Operation Deadlight

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Lisahally
, Northern Ireland, June 1945
Polish Navy destroyer ORP Krakowiak towing German Type XXIII U-boat U-2337 out to sea for scuttling on 28 November 1945

Operation Deadlight was the code name for the Royal Navy operation of November 1945 – February 1946 to scuttle German U-boats surrendered to the Allies after the defeat of Germany near the end of World War II.

Operation

Of the 156 U-boats that surrendered to the allies at the end of the war, 116 were scuttled as part of Operation Deadlight.[1] The Royal Navy carried out the operation, and planned to tow the submarines to three areas about 100 miles (160 km) north-west of Ireland and sink them.[2] The areas were codenamed XX, YY, and ZZ.[2] They intended to use XX as the main scuttling area, while towing 36 boats to ZZ to use as practice targets for aerial attack. YY was to be a reserve position where, if the weather was good enough, they could divert submarines from XX to sink with naval forces.[2] Submarines that were not used for target practice were to be sunk with explosive charges, with naval gunfire as a fall-back option if that failed.[2]

When Operation Deadlight began, the navy found that many of the U-boats were in poor condition from being

moored in exposed harbours while awaiting disposal.[2] These issues, combined with poor weather, sank 56 of the boats before they reached the scuttling areas, and those that did reach the area were generally sunk by gunfire rather than explosive charges.[2] The first sinking took place on 17 November 1945 and the last on 11 February 1946.[2][3]

U-boats excluded from Operation Deadlight

Several U-boats escaped Operation Deadlight. Some were claimed as

Chicago. U-995 was transferred to Norway by Britain in October 1948 and became the Norwegian Kaura. She was returned to Germany in 1965, to become a museum ship at Laboe in October 1971.[5]

Salvage proposals

In the late-1990s, a firm applied to the British Ministry of Defence for salvage rights to the Operation Deadlight U-boats, planning to raise up to a hundred of them. Because the U-boats were constructed in the pre-atomic age, the wrecks contain metals that are not radioactively tainted, and are therefore valuable for certain research purposes. The ministry awarded no salvage rights, due to objections from Russia and the U.S., and potentially from Great Britain.[6] [irrelevant citation]

Between 2001 and 2003, nautical archaeologist

U-778, which was the most promising salvage.[citation needed
]

In 2007, Derry City Council announced plans to raise the U-778 to be the main exhibit of a new maritime museum.[9] On 3 October 2007, an Irish diver, Michael Hanrahan, died whilst filming the wreck as part of the salvage project.[10] In November 2009, a spokesman from the council's heritage museum service announced the salvage project had been cancelled for cost reasons.[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ Waller, Derek. "Operation Deadlight". German U-boats of WWII – uboat.net. Archived from the original on 12 November 2010. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-1-84832-037-6
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1-84832-037-6
    .
  4. ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Fates – U-boats after World War Two". German U-boats of WWII – uboat.net. Archived from the original on 4 February 2009. Retrieved 12 February 2009.
  5. LCCN 65-18021
    .
  6. ^ "Raise the U-boat: council plans to put Nazi sub in maritime museum". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 31 August 2013.
  7. ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Operation Deadlight Expedition phase 1". German U-boats of WWII – uboat.net.
  8. ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Operation Deadlight Expedition phase 2". German U-boats of WWII – uboat.net.
  9. ^ Bowcott, Owen (20 August 2007). "Raise the U-boat: council plans to put Nazi sub in maritime museum". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 31 August 2013.
  10. ^ "Team to recover U-boat diver body". BBC. 3 October 2007. Archived from the original on 27 December 2008. Retrieved 21 November 2008.
  11. ^ "Costs sink plan to raise U-boat". BBC. 12 November 2009. Retrieved 25 November 2009.

Further reading

  • McCartney, Innes (February 2002). "Operation Deadlight U-boat Investigation". After the Battle.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Operation Deadlight.

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