I visited the U-995 submarine in Laboe

L'article en français est disponible ici 

A long time ago, while reading an issue of the french magazine "39-45 magazine Nr116 of February 1996", I learned that there was a U-Boot on a beach in Germany. Since that discovery, I'd been toying with the idea of going to see it one day. Then the years went by and despite a number of visits to Europe, I still hadn't seen the submarine.

As the summer of 2024 approached, I pounded my fist on the table (at least mentally), "Saperlipopette !" It's decided, I'm going to Kiel, Laboe or wherever, but I'm going to see the U-Boot. As the rest of the family weren't too keen on the idea, I closed the deal with ‘but there's the sea and a beach there’, and the sandals and bikinis came out of the wardrobes. I hadn't mentioned, however, that the Baltic, having been there a long time ago, is particularly cold and I thought I'd pass.

Parking and sleeping at Laboe

After passing through Belgium (Waterloo...), the Netherlands, Hamburg's traffic jams and Kiel, I arrived in Laboe, a small seaside resort in Scheslwig-Holstein in northern Germany, not too far from Denmark.

24 for 24 hours is a steep price, as it doubled a month before my arrival. Nevertheless, you can sleep peacefully here as there is not a sound at night.

Once there, I quickly realised that there are only two ways to park your CC if you want to avoid problems with the local Polizei. Pay for a three-person pitch at a campsite, which I've never done before, or pay €24 for a single parking space ! I reluctantly took the second option. Although it's very basic but strangely quiet at night, the car park is very practical as it's located right next to the Marine-Ehrenmal and just 150 meters from the beach where the U-Boot is enthroned. 

The submarine is not so isolated, as Laboe is a small seaside town.

The Kiel fjord from where U-995 left for the Norwegian coast, with Laboe and its beach in the foreground.

At the end of the fjord, overlooking the Baltic Sea, only my daughter was brave enough to go for a swim. In any case, even after 50 metres the water is only knee-high for an adult.

 

Das Boot

The U-995 is a German type VII C/41 submarine. It is the most popular Unterseeboot in the history of the German navy, with over 700 produced. Since the first VII A came out in 1933, there have been several evolutions, and the U-995 is a C model. They were produced between 1940 and 1945, and some were fitted with a schnorchel as early as 1944. The model on display at Laboe is the only one of its type in the world.

U-Boot U-995 at Laboe

The U-995 was powered by two Krupp diesel engines, each delivering 1400 hp. For underwater navigation, it also has two electric motors developing 750 hp. Its theoretical range is 15,170 km, but this depends on sea conditions.

It is armed with 4 torpedo tubes at the front and a single tube at the rear. A 3.7 cm Flak M42 gun and two 20 mm Flak 38s, as the air threat became increasingly present over the years.

Her crew consists of four officers and forty non-commissioned officers and sailors. The maximum for this type of submarine is 52 men.

The history of U-995

The submarine was ordered by the Kriegsmarine on 14 October 1941 and built by the Blohm und Voss shipyard in Hamburg. The yard had already been building submarines during the First World War. It was launched on 22 July 1943 and entered service two months later, on 16 September 1943, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walter Köhntopp. The submarine was assigned to the 5.U-Flotille in Kiel, where the crew trained in the Baltic Sea. 

Hamburg 1943. Kapitänleutnant Walter Köhntopp takes command of U-995

The crew of the U-995 undergoing training in Kiel. Note the U-boat emblem.

At the end of April 1944, the u-boot was ordered to Kristiansand in southern Norway. Kristiansad is a bit like a service station, a small maritime base used to fill its diesel tanks, load torpedoes and get on its way. The very next day, the U-995 was to head for Flekkefjord, where it was assigned as a reserve submarine to the 13.U-Flotille in Trondheim.

U-995 from the Kiel fjord to the Trondheim fjord

In mid-May, U-995, along with four other submarines, was due to head for the Bergen area, operating in the North Sea, but on 21 May it was spotted by enemy aircraft. The submarine was attacked by a Canadian Short Sunderland, an aircraft specialising in submarine hunting and heavily armed with 18 cannons ! U-995 suffered damage and five men were wounded. The boat was forced to undergo repairs at the Stützpunkt Trondheim. 

