The German submarine fleet during the Second World War. "Wolf Packs" by Karl Dönitz or submarines of the Third Reich Submarines of the 3rd Reich

Only by 1944 did the Allies manage to reduce the losses inflicted on their fleet by German submariners

The submarine U-47 returns to port on October 14, 1939 after a successful attack on the British battleship Royal Oak. Photo: U.S. Naval Historical Center

Target - Britain

England was directly dependent on supplies of food and raw materials from the New World, especially the USA, which was its main “supplier” in both world wars. In addition, the blockade would cut off Britain from the reinforcements that were mobilized in the colonies, as well as prevent British landings on the continent. However, the successes of the German surface raiders were short-lived. Their enemy was not only the superior forces of the United Kingdom fleet, but also British aviation, against which the mighty ships were almost powerless. Regular air strikes on French bases forced Germany in 1941–42 to evacuate its battleships to northern ports, where they almost ingloriously died during the raids or stood in repair until the end of the war.

The main force that the Third Reich relied on in the battle at sea were submarines, less vulnerable to aircraft and capable of sneaking up on even a very strong enemy. And most importantly, building a submarine was several times cheaper, the submarine required less fuel, it was serviced by a small crew - despite the fact that it could be no less effective than the most powerful raider.

"Wolf Packs" by Admiral Dönitz

This forced Britain to urgently remove its aircraft carriers from the Atlantic and restrict the movement of battleships and other large warships, which were now carefully guarded by destroyers and other escort ships. The successes had an effect on Hitler: he changed his initially negative opinion about submarines, and on his orders their mass construction began. Over the next 5 years, the German fleet included 1,108 submarines.

True, taking into account the losses and the need to repair submarines damaged during the campaign, Germany could at one time put forward a limited number of submarines ready for the campaign - only by the middle of the war their number exceeded a hundred.

Karl Dönitz began his submarine career during World War I as chief mate on the U-39.

In 1935, when Germany decided to recreate the submarine fleet, Dönitz was simultaneously appointed commander of the 1st U-boat Flotilla and received the strange title of “U-boat Führer.” This was a very successful appointment: the submarine fleet was essentially his brainchild, he created it from scratch and turned it into the most powerful fist of the Third Reich. Dönitz personally met each boat returning to base, attended the graduations of the submariner school, and created special sanatoriums for them. For all this, he enjoyed great respect from his subordinates, who nicknamed him “Papa Karl” (Vater Karl).

In 1935-38, the “underwater Fuhrer” developed new tactics for hunting enemy ships. Until this moment, submarines from all countries of the world operated alone. Dönitz, having served as commander of a destroyer flotilla that attacks the enemy in a group, decided to use group tactics in submarine warfare. First he proposes the "veil" method. A group of boats was walking, turning around in the sea in a chain. The boat that discovered the enemy sent a report and attacked him, and the other boats rushed to her aid.

The next idea was the "circle" tactic, where the boats were positioned around a specific area of ​​the ocean. As soon as an enemy convoy or warship entered it, the boat, which noticed the enemy entering the circle, began to lead the target, maintaining contact with the others, and they began to approach the doomed targets from all sides.

But the most famous was the “wolf pack” method, directly developed for attacks on large transport caravans. The name fully corresponded to its essence - this is how wolves hunt their prey. After the convoy was discovered, a group of submarines was concentrated parallel to its course. Having carried out the first attack, she then overtook the convoy and turned into position for a new strike.

The best of the best

The German submarine was attacked by Allied aircraft. Photo: U.S. Army Center of Military History

Like any war, this one also had its aces. Gunther Prien became the first famous underwater corsair throughout Germany. He has thirty ships with a total displacement of 164,953 tons, including the aforementioned battleship). For this he became the first German officer to receive oak leaves for the Knight's Cross. The Reich Ministry of Propaganda promptly created a cult of him - and Prien began to receive whole bags of letters from enthusiastic fans. Perhaps he could have become the most successful German submariner, but on March 8, 1941, his boat was lost during an attack on a convoy.

