German submarine U-140 (1940)
| History | |
|---|---|
 Nazi Germany | |
| Name | U-140 |
| Ordered | 25 September 1939 |
| Builder | Deutsche Werke, Kiel |
| Laid down | 16 November 1939 |
| Launched | 28 June 1940 |
| Commissioned | 7 August 1940 |
| Fate | Scuttled, 2 May 1945 |
| Class and type | Type IID U-boat |
| Service record | |
| Part of: |
list error: <br /> list (help) |
| Commanders: |
list error: <br /> list (help) Kptlt. Hans-Peter Hinsch (Aug 1940–Apr 1941) Kptlt. Hans-Jürgen Hellriegel (Apr–Dec 1941) Kptlt. Klaus Popp (Dec 1941–Aug 1942) Kptlt. Albrecht Markert (Sep 1942–Jul 1944) 'Kptlt. Herbert Zeissier (Aug–Nov 1944) Kptlt. Wolfgang Scherfling (Nov 1944–May 1945) |
| Operations: | One patrol |
| Victories: |
list error: <br /> list (help) Three ships sunk for a total of 13,204 GRT GRT uses unsupported parameter (help) One submarine sunk for a total of 206 tons |
German submarine U-140 was a Type IID U-boat of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine during World War II. She carried out only one combat patrol, but still managed to see action as a training boat in the summer of 1941. Built at the Kiel shipyards during 1939 and 1940, as a Type IID U-boat, she was too small for major operational work in the Atlantic Ocean, which was now required by the Kriegsmarine as the Battle of the Atlantic expanded.
War patrol
U-140 only carried out one raiding patrol, under her first captain, Hans-Peter Hinsch. He took her round the north of Scotland in December 1940 following her work-up program, and it was here that she sank her first victim, twelve days into the voyage. Six days later north of Ireland, on 8 December she sank the steel 3-mast barque Penang of neutral Finland, inbound from Stenhouse Bay, South Australia to Cobh in neutral Ireland with a cargo of grain. The Penang and her 18 crew were all lost at 55°15′N 10°09′W / 55.25°N 10.15°W.[1] Later that day she heard the British freighter Ashcrest broadcast that she needed assistance as her rudder was broken, at 54°35′N 09°20′W / 54.583°N 9.333°W. U-140 sank Ashcrest with the loss of the entire crew of 37.[2]
She then headed home towards retirement. U-140 was docked, her crew transferred and she was converted into a training boat, designed to operate solely in the Baltic Sea, training submariners for the main U-boat force.
Training boat
It was during this onerous yet necessary duty that her new captain, Hans-Jürgen Hellriegel, found himself facing a small Soviet submarine on the surface, well into the Baltic, a month after the invasion of the Soviet Union. In a careful attack, U-140 torpedoed and sank her rival with his scratch crew of new recruits. Orders had been pushing U-140 further into the Baltic during the preceding months, with the hope that she might achieve just such a victory.
Following this excitement, U-140 returned to training duties, which she continued for the remainder of the war without further incident, save in the final months, when she was transferred to Wilhelmshaven in a general shipment of equipment and personnel to the West. It was there, on the 2 May 1945 in Jade Bay, that U-140 was scuttled by her crew to prevent her seizure by the advancing British forces. Post-war she was raised and scrapped.
Summary of raiding career
| Date | Ship | Nationality | Tonnage | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 December 1940 | SS Victoria City |  Great Britain
|
4,739 | Sunk |
| 8 December 1940 | Bq "Penang" |  Finland
|
2,816 | Sunk |
| 8 December 1940 | SS Ashcrest | Great Britain
|
5,652 | Sunk |
| 21 July 1941 | Submarine M-94 |  Soviet Union
|
206 | Sunk |
References
- Sharpe, Peter, U-Boat Fact File, Midland Publishing, Great Britain: 1998. ISBN 1-85780-072-9.
- U-boat.net webpage for U-140
- ^ "Penang". Ships hit by U-boats. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
- ^ "Ashcrest". Ships hit by U-boats. Retrieved 29 April 2010.