commissioned on 16 June under the command of Kapitänleutnant Herbert Sackel.

During her career, the U-boat sailed on eight combat patrols, sinking three ships, before she was sunk in April 1944 in mid-Atlantic by a British frigate.

She was a member of 10 wolfpacks.

The U-253 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for the German Kriegsmarine for service during World War II.

The U-boat was laid down 15 November 1940 at the Bremer Vulkan yard in Bremen-Vegesack, launched on 30 August 1941 and commissioned on 21 October 1941. U-253 served with the 8th U-boat Flotilla for training and later served operationally with the 6th U-boat Flotilla from 1 to 25 September 1942. U-253 completed one patrol but did not sink any ships.

U-253 was sunk with all hands on 25 September 1942 in the Denmark Strait, northwest of Iceland. The cause of U-253's loss is not clear, but believed to be a British mine.

The U-873 was Type IXD2 U-boat of German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Following the surrender of Germany, the United States Navy studied U-873 to improve United States submarine designs. U-873 is remembered for the controversial treatment of its crew as prisoners of war and the death of commanding officer Friedrich Steinhoff in a Boston jail cell. Six months after Steinhoff's death, his brother was one of the Operation Paperclip rocket scientists from Peenemünde arriving in the United States to work at White Sands Missile Range.

The U-47 was a Type VIIB U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down on 25 February 1937 at Krupp Germaniawerft in Kiel as 'werk' 582 and went into service on 17 December 1938 under the command of Günther Prien.

During her service in the Kriegsmarine, U-47 sank 30 commercial ships for 162,769 GRT and one warship of 29,150 tons; she also damaged eight commercial ships for 62,751 GRT and one warship of 10,035 tons. She is also noted for the sinking of the British battleship HMS Royal Oak on 14 October 1939. U-47 ranks as one of the most successful German U-boats of World War II.

The U-128 was a Type IXC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was ordered on 7 August 1939 from AG Weser in Bremen, U-128 was laid down on 10 July 1940, launched on 20 February 1941 and commissioned by Kapitänleutnant Ulrich Heyse on 12 May 1941.

The boat was a training vessel in the second flotilla until 30 November 1941 based in Wilhelmshaven. She was then based in Lorient.

During her six completed war patrols, U-128 sank 12 ships, for a total of 83,639 tons. On 1 March 1943 command was transferred to Kptlt. Hermann Steinert, who commanded her until her loss a few months later.

On 17 May 1943, while operating in the South Atlantic near Pernambuco, two Mariner flying boats, PBM 74-P5 and PBM-74-P6 of the US Navy Squadron VP-74, made U-128 surface with depth charges. Two US Navy destroyers (USS Jouett and Moffett) also hit her with 5-inch gunfire. The crew opened the submarine's seacocks as they abandoned ship, scuttling the submarine. The final toll was seven dead but there were 47 survivors.

The U-36 was a Type VIIA U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine which served during World War II. She was constructed in the earliest days of the U-boat arm at Kiel in 1936, and served in the pre-war Navy in the Baltic Sea and North Sea under Kapitänleutnant (Kptlt.) Klaus Ewerth. Korvettenkapitän (KrvKpt.)Wilhelm Fröhlich took command in October 1938 and continued in the role until the boat was lost.

During the war, U-36 undertook two patrols, with 2 ships sunk with total tonnage 2,813 GRT, 1 ship sunk (mine) total tonage 1,368 GRT and 1 ship captured, total tonnage 1,617 GRT

In 17 September 1939 British submarine HMS Seahorse (96 S), a British S-class submarine fired a spread of three torpedoes at U-36, which had just stopped to question a neutral Danish steamer. This time she was lucky to escape harm, as one of the torpedoes passed directly underneath her.