After this, the list of German deep-sea aces was headed by Otto Kretschmer, who sank forty-four ships with a total displacement of 266,629 tons. He was followed by Wolfgang L?th - 43 ships with a total displacement of 225,712 tons, Erich Topp - 34 ships with a total displacement of 193,684 tons and the well-known Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock - 25 ships with a total of with a displacement of 183,253 tons, which, together with its U-96, became a character in the feature film "U-Boot" ("Submarine"). By the way, he did not die during the air raid. After the war, Lehmann-Willenbrock served as a captain in the merchant marine and distinguished himself in the rescue of the sinking Brazilian cargo ship Commandante Lira in 1959, and also became the commander of the first German ship with a nuclear reactor. His boat, after the unfortunate sinking right at the base, was raised, went on trips (but with a different crew), and after the war was turned into a technical museum.

Thus, the German submarine fleet turned out to be the most successful, although it did not have such impressive support from surface forces and naval aviation as the British one. Her Majesty's submariners accounted for only 70 combat and 368 German merchant ships with a total tonnage of 826,300 tons. Their American allies sank 1,178 ships with a total tonnage of 4.9 million tons in the Pacific theater of war. Fortune was not kind to the two hundred and sixty-seven Soviet submarines, which during the war torpedoed only 157 enemy warships and transports with a total displacement of 462,300 tons.

"Flying Dutchmen"

In 1983, German director Wolfgang Petersen made the film “Das U-Boot” based on the novel of the same name by Lothar-Günther Buchheim. A significant portion of the budget covered the cost of recreating historically accurate details. Photo: Bavaria Film

On January 16, 1935, Deutsche Werft received an order for the construction of the first six submarines of this series. Subsequently, its main parameters - 500 tons of displacement, cruising range of 6250 miles, diving depth of 100 meters - were improved several times. The basis of the boat was a durable hull divided into six compartments, welded from steel sheets, the thickness of which on the first model was 18-22 mm, and on modification VII-C (the most massive submarine in history, 674 units were produced) it already reached 28 mm in the central part and up to 22 mm at the extremities. Thus, the VII-C hull was designed for depths of up to 125-150 meters, but could dive to 250, which was unattainable for Allied submarines, which dived only to 100-150 meters. In addition, such a durable body could withstand hits from 20 and 37 mm shells. The cruising range of this model has increased to 8250 miles.

For diving, five ballast tanks were filled with water: bow, stern and two side light (outer) hulls and one located inside the durable one. A well-trained crew could “dive” underwater in just 25 seconds! At the same time, the side tanks could take an additional supply of fuel, and then the cruising range increased to 9,700 miles, and on the latest modifications - up to 12,400. But in addition to this, the boats could be refueled on the voyage from special tanker submarines (IXD series).

The heart of the boats - two six-cylinder diesel engines - together produced 2800 hp. and accelerated the ship on the surface to 17–18 knots. Underwater, the submarine ran on Siemens electric motors (2x375 hp) with a maximum speed of 7.6 knots. Of course, this was not enough to get away from destroyers, but it was quite enough to hunt slow-moving and clumsy transports. The main weapons of the “sevens” were five 533-mm torpedo tubes (four bow and one stern), which “fired” from a depth of up to 22 meters. The most frequently used “projectiles” were the G7a (steam-gas) and G7e (electric) torpedoes. The latter was significantly inferior in range (5 kilometers versus 12.5), but they did not leave a characteristic mark on the water, and their maximum speed was approximately the same - up to 30 knots.

To attack targets inside convoys, the Germans invented a special FAT maneuvering device, with which the torpedo made a “snake” or attacked with a turn of up to 130 degrees. The same torpedoes were used to fight off the destroyers that were pressing on the tail - fired from the stern apparatus, it came towards them “head to head”, and then turned sharply and hit the side.

In addition to traditional contact torpedoes, torpedoes could also be equipped with magnetic fuses - to detonate them as they passed under the bottom of the ship. And from the end of 1943, the T4 acoustic homing torpedo, which could be fired without aiming, came into service. True, in this case, the submarine itself had to stop the screws or quickly go to depth so that the torpedo did not return.

The boats were armed with both bow 88-mm and stern 45-mm guns, and later a very useful 20-mm anti-aircraft gun, which protected them from the most terrible enemy - British Air Force patrol aircraft. Several "sevens" received FuMO30 radars, which detected air targets at a distance of up to 15 km and surface targets up to 8 km.

