By 1917, U.35 had become so famous that a special attempt was made to record one of her cruises in the Mediterranean by sending a photographer to sea with her. Here she is seen running on the surface, partially trimmed down U.35 the most successful U-Boat ever, with 224 ships totalling 535,900 tons sunk between first commissioning in November 1914 and the Armistice (although he did not command her throughout the War). Her four sisters also totted up high scores: U.33 - 76 ships totalling 193,558 tons U.34 - 120 ships totalling 258,900 tons U.38 - 136 ships totalling 292,977 tons U.39 - 151 ships totalling 398,564 tons U.35 was one of the Submarines sent to the Mediterranean to reinforce the Austrians and to attack the allies’ lines of communication. The greatest cruise was made by Arnauld de la Periere in U.35 between 26 July and 20 August 1916. With a new 10.5cm gun in place of the 8.8cm gun previously mounted, and a first-rate gunner borrowed from the High Seas Fleet, he was able to destroy 54 ships totalling 91,000 tons. To do this he expended 900 rounds of ammunition, but only four torpedoes for he scorned the use of such expensive weapons. De la Periere's favourite method was to open fire on his victim at a range of about 6000 yards, and then come in closer, to about 3000 yards. When the ship was abandoned he would administer the coup de grace with two shells, one into the bow and the other into the stern. One of the four torpedoes which were fired missed the French-cruiser Waldeck Rousseau, which had already escaped from the Austrian IV two years earlier, making her one of the luckiest warships in the Mediterranean. A small U-B Boat comes alongside U.35 in the Mediterranean. The officer in British uniform seen on the forward casting is the Kings Messenger Captain Wilson, who was taken prisoner from a ship sunk by U.35 During his time in U.35 de la Periere sent two warships, an armed merchant cruiser, five troopships, 125 steamers and 62 sailing ships to the bottom. Nearly all of these were sunk by gunfire, clear evidence of how ineffectual the anti-submarine measures were in the Mediterranean. The agreed policy was to run ships on fixed routes, which were patrolled by warships of all sizes, in the fond hope that these patrols would frighten away the U-Boats. In fact the U-Boats had little difficulty in spotting the patrols and diving before they had been spotted. There were usually some 350 merchantmen at sea at anyone time in the Mediterranean and as their routes were fixed there was no difficulty in finding targets. Before the depth-charge there were very few weapons capable of sinking a U-Boat. This lance bomb was intended for use against a U-Boat at very close quarters, but the only recorded case of its use resulted in its bomb bouncing off the Subs casing.
Great stuff yet again, what these early subs were capable of is astonishing. On the lighter side I am wondering what that sailor did to deserve "Lance Bomb Duty", I would NOT want that thing bouncing back at me, No Sir ! :wtf::lol:
U-35 Footage, 1917 From eyewitnesstohistory's current front page, a film of U-35's crew boarding an Italian cargo ship in 1917, setting charges and sinking it. A rare old film if ever there was one. I had a look for the footage on YouTube so I could embed it here, but no luck. All I found there that was new was some nutters recreating Das Boot in their loft....:lol: Anyway here's U-35: http://eyewitnesstohistory.com/himu-boat.htm
