The WORST U-Boat of WW2
Vložit
- čas přidán 22. 06. 2024
- U-352, a Type VIIC U-Boat was arguably the worst U-Boat during the Second World War. Today it is one of the most popular diving spots off of America's East Coast.
Thanks for watching, remember to like & subscribe!
Subscribe to our FREE daily WW2 newsletter: hiddenhistoryyt.beehiiv.com/s...
If you liked this video, check out my other submarine videos: • Submarines/U-Boats
Follow on Instagram for history photos: @hiddenhistorybackup / hiddenhistorybackup
Follow us on Twitter: / hiddenhistoryyt @HiddenHistoryYT
You can support my channel on Patreon: / hiddenhistoryyt
If you feel that this content in some way infringes on your own content please reach out to hiddenhistoryhelp@gmail.com
#worldwar2 #wwii #ww2 #uboat #submarine #history #u352 - Zábava
If you love WW2, subscribe to our FREE daily newsletter where we explore events that occurred on this day during the Second World War.
You can check it out here: hiddenhistoryyt.beehiiv.com/
Hellmut Rathke sounds like the kind of over-zealous but easily thwarted stereotypical Nazi villain you'd see in a 1950's pulp comic book.
It is funny how he basically always made the wrong decision no matter how hard he tried 😆
Strict doctrinal apparently at the expense of tactical imagination and flexibility.
@@kennethhanks6712 One thing the Americans excelled at in my opinion was the adaptability/creativity, while the Germans on the other hand often seemed to be restricted by doctrine
THE MODERN DAY EQUIVALENT OF THIS IS MANIFESTED WITH THE DEDICATED FOLLOWERS OF TRUMP AND PUTIN!!
The submariners of the Nazi Germany Navy were generally staunch Nazis. Comparative to the rest of the germnan navy
Right off the coast of Morehead City! Our NC aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores has a mock up of this wreck in the big tank. If you ever get the chance to come to Morehead City/ Atlantic Beach, NC, I highly recommend visiting the aquarium. Also... Olympus Dive Center in Morehead has a deck gun from U-352, as well as other artifacts.
Oh that is very cool! If I’m in that area I’ll have to remember this
@@HiddenHistoryYT There is an incredible amount of pirate history here, too. The wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge was discovered in Beaufort Inlet, off Morehead City, NC. The Maritime Museum in Beaufort has an amazing exhibit about Blackbeard.
@@mattduke6490 oh that is awesome! Definitely is on my list now 😃
Yes I did notice that the deck gun had been removed.
This has me GLUED to the screen
Yekindaaar
There were many u_boats that were sunk on their 1st trip out ,many were sunk by water mines ,as they came out of their ports .
Many were sunk in air raids ,and never got to fire a shot .
I would argue that those didn’t get a chance to prove anything whereas this U-Boat actively failed many times and was entirely unsuccessful.
and there are few Uboats that sunk whole fleets and survived till the very end of the war, i think the highest tonnage for a single Uboat was like +400k tonnage which can be considered as a compensation for all kriegsmarine efforts
@@airshark2764 that would be the equivalent of 80 Liberty ships. I'd rethink that.
Then there was the U-Boat discoverd by divers, chronicled in the book, "Shadow Divers"... a great read... looks like their first and only attack of the East Coast, they were taken out by a "Circle Runner", a nasty surprise that affected submariner of all Navies in WWII. In fact, doctrine was to dive to safe depth after launch since hanging around to see your results through periscope could be fatal... Apparently that wasn't followed.
U - 869, reported sunk of Gibraltar was actually off the east coast, and no one had a clue it was ever there.
Had Admiral King, USN, not hated the British, and listened to a Royal Navy whose experience was paid for in blood, the waters off the east coast of America would not have been lit up like a Christmas tree, convoys and escorts would have been organised, ready, and trained - and a lot of good me, good ships, and vital war supplies could have been saved.
Because of Adm King the battle off the US east coast is regarded as the US Navy's greatest failure. The RN had to send ASW Sloops to escort American east coast convoys.
