SM U-20

For other ships of the same name, see German submarine U-20.

Postcard depicting U-20 sinking RMS Lusitania.
Career (German Empire)	50px
Name:	U-20
Ordered:	25 November 1910
Builder:	Kaiserliche Werft, Danzig
Laid down:	7 November 1911
Launched:	18 December 1912
Commissioned:	5 August 1913
Fate:	Grounded 4 November 1916 and blown up by her crew the next day.
General characteristics
Class and type:	U 19
Displacement:	650 tons surfaced, 837 tons submerged
Length:	64.2 m (210.6 ft)
Beam:	6.1 m (20.0 ft)
Draught:	3.6 m (11.8 ft)
Speed:	•28.7 km/h (15.5 kn) surfaced •17.6 km/h (9.5 kn) submerged
Range:	9,800 km (5,300 nmi) at 15 km/h (8.1 kn)
Armament:	•four 50 cm (19.7 in) torpedo tubes (two bow, two stern, nine torpedoes) •1 x 88 mm (3.46 in) deck gun (two from 1916 on)

Service record
Part of:	Kaiserliche Marine: III Flottille
Commanders:	Otto Dröscher 1 Aug, 1914 - 15 Dec, 1914 Walther Schwieger 16 Dec, 1914 - 5 Nov, 1916
Operations:	7
Victories:	36 ships sunk for a total of 144.300 tons, including RMS Lusitania.

SM U-20 was a German Type U 19 U-boat built for service in the Kaiserliche Marine. 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. The U20 became infamous following her sinking of the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania on 7 May 1915, an act that dramatically reshaped the course of World War I.

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 United Kingdom and had declared any vessel in it a legitimate target.

At about 1:40 pm Schwieger saw a vessel approaching through his periscope. From a distance of about 700 m Schwieger noted she had four funnels and two masts making her a liner of some sort. He recognised her as the Lusitania, a vessel in the British Fleet Reserve, and fired a single torpedo. It hit on the starboard side, almost directly below the bridge. Following the torpedo's explosion, the liner was shattered by a second explosion, possibly caused by coal dust, munitions in the hold, or a boiler explosion, so large Schwieger himself was surprised. Lusitania sank rapidly in 18 minutes with the loss of nearly 1,200 lives.

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

"It looks as if the ship will stay afloat only for a very short time. [I gave order to] dive to 25 metres and leave the area seawards. I couldn't have fired another torpedo into this mass of humans desperately trying to save themselves."

There was at the time and remains now a great controversy about the sinking, over whether Lusitania was smuggling contraband war material to England and over the number of torpedoes Schwieger fired.

Before he got back to the docks at Wilhelmshaven for refuelling and resupply, 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." Nevertheless, 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.

File:U 20 grounded Denmark 1916.JPG

U-20 grounded on the Danish coast in 1916

On 4 September 1915 Schwieger was back at sea with U-20, eighty-five miles 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 now beginning a new run outward bound from Liverpool to Quebec and Montreal, with a general cargo, also doubling as a hospital ship, and carrying about 800 passengers. She was attacked off the Fastnet, a landmark islet in the north Atlantic, off the south-west coast of Ireland. The "History of the Great War: The Merchant Navy, Vol. II", by Hurd, reads:

"Only a few days before, Count Bernsdorff, the German Ambassador, had assured the United States government that passenger liners will not be sunk without warning and without ensuring the safety of the non combatants aboard providing that the liners do not try to escape or offer resistance."

This time, Schwieger was received with official disgust upon his return to Wilhelmshaven. Ordered to report to Berlin to explain himself, he was required to apologise for having sunk another passenger liner in defiance of a direct order not to do so again. He complained about his treatment in Berlin thereafter.

After his death in 1917, Schwieger was forgiven in Berlin. He received Germany's highest decoration, the Pour le Mérite, having sunk by that time 190,000 tons of ships.

Fate

On 4 November 1916 U-20 grounded on the Danish coast around position 56°33′N 08°08′E at Vrist, a little north of Thorsminde. Her crew destroyed her in an explosion the following day.

Post scripts

Gun

After the 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. It is now on display at the Strandingsmuseum St. George Thorsminde.

