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KM U-25
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| Technical Details| Class | IA | | Displacement | 983 BRT | | Length o.a. | 237 ft 6 in (72.39m) | | Beam | 6.21m (6.21m) | | Draught | variable (variable) | | Propulsion | diesel electric | | Cruise Speed | 10.0 surf | | Max. Speed | 18.6 surf. | | Armament/Other | 4 bow tubes, 2 stern tubes, 10.5cm deck gun, 14 torpedoes or 28 TMA
max depth 200m/656 ft. | | Crew | 44-46 |
| History
Ordered Dec 17, 1934 the Type IA boat was actually ordered before the smaller type IIA boats. The Type IA was Germany's first Atlantic boat, aiming at the British merchant fleet. She was laid down Jun. 28, 1935 at AG Weser in Bremen and launched Feb 14, 1936.
Apr. 6th, 1936, she was commissioned by Kptlt. Eberhardt Godt. He had command till Jan 3rd, 1938 and was followed by Kptlt. Werner von Schmidt. Dec. 10th, Kptlt. Otto Schuhart, a later Knights Cross bearer, took command over U-25. The next was Kptlt. Georg-Heinz Michel, who had command till Sep. 4th, 1939. During these years, U-25 served as training boat.
Sep. 5th, 1939, Kptlt. Victor Schütze became the new commandant. With Schütze as commander, U-25 went out on Oct. 18th, 1939 for her first patrol. In the time till Nov. 3rd, she stopped five neutral vessels in the Bay of Biscaya of which she sunk the French freighter Baoulé with 5874 tons on Oct. 31.
Schütze ordered the return to home Nov. 3rd due to a defect at the deck gun which made the stopping of neutral vessels without sinking them virtually impossible. Unfortunately, she lost a man over board on Nov. 5th (Bootsmaat Wilhelm Lützeler). After 33 days in sea, she returned to Wilhelmshaven Nov. 19th, 1939.
Her second patrol started Jan. 13th, 1940 from Wilhelmshaven. The orders led her to the Portugese coast and down till Gibraltar. Jan 17th, she sank the British Polzella (4751 tons). The next one was the Norwegian Enid (1140 tons) who was assisting the sinking Polzella. Norway was theoretically still neutral at this time, but since the Enid transported contraband, there was no Norwegian protest.
The next day, Jan 18th, the Swedish Pajala went down. Sweden was neutral, but the sub had spotted with an escort, which made her a legit target. Pajala added 6873 tons to Schütze's account.
Jan. 22nd, the Norwegian Songa became the next victim of U-25. She was stopped and examined for contraband. Which was found, and thus the crew was ordered in the lifeboats while U-25 sunk the 2589 tons merchant man.
A few days of quiet followed, but in the afternoon of Feb. 3rd, U-25 spotted the convoy OG-16 off of Portugal near to the River Targus. She torpedoed the british Armanistan, 6805 tons, out of the convoy and disappeared.
Feb. 13th saw U-25's last victim on this patrol. The Danish Chastine Maersk, 5177 tons, sunk after it was stopped with three warning shots over the bow. Actually, U-25 had fired her last two torpedoes at the ship the evening before, but the first one missed and the second one didn't explode. At this time, Schütze had to assume, he missed his target. Nobody guessed anything yet about the upcoming torpedo crisis.
U-25 returned to Wilhelmshaven after 38 days in sea. She had sunk 27335 tons on this patrol.
Apr. 3rd, 1940, again under the command of Victor Schütze, now KKpt., U-25 cast off from Wilhelmshaven. Together with U-46, U-51, U-64 nd U-65, she formed U-Bot group 1, destinated for the waters off of Narvik in the Operation Weserübung.
On April 13th and 14th, U-25 spotted the British battleship Warspite and her escort three times, but was, due to the high speed of the British warships, unable to reach a firing position. Later, U-25 operated further west near the Shetlands but had to abort the mission due to engine and radio problems. After 34 days in sea, she arrived at Wilhelmshaven May 6th, 1940. No ships were sunk or damaged on this patrol.
May 20th, Victor Schütze left U-25 to take command over U-103 (under construction at the time). New commander became Kptlt. Heinz Beduhn.
Jun 8th, 1940, U-25 left Wilhelmshaven for her 4th war patrol. The operational area was North Atlantic/Bay of Biscaya. In the early morning of Jun 13th, the British Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Scotstoun is hit in the stern by a torpedo from U-25. U-25 avtually waited more than ten hours till the crew finally left the ship. In the evening, after two attempts of Coup de Grâce, which wasn't graceful at all, the 17046 ton ship sunk at 57.00N/9.57W. She was the 12th biggest ship sunk in WWII by a submarine.
An hour after midnight, Jun 19th, 1940, the French Brumaire was hit by a torpedo while sailing in a small convoy. But this time, U-25 operating in darkness on the surface to avoid ASDIC, collided with another steamer before she could sink the damaged ship The 7638 tons tanker made it through the night ... which didn't help her, the damged ship was sunk the next day by German aircraft at 47.14N/03.16W.
U-25 had taken damage on bow and periscope and thus, to abort the mission. She returned Jun 29th, after 22 days in sea to Wilhelmshaven with another 24684 tons on her account.
Aug. 1st, 1940, she left Wilhelmshaven for what would become her last war patrol. There was no radio contact with her after she left harbor. Thus, she probably fell victim to one of the mine fields, the British warships laid out during fast raids off the coast.
| Commandants/Captains
Kptlt. Eberhard Godt (Apr. 6rh, 1936 - Jan 3rd, 1938)
Kptlt. Werner von Schmidt (Jan 3rd, 1938 - Dec 12th, 1938)
Kptlt. Otto Schuhart (Dec 10th, 1938 - Apr 3rd, 1939)
Kptlt. Georg-Heinz Michel (Apr. 1939 - Sep. 4th, 1939)
Kptlt. Viktor Schütze (Sep. 5th, 1939 - May 19th, 1940)
Kptlt. Heinz Beduhn (May 20th, 1940 - Aug. 1st, 1940)
| Fate
Probably hit by a mine Aug. 1st, 1940, north of Terchelling in mine barrage Field No 7 about 54.14N/5.07E. At the time of her disappearance she had a crew of 49 aboard. No survivors.
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