Type: IX-D2
Built by: AG Weser (Bremen)
Launched: 30 December 1941
Commissioned: 9 May 1942
Feldpost Nr: M45435
Sunk: 12 February 1946
Sunk by: US Navy
Location sunk: off Singapore
Position sunk: unknown (no men lost)

The first Skipper of U-181 was Wolfgang Luth (photo), the second most successful submarine Skipper of WWII. Luth earned the KNIGHTS CROSS with OAK LEAF, CROSSED SWORDS and DIAMONDS. He had commanded several U-boats previously, including U-13, U-9, U-138 and U-43 before taking command of U-181 on 9 May 1942. He became the right-hand man to GrossAdmiral Donitz after the alleged suicide of Adolf Hitler when Donitz was Chancellor of Germany.

Left: Tower emblem under Luth: Shield of city of Posen.
Right: Tower emblem when headed for Indian Ocean, bound for Penang, to prevent confusion.

Because of his position, Donitz was allowed to maintain armed security around himself well after Germany had surrendered. Luth was in overall command of the security forces and it was his order that a sentry should ask for the password only once - and if the correct password was not replied, the sentry should shoot to kill. Luth was walking through the grounds of the Germany Naval Academy at Flensburg/Murwick one night, his mind on other things, and he did not hear the sentry challenge him for the password. As Luth himself had ordered, the sentry fired one shot, killing Luth instantly. There was a quick Court of Inquiry and the young sentry, who was under command of our good friend GERD THATER (194-1987), was found totally innocent of any wrongdoing.

Here is the text of the radiogram of 24 October 1943:

"Order of the day. Men of the U-boat arm: the Fuhrer today presented to Kapitanleutnant Wolfgang Luth the Oak Leaf Cluster with Swords and Diamonds to the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross which had been awarded to him previously. This was after his return from his 15th trip against the enemy. Thereby one of the senior warriors from your ranks received the highest German order for bravery as the first officer of the Navy to do so. Uninterrupted in the U-boat attack, from the first day of the war on, he proved himself most excellent in all phases of the U-boat war, in the hard battle close to the English coast, in the embittered struggle of the convoy battles and in the hunt in the expanses of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. His unyielding tenacity and his lightning-fast, determined attack embody the typical deportment and efficiency of the German U-boat man."

The second and last Skipper of U-181 was Kurt Freiwald, a Skipper of the `old school'. He had been in the Kriegsmarine and commanded a combat U-boat long before Germany invaded Poland - about three years before! He commanded U-7 and he also commanded U-33, one of the U-boats that took part in `Operation URSULA' in which the Kriegsmarine sent help to Franco during the Spanish Revolution in 1936! This story was first told by SHARKHUNTERS many years ago, and was fully covered in our KTB Magazine at that time. Freiwald commanded U-181 until the German surrender in May 1945.

U-181 was initially attached to the 12th U-bootflottille which was based at Bordeaux, as were most of the bigger German boats and the Italian boats. She operated off Cape Town and Madagascar over November and December 1942 and again in May and September 1943. During that September, U-181 also went into the Indian Ocean.

11 April 1943, an artillery accident cost the lives of one man and the wounding of another. When Germany surrendered in May 1945, the boat was handed over to the Japanese and the German crew had to fend for themselves in the jungle.

SHIPS SUNK BY U-181 UNDER LUTH

11.03.42 EAST INDIAN Amer mtrshp 8,159 GRT

An older ship, EAST INDIAN was built in 1918, owned by the Ford Motor Company and operated by the US Maritime Commission. Under her Master Ovide L. St. Marine, she was carrying 9,600 tons of manganese ore, some tea and other general cargo. She drew 29 feet 6 inches and was making 11.5 knots when attacked. Her armament consisted of a single 4 inch gun, two .50 cal. and two .30 cal. machine guns.

Heading from Cape Town to New York via Punta Arenas, she was making a zigzag course but Luth kept after her for quite a while, then fired two torpedoes which struck the starboard side. Due to the nature of the cargo, the ship sank in less than two minutes and the engines were still running. Of the eight officers, thirty-nine men, fifteen Armed Guards and twelve passengers aboard, seventeen got the Number 4 lifeboat launched while thirty-four others just jumped overboard and swam to four liferafts. The Master, fifteen crewmen and seven passengers never left the ship.