They drowned in the depths of the sea...

Wolfgang Petersen's film “Das U-Boot” shows how the life of submariners who sailed on Series VII submarines was organized. Photo: Bavaria Film

The first thing that submariners who had just gone to sea encountered was terrible cramped conditions. This especially affected the crews of series VII submarines, which, being already cramped in design, were also packed to capacity with everything necessary for long-distance voyages. The crew's sleeping places and all free corners were used to store boxes of provisions, so the crew had to rest and eat wherever they could. To take additional tons of fuel, it was pumped into tanks intended for fresh water (drinking and hygienic), thus sharply reducing its ration.

For the same reason, German submariners never rescued their victims desperately floundering in the middle of the ocean. After all, there was simply nowhere to place them - except perhaps to shove them into the vacant torpedo tube. Hence the reputation of inhuman monsters that stuck with submariners.

The feeling of mercy was dulled by constant fear for one’s own life. During the campaign we had to constantly be wary of minefields or enemy aircraft. But the most terrible thing was the enemy destroyers and anti-submarine ships, or rather, their depth charges, the close explosion of which could destroy the hull of the boat. In this case, one could only hope for a quick death. It was much more terrible to receive heavy injuries and fall irrevocably into the abyss, listening in horror to how the compressed hull of the boat was cracking, ready to break inside with streams of water under pressure of several tens of atmospheres. Or worse, to lie aground forever and slowly suffocate, realizing at the same time that there will be no help...

Almost 70 years have passed since the end of the Second World War, but even today we do not know everything about some episodes of its final stage. That is why, again and again in the press and literature, old stories about the mysterious submarines of the Third Reich that surfaced off the coast of Latin America come to life. Argentina turned out to be especially attractive to them.

There was a basis for such stories, real or fictional. Everyone knows the role of German submarines in the war at sea: 1,162 submarines left the stocks of Germany during the Second World War. But it was not only this record number of boats that the German Navy could rightfully be proud of.

German submarines of that time were distinguished by the highest technical characteristics - speed, diving depth, unsurpassed cruising range. It is no coincidence that the most massive Soviet submarines of the pre-war period (Series C) were built under a German license.

And when in July 1944 the German boat U-250 was sunk at a shallow depth in the Vyborg Bay, the Soviet command demanded that the fleet raise it at any cost and deliver it to Kronstadt, which was done despite the stubborn opposition of the enemy. And although the boats of the VII series, to which the U-250 belonged, were no longer considered the last word in German technology in 1944, there were many novelties in its design for Soviet designers.

Suffice it to say that after its capture, a special order was issued by the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Kuznetsov to suspend the work begun on the project of a new submarine until a detailed study of the U-250. Subsequently, many elements of the “German” were transferred to Soviet boats of Project 608, and later Project 613, of which more than a hundred were built in the post-war years. The XXI series boats, one after another going into the ocean since 1943, had especially high performance.

DOUBTABLE NEUTRALITY

Argentina, having chosen neutrality in the world war, nevertheless took a clearly pro-German position. The large German diaspora was very influential in this southern country and provided all possible assistance to their warring compatriots. The Germans owned many industrial enterprises, huge lands, and fishing boats in Argentina.

German submarines operating in the Atlantic regularly approached the shores of Argentina, where they were supplied with food, medicine and spare parts. Nazi submariners were received as heroes by the owners of German estates, scattered in large numbers along the Argentine coast. Eyewitnesses said that real feasts were held for bearded men in naval uniforms - lambs and pigs were roasted, the best wines and kegs of beer were displayed.

But the local press did not report this. It is no wonder that it was in this country that after the defeat of the Third Reich, many prominent Nazis and their minions, such as Eichmann, Priebke, the sadistic doctor Mengele, the fascist dictator of Croatia Pavelic and others, found refuge and escaped from retribution.

There were rumors that they all ended up in South America on board submarines, a special squadron of which, consisting of 35 submarines (the so-called “Fuhrer Convoy”), had a base in the Canaries. To this day, dubious versions have not been refuted that Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun and Bormann found salvation in the same way, as well as about the secret German colony of New Swabia allegedly created with the help of a submarine fleet in Antarctica.

