Talk:German submarine U-56 (1938)

This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Ships This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ships, a project to improve all Ship-related articles. If you would like to help improve this and other articles, please join the project, or contribute to the project discussion. All interested editors are welcome. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.ShipsWikipedia:WikiProject ShipsTemplate:WikiProject ShipsShips articles project-independent quality rating in the banner shell. Please resolve this conflict if possible. This article was accepted on 21 November 2010 by reviewer Alpha Quadrant (talk · contribs).

Military history: Maritime / European / German / World War II Start‑class

This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history articles Start This article has been rated as Start-class on the project's quality scale. This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status: Referencing and citation: criterion not met Coverage and accuracy: criterion not met Structure: criterion met Grammar and style: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met Associated task forces: /  Maritime warfare task force European military history task force German military history task force World War II task force

Germany Low‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Germany, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Germany on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.GermanyWikipedia:WikiProject GermanyTemplate:WikiProject GermanyGermany articles Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

'The Eskdene was damaged northeast of the Tyne'. As there is a (River?) Tyne in England and Scotland, and as I'm not sure which 'Tyne' Uboat.net is referring to, I've pointed the 'Tyne' in question at the WP disambig page.
Make up your own mind (unless you know better).

RASAM (talk) 15:22, 8 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The article for HMS Nelson (28) states that On 30 October [1939] she was unsuccessfully attacked by U-56 under the command of captain Wilhelm Zahn near the Orkney Islands and was hit by three torpedoes, none of which exploded, however, this article makes no mention of any engagements during that time (I guess that would have been the 3rd patrol). Is this a different submarine or is one of the articles wrong? Sinthorion (talk) 14:00, 26 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I am much intrigued by this story about the unsuccesfull attack of U-56 on the British Home Fleet. I can see in Rohwer Chronology of the war at sea that the Home Fleet was at sea from 23-31 october, busy escorting British iron ore ships from Narvik to England. The Home Fleet returned to Loch Ewe on 31st Oct 1939. So the attack is on the 30th Oct. As the U-56 is a type II boat with 3 torpedo tubes, there are 3 torpedoes launched. One is a miss, 2 hit the Nelson but do not explode. These are facts. There are 2 other aspects which are often mentioned which according to me are urban legend :

• Churchill and Dudley Pound were aboard the Nelson
• Zahn was so depressed that Donitz relieved him from active duty and put him in training command instead

About the first aspect : Churchill and Pound were on the 31st in Loch Ewe to discuss when the Home Fleet could return to Scapa Flow in light of the U-47 attack. I find it highly unlikely that they were aboard, Sea Lords are not at sea were they are cut off from communications, that's the job of Forbes to lead the ships at sea. They have been on a mission to Norway for ten days, impossible that Churchill and Pound were away for such a long time from their command.

About the second aspect : after this incident, Zahn continued to be in command of the U-56 and executed two more patrols. He left U-56 to commision a bigger boat, the U-69 which indeed you could regard as some training mission, but as the U-56 was a small boat it was the plan all along that these were withdrawn to training flottilas in order to support the expanding U-boat fleet.

So I'd keep those two aspect in the wikipage, as you can read this urban legend in lots of books, but I would clearly mention what they are : urban legends.

I am posting this on the talk page of U-56, Wilhem Zahn and HMS Rodney. Klutserke (talk) 19:20, 1 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]