Soon afterwards, U-181 surfaced and Lath asked what ship, what cargo etc. then they offered fresh water to the survivors and gave them the course to steer to reach Cape Town. Thirteen days after the sinking, the British steamer SS DURANDO saw the Number 4 lifeboat and took them aboard. None of the four rafts were ever found. SIN officers, twenty-eight men, eleven Armed Guards and ten passengers died in this action. The radioman, who was picked up in the lifeboat, later died of shock.

SHIPS SUNK BY U-181 UNDER LUTH
11.08.42	PLAUDIT	Pana stmr	5,060 GRT
11.10.42	K. G. MELDAHL	Norw stmr	3, 7 99 GRT
11. 13.42	EXCELLO	Amer stmr	4,969 GRT

The Excello, built in 1919, was owned and operated by American Export Lines. Under her Master Maurice Kent, she was carrying no cargo. She drew 14 feet 10 inches and was making 9 knots when attacked. Her armament consisted of a single 4 inch gun, four 20mm automatic guns and two .30 cal. machine guns.

She was bound for Cape Town from Port Said, Egypt and was Steering a straight course when the single torpedo hit, causing two explosions with no explanation for the second detonation. This brought down the mainmast, blew the covers off the Number 4 and 5 holds, knocked over the winches and scattered debris everywhere. The engine room began to flood immediately, and the engines were quickly secured.

The eight officers, thirty men and thirteen Armed Guards abandoned ship in three lifeboats, although the Number 1 boat jammed in the falls. Several men jumped overboard and swam to rafts. The ship sank by the stern in less than twenty minutes and then U-181 surfaced and questioned the men.

Very soon, the boats became separated and on 14 November, one made landfall at Port St. John and another arrived there the following day. A week later, the British hospital ship ATLANTIS found the third boat and picked up the 13 survivors aboard, landing them at Cape Town. The explosion killed one Armed Guard and the first engineer died after swallowing fuel oil.

SHIPS SUNK BY U-181 UNDER LUTH
11.19.42	GUANDA	Norw stmr	2,241 GRT
11.20.42	CORINTHIAKOS	Grk stmr	3,562 GRT
11.22.42	ALCOA PATHFINDER	Amer stmr	6,797 GRT

A new ship, built in 1941, she was owned by the Alcoa SS Company and operated by WSA. Under Master Frederick Dumke, she was carrying 7,200 tons of chrome ore and general cargo. She drew 27 feet 5 inches and was making 15 knots when attacked. Her armament consisted of one 5 inch gun, four 20mm automatic guns, and two .30 cal. machine guns.

She departed Beira, Mozambique on 20 November for Port Elizabeth_ South Africa. The full moon gave her a great silhouette, and Luth spotted her and fired one torpedo. It struck the ship portside at the engine room, blowing a column of smoke and debris 200 feet in the night sky. The damage was so severe, and the cargo being heavy ore, the ship sank in less than three minutes by the stern. The engines were not secured, and the ship was still making some 4 knots when she went down.

Five Armed Guards stayed at their guns until the last possible moment. With the water rising into their gun tub and no target to shoot, they went over the stern into the sea. One lifeboat and two rafts were launched, and most of the ship's compliment made it safely to them One officer and two men died on watch below, the single passenger and one crewman did not leave the ship; and the radioman was electrocuted trying to send a distress call when the water rose around him. The survivors landed at Mozambique about eighteen hours later.

