SM U-20 (Germany)

SM ''U-20'' was a German Type ''U 19'' U-boat built for service in the Imperial German Navy. She was launched on 18 December 1912, and commissioned on 5 August 1913. During World War I, she took part in operations around the British Isles. ''U-20'' became infamous following her sinking of the British ocean liner on 7 May 1915, an act that dramatically reshaped the course of the First World War.

Career

On 7 May 1915, ''U-20'' was patrolling off the southern coast of Ireland under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger. Three months earlier, on 4 February, the Germans had established a U-boat blockade around the British Isles and had declared any vessel in it a legitimate target. At about 13:40 Schwieger was at the periscope and saw a vessel approaching. From a distance of about , Schwieger noted she had four funnels and two masts, making her a passenger liner and he fired a torpedo. It hit on the starboard side, almost directly below the bridge. Schwieger wrote that he was surprised by the size of the explosion, reasoning that a second explosion must have happened, possibly caused by coal dust, a boiler explosion or powder. According to his logs, only then did he recognise her as ''Lusitania'', a vessel in the British Fleet Reserve. In 18 minutes, ''Lusitania'' sank with 1,197 casualties. The wreck lies in of water.

Fifteen minutes after he had fired his torpedo, Schwieger noted in his war diary,

There was at the time a great controversy about the sinking, over whether ''Lusitania'' was armed, carrying troops or illegal explosives to England and over Schwieger's method of attack. The Allies and the United States originally thought the ''U-20'' fired two torpedoes. Postwar investigations showed only one was fired.

Before Schwieger got back to the docks at Wilhelmshaven for refuelling and supplies, the United States had formally protested to Berlin against the brutality of his action. Kaiser Wilhelm II wrote in the margins of the American note, "Utterly impertinent", "outrageous" and "this is the most insolent thing in tone and bearing that I have had to read since the Japanese note last August". To keep America out of the war, in June the Kaiser was compelled to rescind unrestricted submarine warfare and require all passenger liners be left unmolested. On 4 September 1915 Schwieger was back at sea with ''U-20'', off the Fastnet Rock in the south Irish Sea. This rock held one of the key navigational markers in the western ocean, the Fastnet Lighthouse, and any ships passing in and out of the Irish Sea would be within visual contact of it.

RMS ''Hesperian'' was beginning a run outward bound from Liverpool to Quebec and Montreal, with a general cargo, also doubling as a hospital ship, and carrying about 800 passengers when she was attacked and sunk by U-20 off the Fastnet.

Schwieger was reprimanded by the Admiralty but was unrepentant. The Germans decided to report that the ship was hit by a mine.

Fate and legacy

On 4 November 1916, ''U-20'' grounded on the Danish coast south of Vrist, a little north of Thorsminde after suffering damage to its engines. Her crew attempted to destroy her with explosives the following day, succeeding only in damaging the boat's bow but making it inoperative as a warship. ''U-20'' remained on the beach until 1925 when the Danish government blew it up in a "spectacular explosion". The Danish navy removed the deck gun and made it unserviceable by cutting holes in vital parts. The gun was kept in the naval stores at Holmen in Copenhagen for almost 80 years. The conning tower was removed and placed on the front lawn of the local museum Strandingsmuseum St. George Thorsminde, where it remains. The novelist Clive Cussler claimed his National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) located the remains of ''U-20'' in 1984, about from shore.North Sea and English Channel Hunt

Summary of raiding history

See also

*Room 40

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

U20
at Strandingsmuseum St. George, Thorsminde



Great photo quality, comments in German.
A 44 min. film from 1917 about a cruise of the German submarine U-35.
A German propaganda film without dead or wounded; many details about submarine warfare in World War I.
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original documents, photos and maps about World War I German submarine warfare and British Room 40 Intelligence from The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, UK.

{{DEFAULTSORT:U0020
Type U 19 submarines
Ships built in Danzig
1912 ships
U-boats commissioned in 1913
World War I submarines of Germany
RMS Lusitania
Maritime incidents in 1916
U-boats sunk in 1916
World War I shipwrecks in the North Sea