German submarine U-48 (1939)

German World War II submarine

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On 11 September U 48 sank Firby. Some of the crew required medical attention following the sinking. U 48 provisioned the lifeboats, gave medical assistance and radioed:
Churchill, wrongly, told the House of Commons that the U boat captain who had sent the message had been captured. > Heronspool and Louisiane on 13 October, Sneaton on 14 October and Clan Chisholm on 17 October. Following the sinking of Clan Chisholm, U 48 attacked the British steamer Rockpool with fire from her deck gun on 19 October at 1:32 pm. However, the steamer returned fire. In order to avoid being hit, U 48 crash dived. She subsequently re surfaced and attempted to sink the steamer again when an Allied destroyer came upon the engagement. U 48 then broke off the fight with Rockpool and submerged once more to leave the area. Following the sinking of five enemy merchant ships for a total of 37,153 GRT as well as the engagement with Rockpool, U 48 returned to the safety of Kiel on 25 October 1939 after spending 22 days at sea.

U 48 left Kiel for her third patrol on 20 November 1939. During this voyage, she sank a total of four vessels including two merchant ships from neutral nations. The first ship to fall victim to the U boat was the 6,336 GRT neutral Swedish motor tanker MT Gustaf E. Reuter. She was attacked by U 48 on 27 November west northwest of Fair Isle. The wreck was later sunk by an escort vessel. One person died, 33 of her crew survived. The tug HMS St. Mellons attempted to salvage her, however Gustaf E. Reuter eventually had to be sent to the bottom by HMS Kingston Beryl on 28 November. Following the sinking of Gustaf E. Reuter, U 48 sank the British freighter Brandon on 8 December off the southern coast of Ireland. The next day, she attacked the British tanker San Alberto. The ship was so badly damaged that she had to be sunk by Finally on 15 December 1939 U 48 stopped the neutral Greek freighter Germaine which had been chartered by Ireland and was also neutral, to carry maize to Cork. Schultze maintained that she was going to England, so he sank her. U 48 returned to Kiel on 20 December 1939 after sinking a total of 25,618 GRT and spent a total of 31 days at sea.

After a break over the Christmas period, the boat put to sea again, sinking the British Blue Star Line liner SS Sultan Star in the Western Approaches. The vessel was only carrying freight. She laid a string of mines off St Abb's Head which failed to have any effect, but two neutral Dutch ships were added to her tally shortly afterwards, as well as a Finnish ship, all of them operating in the North Atlantic in cooperation with the Allied convoy system.

Her fifth patrol, in June 1940 was one of her most successful, making full use of the situation in Europe following the Fall of France. U 48 was commanded by Hans Rudolf Rösing, as Herbert Schultze was hospitalised with a kidney and stomach complaint. She attacked three ships off the County Donegal coast; Stancor carrying fish from Iceland, Eros carrying 200 tons of small arms from America and Frances Massey with iron ore. 34 sailors lost their lives on Frances Massey. The cargo on Eros was particularly important following the losses at Dunkirk. The badly damaged Eros was taken in tow by , assisted by and and headed to the Irish coast, where Muirchú and Fort Rannoch were waiting for them. Eros was beached on Errarooey strand. While she was being repaired, Irish troops guarded the site. Germany learned that a troop convoy, including and were bringing 25,000 Australian soldiers to Britain. U 48 was ordered to Cape Finisterre where a U boat 'wolfpack' was being assembled to intercept the convoy. However, the U boats attacked other ships in the vicinity, alerting the convoy to their presence, so they altered direction, avoiding the 'wolfpack'. On 19 June 1940, Convoy HG 34 was attacked. U 48 sank (three died), (all 40 on board died) and (one death). Convoy HX 49 dispersed; U 48 sank Moordrecht, which had been in that convoy; 25 died. Ireland had chartered neutral Greek ships; U 48 sank Violando N. Goulandris (six died) while U 28 sank Adamandios Georgandis (one death). Ireland sought an explanation from Germany " steamships, the entire cargoes of which comprised grain for exclusive consumption in Éire were sunk by unidentified submarines "

U 48 was enjoying an extended patrol, thanks to the newly established refuelling facilities available at Trondheim in Norway. In all, she claimed eight ships from the convoys in the Eastern Atlantic on this cruise and bagged five more on her sixth patrol in August, which finished with her stationed at Lorient on the French Atlantic coast, greatly extending her raiding abilities.