On 17 November 1939, Naval High Command (SKL) issued orders for U-36 and U-38 to scout the location for Basis Nord, a secret German naval base for raids on Allied shipping located off the Kola Peninsula and provided by the Soviet Union. The mission required coded messages to be flashed to Soviet naval vessels patrolling the area preceding a Soviet escort to the prospective base location.

However, U-36 never left the Norwegian Sea. On 4 December 1939, two days out of Wilhelmshaven, she was spotted on the surface near the Norwegian port of Stavanger by the British submarine HMS Salmon (N65), another British S-class submarine. HMS Salmon then fired one torpedo at her unwitting counterpart. It sank U-36, all 40 of the sailors aboard were lost.

The U-162 was a Type IXC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II.

She was ordered on 25 September 1939 and was laid down on 19 April 1940 at Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG, at Seebeck Yard in Bremerhaven, Germany as "werk 701", launched on 1 March 1941 and commissioned under the command of Korvettenkapitän Jürgen Wattenberg on 9 September of that year.

During three war patrols, U-162 sank 14 vessels. However, on 3 September, three British destroyers HMS Vimy, HMS Pathfinder and HMS Quentin hunted U-162 hunt down and sank her. Of a crew of fifty-one, only two died. The remainder were taken prisoner and sent to camps in the United States, where they were to remain for the rest of the war.

The U-2326 was a Type XXIII submarine of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Type XXIII submarines were the first so-called elektroboats to become operational. They were small coastal submarines designed to operate in the shallow waters of the North Sea, Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea, where larger Type XXI Elektro boats were at risk in World War II. They were so small they could carry only two torpedoes, which had to be loaded externally. As with their far larger brothers — the Type XXI — they were able to remain submerged almost all of the time and were faster than all previous designs worldwide, due to the improved streamlining of their shape, batteries with larger capacity and the snorkel, which allowed the diesel engines to be used while submerged. The Type XXI and XXIII U-boats revolutionized post-war submarine design.

In early May 1945, 31 XXIIIs were scuttled by their crews. Twenty surrendered to the Allies and were sunk in Operation Deadlight. Only three — U-2326 (later British submarine N35), U-2353 (later British submarine N37), and U-4706 (later Norwegian submarine Knerten) survived the war.

Unknown type VII U-Boats photo, probably after the war.

The U-175 was a Type IXC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down on 30 January 1941 at Bremen, and commissioned on 5 December 1941 with Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Bruns in command. After training with the 4th U-boat Flotilla, U-175 was transferred to the 10th U-boat Flotilla for front-line service. Throughout her career, the boat undertook three war patrols during which she sank 10 merchant ships amounting to a total of 40,619 gross register tons (GRT) before being sunk by the US Coast Guard cutter Spencer on 17 April 1943.

In 16 April 1943 BdU ordered The U-175 to join an attack on convoy HX-233, a Liverpool-bound convoy which had departed Halifax and New York earlier in the month, which had been spotted by U-262 while on a clandestine operation to pick up German prisoners-of-war. Steaming at full speed, the boat beat towards the convoy for 10 hours before finally spotting it just before midnight on 16 April. At this point Bruns reported the sighting to BdU, who relayed it to two other boats, U-382 and U-628, while Bruns attempted to get in front of the convoy to set up an attack. Four other boats – U-226, U-264, U-358 and U-614 – also subsequently converged on the convoy.

In the early morning of 17 April, U-628 torpedoed one of the freighters in the convoy, Fort Rampart. A short time later, one of the convoy's escorts, the United States Coast Guard cutter Spencer, under Commander Harold Berdine, responding to a signal from one of the other escorts, the corvette HMCS Arvida, moved away from the convoy to screen the cutter while it picked up survivors. Once this was completed, she steamed back towards the convoy. As she came back, she attempted to pass ahead of the convoy to take up her station, and in doing so found U-175 where she was sitting at periscope depth preparing to launch a submerged attack upon the G Harrison Smith, a tanker of 11,752 GRT. Picking up a contact on her sonar about 5,000 yards (4,600 m), she rushed ahead at full speed. The sound of the sonar pinging on the boat alerted Bruns to the danger and he gave the order for the boat to dive. However, Spencer launched a salvo of 11 depth charges which exploded above and below the boat. The result was that the boat went into a dive bow first and just as they began to restore buoyancy, Spencer launched a second salvo. This second attack ruptured U-175's pressure hull, destroyed the electric motors and damaged several batteries which, as a result, began to give off poisonous gas.