Discovery

Novelist Clive Cussler claims his National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) located the remains of U-20 in 1984.

Original documents from Room 40

The following is a verbatim transcription of the recorded activities of SM U-20 known to British Naval Intelligence, Room 40 O.B.:

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"SM U-20.

Kaptlt. Dröscher, October 1914, later to U-78; Kaptlt. Schwieger in April 1915, later to U-88. Completed at Danzig before the war and subsequently joined the 3rd Half Flotilla.

• September 1914. Cruising.

• October 1914. Cruising.

• 25th - 26th December 1914. Patrolling in Bight.

• 26th January - 7th February 1915. Cruise to Channel. Sank 3 S.S.

• 25th February - 19th March 1915. Cruise to Bristol Channel putting into Zeebrugge on outward and into Ostend on homeward passage. Sank 1 S.S.

• 30th April - 13th May 1915. Northabout to south of Ireland. Sank RMS LUSITANIA, 2 other S.S., and 1 sailing vessel.

• 3rd July - 16th July 1915. Northabout to south of Ireland. Sank 4 S.S., 1 sailing vessel.

• 29th August - 15th September 1915. Northabout of Bay of Biscay. 9 S.S. and 2 sailing vessels sunk.

• 17th November - 23rd November 1915. North Sea, apparently some special task.

• 17th December - 23rd December 1915 ? Bight patrol.

• 7th April - 10th April 1916. North Sea, ordered 8th April to return.

• 11th April - 15th April 1916. North Sea, returned with defective torpedo tubes.

• 24th April to 14th May 1916. Northabout to south of Ireland. Sank 2 S.S., 3 sailing vessels.

• 16th June to 20th June 1916. Bight patrol.

• ? 3rd July to 13th July 1916. North Sea patrol.

• 21st to 24th July 1916. North Sea patrol.

• 26th July to 2nd August 1916. North Sea patrol.

• 21st September to 28th September 1916. North Sea patrol. Sank 1 steamer ship.

• 13th October to 5th November 1916. Northabout to south of Ireland. Sank 3 S.S., 1 sailing vessel. Ran ashore on Danish coast 5th November 1916 and was blown up by crew."

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Note: S.S. = Steam Ship; S.V. = Sailing Vessel; northabout, Muckle Flugga, Fair I. = around Scotland; Sound, Belts, Kattegat = via North of Denmark to/from German Baltic ports; Bight = to/from German North Sea ports; success = sinking of ships

Koerver, Hans Joachim (2009). Room 40: German Naval Warfare 1914-1918. Vol II., The Fleet in Being. Steinbach: LIS Reinisch. ISBN 978-3-902433-77-0. 

See also

• List of U-boats
• Room 40

References

• Spindler, Arno (1932,1933,1934,1941/1964,1966). Der Handelskrieg mit U-Booten. 5 Vols. Berlin: Mittler & Sohn. Vols. 4+5, dealing with 1917+18, are very hard to find: Guildhall Library, London, has them all, also Vol. 1-3 in an English translation: The submarine war against commerce. 
• Beesly, Patrick (1982). Room 40: British Naval Intelligence 1914-1918. London: H Hamilton. ISBN 978-0241108642. 
• Halpern, Paul G. (1920). A Naval History of World War I. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1857284980. 
• Roessler, Eberhard (1997). Die Unterseeboote der Kaiserlichen Marine. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe. ISBN 978-3763759637. 
• Schroeder, Joachim (2002). Die U-Boote des Kaisers. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe. ISBN 978-3763762354. 
• Koerver, Hans Joachim (2008). Room 40: German Naval Warfare 1914-1918. Vol I., The Fleet in Action. Steinbach: LIS Reinisch. ISBN 978-3-902433-76-3. 
• Koerver, Hans Joachim (2009). Room 40: German Naval Warfare 1914-1918. Vol II., The Fleet in Being. Steinbach: LIS Reinisch. ISBN 978-3-902433-77-0. 

External links

• Royal Danish Naval Museum
• Photos of cruises of German submarine U-54 in 1916-1918. 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 WWI.
• Uboat.net: More detailed information about U-20.
• Room 40: original documents, photos and maps about WWI German submarine warfare and British Room 40 Intelligence from The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, UK.