@@towgod7985 I am British, and the son of a WW2 submarine officer, and am well aware of both the help the US Navy gave us, and the help the Royal Navy gave the US Navy.
It is one of the great tragedies of WW2 that America learnt so little from Britain's experience, and was so comprehensively caught with her pants down from 7 Dec 41 onwards.
War is a hard taskmaster, and the price is blood.
Then there's the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Ordnance who made the nearly useless Mk, 13-15 torpedoes. Not only did they NOT test the torpedoes under war conditions, they kept blaming USN sailors and pilots for "not using them properly." They could have been awarded IJN medals for killing dozens of USN submarine and air crews who otherwise might have stopped the invasion of the Philippines. It took Admiral King to "light a fire under" these incompetents and finally issue fixes that eliminated the Japanese merchant fleet.
@@Otokichi786 A truly Classic Example of ..... On the Psychology of Military Incompetence by Norman Dixon
Personally I believe a lot of these things are tied to Karma, so people's decisions are made by Karma for them ( they just act the part ).
To be fair...King was atleast rather competent...Unlike Halsey,Patton or MacArthur...these 3 fall under what i call "The Rommel category" aka overly glorified idiots who just got lucky
There were several things going against U-352, a Commander with a itchy throat for an Iron Cross, who lacked U-Boat experience and an adversary who had been freshly blooded from the U-Boats Second Happy Time which was rapidly ending. The US Coastguard was itching to avenge the shipping sunk earlier in the year. The run ins with the patrol aircraft should have been a warning that the Americans were now fully aware of the dangers of U-Boats lurking along their Eastern Seaboard. The U-Boat Captain should have exercised caution and taken his boat to the bottom to wait for night time when he would have a greater advantage because at that time the extra patrol craft were not yet fitted with radar. Once the U-Boat was sunk, the Americans should have separated the Officers from the Other Ranks in order to start to break down their command over them. Divide and Conquer is said for a reason.
Mark from Melbourne Australia
Completely agree with everything you said here Mark. Thanks for the contribution and have a great day!
Hey Mark from Melbourne Australia. Ooow, ya big old rascal ya! Mmmm, with your big old raspberry noggin. I actually heard something a-bit different. I heard he did not have an itchy neck. It was actually the little bit which connects your back bottom bumhole with your swinging nutsack which was itchy & apparently he was experiencing some major problems with trying to scratch it. Anyhoo. Way you bounce skippy.
@@HiddenHistoryYT Thanks. Happy to contribute in a small way.
Agree! Not such much the worst U-Boat, but the worst commanded/crewed!
For history buffs out there, let me recommend a really good book on the U-boat war that took place off the southern and eastern coasts of the continental U.S. in early part of WWII:
Operation Drumbeat: the dramatic true story of Germany's first U-boat attacks along the American coast in World War II, by Michael Gannon.
I’ll have to check that out, thanks for watching!
Those U -Boats were outside or within the New York Harbor.
@@1963Austria No U-boat entered NY harbor. The closest approach was well outside on the ocean where shipping lanes converge, known as the outer harbor approaches. Glare of light of the city could be seen on clouds and mist in air. I interviewed Hardegan three times and he was very clear about that. The propaganda film had crude graphic effects suggesting city views. Laughable quality for modern audiences.
This is a fantastic video! Great information and put together really well to make it entertaining.
Greatly appreciate it! Thanks for watching and have a fantastic week :)
Nicely done. Your delivery is good and your storytelling is engaging.
Despite the millions of tons sunk by U-boats during the war, the U-boats were not able to overcome Allied anti submarine countermeasures and paid a stiff price in lives and boats lost.
Some three quarters of all U-boat crews lost their lives during the war.
The only thing that kept them viable was a shifting of their patrols to areas that hadn’t caught up to providing proper convoy escort ships, training and latest anti submarine tech.
I would make the argument that Germany lost the war in March of 1941. Bold statement?
In ten days of that month, the top three most celebrated U-boat commanders were lost to allied countermeasures. It came as such a shock to Nazi propagandists that they hid the news from the German people and released details at spaced intervals to soften the blow to national spirit.