At this point Spencer attacked again and was joined by another Coast Guard cutter, the Duane, they waited for U-175 to surface. On board U-175, quick thinking by the boat's engineer to blow the ballast tanks had prevented them from sinking further and helped right the boat, but communications had been knocked out and it became clear to Bruns that the only option was to surface. Giving the order, the boat rose to the surface; as it did so, Spencer and Duane began firing at close range, while Spencer's commander, Berdine, closed with intent to ram. But Bruns was not intending to fight it out and, seeking to save his crew, led the way onto the conning tower to signal his intention to surrender. The Coast Guard crewmen, however, did not immediately understand the Germans' intentions and maintained a devastating fire on the conning tower that cut down Bruns and a number other men and forced the others to delay their exit. During the firing, stray rounds from one of the merchant ships hit Spencer killing one and wounding seven others.

At this point, Beredine, believing U-175 to still be in the fight, put Spencer about to ram the U-boat but the escort commander, Commander Paul Heineman, ordered him to "heave to" and put a boarding party across instead. As the remaining Germans began to jump into the sea, the Spencer's boarding party attempted to get into the U-boat to search for documents and survivors. The boat quickly began to go under, though, and as a result they were forced to make a hasty departure without having found anything. Of the 54 men that had embarked in U-175, 13 were killed, 19 were rescued by Spencer and 22 were picked up by Duane, where they were formally taken prisoner, treated for their wounds and provided with dry clothing and warm food. Meanwhile, the battle for the convoy continued. A number of other boats, including U-382, U-226 and U-264 were badly damaged in the ensuing engagement and the Allies would later reinforce the escort around convoy HX-233 and increase the air assets assigned to it. In response, on 18 April, BdU canceled operations against the convoy, which subsequently arrived in Liverpool on 21 April, having lost only one of its 57 ships.

U-175's final resting place is recorded as south-west of Ireland, at position 47°53′N 22°04′W Coordinates: 47°53′N 22°04′W.

The U-617 was a Type VIIC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 31 May 1941 at Blohm & Voss, Hamburg as 'werk' 593. She was launched on 14 February 1942 and commissioned on 9 Apr 1942 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Albrecht Brandi (Knights Cross)

On 12 Sep 1943, U-617 was attacked with depth charges by a Leigh Light equipped British Wellington aircraft (179 Sqdn RAF/P, pilot S/L D.B. Hodgkinson, RCAF) off the Moroccan coast. Another Wellington (179 Sqdn RAF/J, pilot P/O W.H. Brunini) was homed in and dropped its depth charges in a Leigh Light attack in 35°17N/03°20W. U-617 counter-attacking with Anti Aircraft guns and hit the aircraft in several places, fatally wounding the rear gunner but this remained unnoticed by the crew during the action. The Wellington crew saw flames in the conning tower of U-617 and circled the boat for 45 minutes until she beached herself near Melilla, Spanish Morocco.

All 49 crew members abandoned ship and were interned by Spain and later repatriated to Germany.

U-617 on fire and lying on her port side after being beached off the Moroccan coast near Melilla. The wreck was
eventually destroyed by further air attacks and naval gunfire.

Royal Navy T class submarine, S class submarine and British captured Type VII U-Boat U-570, renamed HMS Graph.

Captured Type IX U-Boat By US U.S. Navy.

