uboat.net


U-30

Type

VIIA

 
Ordered1 Apr, 1935
Laid down 24 Jan, 1936 AG Weser, Bremen (werk 911)
Launched4 Aug, 1936
Commissioned8 Oct, 1936Kptlt. Hans Cohausz
Commanders
8 Oct, 1936 - 31 Oct, 1938  Kptlt. Hans Cohausz
15 Feb, 1938 - 17 Aug, 1938   Hans Pauckstadt
Nov, 1938 - Sep, 1940  Kptlt. Fritz-Julius Lemp (Knights Cross)
Sep, 1940 - 31 Mar, 1941   Robert Prützmann
1 Apr, 1941 - Apr, 1941   Paul-Karl Loeser
Apr, 1941 - 22 Apr, 1941   Hubertus Purkhold
23 Apr, 1941 - 9 Mar, 1942  Oblt. Kurt Baberg
10 Mar, 1942 - 4 Oct, 1942  Oblt. Hermann Bauer
5 Oct, 1942 - 16 Dec, 1942   Franz Saar
May, 1943 - 1 Dec, 1943  Oblt. Ernst Fischer
2 Dec, 1943 - 14 Dec, 1944  Oblt. Ludwig Fabricius
17 Jan, 1945 - 23 Jan, 1945  Oblt. Günther Schimmel
Career8 patrols 8 Oct, 1936 - 31 Aug, 1939  2. Flottille (front boat)
1 Sep, 1939 - 31 Dec, 1939  2. Flottille (front boat)
1 Jan, 1940 - 30 Nov, 1940  2. Flottille (front boat)
1 Dec, 1940 - 30 Nov, 1943  24. Flottille (training)
1 Dec, 1943 - 12 Jan, 1945  22. Flottille (school boat)
Successes16 ships sunk for a total of 86.165 GRT
1 auxiliary warship sunk for a total of 325 GRT
1 ship damaged for a total of 5.642 GRT
1 warship damaged for a total of 31.100 tons
Fate

Used in the last months as a range boat. Scuttled on 4 May, 1945 in Kupfermühlen Bay, wreck broken up in 1948.

See the 19 ships hit by U-30 - View the 8 war patrols

Wolfpack operations

U-30 operated with the following Wolfpacks during its career:
   Prien (12 Jun, 1940 - 15 Jun, 1940)

Attacks on this boat

14 Sep, 1939
After stopping the British freighter Fanad Head, the boat was attacked by three British Blackburn Skua aircraft (FAA-Sqdn 803) from HMS Ark Royal (91), but two of them were lost to their own bombs. Three crew members were wounded by splinters.

14 Sep, 1939
After sinking the British freighter Fanad Head, the boat was attacked with bombs by six Swordfish aircraft (FAA-Sqdn 810 and 821) from HMS Ark Royal (91) and depth charges from HMS Bedouin (F 67) and HMS Punjabi (F 21) for 4 hours before Lemp managed to escape.

2 recorded attacks on this boat.

General notes on this boat

On 3 Sept, 1939 this boat sank the first ship in the war when she sank the 13,581 ton passenger ship Athenia by mistake (taking her to be an Armed Merchant Cruiser, AMC).

On 29 April 1940 in the North Sea the boat rescued four crew members from a crashed German Dornier Do 18 airplane of 2nd Staffel Küstenfliegergruppe 906. The boat was already inbound to port and reached Wilhelmshaven the next day.

This boat was the first U-boat to make use of the newly captured French bases when she landed in Lorient on 7 July, 1940.

Men lost from the boat

19 Sep, 1939
The boat put a wounded man ashore in Reykjavík, Iceland. [Maschinenobergefreiter Schmidt]

  Related: For more info on such losses see - Men lost from U-boats -


We have an emblem for this boat!

You can view it here. (The emblem on the left is not the emblem for this boat).



German U-Boat Losses During World War II
Niestle, Axel

Buy this title at
amazon.co.uk
See more sellers 		Books dealing with this subject include:

Fatal Decisions, Blandford, Edmund, 1999
German U-Boat Losses During World War II, Niestle, Axel, 1998
Tomorrow Never Came, Caulfield, Max, 1958
U-Boat Adventures, Wiggins, Melanie, 1999
U-Boat Operations of the Second World War - Vol 1, Wynn, Kenneth, 1998
U-Boat Operations of the Second World War - Vol 2, Wynn, Kenneth, 1998


There was another U-30 in World War One
That boat was launched from its shipyard on 15 Nov, 1913 and commissioned into the Imperial Navy on 26 Aug, 1914. The Naval war in WWI was brought to an end with the Armistice signed on 11 Nov, 1918. Read about the U 30 during WWI.