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Kriegsmarine U-125, scuttled by her crew with 5 explosive charges
The U-125, German long-range submarine of Type IXC, was laid down by AG Weser, Bremen, on May 10, 1940; and commissioned on March 3, 1941.
On the night of May 6 the destroyer HMS Oribi located the U-125, Kapitanleutnant Ulrich Folkers in command, in a heavy fog with its radar set just before 03:00 and rammed her while doing some 20 knots. The boat was severely damaged and the British believed her to be sunk.
But she did survive and Folkers radioed an urgent request for help, four German boats were at the region at the time given order to assist him with two more also in the area being told to remain on station. The boats searched for the wounded boat until the morning of the 7th with no success.
The corvette HMS Snowflake got a radar contact 03:54 and soon the contact had closed to 100 meters! Projectors were turned on and revealed a heavily damaged U-boat and apparently already sinking. The corvette tried to ram but the boat escaped the turn. The crew of U-125 scuttled their boat with 5 explosive charges while almost alongside the HMS Snowflake and waited in the water to be rescued. Another corvette HMS Sunflower did reach the scene about this time. The commander of the corvette radioed the escort commander in HMS Tay but was given the shocking reply: "Not approved to pick up survivors".
The corvettes HMS Sunflower and HMS Snowflake then turned towards the convoy leaving the men in the water. Kptlt. Folkers and his crew of 54 men died during that night. The event took place east of Newfoundland in position 52.13N, 44.50W.
The U-125 had 7 war patrols, sinking 7 ships for a total of 82,873tons.
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Cayman Is. |
1995 |
German submarine U-125 type IXC |
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