Type XXI U-boats, also known as "Elektroboote" (German: "electric boats"), were the first submarines designed to operate primarily submerged, rather than as surface ships that could submerge as a means to escape detection or launch an attack.

The key improvement in the Type XXI was greatly increased battery capacity, roughly triple the Type VIIC. This gave these boats great underwater range, and dramatically reduced the time spent on or near the surface. They could travel submerged at about 5 kn (5.8 mph; 9.3 km/h) for two or three days before recharging batteries, which took less than five hours using the snorkel. The Type XXI was also far quieter than the VIIC, making it harder to detect when submerged.

The Type XXI's streamlined and hydrodynamically clean hull design allowed high submerged speed. The ability to outrun many surface ships while submerged, combined with improved dive times (also a product of the new hull form), made it far harder to chase and destroy. It also gave the boat a 'sprint ability' when positioning itself for an attack. Older boats had to surface to sprint into position. This often revealed a boat's location, especially after aircraft became available for convoy escort.

They also featured a hydraulic torpedo reloading system that allowed all six bow torpedo tubes to be reloaded faster than a Type VIIC could reload one tube.[citation needed] The Type XXI could fire 18 torpedoes in under 20 minutes. The class also featured a very sensitive passive sonar for the time.

The Type XXIs also had better facilities than previous U-boat classes, including a freezer for food.

Between 1943 and 1945, 118 boats were assembled by Blohm & Voss of Hamburg, AG Weser of Bremen, and F. Schichau of Danzig. Each hull was constructed from eight prefabricated sections with final assembly at the shipyards. This new method could have pushed construction time below six months per vessel, but in practice all the assembled U-boats were plagued with severe quality problems that required extensive post-production work to fix. One of the reasons was, as a result of Albert Speer's decision, sections were made by companies having little experience in shipbuilding. As a result, of 118 Type XXIs completed, only four were fit for combat before the war ended in Europe.

HMS H28 was a British H class submarine built by Vickers Limited, Barrow-in-Furness.

British H-class submarines were Holland 602 type submarines used by the Royal Navy. The submarines constructed for the British Royal Navy between 1915 and 1919 were designed and built in response to German boats which mined British waters and sank coastal shipping with ease due to their small size. The H class was therefore created to perform similar operations in German waters, and to attack German submarines operating in British waters.

Despite their cramped size and lack of a deck gun, the class became enormously popular amongst submariners, and saw action all around the British Isles, some being transferred as far as the Adriatic. Due to the later arrival of most of the class, they were unable to have a massive impact, only achieving two victories (the German submarines U-51 and UB-52) for the loss of four of their own number in the First World War.

The U-203 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for the German Kriegsmarine for service during World War II.

Built as 'Werk' 632 of Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft AG in Kiel, she was laid down on 28 March 1940, launched on 4 January 1941 and commissioned on 18 February under Kapitänleutnant Rolf Mützelburg.

U-203 carried out eleven patrols with the first flotilla and is credited with sinking 21 ships for 94,270 GRT and damaging a further three for 17,052 GRT. She was a member of eleven wolfpacks.

She was sunk in 25 April, 1943 south of Cape Farewell, Greenland, in position 55.05N, 42.25W, by depth charges from Swordfish aircraft of the British escort carrier HMS Biter (Sqdn 811/L) and by the British destroyer HMS Pathfinder. 10 dead and 38 survivors.

The U-86 was a Type VIIB U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II.

She was laid down at the Flender Werke in Lübeck on 20 January 1940 as Werk 282. Launched on 10 May 1941, she was commissioned on 8 July and completed training with the 5th U-boat Flotilla under the command of Kapitänleutnant (Kptlt.) Walter Schug. She was reassigned to the 1st flotilla, initially for further training on 1 September before being ready for operations from 1 December. She stayed with that organization until her loss on 29 November 1943.

U-86 completed eight war patrols with the flotilla, sinking three ships, totalling 9,614 gross register tons (GRT). She also damaged a ship of 8,627 GRT. She was a member of ten wolfpacks.