In August 1942, Brazil joined the warring countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, taking part in battles on land, air and sea. She suffered her greatest loss when the war in Europe had already ended and was burning out in the Pacific. On July 4, 1945, 900 miles from its native shores, the Brazilian cruiser Bahia exploded and sank almost instantly. Most experts believe that his death (along with 330 crew members) was the work of German submariners.

SWASTIKA ON THE CONTROLHOUSE?

After waiting out the troubled times, making good money on supplies to both warring coalitions, at the very end of the war, when its end was clear to everyone, on March 27, 1945, Argentina declared war on Germany. But after this the flow of German boats seemed to only increase. Dozens of residents of coastal villages, as well as fishermen at sea, according to them, have more than once observed submarines on the surface, almost in wake formation, moving in a southerly direction.

The most keen-eyed eyewitnesses even saw a swastika on their deckhouses, which, by the way, the Germans never put on the deckhouses of their boats. The coastal waters and coast of Argentina were now patrolled by the army and navy. There is a known episode when in June 1945, in the vicinity of the city of Mardel Plata, a patrol came across a cave in which various products were contained in sealed packaging. To whom they were intended remains unclear. It is also difficult to understand where this endless stream of submarines allegedly observed by the population after May 1945 came from.

After all, on April 30, the Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, gave the order to conduct Operation Rainbow, during which all the remaining Reich submarines (several hundred) were subject to flooding. It is quite possible that some of these ships that were in the ocean or in ports of different countries did not reach the commander-in-chief’s directive, and some crews simply refused to comply with it.

Historians agree that in most cases, various boats, including fishing boats, dangling on the waves, were mistaken for submarines observed in the ocean, or the reports of eyewitnesses were simply a figment of their imagination against the background of general hysteria in anticipation of a German retaliatory strike.

CAPTAIN CINZANO

But still, at least two German submarines turned out to be not phantoms, but very real ships with living crews on board. These were U-530 and U-977, which entered the port of Mardel Plata in the summer of 1945 and surrendered to the Argentine authorities. When an Argentine officer boarded U-530 in the early morning of July 10, he saw the crew lined up on the deck and its commander - a very young chief lieutenant who introduced himself as Otto Wermuth (later Argentine sailors called him Captain Cinzano) and declared that U- 530 and her crew of 54 surrender to the mercy of the Argentine authorities.

After this, the submarine's flag was lowered and handed over to the Argentine authorities, along with a list of the crew.

A group of officers from the Mardel Plata naval base, which inspected U-530, noted that the submarine did not have a deck gun and two anti-aircraft machine guns (they were dropped into the sea before being captured), and not a single torpedo. All ship documentation was destroyed, as was the encryption machine. Particularly noted was the absence of an inflatable rescue boat on the submarine, which suggested that it might have been used to land some Nazi figures (perhaps Hitler himself) ashore.

During interrogations, Otto Wermuth said that U-530 left Kiel in February, hid in the Norwegian fjords for 10 days, after which it cruised along the US coast, and on April 24 moved south. Otto Wermuth could not give any clear explanations regarding the absence of the bot. A search was organized for the missing bot, involving ships, planes and marines, but they did not yield any results. On July 21, the ships participating in this operation were ordered to return to their bases. From that moment on, no one looked for German submarines in Argentine waters.

TALE OF A PIRATE

Concluding the story about the adventures of German submarines in the southern seas, it is impossible not to mention a certain Corvette captain Paul von Rettel, who, thanks to journalists, became widely known as the commander of U-2670. He, allegedly being in the Atlantic in May 1945, refused to sink his submarine or surrender and simply began piracy off the coast of Africa and Southeast Asia. The newly minted filibuster allegedly amassed a huge fortune for himself. He replenished fuel for his diesel engines, water and food from his victims.

He practically did not use weapons, because few people dared to resist his formidable submarine. Journalists do not know how this story ended. But it is known for certain that the submarine number U-2670 was not listed in the German fleet, and von Rettel himself was not on the list of commanders. So, to the disappointment of lovers of sea romance, his story turned out to be a newspaper duck.

Konstantin RISHES

“Independent Military Review” No. 24 for 2007 published an article by V. T. Kulinchenko “Take away gold with submarines” (Secret transport operations of submariners of the Third Reich). Here is a brief summary of this article.