On 30 June 1944, repaired after the air attack, she set sail again for Narvik, which it reached on 1 July. Two days later, it set off on a 28-day mission, again without suffering any casualties. The submarine carried out a few Narvik - Trondheim - Narvik missions while protecting the Norwegian coast, but we were a long way from the wolf packs of the Atlantic. It was targeted again by a B-24 Liberator on 21 July. The damage was minimal but required a return to base a few days later, as a leak had been detected.

A bit of geography: U-995 leaves the Trondheim naval base for Narvik further north

On 23 August, he was given a new mission. It was to pick up an aircraft pilot in Lödingen and drop him off in Tromsö, then lay mines in the Pechora Sea in northern Russia. This shipping lane, which passes through the Kara Strait, is used extensively by Soviet ships, as it runs from Murmansk to the ports of Dikson, Dudinka and further east in Siberia, even as far as Vladivostokn ! It is common to see U-Boote laying mines, especially before the ice sets in.

U-995 returned to Narvik on 14 September 1944.

Soviet shipping convoys have to pass through the Kara Strait and the Pechora Sea to reach the Barents Sea and the port of Murmansk. The Pechora Sea is only six metres deep.

 

An unreliable commander ?

After 55 days at sea in four missions, Köhntopp had still not sunk a single ship, which aroused the suspicion of the Kriegsmarine, who relieved him of his command on 9 October 1944 for ‘cowardice in the face of the enemy’. With the help of a medical officer from the Narvik base, Köhntopp narrowly avoided a court martial (or a pistol on the table). Put at the disposal of the 13.U-flotilla, he never regained a command. At the end of the war, Köhntopp was taken prisoner. He was sent to a camp in England before being released and returning to Germany. He died in Marienthal on 19 February 2000 at the age of 89.

Oberleutnant zur See Hans Georg Hess

Oberleutnant zur See Hans Georg Hess became the submarine's new pasha. Hess was just 21 years old, making him the youngest submarine captain of any nation during the war.

Hess was born in Berlin in 1923. In April 1940, at the age of 16, he joined the Kriegsmarine as a volunteer. He spent two years on various minesweepers before being transferred to the U-Bootwaffe in April 1942. Assigned to the U-466 in autumn 1942, he took part in five patrols, mainly in the North Atlantic (La Pallice) and the Mediterranean (La Spezia), before the U-466 was scuttled near Toulon on 19 August 1944. 

The full crew of U-995 with its new young Pasha, Oberleutnant zur See Hans Georg Hess

The U-Boot was back at sea and the short missions followed each other until the one on 30 November 1944. The ship set sail from Narvik and on 5 December surprised a Soviet convoy in the Barents Sea off Murmansk. The U-995 launched its first torpedo against the ‘Proletarij’, a freight steamer built in Germany in 1905. The soviet was hit but did not sink. The German submarine, which had dived after its first attack, reappeared during the night and fired another torpedo salvo, sending the steamer to the bottom. Twenty-nine people were killed, and the survivors were picked up by a Soviet submarine. U-995 returned to its base on 9 December.

If you want to feel the atmosphere of the convoys to Murmansk, I recommend you see the film ‘The Artic Convoy’ (Konvoi) released in 2023. The scene with the planes is a little far-fetched, but the film is well worth watching.

From Narvik, the U-995 sinks the Proletarij off Murmansk harbour

The U-995 caused other casualties. On 21 December, it carried out a cannon attack on the ‘Reshitel'nyj’, a small Soviet boat weighing 20 tonnes (a far cry from the Russian destroyer of the same name a few years earlier). There were 28 casualties and only 3 survivors.

On 26 December, it was a Soviet armed trawler, the ‘RT-52 Som’ (РТ-52 ‘Сом’) that was hit by torpedoes, the boat broke in two and there were 31 casualties with only one survivor, fished out by the German submarine.

Here is the testimony of Gunner Dremin, the survivor:

"We left port on 24 December. After dinner, the sailors who had been released from their watch, including me, stayed in the wardroom. At ten o'clock, a small horn sounded. We jumped up from our seats, and in the next instant the explosion shook the trawler, and the lights went out. I hit the bulkhead and fell. In the confusion, it was hard to get out on deck. The captain's bridge and the radio room were blown away. The stern was hanging down and the ship was falling on its starboard side. I thought of putting a dinghy in the water. But there was nothing left but debris. I don't know how I ended up in the icy water. I woke up and saw a lifebuoy. I grabbed onto it and looked around. The trawler had disappeared."

During his career with U-995, Hess had the opportunity to save two Russian sailors from drowning. They were disembarked in Tromsø.