SHIPS SUNK BY U-181 UNDER LUTH
11.24.42	MT. HELMOS	Grk stmr	6,481 GRT
11.24.42	DORINGTON COURT	Brit stmr	5,281 GRT
11.29.42	EVANTHIA	Grk stmr	3,551 GRT
11.30.42	CLEANTHIS	Grk stmr	4,153 GRT
12.03.42	AMARYLLS	Pana stmr	4,328 GRT
04.11.43	EMPIRE WHIMBREL	Brit stmr	5,983 GRT
04.11.43	TINHOW	Brit stmr	5,232 GRT
06.07.43	HARRIER	So Afr stmr	193 GRT
07.02.43	HOIHOW	Brit stmr	2,798 GRT
07.15.43	EMPIRE LAKE	Brit stmr	2,852 GRT
07.16.43	FORT FRANKLIN	Brit stmr	7,135 GRT
08.04.43	DALFRAM	Brit stmr	4,558 GRT
08.07.43	UMVUMA	Brit stmr	4,419 GRT
08.11.43	CLAN MacARTHUR	Brit stmr	10,528 GRT
05.01.44	JANETA	Brit stmr	5,312 GRT
06.19.44	GAROET	Neth stmr	7,118 GRT
07.15.44	TANDA	Brit stmr	7,174 GRT
07.19.44	KING FREDERICK	Brit stmr	5,265 GRT
11.02.44	FORT LEE	Amer tnkr	10,198 GRT

A new ship, built in 1943, she was owned by WSA and operated by Bernuth Lembecke Company. Under Master Ottar Andersen, she was carrying 93,000 barrels of fuel oil. She drew 31 feet and was making 15.5 knots when attacked. Her armament consisted of one 5 inch gun, one 3 inch gun, and eight 20mm automatic guns. She departed Abadan, Iran on 21 October heading for Brisbane, Australia on a straight course. The torpedo hit portside in the fire room, causing the boiler to explode and all power failed, shutting down the turbine engines. The ship began to settle at the stern, the boiler room and engine room filled with water, causing the crew's mess to fill with smoke and steam.

The Master passed the word that the crew should stand ready to lower the lifeboats, but some either misunderstood or they panicked & immediately lowered the Numbers 3,5 and 6 boats A second torpedo struck starboard side between the engine room and Number 9 tank, which destroyed #3 and #5 lifeboats, dumping the men into the sea. A huge fireball rose some 200 feet in the air, catching the ship afire instantly. Just as quickly, a wave washed over the ship and doused the fire. Of the ten officers, thirty-nine men and twenty-six Armed Guards, sixty-six successfully abandoned ship in four boats. U-181 came alongside, questioned the men in the #4 boat, then departed. The survivors took what they needed from the rafts floating near them. After three days, strong winds separated the four boats. On 7 November, the British ME ERNEBANK rescued the sixteen survivors in the #2 lifeboat and landed then at Fremantle. On 9 November, the American tanker SS TUMACACORI picked up the seventeen men in the #6 lifeboat and landed them at Albany, Australia.

On 16 November, the American SS MARY BELL spotted the #1 lifeboat with seventeen survivors - and they opened fire on them! After twelve rounds landed near the lifeboat, someone aboard MARY BELL realized that they were survivors - the shelling stopped and the men were rescued and landed at Colombo, Ceylon.

The #4 boat with ten merchant seamen and six Armed Guards was never seen again. Three officers, twelve seamen and ten Armed Guards were lost.

Oberleumant OTTO GIESE (45-1984) was Second Watch Officer on U-181 on her last patrol to the Far East, and here is a poem he wrote (translated) set to music it became a song.

Where the cold wind stands,
The wind blows the fog.
Where ice is piling,
The waves storm pounding.
That's where we move,
That's where we move
As wolves through the hunting grounds.

Grey is our dress, our fur
Which renders us cover. Boat of steel,
Which protects us from death.
So we hunt; so we hunt
As wolves in the hunting grounds.

For Germany's advantage,
We defy the wild enemy.
For Germany's honor,
We are wearing a broadsword.
So we hunt, so we hunt
As wolves in the hunting grounds.

When the enemy shows up,
The sun shines blood red.
In the battles then,
He loses ship and man.
So we fight, so we fight
As wolves in the hunting grounds

He states: "It's all a bit primitive but then there was not space nor time between work, watches, a heavy working boat, attacks too close to Murmansk etc. and preparing some more poems and drawings for our festivity paper in the stick, slime and slime of the boat if we should finally get back home."