The U boat's seventh patrol was also successful, sinking five ships, including two from Convoy HX 65, and damaging a fifth (also from HX 65) which had to be scuttled. The operating zone for both this patrol and the next was far to the north of her previous areas, being south of Greenland. In September, on her eighth patrol she shocked the world by sinking , one of eight ships in six days from Convoys SC 3 and OB 213. On board the liner were 119 children, 90 of whom were being evacuated to Canada under the Children's Overseas Reception Board initiative. The sinking ship took on an immediate list, thus causing problems launching all but two of the lifeboats. As hundreds of survivors struggled in the water, the U boat's powerful searchlight swept once over the chaotic scene before she left the area. The survivors in the boats were not rescued for nearly 24 hours. In that time dozens of children and adults died from exposure or drowned, leaving only 148 survivors (19 children, 21 women, and 108 men) out of 408 on board (119 children, 56 women, and 233 men). One boat was not recovered for a further eight days. In total, 260 people, including 100 children, 35 women, and 125 men, died in the disaster, which effectively ended the overseas evacuation programme. The controversy of City of Benares disaster has been debated ever since. It has been suggested that had the British openly declared that the ship was carrying evacuees, then the Germans would have taken pains not to sink it, recognising the potential for a propaganda crisis, which indeed occurred. However, the ship was not only travelling unlit at night in an Allied convoy, but it was also the flagship of Rear Admiral Edmund Mackinnon, the convoy commander. Other historians have argued that the Germans would have attacked any large liners at the time, no matter what cargo was being carried or who was on the passenger list. However, the Benares was painted like a troop ship, and the U boat, believing that it was only carrying soldiers and crew, sank the ship. Among the other sinkings was the British sloop .

On her ninth and tenth patrols, U 48 claimed two and five victims respectively, but she was clearly becoming obsolete in the face of improving technology on both sides, despite a winter refit. Her range and torpedo capacity were too small for the widening nature of the sea war, and she would be a risk to her crew and other U boats if she continued much longer in the main battlefield of the North Atlantic. On her final patrol she sank five more ships; the boat was boosted by the award of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross to Erich Zürn, the boat's executive officer, for his success and judgement during the ship's career.

U 48 returned to Kiel on 22 June 1941, where her crew disembarked and she was transferred to a training flotilla operating exclusively in the Baltic Sea. Unlike many of her contemporaries, U 48 never sailed on patrols against Soviet targets following Operation Barbarossa the following month. In 1943 she was deemed unfit even for this reduced service, being laid up at Neustadt in Holstein with only a skeleton crew performing minor maintenance. It was there that she remained for the next two years, until the maintenance crew, realising that the war was ending and the boat would be captured, scuttled her in the Bay of Lübeck on 3 May 1945, where she remains.

DateShipNationalityTonnageFateLocation5 September 1939Royal Sceptre4,853Sunk8 September 1939Winkleigh5,055Sunk11 September 1939Firby4,869Sunk12 October 1939Emile Miguet14,115Sunk12 October 1939Heronspool5,202Sunk13 October 1939Louisiane6,903Sunk14 October 1939Sneaton3,677Sunk17 October 19397,256Sunk26 November 1939MT Gustaf E. Reuter6,336Sunk8 December 1939Brandon6,668Sunk9 December 1939San Alberto7,397Damaged15 December 1939Germaine5,217Sunk10 February 1940Burgerdijk6,853Sunk14 February 1940Sultan Star12,306Sunk 15 February 1940Den Haag8,971Sunk17 February 1940Wilja3,396Sunk6 June 1940Stancor798Sunk6 June 1940Frances Massey4,212Sunk7 June 1940Eros5,888Damaged11 June 1940Violando N Goulandris3,598Sunk19 June 1940Tudor6,607Sunk19 June 1940Baron Loudoun3,164Sunk19 June 1940British Monarch5,661Sunk20 June 1940Moerdrecht7,493Sunk16 August 1940Hedrun2,325Sunk19 August 1940Ville de Gand7,590Sunk24 August 1940La Brea6,665Sunk25 August 1940Empire Merlin5,763Sunk25 August 1940Athelcrest6,825Sunk15 September 1940Alexandros4,343Sunk15 September 19401,060Sunk15 September 1940Empire Volunteer5,319Sunk17 / 18 September 194011,081Sunk17 / 18 September 1940Marina5,088Sunk18 September 1940Magdalena3,118Sunk21 September 1940Blairangus4,409Sunk21 September 1940Broompark5,136Damaged 11 October 1940Brandanger4,624Sunk11 October 1940Port Gisborne8,390Sunk12 October 1940Davanger7,102Sunk17 October 19409,512Sunk17 October 19403,843Sunk18 October 1940Sandend3,612Sunk20 October 1940Shirak6,023Sunk1 February 1941Nicolaos Angelos4,351Sunk24 February 1941Nailsea Lass4,289Sunk29 March 1941Germanic5,352Sunk29 March 1941Limbourg2,483Sunk29 March 1941Hylton5,197Sunk2 April 1941Beaverdale9,957Sunk3 June 1941Inversuir9,456Damaged5 June 1941Wellfield6,054Sunk6 June 19415,201Sunk8 June 1941Pendrecht10,746Sunk12 June 19417,005Sunk