On the morning of 29 December, convoy KV-37, carrying a precious cargo, stopped off at the port of Iokanga before setting off again. To ensure that no mines had been laid by U-Boote, two Soviet trawlers converted into minesweepers, the T-883 and T-887, escorted by the BO-142, were sent out to sea to check the seaway.

Alert ! At 5.20pm, the T-887 detected a boat 7.5 nautical miles south-east of Svyatoy Nos. At the same time, the T-883 was hit head-on and there was a huge explosion, but the boat stayed afloat. The Russians had probably not detected a second U-Boot in the area, U-995. The T-887 and BO-142 rushed off without assisting the sailors. The rescue services arrived later to find only an oil stain floating on the water. Of the 49 crew members on board the T-883, none survived.

As we can read, the command of Oberleutnant zur See Hans Georg Hess was far more effective than that of his predecessor.

The last year of the war

On 3 February 1945, U-995 left Harstad on a one-month mission. While in his boat, Hess learned that he had been made a Knight of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 11 February.

On 1 March 1945, still on mission, the boat was transferred to the 14.U-Flotille based in Narvik.

The very next day, on the afternoon of 2 March, near the island of Kildin, 3 miles north of Cape Letinsky in the Barents Sea, despite the fact that the U-995 had been detected by hydro-acoustics and attacked with a wasserbomb, Hess and his crew sank the BO-224, a 105-tonne SC-type anti-submarine warfare vessel, although it was accompanied by two other anti-submarine warfare vessels. The BO-224 had been built at the Harris & Parsons shipyard in Greenwich USA. The ship's mission was to defend communications between the Barents Sea, the White Sea and the Kara Strait, a strategically very important strait as I described above.

According to U.Boat.net, 7 people died and 24 survived, but according to Russian archives, the death toll rose to 33, including Lieutenant Commander Alexei Roshchin and the commander of the BO-224, Lieutenant Ivan Gaidovshchikov. The wreck of the Soviet ship was not discovered until 2016!

5 or 6 March 1945, returning from a mission, U 995 enters Narvik after sinking BO-224. Below, on the front of the Turm, the fairing of the magnetic compass in its original shape, which was not used on the ‘Laboe’ model.

When U-995 finally returned to Narvik on 5 or 6 March, opinions differed.

Why 14.U-Flotille ?

The submarines attached to 11.U-Flotille (Bergen) and 13.U-Flotille (Trondheim) operated mainly from Narvik and Ofotfjord. With the collapse of the front in France, the U-Boats from the Lorient, Saint Nazaire and La Rochelle bases were transferred to Norway, which necessitated a reorganisation.

From 15 December 1944, a separate flotilla was established at Narvik, the 14th, to which U-995 was now attached, its area of operation being the Barents Sea and attacks on Murmansk convoys. 

On 13 March, the U-Boat left Narvik for the last time. On the 17th, a convoy was spotted and a wolfpack of 13 submarines was assembled. On 20 March, convoy JW-65 came into sight, and U-995 went on the attack, firing torpedoes at the American steamer Horace Bushnell. The steamer's engine room took a direct hit but the ship did not sink. It was eventually towed and beached. After the war, it returned to service before being scrapped in 1978.

On 25 March, the U-995 completed its mission by arriving in the port of Harstad, and the following day it set sail for Trondheim. This was her last trip under the German flag.

The end

While Kapitänleutnant Hans-Günther Lange's U-711 was sunk on 4 May 1945 at Kilbotn near Harstad, U-995 had been waiting for a schnorchel at Dora I since 28 March. On 7 May, the Kristiansand base was liberated. The next day, Hess was at Dora I when he learned of the surrender. The mood was sombre: would they be handed over to the Soviets? The population of Trondheim was threatening, spitting, insults and stone-throwing were not uncommon towards Germans who took the risk of finding themselves isolated in a street. For the U-995, it was simpler: it remained alongside the quay and was not scuttled. 

The last gathering of the crew of U-995 before the surrender. They survived the war, that's the main thing.

U-995 was not the only submarine to remain in the Trondheim base, as 13 of the 97 found in the six Norwegian bases at the end of the war were still there. 1,200 expensive torpedoes were also recovered from the base, which would come in very handy later on.

The U-Boote docked at the three largest Norwegian bases (Bergen, Trondheim and Narvik) were lucky, given that of the 211 German submarines operating from Norway, 110, or more than half, were sunk. Of these 110 submarines sunk, 75 were ‘total losses’, meaning that the entire crew unfortunately perished.

