German submarine ''U-205'' was a

Type VIIC Type VII U-boats were the most common type of German World War II U-boat. 703 boats were built by the end of the war. The lone surviving example, , is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial located in Laboe, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Conc ...

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

of the ''

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...

'' during World War II. The submarine was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

on 19 June 1940 by the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft yard at

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

as yard number 634; launched on 20 March 1941; and commissioned on 3 May 1941 under the command of Franz-Georg Reschke. She was sunk on 17 February 1943 by at .

Design

German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. ''U-205'' had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. She had a total length of , a

pressure hull A submarine hull has two major components, the ''light hull'' and the ''pressure hull''. The light hull (''casing'' in British usage) of a submarine is the outer non-watertight hull which provides a hydrodynamically efficient shape. The pressure ...

length of , a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder

supercharged In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s producing a total of for use while surfaced, two

AEG Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...

GU 460/8–27 double-acting electric motors producing a total of for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

s. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to . The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of . When submerged, the boat could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at . ''U-205'' was fitted with five

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s (four fitted at the bow and one at the stern), fourteen

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

es, one SK C/35 naval gun, 220 rounds, and a C/30 anti-aircraft gun. The boat had a complement of between forty-four and sixty.

Service history

Part of the

3rd U-boat Flotilla The 3rd U-boat Flotilla (German ''3. Unterseebootsflottille''), also known as Lohs Flotilla, was the third operational U-boat unit in Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine''. Founded on 4 October 1937 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Hans Eckermann, ...

, ''U-205'' carried out two patrols in the North Atlantic. Joining

29th U-boat Flotilla 29th U-boat Flotilla ("29. Unterseebootsflottille") was formed in December 1941 in La Spezia in Italy under the command of Korvettenkapitän Franz Becker (soldier), Franz Becker. The flotilla operated mostly various marks of the Type VII U-boat an ...

, she carried out a further nine patrols in the Mediterranean.

First patrol

''U-205''s first patrol began when she left

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

on 24 July 1941; she travelled through the gap between

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

and

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

(the Denmark Strait) and docked at

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in occupied France, on 23 August 1941.

Second patrol

Leaving Lorient on 23 September 1941, ''U-205'' was attacked and damaged by aircraft on 27 September and returned to port, arriving in Lorient on 2 October 1941.

Third patrol

On 3 November 1941 ''U-205'' left Lorient and joined Wolfpack Arnauld. Breaking through the Gibraltar barrage, ''U-205'' joined the 29th U-Flotilla in La Spezia on 10 December 1941.

Fourth patrol

''U-205'' left La Spezia on 5 January 1942 and returned on 10 February.

Fifth patrol

Having left La Spezia on 17 March, ''U-205'' reached Salamis on 6 April 1942.

Sixth patrol

Sailing from La Spezia on 6 May 1942, ''U-205'' reached Salamis on 8 June 1942.

Seventh patrol

On the return leg, ''U-205'' successfully attacked the British light cruiser on 16 June 1942, guarding convoy MW-11 killing the ship's cat 'Convoy' and 87 of his crew-mates. The U-boat docked in La Spezia on 23 June.

Eighth patrol

On 3 August 1942, ''U-205'' sailed from La Spezia for

Pula Pula (; also known as Pola, it, Pola , hu, Pòla, Venetian language, Venetian; ''Pola''; Istriot language, Istriot: ''Puola'', Slovene language, Slovene: ''Pulj'') is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, and the List of cities and town ...

, arriving there on 10 September 1942.

Ninth patrol

Pola, 20 October 1942 – La Spezia, 19 November 1942 and La Spezia, 20 November 1942 – Pola, 24 November 1942

Tenth patrol

Pola, 12 January 1943 – Salamis 26 January 1943

Last patrol and sinking

Leaving Salamis on 2 February 1943, ''U-205'' was manoeuvering to attack a convoy off Apollonia, Cyrenaica on 17 February 1943 when she was spotted by a Bristol Blenheim bomber of the South African Air Force and attacked by British

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

at . Forced to surface by

depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive Shock factor, hydraulic shock. Most depth ...

s, ''U-205''s crew abandoned ship after opening the sea vents. A boarding party from HMS ''Paladin'' managed to salvage documents and radio equipment. A second warship, , attempted to tow the still-floating submarine to the beach, but failed. ''U-205'' sank about off shore.

Wolfpacks

''U-205'' took part in one wolfpack, namely: * Arnauld (5 – 18 November 1941)

Aftermath

''U-205'' is widely believed to be the submarine with the erroneous number ''U-307'' in Peter Keeble's book ''Ordeal by Water'', in which he describes his dive to recover encrypting equipment from a sunken U-boat.

Summary of raiding history

References

Bibliography

* * * *Jak Mallmann Showell, ''Enigma U-boats'', 2000, p. 95.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:U0205 World War II submarines of Germany German Type VIIC submarines U-boats commissioned in 1941 U-boats sunk in 1943 U-boats sunk by British warships 1941 ships Ships built in Kiel World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea Maritime incidents in February 1943