Dozens of books and hundreds of articles have been written about the combat operations of the submarine fleet of the Third Reich. But the list of printed works devoted to transport operations, which were carried out with the help of German submarines, looks much more modest. Meanwhile, they, for example, delivered Zeiss optics, instruments, weapons and German specialists to Japan. However, the matter was not limited to the transportation of such goods...

Uranium supplies

In Japan, even before the start of the Pacific War in December 1941, work was carried out with uranium-235, but there were not enough reserves for full-fledged experiments. In 1943, a request was sent from Tokyo to Berlin for two tons of uranium ore. At the end of the same year, one ton of this raw material was taken on board by a certain German submarine. However, she did not reach her destination.

The number and fate of this submarine are still unknown. In all likelihood, it lies somewhere on the ocean floor. Until recently, it was believed that Nazi Germany did not send any more uranium to the Land of the Rising Sun. But it turned out that this is not so...

When Hitler realized that the war against the USSR and Stalin's Western allies was lost, he began to hope for any kind of "secret weapon." The Germans clearly did not have time to create the atomic bomb. Perhaps, they believed in Berlin, the Japanese would be able to do this if they were helped.

And so on March 25, 1945, under cover of darkness, the submarine U-234, loaded with half a ton of enriched uranium-235, quietly left Kiel. In addition to uranium, the submarine carried a disassembled Me-262 jet aircraft and parts of V-2 missiles. Only two people on the ship knew the objectives of the campaign - the commander-Lieutenant Johann-Heinrich Fechler and the second officer Karl-Ernst Pfaff.

U-234 was still en route when Nazi Germany suffered its final collapse. Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz orders all German submarines at sea to surrender. Nevertheless, U-234 continued to follow its route across the Atlantic. The commander successfully evaded American and British anti-submarine forces, but soon realized that the submarine could no longer reach Japan. Fehler gathered his officers and asked the only question: what to do? The decision is unanimously made to stop the campaign and capitulate.

On May 14, 1945, U-234 appeared on the radar screen of American destroyers. At a speed of 14 knots, the submarine approached the US Navy ships...

Operation Tierra del Fuego

Even before 1944, Operation Tierra del Fuego began. Under cover of darkness, on the piers of North German bases, cordoned off by the SS, special representatives of the Main Directorate of the Reich Security Service (RSHA) supervised the loading of sealed boxes onto submarines. They were placed in torpedo compartments and mined. If there was a danger of submarines being captured in the ocean, this secret cargo would be blown up along with the torpedoes. For this emergency, there was the strictest order, and the crews of the submarine included Nazi fanatics from the SS special forces, who could be relied on: they would prefer to go to the bottom than to be captured.

The boxes on the submarines were filled with currency, gold, and jewelry. During Operation Tierra del Fuego, the Nazis managed to transport truly gigantic wealth to South America, such as the Spanish conquistadors had never dreamed of. In addition to money, 2,511 kg of gold, 87 kg of platinum, and 4,638 carats of diamonds were delivered to Argentina alone. What did all this lead to? There is no answer to this question yet.

The mystery of the submarine U-534

Only relatively recently did it become known that during the Second World War there was a top-secret formation of German submarines, called the Fuhrer Convoy. It included 35 submarines.

At the end of 1944, in Kiel, torpedoes and other weapons were removed from the submarines included in the “Führer Convoy”, since they were strictly forbidden to engage in combat while sailing. Only unmarried sailors were selected for the submarine crews, who, in addition, did not have a single close relative left alive. According to the instructions of Hitler and Dönitz, submarine commanders must require each subordinate to take a “vow of eternal silence.”

Containers with valuables and documents and huge supplies of provisions were loaded onto the submarines from the Fuhrer Convoy. In addition, the submarines took on board mysterious passengers.

The commander of one of these submarines, U-977, Heinz Schaeffer, was captured. During numerous interrogations conducted by representatives of the American and British intelligence services, he never revealed any significant information about the submarines of the Fuhrer Convoy. The book of memoirs he wrote in 1952 also did not contain anything sensational. But the fact that Schaeffer knew a certain secret is confirmed by his letter addressed to his “old comrade” Captain zur See (Captain 1st Rank) Wilhelm Bernhart, dated June 1, 1983: “...What will you achieve when you tell the truth about what what was our mission? And who will suffer because of your revelations? Think about it!