The U-boat service made an all out assault on the Atlantic convoys in Winter/Spring of 1943 and had some significant victories against overwhelmed convoy escorts.
By May of ‘43 that same all out assault on Atlantic shipping resulted in the loss of 43 U-boats. This loss shattered the core of the U-boat service and Germany’s only hope became the new type XXI diesel electric boats. Ultimately, they never made it into service other than a few boats that made it to the trails phase.
Thank you, I appreciate the kind words! I even more appreciate the information you have presented here!
I agree with most of what you have said here, especially with that the argument can be made that the war was lost for Germany in March of 1941. It would have been very interesting if the newer U-Boats could’ve got into action. One thing I wonder about as well is how things could have gone if the Germans just didn’t even attempt to build a surface force, and instead had gone fully into U-Boats. Not sure it would’ve really changed anything but I think they would have ran rampant for much longer. Again thank you for the post and discussion!
Well Will... you are forgetting the most important development that brought about the end of the UBoats "Happy Times"... the breaking of the Enigma code by the code breakers at Bletchley Park. This breakthrough helped Convoys avoid Uboats altogether. But... the Germans were suspicious that their code was being "read" so in Feb of '42 all vessels operating in the Atlantic and Mediterranean were ordered to add a fourth wheel to their Enigma machines (three were used previously.) As soon as the Germans did this sinkings spiked. The British were no longer able to decipher their codes and as a result, from Feb to October of 1942 Uboats sank hundreds of thousands of tons of Allied shipping solely because the British could not read the coded German messages... and they had no idea where Uboats were lying in wait. Starving out Britain was once again becoming a very real possibility.
It wasn't until October of 1942 with the seizing of U-559 along with her Enigma machine and codebooks that Bletchley Park was able to break the German code once more and Convoys could now be routed away from known Uboat positions... again.
Most think the Enigma code wasn't broken until the seizure of U-559 in late '42... but that is incorrect. The Brits had seized other German ships much earlier in the war along with Enigma machines and code books. They broke the code, the Germans responded... and the Brits had to break it again.
The Uboats successes of Feb to Oct of 42 are a direct result of the Brits not being able to read German code. Without this development the Battle of the Atlantic would have most definitely taken a very different turn. Most believe D-Day could never have happened in '44 because of the amount of material that would have ended up sitting at the bottom of the ocean.
Btw... you mention anti submarine warfare as a reason for the Uboats demise... once again, this is a direct result of the Enigma code being broken. The Allies knew exactly where the Uboats were and could concentrate their forces to find these subs and sink them.
@@jerryjeromehawkins1712 Great post. However, once convoys were escorted with dedicated, ASW escorts, the ability of U-boats to penetrate this defense was unlikely and resulted in high U-boat losses.
A convoy in early ‘44, I don’t remember which one, was deliberately routed directly through a U-boat patrol line to test ASW countermeasures. It ended up badly for the U-boat service.
Don’t get me wrong, Bletchley Park did amazing work during the war to anticipate Nazi U-boat concentrations.
While Royal Navy ciphers were well guarded and hard to crack, merchant codes were much less so, and B-Dienst(German Naval Intelligence) was able to track convoys quite easily based on this info.
@@jerryjeromehawkins1712 What was surprising is that the Nazi's total faith in their Enigma coding. They really thought it couldn't be broken. British intelligence changed their codes often, by '43 the Americans did too. The British could locate a U Boat's general location by their radio transmissions by late '43 and a destroyer would force them to submerge. Within 24 hours they would be forced to surface with depleted batteries and no air, where they were easy pickings.
One slight correction. Two type XXI U-boats did go on war patrols (U-2511 and U-3008 respectively) although neither sank or damaged any ships.
I got to dive on the U352 on one of my trips to NC. The Olympic dive shop in Morehead city has the deck gun and many artifacts from the boat. I was told by the owner of the shop that he had the survivng crew come back for the captains birthday one year. This is a dive you really want to make when you visit the graveyard of the Atlantic.
