U-30

Type

VIIA

 
Ordered1 Apr 1935
Laid down 24 Jan 1936 AG Weser, Bremen (werk 911)
Launched4 Aug 1936
Commissioned8 Oct 1936Kptlt. Hans Cohausz
Commanders
8 Oct 1936 - 31 Oct 1938  Kptlt. Hans Cohausz
15 Feb 1938 - 17 Aug 1938   Hans Pauckstadt
Nov, 1938 - Sep, 1940  Kptlt. Fritz-Julius Lemp (Knights Cross)
Sep, 1940 - 31 Mar 1941   Robert Prützmann
1 Apr 1941 - Apr, 1941  Oblt. Paul-Karl Loeser
Apr, 1941 - 22 Apr 1941  Oblt. Hubertus Purkhold
23 Apr 1941 - 9 Mar 1942  Oblt. Kurt Baberg
10 Mar 1942 - 4 Oct 1942  Oblt. Hermann Bauer
5 Oct 1942 - 16 Dec 1942  Ltn. Franz Saar
May, 1943 - 1 Dec 1943  Oblt. Ernst Fischer
2 Dec 1943 - 14 Dec 1944  Oblt. Ludwig Fabricius
17 Jan 1945 - 23 Jan 1945  Oblt. Günther Schimmel
Career8 patrols 8 Oct 1936 - 31 Aug 1939  2. Flottille (front boat)
1 Sep 1939 - 31 Dec 1939  2. Flottille (front boat)
1 Jan 1940 - 30 Nov 1940  2. Flottille (front boat)
1 Dec 1940 - 30 Nov 1943  24. Flottille (training)
1 Dec 1943 - 12 Jan 1945  22. Flottille (school boat)
Successes16 ships sunk for a total of 86,165 GRT
1 auxiliary warship sunk for a total of 325 GRT
1 ship damaged for a total of 5,642 GRT
1 warship damaged for a total of 31,100 tons
Fate

Used in the last months as a range boat. Scuttled on 4 May, 1945 in Kupfermühlen Bay, wreck broken up in 1948.

See the 19 ships hit by U-30 - View the 8 war patrols

Wolfpack operations

U-30 operated with the following Wolfpacks during its career:
   Prien (12 Jun 1940 - 15 Jun 1940)

Attacks on this boat

14 Sep 1939
After stopping the British freighter Fanad Head, the boat was attacked by three British Blackburn Skua aircraft (FAA-Sqdn 803) from HMS Ark Royal (91), but two of them were lost to their own bombs. Three crew members were wounded by splinters.

14 Sep 1939
After sinking the British freighter Fanad Head, the boat was attacked with bombs by six Swordfish aircraft (FAA-Sqdn 810 and 821) from HMS Ark Royal (91) and depth charges from HMS Bedouin (F 67) and HMS Punjabi (F 21) for 4 hours before Lemp managed to escape.

2 recorded attacks on this boat.

General notes on this boat

3 Sep 1939. This boat sank the first ship in the war when she sank the 13,581 ton passenger ship Athenia by mistake (taking her to be an Armed Merchant Cruiser, AMC).

29 Mar 1940. On 29 April 1940 in the North Sea the boat rescued four crew members from a crashed German Dornier Do 18 airplane of 2nd Staffel Küstenfliegergruppe 906. The boat was already inbound to port and reached Wilhelmshaven the next day.

7 Jul 1940. This boat was the first U-boat to make use of the newly captured French bases when she landed in Lorient on 7 July, 1940.

Men lost from the boat

19 Sep 1939
The boat put a wounded man ashore in Reykjavík, Iceland. [Maschinenobergefreiter Schmidt]

  Related: For more info on such losses see - Men lost from U-boats -


We have an emblem for this boat!

You can view it here. (The emblem on the left is not the emblem for this boat).



U-Boat Operations of the Second World War - Vol 2
Wynn, Kenneth


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Books dealing with this subject include:

Fatal Decisions. Blandford, Edmund, 1999.
German U-Boat Losses During World War II. Niestle, Axel, 1998.
Hitler's U-boat War. Blair, Clay, 1996.
Hitler's U-boat War, Vol II. Blair, Clay, 1998.
Tomorrow Never Came. Caulfield, Max, 1958.
U-Boat Adventures. Wiggins, Melanie, 1999.
U-Boat Operations of the Second World War - Vol 1. Wynn, Kenneth, 1998.
U-Boat Operations of the Second World War - Vol 2. Wynn, Kenneth, 1998.


There was another U-30 in World War One
That boat was launched from its shipyard on 15 Nov 1913 and commissioned into the Imperial Navy on 26 Aug 1914. The Naval war in WWI was brought to an end with the Armistice signed on 11 Nov, 1918. Read about the U 30 during WWI.