Pat Winship
Member
I had missed Senan's posting of the article about Lightoller's sinking of the UB 110 until this morning. The report of the demise of the entire crew is greatly exaggerated. This is the entry on UB 110 from uboat.net
"UB 110
Type UB III
Shipyard Blohm & Voss, Hamburg (Werk 316)
Ordered 23 Sep, 1916 Laid down
Launched 1 Sep, 1917 Commissioned 23 Mar, 1918
Commanders 23 Mar, 1918 - 19 Jul, 1918 Werner Fürbringer
Career 2 patrols 27 Jun, 1918 - 19 Jul, 1918 Flandern II Flotilla
Fate 19 Jul, 1918 - Damaged by D/C attack, she surfaced and was rammed by HMS Garry at 5439N 0055E.. 13 dead, unknown number of survivors.
http://uboat.net/wwi/boats/index.html?boat=UB+110
One of the survivors was her commander, Werner Fürbringer, who was instrumental in the clandestine rebuilding of the German submarine service after World War I. Fürbringer also published his memoirs, which have been translated into English, and his account of the sinking of UB 110 makes an interesting counterpoint to Lightoller's.
According to Fürbringer, all his crew got out alive, and were fired on in the water. It isn't clear whether it was the Garry's crew doing all the shooting; the convoy was heavily escorted by a lot of smaller craft who got into the act. It's fair to say that they did some of it, however.
World War I submarine warfare could get ugly on both sides. The Germans had Helmut Patzig who torpedoed a hospital ship, let its crew take to the lifeboats, and then decided it wasn't a good idea to leave witnesses. The Brits had Godfrey Herbert of the Q-ship Baralong, who pursued some of the crew of a sunken German sub onto a merchant ship, hunted them down and killed them.
Submarine warfare was new, it challenged the traditional rules of naval combat, and there was uncertainty whether submariners were soldiers or terrorists, right to the end of the War. Fürbringer and his prison camp room mate,Robert Moraht, neither of whom had any Patzig-style atrocities on their war records, were told they were going to be tried as war criminals in London, before they were finally released at the end of 1920.
Lightoller's attitude toward them was typical of a British destroyer commander of his time. No better, no worse.
Pat W
"UB 110
Type UB III
Shipyard Blohm & Voss, Hamburg (Werk 316)
Ordered 23 Sep, 1916 Laid down
Launched 1 Sep, 1917 Commissioned 23 Mar, 1918
Commanders 23 Mar, 1918 - 19 Jul, 1918 Werner Fürbringer
Career 2 patrols 27 Jun, 1918 - 19 Jul, 1918 Flandern II Flotilla
Fate 19 Jul, 1918 - Damaged by D/C attack, she surfaced and was rammed by HMS Garry at 5439N 0055E.. 13 dead, unknown number of survivors.
http://uboat.net/wwi/boats/index.html?boat=UB+110
One of the survivors was her commander, Werner Fürbringer, who was instrumental in the clandestine rebuilding of the German submarine service after World War I. Fürbringer also published his memoirs, which have been translated into English, and his account of the sinking of UB 110 makes an interesting counterpoint to Lightoller's.
According to Fürbringer, all his crew got out alive, and were fired on in the water. It isn't clear whether it was the Garry's crew doing all the shooting; the convoy was heavily escorted by a lot of smaller craft who got into the act. It's fair to say that they did some of it, however.
World War I submarine warfare could get ugly on both sides. The Germans had Helmut Patzig who torpedoed a hospital ship, let its crew take to the lifeboats, and then decided it wasn't a good idea to leave witnesses. The Brits had Godfrey Herbert of the Q-ship Baralong, who pursued some of the crew of a sunken German sub onto a merchant ship, hunted them down and killed them.
Submarine warfare was new, it challenged the traditional rules of naval combat, and there was uncertainty whether submariners were soldiers or terrorists, right to the end of the War. Fürbringer and his prison camp room mate,Robert Moraht, neither of whom had any Patzig-style atrocities on their war records, were told they were going to be tried as war criminals in London, before they were finally released at the end of 1920.
Lightoller's attitude toward them was typical of a British destroyer commander of his time. No better, no worse.
Pat W