Imagine being so ineffectual in the war that your only legacy is how mediocre you were plus how you died
Some of the first US sport divers to find Rathke's boat (other than Skin Diver Magazine divers who reported this), were total idiots. They had shark bang sticks, and were blowing up flounder on the sandy bottom near U352, a bottom strewn with armed 88mm shells which had spilled out of the boat's gunlocker on the bridge. Also, sometimes Uboats stored two warshot torpedoes under the deckplates forward of the bridge/sail, obviously these unqualified divers didn't realize the dangers on and around this sunken UBoat. I read about this idiocy in Skin Diver magazine, which also gave a bit of U352's history. The fish she fired at the Coast Guard cutter hit the shallow bottom, detonating, and fully alerting the cutter of U352's presence and direction the fish was fired from, according to the article. Some of the crew, one whose skeleton and skull was still in the bridge which had been punctured by shellfire, the skull having been taken by one of these yahoo ignorant divers, and it disintegrated at he attempted to take it to the surface, most disrectful of a war-grave site. As a subsailor, reading the article made me angry. And yes, Rathke was a tactical idiot, unfit for command.
That is very interesting! I always find it odd how some people don’t view it to be dangerous or war grave
Yeah, so OK, did anyone get hurt?
@@Dave-ty2qp what if i burned down your house and all your possessions? would you care? nobody got hurt, remember?
@@abbcc5996 Can a U-boat burn under water? Did my house sink? Did you pick and eat the wrong bugger and now have nothing to think with?
@@Dave-ty2qp Yes, for a 100 ft dive, it has killed a lot of people. BTW wreck diving is so much better in the FL Keys.
THE COST OF FOLLOWING AND WORSHIPING AN INCOMPETENT
LEADER, IN HOPES OF GAIN, RATHER THAN USING COMMON SENSE AND GUILE , IS WHAT SUNK RATHKE AND HIS SHIP!
I DID NOT REALIZE THAT ENEMY
MILITARY RECEIVED FULL MILITARY HONORS AND BURIAL,
AS HAPPENED WITH THE ONE THAT DIED AFTER CAPTURE!
IT MAKES ME WONDER IF ANY OF HIS FAMILY EVER KNEW OR VISITED HIS GRAVE, HERE IN THE USA??
I will have to look into that!
Check your caps lock please.
That happened several times during both wars. The most famous of which was the Red Baron from WWI. Even though he was responsible for many lives being lost when his plane was shot down he was given full military honors at his burial by the Allies.
Just say no to war like U352. Most respected Seaman ship.
Appreciate you watching and have a great week :)
A very interesting video. Thank you very much!
Thanks for watching!
Fantastic video! I have subscribed and look forward to more
Greatly appreciate it John! Have a great rest of your week :)
Rather good look at u-boat history, operation, and countermeasures.
Good knowing some U -boats missed.
Mentioned in the comments is USCG Icarus which took my interest due to my lovely Dad who was a signalman aboard destroyer HMS Icarus for part of the war and the life aboard sounded pretty tough at times as they often ran out of food. We were very lucky that he survived the sinking of one ship on Russian convoys as he was a not a swimmer obviously not spending too long in those cold waters and saved by rescuers sighting his watch glinting in the darkness. I will be forever grateful to all those American and Canadian service men ❤️
Thank you to him for his service! Appreciate you watching and have a great weekend :)
This video is interesting and like the information you have provided
Appreciate you watching and have a great weekend :)
The wreck of U-352 is a war grave. Let us respect and honor the men who go down into the sea aboard submarines, never to surface; regardless of nationality. They were men following orders while defending their nation. They are submariners on Eternal Patrol.
Not too enthusiastically, please. Nobly obeying orders from a wicked government is a problem described in "On Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell.
@@jacksimpson-rogers1069 Have you ever served in the military? The troops on the battlefield and the sailors at sea are no more responsible for the policies of a government than the man in the moon. This discussion started with dead sailors, average age was probably 21, not talking about the SS.
@@1anthonybrowning I have even gone so far as to say that the citizens of Berlin were more responsible for Hitler than those of Tokyo or Nagasaki were, for their emperor and his advisors. I came to the USA in 1965, signed up as required, and planned to head for Canada if ever I was summoned while the stupidity in Vietnam continued. I was old enough that the risk was small.