U-995 in Trondheim is now in Norwegian hands

 

The fate of the pasha

Oberleutnant zur see Hans Georg Hess was taken prisoner and sent to the Reservation VI A internment camp at Fløan in Trøndelag Åsenfjord, a former Russian camp under British administration but run by the Germans themselves ! Discipline was strict and military, just like in wartime. Some of the sailors were court-martialled and shot by their fellow countrymen.

While the men in the ranks (Manshaften) were quickly sent back to Germany, this was not really the case for the officers, who were released one or two years after their comrades. Hess was also released and returned to Germany. He became a lawyer for the industry and then wrote the book ‘Die Männer von U 995’, which was published in 1979 and paid tribute to the crewmen. He died on 28 March 2008, having seen his ship several times at Laboe.

March 1945. Oberleutnant.Z.S Hans Georg Hess  

The U-boat in England ?

After the end of hostilities, it was Operation Deadlight. Without really asking the Norwegians, German submarines were taken to England and sunk off the Hebrides Islands from summer 1945 until 1946. But this was not the case for our U-995, which was in no condition to set sail, so it remained docked in Trondheim, where it was gently forgotten...

In the autumn of 1945, a Norwegian commission was set up to determine whether the fifteen U-Boats left in the country could be restored. Four were selected for their quality, while the other eleven were dismantled for their spare parts, which were stored at Brakarvågen på Askøy.

U-995, U-310, U-926 and U-1202, the only survivors, began restoration work in Trondheim, but in the end the work on U-310 was too extensive. It was cut up and scrapped.

The three remaining submarines nevertheless returned to service with the Norwegian navy. The U-926 became the KNM Kya, the U-1202 the KNM Kinn and our U-995 the KNM Kaura (S309). ‘KNM’ stands for “Kongelige Norske Marine” or “Royal Norwegian Navy”.

The ex-U-926 made its first dive in Norwegian flag in 1949 before being modernised.

In 1950, the United States signed an arms aid agreement with Norway, money flowed freely and the U-Boats could be modernised.

The former German submarines formed the K class, designed to have the greatest speed and the greatest diving range. To meet this task, all the anti-aircraft guns were removed and the Turm was modernised, but the radio and sonar equipment remained of German origin. The ex-U 995 returned to sea on 1 December 1952 for almost ten years, before being definitively withdrawn from service on 15 February 1962 and stored in Bergen. U-926 and U-1202 were scrapped two years later. 

The ex-U 995 now KNM Kaura S309

To Germany

The Norwegian authorities should have destroyed U-995, but the Federal Republic of Germany hoped to recover it and turn it into a museum. Lengthy discussions between the two countries had already been underway for several years, and in 1965 the FRG sent the ship ‘Fair Play II’ to Haakonsvern with the aim of towing the submarine back to Germany.

 

1965. U-995 (KNM Kaura) being towed to Kiel. This view shows how the Turm was modified in the early 1950s.

On 14 October 1965, the U-Boot finally arrived at the Kiel naval dockyard, but for the Germans it was time to ask themselves whether they should keep it as it was or restore it as it had been when it was flying the Kriegsmarine flag. There were many disagreements and discussions, and in the end the decision was made to restore it to its original state.

Another question: should it be left in the water or displayed on land? Faced with the looming bill, the town councils of Wilhelmshaven and Kiel, two towns strongly marked by the history of the U-boats, withdrew from the project. An association was set up, donors got involved and the story could go on.

The KNM Kaura on a quay in the port of Kiel awaiting her ‘retrofit’ as it is now called. We notice the very different bow of the U-995

In October 1971, while undergoing repairs in Kiel, the Norwegian authorities officially handed the submarine over to the Germans for a symbolic penny. After digging a channel to the beach, to prevent the tug running aground 100 metres from the shore, U-995 was landed on the beach at Laboe on 13 March 1972. It stands at the end of the Kiel Fjord, facing the Marine-Ehrenmal.

U-995 being towed in the Kiel Fjord for installation at Laboe. The bow is back to its original state.

When the U-995 is laid on the beach, the two entrance and exit doors are already in place.

The U-995 submarine on Laboe beach. The water was absolutely shallow, so a channel had to be dug to bring the U-Boat to its destination.