Of course, you don't intend to do this just for the money. I repeat again: let the truth sleep with our submarines at the bottom of the ocean. This is my opinion..."

Was the letter talking about “treasures of the Reich” or something else? It seemed that the answer to this question would be received after the discovery of the submarine U-534 at the bottom of the Danish Straits. Back in 1986-1987, all newspapers in the world published materials about this sensational discovery by Aage Jensen, a Dane who professionally searches for sunken ships. It was he who found the German submarine.

U-534, which left Kiel on May 5, 1945, carried, as the media claimed, a significant part of the gold reserves of the Third Reich, secret German archives and about forty prominent Nazis. The commander of U-534, Herbert Nollau, was ordered to set course for Latin America. However, thousands of sea mines laid by the Allies along the coasts of Germany and northern European countries made it impossible for the submarine to sail at night or underwater. The submarine was attacked by British planes near the island of Anholt, where it sank at a depth of 60 meters. But 47 crew members managed to escape. It was they who subsequently spoke about the cargo of U-534.

But the rise of the submarine was delayed. In 1993, they started talking about it again in connection with the U-534 project, developed by specialists from the Dutch company Smith So. One of its leaders, Vardlo, giving an interview to journalists in July 1993, said that work on raising the submarine would begin in the near future. “We talked with each of the nineteen living crew members,” said Vardlo. “Unfortunately, everyone who was privy to the “secret of the cargo” and knew about the exact route of the submarine died long ago. And it is generally possible that on board there was nothing special."

Another 14 years passed, and U-534 was still not raised. Why? It is likely that there are still people, influential ones at that, for whom the appearance of U-534 on the surface is not very desirable.

Encyclopedia of misconceptions. Third Reich Likhacheva Larisa Borisovna

Submarine fleet of the Third Reich. Misconceptions of the deep sea

What do we need children for? What do we need farms for?

Earthly joys are not about us.

Everything we live in the world now is

A little air and an order.

We went to sea to serve the people,

Yes, there is something around people...

The submarine goes into the water -

Look for her somewhere.

Alexander Gorodnitsky

There is a misconception that the submarine fleet of the Third Reich was the most successful combat unit of the Wehrmacht. In support of this, the words of Winston Churchill are usually quoted: “The only thing that really worried me during the war was the danger posed by German submarines. The “Road of Life” that passed through the boundaries of the oceans was in danger.” In addition, the statistics of transport and warships of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition destroyed by German submarines speaks for itself: in total, about 2,000 warships and merchant ships with a total displacement of 13.5 million tons were sunk (according to Karl Doenitz, 2,759 ships with a total tonnage 15 million tons). In this case, more than 100 thousand enemy sailors died.

However, if we compare the trophies of the Reich underwater armada with its losses, the picture looks much less joyful. 791 submarines did not return from military campaigns, which is 70% of the entire submarine fleet of Nazi Germany! Of approximately 40 thousand submarine personnel, according to the Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, from 28 to 32 thousand people died, that is, 80%. Sometimes the figure quoted is 33 thousand dead. In addition, more than 5 thousand people were captured. “U-boat Fuhrer” Karl Doenitz experienced in his family how high a price Germany paid for superiority under water - he lost two sons, submarine officers, and a nephew.

Thus, we can say with complete confidence that the victory of the German submarine fleet in the initial stages of World War II was Pyrrhic. No wonder one of the Russian researchers of German submarines, Mikhail Kurushin, called his work “Steel Coffins of the Reich.” A comparison of the losses of the aggressor submarines and the American-British transport fleet shows that, in the conditions of strong Allied anti-submarine defense, German submarines were no longer able to achieve their former successes. If in 1942 for every Reich submarine sunk there were 13.6 Allied ships destroyed, then in 1945 - only 0.3 ships. This ratio was clearly not in Germany’s favor and indicated that the effectiveness of the combat operations of German submarines by the end of the war had decreased by 45 times compared to 1942. “Events ... showed unequivocally that the moment had come when the anti-submarine defense of both great naval powers surpassed the combat power of our submarines,” Karl Doenitz later wrote in his memoirs “The Reich Submarine Fleet.”