She was a type 7C, she sank 8 ships including the Oklahoma, damaged 2 others and surrendered on 17 May 45.
Type 7's were miserable to be in, unlike Gato/Baleo subs there was no a/c or refrigeration for food. With a maximum speed submerged of 7 knots, and an underwater range of 65 miles at 3-4 knots, they were sitting ducks for any Allied ship with radar and hedgehogs. And die they did with a fatality rate of 75%. U boat crews suffered a higher death rate than any other service, including Stalin's army. In March 1942, Adm Donitz's son was lost, his sub and 4 others were distroyed in an ill fated wolfpack attack on a convoy. Donitz withdrew his subs, they never ventured to the US again.
Improvements were ineffective, the Snorkel was easily spotted by Allied radar, their torpedoes had limited range, and approaching close enough to fire them usually was fatal.
In every way, this was considered 'shit duty' by Axis sailers....and me!
Good stuff. i like stories like this that go on in detail about the more obscure happenings of the war.
Thanks for watching!
honestly: i dont think commander rathke and crew had no valuable intel anyways.
The video mentions that ICARUS was ordered to take the U-boat survivors to Charleston, SC. In fact, they took the U-boat survivors to the CG base at Atlantic Beach - Morehead City NC. A study of LT Jester, commanding USCGC ICARUS, would seem to indicate that he and the U-boat commander, Rathke, had a lot in common when it came to interacting with their perspective crews.
Great info! Thanks for watching :)
Sounds like the U-boat commander had a 'benefactor' somewhere, hence his rise to U-boat command despite lacking proper experience, and the Iron Cross 2 awarded for his very unremarkable first voyage.
Yeah, not necessarily. The Kriegsmarine started the war with slightly more than four dozen U-boats, but eventually launched over a thousand. If you expand the U-boat arm twenty-fold you are going to have to send U-boats to sea with officers with no U-boat experience.
Every military values loyalty and aggressiveness first. You can just look at how many US sub and destroyer commanders were relieved for 'cowardice'
Study math and geometry my friends. Especially if you try to fire torpedoes without your smart phone app.
That's HILARIOUS!!
iv been in a type c u boat in kiel germany,,u995,,there is a better type 21 on display which is my next visit to germany,
That is awesome!
Rathke abandoned ship when 13 men were still on board.......says everything you need to know about him.
Appreciate you watching and have a great week :)
TO be honoust the Type VII was designed by the dutch company IVS/ Inkavos in the early 1930s the same company that designed the Type IIA and IIB as test subs for the germans . After the anglo german naval the germans cut ties to IVS .
There was a reason why many german U-boats got stuck in the type VII variations while the dutch build highly advanced submarines years ahead of the germans having snorckles in mid 1930s .
Where did you get that nonsense from ? You only need to visit Wikipedia EN to find out what IVS / Inkavos really was - a camouflage company run by the German Reichswehr and the Krupp AG, purely staffed by German engineers and personel ... indeed they developed the most advanced subs of their time, but the Dutch had absolutely nothing to do with IVS /Inkavos.
@@thomasherzmann1853 And yet you miss about 300 pages on the history of IVS and Inkavos . You do know there are records and books on how it operated . and if you actualy took time to read it you also know that all ties between the IVS/Inkavos was terminated after the anglo german navy treaty 1935
Or that IVS and NeVesBu occupied the same building . And yet all engineers and designers where dutch .
Dutch companies and german companies always had close ties and cooperation dating back centuries . 1912 Dreadnaught designs for the dutch navy , to be build 1914 , canceled due to ww1 , java Class cruisers beeing designed and build with german lessons learned . during the war .
First of all dont trust every thing on wikipedia Second point do your own reasearch and fact checking . before making stupid remarks .
As sidirius was a daughter company of KRUP a company that was already in the Netherlands before WW 1 .IVS no conections to Krup . you would know that if you actualy read the history ,
Hazemeyer on the other hand was a front company for Siemens and Halske but the germans got kicked out in early 1932 .