The U-995 submarine and the Marine-Ehrenmal

A tour of U-995

I have to admit one thing, the sight of the submarine seemed strangely familiar. When I saw it lying on the beach, I saw the model that has been sitting on a shelf in my house for twenty years now! It's a very strange feeling. It was the first time I'd seen a real U-Boot and yet it was as if I already knew it. Despite this feeling of "déjà vu", I have a smile on my face - the ‘boat’ is in front of me and it's magnificent, because let's face it, a U-Boot looks a lot better than a modern submarine.

The photos were taken on the evening of my arrival and the following day. The interior of U-995 detailed here. 

The notorious barrier that prevents falls and serious injuries—keep your children away from this abomination.

Outside, U-995 is almost open access, at least in the evenings. A hideous ribbon has been drawn around the perimeter, and on the other side there's a sort of toothed barrier that's completely rusted and dangerous for children, and that doesn't stop anyone from going over it. 

The U-995 in its entirety is 67.13 metres long.

The U-995 does not have the net cutter seen on some U-boats, notably the one in the film ‘Das Boot’. We can also see the marine anchor on this side.

For the tour, you enter at the rear and exit at the front; openings have been created in the hull for this purpose.

Rear view showing the two port and starboard rudders and the depth rudders. Note the narrow width of the submarine, only 6.17 metres.

The photo was taken at 7 p.m., but the next morning there was a large crowd. The longwave antenna extends from the kiosk at the rear of the submarine.

There are no tags or graffiti on the hull; different countries, different customs. We can see the shortwave antenna cable connecting the front of the U-boat to the conning tower.

The U-995 in details

The U 995 was added after its arrival in Germany.

The marine anchor is located on the starboard side.

 

The hatches for the torpedo tubes are sealed, but their locations can be guessed from these two metal plates. On this side, the U-boat had no anchor.

Located at the front, we notice the depth rudder with its support. The hull also has numerous plates and rivets.

View of the ballast located at the bottom of the hull with the internal tank intake valves, which are blocked off.

Focus on the propulsion system with the port rudder

We can see the port propeller with its shaft and one of the depth rudders. Here again, there are drainage holes.

Marking on one of the ballast tanks

The plates welded in front of the torpedo outlets

The bow of the U-boat, unlike modern submarines

 

The Turm model IV

The U-Boat has had at least two emblems painted on the Turm. The first, when it was in Kiel, represented the Olympic rings and in Norway it was ‘Fang den Hut!’ a popular board game published by the Ravensburger company in 1927. 

The emblem of the U-995 comes from a board game that is as popular in Germany as Ludo is in the UK.

In this overhead view, we can see the observation periscope in the ‘bathtub’ and the attack periscope just behind it. At the bottom front of the Turm is the magnetic compass fairing. It should be noted that the Turm had been completely modified during the submarine's modernisation, with all anti-aircraft armament removed and the gangways completely eliminated.

The U-boat's ‘Fang den Hut’ emblem was preferred to the Olympic rings of Kiel. While the emblem is recognisable to Germans, including children, it remains incomprehensible to us.

For safety reasons, it is not possible to visit the Turm. It's a shame, but it's the same with French submarines in Cherbourg, Saint Nazaire and Lorient.

From the bathtub, one must imagine the men on watch with binoculars in their hands, wearing gloves and leather trousers, their oilskins and the famous hat. The North Sea and Norway were not really tourist destinations with mild weather. I do not know if the anti-aircraft platforms are authentic pieces or reconstructions.

 

Due to climatic conditions and seawater, the U-boat's armament was dismantled and overhauled after each sortie. The lubrication of parts was particularly rigorous.

 

Another view of the 3.7 cm Flak M42 gun and the two 20 mm Flak 38 guns, making a total of four guns. Very adequate firepower.

 

The 3.7 cm Flak M42 gun

 

And finally, a small magnetic souvenir of the U-995 purchased at the shop.

 

The rest of the tour of the U-boat, inside, is here!  

Stützpunkt Trondheim

The Trondheim naval base is located in a fjord in the Norwegian Sea, and was the largest submarine base in Northern Europe. The 13.U-Flotille, and therefore our U-995, was stationed there. Today, the bunkers that protected the submarines still remain, but they have not been as well preserved as those at our French bases. I recommend that you read: U-Bootbunker de Saint Nazaire. 

March 1944. In winter conditions, Oberleutnant Weitz's U-959 approaches Dora I in Trondheim. The U-boat will be sunk in May of the same year, sadly with no survivors.

