PETER HANSEN (251-LIFE-1987) spent time working for the ABWEHR (the German Secret Service) during WW II and he has information that is known to a mere handful of people. He gives this secret information especially to SHARKHUNTERS. Here he tells us:

U-116

Regarding U-116…..this Type X-B large minelayer submarine was constructed in the Krupp Germania Shipyard In Kiel, launched on 3 May 1941 and commissioned on 26 July 1941 by then Korvettenkapitän Werner von Schmidt. One of the original small band of men assigned to U-Boat Command in 1935 who had previously been captain of U-12, U-15, U-25 and U-40. U-116 was converted from minelayer to auxiliary fuel supply tanker. It was in fact, the first minelayer so converted.

U-116 departed on 16 May 1942 on its first transfer patrol from Bergen, Norway to reach Lorient, France on 9 June 1942 and had refueled U-590, U-406, U-94, U-124, U-569 and U-96 during that initial voyage. U-116 sailed already on 27 June 1942 from Lorient again and returned to Lorient on 23 August 1942 having actually been assigned to the Second Flotilla.

On 22 September 1942, U-116 left Lorient on its final journey with assignment to a waiting area in Grid Square BD. On this voyage, U-116 refueled U-618, U-356, U-221, U-258, U-43 and U-106. The last location and fuel situation signal was radioed on 6 October 1942 and thereafter no definite and reliable determination could be made what happened to U-116, which was commanded on its final patrol by Oberleutnant zur See Wilhelm Grimme who had replaced Captain Werner von Schmidt, Class of 1926, as captain while von Schmidt was reassigned after some health recovery period as commanding officer of the 8th U-Boat Flotilla then in Danzig, also known as the “Schiess Flotilla” or Torpedo Shooting Flotilla where all new U-Boats had to pass through as part of their preparatory training for front service, firing a considerable number of training torpedoes during that time.

It was actually never determined what actually caused the total loss of U-116 with 55 men aboard, sinking by aircraft on either 19 or 20 October 1942 remained unproved and is largely speculative.

EDITOR NOTE – Official US Navy records indicate that U-116 was POSSIBLY sunk on 20 October by carrier aircraft of VP.74. The USN is not certain of this either.

In view of the fact that these very large Type X-B boats of almost 1,800 tons wee slow divers due to their size, the same as the Type XIV actual tanker U-Boats or ‘milk cows’, it is quite conceivable that U-116 was lost due to air attack and bombing, as the required time to crash dive was somewhere from 40 to 45 seconds for these big U-Boats compared to a well trained Type VII that called for 25 seconds as the desirable, but not more than 30 seconds before allowed as a Frontboot and between 30 and 35 seconds for a Type IX U-Boats. In addition, these converted minelayers were in many technical respects subject to additional problems at the slightest provocation, not even calling for explosive pressures and they were also somewhat unstable under water and difficult to maneuver. It’s certainly possible that U-116 was actually the victim of either a diving accident or similar technical mishap rather than bombing damage, but it is unlikely that we shall ever know for certain.

U-906/908

Regarding U-906 and U-908 – it appears that this was mixed up with U-905 which was indeed sunk on 20 March 1945 off the Orkneys while neither U-906 nor U-908 ever made a front patrol, in fact never even entered training for such an operation in the Baltic.

Observations regarding U-Boat numerical history descriptions; Captain Gerd Schreiber, Class of 1931 formerly Captain of U-3, became P.o.W. after being torpedoed by the Dutch submarine O-21 and lateron reactivated for the Bundsmarine where he retired as Rear Admiral. Incidentally, he was Executive Officer (I.W.O.) aboard U-34 under Captain Grosse during Operation ‘URSULA’ when a Spanish Republican submarine was sunk without warning off Cartagena, Spain.

EDITOR NOTE – this Operation ‘URSULA’ was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the U-Bootwaffe wherein German U-Boats patrolled Spanish waters and sank ships in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War! Sharkhunters, through PETER HANSEN, broke this story some years ago. We even reprinted on the front page, the actual oath each U-Bootfahrer had to swear that they would take this secret to the grave!