It should be noted that the disproportionately large losses of German submarines and personnel became the basis for the emergence of another misconception. They say that German submariners, least of all in the Wehrmacht embraced by the ideas of Nazism, did not profess the tactics of total war by any means. They used traditional methods of warfare based on the “code of honor”: attack from the surface with a warning to the enemy. And the vile enemy took advantage of this and drowned the noble fascists. Indeed, cases of conducting a naval battle, as they say, “with the visor up,” actually took place at the initial stage of the war. But then Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz developed the tactics of group underwater attacks - “wolf packs”. According to him, 300 small submarines will be able to provide Germany with victory in the naval war with Great Britain. And indeed, the British very soon experienced the “bites” of “wolf packs”. Once a submarine detected a convoy, it would call up to 20–30 submarines to jointly attack it from different directions. This tactic, as well as the widespread use of aviation at sea, led to heavy losses in the British merchant fleet. In just 6 months of 1942, German submarines sank 503 enemy ships with a total displacement of over 3 million tons.

However, by the summer of 1943, a fundamental change had occurred in the Battle of the Atlantic. The British learned to defend themselves from the underwater fire of the Third Reich. Analyzing the reasons for the current situation, Doenitz was forced to admit: “The enemy managed to neutralize our submarines and achieved this not with the help of superior tactics or strategy, but thanks to superiority in the field of science ... And this means that the only offensive weapon in the war against the Anglo-Saxons is leaving ours.” hands." The technical equipment of the Allied Navy as a whole exceeded the capabilities of the German shipbuilding industry. In addition, these powers strengthened the defense of convoys, which made it possible to conduct their ships across the Atlantic with virtually no losses, and if German submarines were detected, to destroy them in an organized and very effective manner.

Another misconception associated with the German submarine fleet is the idea that Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz personally ordered the scuttling of all Third Reich submarines on May 5, 1945. However, he could not destroy what he loved most in the world. Researcher Gennady Drozhzhin in his monograph “Myths of Underwater Warfare” cites a fragment of the Grand Admiral’s order. “My submariners! - it said. “We have six years of hostilities behind us. You fought like lions. But now the overwhelming enemy forces have left us almost no room for action. There is no point in continuing to resist. Submariners, whose military prowess has not weakened, are now laying down their arms - after heroic battles unparalleled in history." From this order it was clear that Doenitz ordered all submarine commanders to cease fire and prepare to surrender in accordance with instructions to be received later. According to some reports, the grand admiral ordered the sinking of all submarines, but a few minutes later he canceled his order. But either the repeated order was late, or it did not exist at all; only 215 submarines were sunk by their crews. And only 186 submarines capitulated.

Now as for the submariners themselves. According to another misconception, they did not always share the ideas of fascism, being professionals who honestly carried out their military work. For example, Karl Doenitz was not formally a member of the Nazi party, although it was him who the Fuhrer appointed as his successor before committing suicide. However, most submarine officers were sincerely loyal to Hitler. The head of the Reich paid them the same. They say that for his own protection, he even asked the grand admiral to allocate him a unit consisting of submariners. As researcher G. Drozhzhin writes, Doenitz’s subordinates were never “cogs” in the Hitler machine, “simple professionals” doing their job well. They were the “color of the nation”, the support of the fascist regime. The Kriegsmarine submariners who survived in the “steel coffins” spoke of Hitler in exclusively enthusiastic terms in their memoirs. And the point is not at all that they believed in delusional ideas about the superiority of the Aryan race. For them, the Fuhrer was the man who returned the honor violated by the Treaty of Versailles.

So, let's summarize. German submariners were not the best, since, having destroyed many enemy ships, they themselves died like flies. They were not noble professionals who fought honestly on the field, or rather on the sea, of battle. They were fans of the submarine fleet, aces of the “steel coffins”...

SEA SNAKE FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA In the middle of the last century, the crew of the English corvette Daedalus, located in the Atlantic Ocean between St. Helena and Cape Town, unexpectedly noticed a large strange object in the sea. It was huge, resembling a snake