She was sunk in 29 November 1943 east of the Azores by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS Tumult and HMS Rocket. All 50 sailors aboard were lost.

The U-195 was a Type IXD1 transport U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine which served during World War II. She was laid down on 15 May 1941 at the AG Weser yard in Bremen as 'werk' 1041, launched on 8 April 1942, and commissioned on 5 September 1942 under the command of Korvettenkapitän Heinz Buchholz.

U-195 was one of two Type IX-D1 transport U-boats that had their forward torpedo tubes removed and the compartment converted into a cargo hold. The other IX-D1 was U-180, which was lost in the Bay of Biscay in 1944 whilst setting out for a voyage to Japan. (U-180 had been trialled originally with six diesel engines driving two propeller shafts, but overheating proved such a problem that these engines were removed and replaced with a pair of 2,200 hp MAN diesel engines). It is unclear if U-195 underwent the same engine history as U-180, but it seems likely.

During the war, U-195 undertook three patrols, with 2 ships sunk, total tonnage 14,391 GRT and 1 ship damaged, total tonnage 6,797 GRT.

After Germany's surrender in early May 1945, U-195 was taken over by the Imperial Japanese Navy at Surabaya and was commissioned as I-506 on 15 July 1945.

In August 1945 she surrendered to Royal Navy at Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia. She was later scuttled in the Bali Sea, east of Kangean Island, on 15 February 1946, possibly by the cruiser HMS Sussex.

The U-172 was a Type IXC U-Boat built at the AG Weser Shipyard in Bremen and commissioned into service with the Kriegsmarine in November 1941.

Departing on her first official war patrol in April of 1942, the U-172 would enjoy 5 highly successful patrols during her service life, ranging as far West as the approaches to the Panama Canal, and as far South as Uruguay and South Africa's Western Coast. During her time at sea under the command of Kptlt. Carl Emmermann, she was credited with sinking 26 allied merchant ships, for a total of 152,080 tons. Kptlt. Emmermann's high success rate earned him the Knights Cross and a promotion to command the 6th Flotilla in St. Nazaire, France, and also earned the U-172 a new Captain Oblt. Hermann Hoffmann for her sixth patrol.

Departing Lorient in late November 1943 for a patrol in the South Atlantic, the U-172 was 21 days out of port when she was detected on the surface by aircraft from the Anti-Submarine warfare escort group commanded by the USS Bogue (CVE-9) on December 11th. U-172 immediately went deep and silent to elude her attackers, but the ships and aircraft of the US escort group kept after the sub. For the next 27 hours, the U-172 was subjected to several new 'FIDO' equipped homing torpedoes dropped from the air and over 200 depth charges from US destroyers before she was forced to the surface from heavy damage.

As her crew attempted to abandon the sub she suddenly took a heavy pitch towards the Stern, throwing the men on her deck into the Atlantic. After going nearly vertical, the U-172 sank Stern-first at this location on December 12th, 1943, carrying 13 of her crew with her to the bottom. 46 men including her Captain survived the sinking and spent the rest of the war as POW's.

The U-858 was a Type IXC/40 U-boat of the German Navy during World War II. She was ordered on 5 June 1941, laid down on 11 December 1942 and launched on 30 September 1943. She had one commander for her three patrols, Kapitänleutnant Thilo Bode.

She was sent by Germany at the end of the war to cause havoc along the East Coast of the US, in an attempt to repeat the success of Operation Drumbeat. However, she saw no combat in that mission, and did not sink or damage any allied ships during the war. Her Captain surrendered her on 14 May 1945 at Lewes, Delaware. After surrendering, she was used for publicity in War bond drives.

After being used for torpedo practice near the New England area, she was scuttled by the US Navy at the end of 1947. She was the first German warship to surrender to US forces.

A realistic mock-up of part of a U-boat at Bletchley Park