Foreign U-Boats was the title for a special section created by the Nazi German Kriegsmarine that adopted 13 captured enemy submarines and a single Turkish vessel into the U-Boat corps. Beginning in 1939 and lasting until the end of World War II in 1945, the Kriegsmarine modified a total of 13 captured enemy submarines, then deployed them into combat with German crews. The special corps was not especially successful, as only nine enemy ships were destroyed by Foreign U-Boats through the entire war. Seven of these were destroyed by German submarine U-A, which was a modified Type IX U-Boat originally built for the Turkish Navy.[1] However, some were effective as minelayers.
The captured submarines[]
- U-A: ex Turkish submarine Batiray
- U-B: ex British submarine HMS Seal (N37)
- U-C1: ex Norwegian submarine HNoMS B-5
- U-C2: ex Norwegian submarine HNoMS B-6
- U-D1: ex Dutch submarine HNLMS O 8
- U-D2: ex Dutch submarine HNLMS O 12[2]
- U-D3: ex Dutch submarine HNLMS O 25[2]
- U-D4: ex Dutch submarine HNLMS O 26[2]
- U-D5: ex Dutch submarine HNLMS O 27[2]
- U-F1: ex French submarine Africaine (Q196)
- U-F2: ex French submarine Favorite (Q195)
- U-F3: ex French submarine Astrée (Q200)
- UIT-22: ex Italian submarine Alpino Attilio Bagnolini
- UIT-23: ex Italian submarine Reginaldo Giuliani
- UIT-24: ex Italian submarine Comandante Cappellini
- UIT-25: ex Italian submarine Luigi Torelli
References[]
The original article can be found at Foreign U-boats and the edit history here.