Daily Event for May 9, 2005

While attacking convoy OB-318 on May 9, 1941, U-110 was captured by HMS Bulldog. U-110 had sunk two ships in the attack, Bengore Head and Esmond. Her periscope was sighted by one of the escorts, HMS Aubretia, which depth charged the boat forcing her to the surface. When she broke the surface HMS Broadway and HMS Bulldog spotted her.

Bulldog rammed the boat in an attempt to sink her. The commander of U-110, Kapitänleutnant Fritz Julius Lemp, ordered the boat abandoned, he believed the boat would sink quickly, he was wrong. When the commanding officer of Bulldog, Commander Addison Joe Baker-Cresswell, R.N. realized the boat was not going down he ordered a boarding party aboard. The men stopped the boat from sinking and found a strange machine and papers, which they deemed important, so they removed them from the boat. The men did not know that they just captured an Enigma machine and the current code books. Bulldog took the boat in tow, but when the importance of what they had found on board was learned, they allowed U-110 to sink, thus keeping the Germans in the dark about the capture of the Enigma machine.

The recovery of the enigma and the codes were of great help to the Allies in bringing the U-boat threat under control. Fifteen of the crew of the U-110 died in the attack, including the captain. It is said that Lemp was seen swimming toward his boat when he realized it would not sink, but he went under the waves and was never seen again. Lemp, while in command of U-30, sank the Athenia, which was the first British ship sunk in World War II.
© 2005 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com

Gedenktafel

In Erinnerung an die gefallenen Besatzungsmitglieder des
Unterseeboot 110
"In the memory of the fallen crewmen of U-110"


Name
Rate
Notes
Bischoff, Helmut-Nikolaus
Matrosengefreiter
Dechandt, Werner
Mechanikersgefreiter
Gentzler, Gustav
Mechanikersmaat
Hörter, Rolf
Maschinengefreiter
Kaczmarek, Paul
Matrosenobergefreiter
Klobes, Hans
Stabsobermaschinistmatt
Krämer, Nikolaus
Mechanikersobergefreiter
Latzel, Max
Matrosengefreiter
Lemp, Fritz-Julius
Kapitänleutnant
Commanding Officer
Oltmanns, Hinrich
Matrosengefreiter
Russmann, Konstantin
Mechanikersobergefreiter
Schneider, Louis
Maschinengefreiter
Spielberg, Helmut
Obermaschinenmaat
Wolf, Helmut
Maschinengefreiter
Ziegler, Karl
Maschinengefreiter

 
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