Otto’s Memories:

My name is Otto Giese, Oberleutnant of the German naval reserve in World War Two. After a short introduction for you to see why and how I joined the German U-Boats, I'm going to tell you how the men lived on board those boats on which I served, which were U-405 and U-181 and about where these boats operated.

I was born November 8th, 1914 in the free Hanseatic town of Bremen in North Germany. My father was just leading a company of German lancers into France when he received the news about my arrival The years passed by with education of all sorts I started to love the marshes, the rivers and the seas on which I roamed with my kayaks and with my sailing boat No wonder therefore that 1 decided to go to sea on one of our large squareriggers after I had finished high school.

We were all cadets of the Merchant Marine, this was the year 1933 At first, life on board seemed to be so hard for some boys that at night, in hammocks they secretly cried. We got kicked with sea boots at times or beaten with ropes end when we had broken the honor code Often we stood in the rigging for hours on end in the tropics, barefoot, and up north with heavy sea boots unsecured on the foot wires, leaning against the canvas sails. Our hands wore many blisters and were often bleeding, and fingernails were torn off. Hurricanes bore down on the ship which was steadied only by the barest of sails.

The cadets were divided into watches and divisions and we had lessons every day. We had much to learn. Today life on board everywhere is better; food and treatment is good and often I wonder if toady's youngsters would take what we had to swallow in those days.

After fifty months before the mast including a variety of steamers, I went to the academy to stand for my mates license which I finished in 1938. Same year I went for my basic military training with the Navy at Wilhelmshaven, in North Germany. With me were many Captains and Officers of the Merchant marine and of the Fisheries. At the end of the same year, I was commissioned a junior officer on our 3rd largest year ocean liner, SS COLUMBUS of the North German Lloyd at Bremen.

We made trips out of New York for Cooks Traveling Agency into the Caribbean and out of Africa. It was a swell time for a young officer. Also 1 was in charge of training the German crew for the International Labor Day race in US Coast Guard cutters along the Hudson for 1939.

The outbreak of World War Two found us in Caribbean waters and after having landed our passengers in Havana Cuba, we were ordered by Berlin to make for Mexico where we hid behind the reefs of Antonio Lizardo. Meanwhile we trained the crew for exercises in scuttling our vessel and in boats maneuvers.

The British were waiting but December 1939 we got orders from Berlin to try to run the blockade for Norway and Germany. We got as far as about two hundred miles off Baltimore with escorts by US destroyers and the heavy cruiser TUSCALOOSA, which continued to send our position to the British. When the Canadian destroyer HYPERION stopped us with gunfire and when we successfully set our big liner afire and opened the sea valves, the TUSCALOOSA brought us to Ellis Island from where we were shipped by train to San Francisco, early 1940 Here we were interned as alien seamen on Angel Island across from Alcatraz where Al Capone was at that time sitting.

The year passed with idleness and 1 really got concerned that I might miss the duty to serve my country on the firing front. But at the end of 1940 a chance offered itself for five of us officers to escape on board the Japanese liner ASSAMA MARU, via Hawaii then to Yokohama, Japan.

Here were about fifteen German merchant vessels at anchor, ready to run the British blockade with vital cargo for the German war industry. 1941, I was assigned Second Officer on the motor vessel ANNALLSA ESSBERGER in charge of navigation for the blockade run, security and coding systems. Amongst other cargo we had the first aerial torpedoes on board as heretofore, the German Air Force was still using bombs. Also we had two huge mines deep down in the holds to blow our vessel up in case that we should be brought up by the enemy.

This is quite a long piece and with a lot of information never before published; not even in our KTB Magazine. OTTO GIESE (45-1984) told us a lot, and it is all here.....well, most of it that is. We left out the part where he and Captain REINHARD HARDEGEN (102-1985) were friends from their young days, went to school together and even chased the same girls together. OTTO told us that it was always HARDEGEN who wound up with the girls. There is a tremendous amount of history here, and we continue with it in KTB #155 next month.

More U-181

U-181: Part I [KTB154]

U-181: Part II [KTB155]

U-181: Part III [KTB156]

Convoy Aftermath
1943 and 1944
Beyond Cape of Good Hope