First World War German U-boat at Wallsend shipyard is captured in archive pictures

First World War German U-boat at Wallsend shipyard is captured in archive pictures

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The U-boat came close to bringing Britain to its knees in the First World War.

Between February and April 1917, German U-boats sank more than 500 merchant ships, with a quarter of all ships bound for Britain sunk in the month of March.

The peak came in April 1917 when the loss was 869,000 tons, averaging 13 ships sunk a day in the second half of the month.

So in 1918, when a U-boat was brought into the Swan Hunter yard at Wallsend, Tynesiders were given a close-up of this fearsome enemy.

Such was the interest that a detailed set of photographs was taken of the submarine which reveal its complex workings and cramped interior.

The images have been placed online by Tyne and Wear Archives and are taken from an album of photographs found in the Swan Hunter collection.

U-boat U-110 had been built by Blohm & Voss, at Hamburg.

On July 19, 1918, when attacking a convoy of merchant ships near Hartlepool, she herself was attacked by HM Motor-Launch No 263 and was damaged by depth charges.

As she came to the surface, she was rammed by HMS Garry, a torpedo boat destroyer, and sunk.

A few months later, in September, she was salvaged and placed in the Admiralty dock off Jarrow Slake.

She was then berthed at Swan Hunter’s dry docks with an order to restore her as a fighting unit.

But the Armistice on November 11, 1918, caused work on her to be stopped. The following month she was towed from Wallsend to the Northumberland Dock at Howdon and was later sold as scrap.

The album, taken by Frank & Sons of South Shields, documents the dismantling of the U-boat in astonishing detail and, as Tyne and Wear Archives says, provide a rare glimpse into a German submarine.

(Image: TYNE & WEAR ARCHIVES)

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U-110 was capable of travelling 9,000 miles on a patrol before refuelling and could submerge to a depth of 50 metres.

U-110 made three wartime patrols, and sank 10 ships, totalling 26,963 tons.

Her first success was the British Q ship Penshurst, with which she fought an engagement on December 24, 1917. Penshurst sank shortly after.

Britain’s merchant fleet was the largest in the world in 1914. On the eve of war the UK possessed a civilian steam fleet of12,600 vessels - amounting to nearly half the world’s steam tonnage - as well as 650 ships under sail.

The Merchant Navy was of vital importance in transporting troops and supplies to the theatres of war, in maintaining the supply of raw materials for the war effort and in keeping the nation fed, as more than half of Britain’s food came from overseas.

Over 2,200 South Tynesiders served in the Merchant Navy during the war. As a result of enemy mines and submarine attacks, 479 were killed at sea.

In the early stages of the war U-boats obeyed established “prize rules’” surfacing before attacking merchant ships, allowing the crew and passengers time to escape.

This left U-boats vulnerable, so in February 1915 Germany declared a war zone around Britain, within which merchant ships would be sunk without warning.

After failing to seize control of the sea from the British at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917.

German Naval Staff calculated that if the rate of sinking could be increased to 600,000 tons a month and neutral ships were scared off, British surrender within six months was almost certain.

But with the introduction in April of merchant convoys escorted by warships, there was a significant drop in shipping losses.