 

Dora I

Construction of the base at Nyhavna began in 1941, and was entrusted to the Todt Organisation, and more specifically to the ‘Wiking’ Einsatsgruppe. The organisation employed many local people and, as with the construction of the submarine base at Saint Nazaire, the employees were very well paid. In fact, by the end of the war, many families had no debts or credit left.

Dora I was operational in April 1943. The U-Boot Bunker covered an area of 15,000 square metres and consisted of 207,369 cubic metres of concrete, delivered directly from Germany. The Germans were wary of the quality of the Norwegian raw material, which could be sabotaged. The reinforcement is made up of 22,000 tonnes of metal bars. The walls range in thickness from 2.50 to 10 metres.

Dora I under construction

Dora I could accommodate 7 submarines and in the event of an attack the alcoves could be closed by armoured doors. Dora had five holds, three dry holds with hermetic doors and pumps to evacuate water and two wet holds.

In the alcoves, the submarines were supplied with fuel and ammunition, maintenance and repairs were also carried out there, and the hulls were repainted to combat corrosion. Naturally, there were workshops with specialised personnel nearby.

The submarine base became an obvious strategic target and on 24 July 1943, despite the fog, American Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses dropped no fewer than 316 250kg bombs on the base. Some fifty soldiers and civilians were killed or damaged. A U-Boot and a tugboat were sunk in the harbour, but Dora I was virtually untouched.

If we look at the list of the twenty most important German naval bases in terms of submarine operations, Trondheim comes ninth, with 142 submarine patrols between 19 April 1940 and 23 April 1945. 

After the war, the British decided to completely destroy Dora I and Dora II, while the Norwegian authorities wanted to preserve them as a base for their submarines. After all, the Stützpunkt was ultra-modern for its time and, above all, in very good condition.

In the end, it was decided that Dora I would be kept for the Norwegian navy, which proved very practical for the West at the start of the Cold War. It remained in service until the end of 1949, when it was sold to civilians a few years later.

Finally, in the early 2000s, a storage centre for state and regional archives was created here, a bowling alley was added and the old base no longer resembled anything. 

Dora I It is difficult to see the U-boot bunker, but if you look closely, you can see part of the conning tower of the Kobben-class submarine S300 at the entrance to an old alcove, the second one from the right.

The other side of Dora I

Dora II

Construction of Dora II began in 1942 but remained unfinished. After the end of hostilities, it was decided to raze the U-Boot Bunker to the ground. Demolition work began in 1945. Partitions and walls were destroyed, but the use of dynamite posed real problems for the civilian infrastructure, which suffered from successive blasts. Many inhabitants had their windows blown out by the explosions, and the walls shook dangerously. The ground itself is in danger of collapsing, after all, the base is in a fjord.

Despite an impressive amount of TNT, Dora II is holding firm. Every day, the bill grew longer and longer, and soon became exorbitant for very little result. Finally, in 1948, the Norwegians abandoned their plan to destroy Dora II.

A new attempt was launched in 1991, but was soon halted for safety reasons. Today, panels recalling the building's historic past are applied to its walls. 

Dora II, which was supposed to be destroyed, is the best preserved, at least in its original appearance.

 

The thermal and electrical bunker

The construction phase of the bunker was launched at the same time as Dora II. Its purpose was to supply electricity and heating to Dora I and Dora II via a steam generator whose raw material, coal, was delivered by a small train. Like Dora II, the bunker did not have time to return to service before the end of the war.

After the war, it was used by companies, modernised with extensions and is now rented out to associations.

The thermal and electrical bunker at the Trondheim submarine base

 

If you want to know more about U-Boote

I refer you to the excellent reference site uboat.net.

As far as films are concerned, ‘Das Boot’ has become a legend, best seen in the long version and in German with subtitles. For even more realism, there are a few issues of Die Deutsche Wochenschau available on the net, No. 599 of 25 February 1942 and No. 655 of 24 March 1943. 

Links

In french

J'ai visité le sous-marin U 995 à Laboe

Les sous-marins Biber 

U-Boot Seehund de Brest 

La base sous-marine de Saint Nazaire 

La triste fin de Karl-Heiinrich Harlfinger 

Le terrible naufrage du U-171 

L'effroyable naufrage du U-526

 

Visitons le Marine Ehrenmal Partie 1 

Le Gedenkhalle du Marine Ehrenmal 

Je termine la visite du Marine Ehrenmal Partie 3