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."Major themes of the exhibition", 'World War I'. Royal Danish Naval Museum (Archived from the original on 8 October 2007) 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.rmslusitania.info The conning tower was removed and placed on the front lawn of the local museum Strandingsmuseum St. George Thorsminde, it is now exhibited in the Sea War Museum, Jutland, along with the original periscope. 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 +U20 successesDateNameNationalityGRTFate30 January 1915Ikaria4,335Sunk30 January 1915Oriole1,489Sunk30 January 1915Tokomaru6,084Sunk7 March 1915Bengrove3,840Sunk9 March 1915Princess Victoria1,108Sunk11 March 1915Florazan4,658Sunk5 May 1915Earl of Lathom132Sunk6 May 1915Candidate5,858Sunk6 May 1915Centurion5,495Sunk7 May 191530,396Sunk8 July 1915Marion Lightbody2,176Sunk9 July 1915Ellesmere1,170Sunk9 July 1915Leo2,224Sunk9 July 1915Meadowfield2,750Sunk13 July 1915Lennok1,142Sunk2 September 1915Roumanie2,599Sunk3 September 1915Frode1,875Sunk4 September 1915Hesperian10,920Sunk5 September 1915Dictator4,116Sunk5 September 1915Douro1,604Sunk5 September 1915Rhea1,145Sunk6 September 1915Guatemala5,913Sunk7 September 1915Bordeaux4,604Sunk7 September 1915Caroni2,652Sunk8 September 1915Mora3,047Sunk30 April 1916Bakio1,906Sunk1 May 1916Bernadette486Sunk2 May 1916Ruabon2,004Sunk3 May 1916Marie Molinos1,946Sunk6 May 1916Galgate2,356Sunk8 May 191613,370Sunk1 August 1916Aaro2,603Sunk29 August 1916Ibo397Damaged26 September 1916Thelma1,002Sunk18 October 1916Ethel Duncan2,510Sunk23 October 1916Arromanches1,640Sunk23 October 1916Chieri4,400Sunk23 October 1916Felix Louis275Sunk26 October 1916Fabian2,246Damaged

SM U-20 (Germany)

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