So next time if you make a comment get some source material and then make asumptions of wikipedia pages as there are several with multiple languages all saying something different.
@@marcusfranconium3392 Sorry but that IS nonsens. First IVS and INKAVOS is the same, IVS is short for InkaVoS wich is short for Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw.
Second, the "employees" of IVS were german.
Third, the NeVesBu was founded and moved into the same building 12 years after IVS was founded.
4th, after IVS started to cooperate with NeVasBu, many germans worked for NeVasBu, even in leading positions.
5th, IVS was not terminated in 1935, the german employees did go back to germany after the last order was finished in '42, the IVS was terminated after WW2 with the remainings being taken by NeVasBu.
6th, the dutch didnt had highly advanced subs and snorkels only at the end of the 30s, wich were so advanved that they were stripped as soon as they reached England or were captured and tested by the germans. The dutch snorkles were more for ventilating the boat on deck awash than to travel submerged with diesel, one wave and the valve closed the snorkel unable to open again by itself. To dangerous for the Brits and useless for the Germans in the Atlantic.
i have a friend who's great grandfather survived world war 2. she is young, and like a lost sister whom i cherish.
when you watch these histories, keep in mind people died. they had dreams and hopes just like yours.
i had a commander like this guy in iraq except he was far more inept. i'm grateful so many of the sailors on this ill fated ship survived.
Brilliant
I dove the u352 in November 1988! 30 miles east of Beaufort n Carolina! It rest in 110 feet of water in the middle of a three knot Gulfstream! I landed on the conning tower and immediately seen two 14 foot tiger sharks! A sure real experience! If you ever get the chance dive this wreck! Great dive!
Wow! I would’ve been out seeing the tiger sharks 😂. How was the wreck?
@@HiddenHistoryYT this was 35 years ago but at that time the dive shop owner who found the wreck had stripped it of most of its artifacts and displayed them in his dive shop! Shortly after we dove the wreck a bad coastal storm blew out a lot of sand that had filled into the opened rear deck in the engine room and they actually found one of the ten members of the crew who had perished during the sinking by the USCG ship Icarus ! I am not 100% sure but at that time someone said those remains had been sent back to Germany!
@@idlewild1964 ahh very interesting. Hopefully nothing too sensitive removed from the wreck! Thanks for sharing :)
I think I could have sunk at least 1 ship!
Smooth presentation.
Greatly appreciate it! Thanks for watching and have a fantastic week :)
the untergang remix at the end, cream on top
😂
I have a harmonica I recovered from this wreck about 15 years ago!
Wow, that is amazing!
WITH 13 CREWMEN STILL ABOARD 352 , AN OBVIOUS WAR GRAVE , WHY , ARE SPORT DIVERS PERMITTED TO DIVE ON HER ?
There is one and only one way those 13 crewman are still on that boat: IF they were in a watertight compartment. Otherwise the saltwater would have dissolved their bones, and of course fish would have eaten what’s left. So there ain’t nobody on that boat.
@@samiam619, still, we revere our sunken warships of all types as war graves if men went down with them and are not to be disturbed. Should not these men be afforded that same respect even though, like our ships, their bodies have long since disappeared?
@@richardcline1337 IMO you're not wrong.
@@richardcline1337 some people.only see us and British ships as legitimate war Graves. I call that racism
@@samiam619 Remember that submarine was / is the only KNOEN grave of 13 men - no matter what you think of them who where doing their duty to their Country and yet as has been said it has become a "playground" for many. WHY was it not or why has it Not since been designated a War Grave? There is much "crowing" by America about their own servicemen and women yet America it seems in this instance does not have the good Manners or Respect to extend that towards their enemies at the time? Luckily I have known many American Servicemen and women and those veterans would not be so disrespectful to fellow soldiers, sailors or airmen / women - I therefore presume this is an isolated incident. Add to this the so called "Hatred" of Admiral King, who no doubt had his own reasons for the way he acted BUT knowing this why was he allowed to treat his allies insuch a cvalier atittude? Admiral or not it would have been easy to transfer him to a position where he did not come in contact with the British! I suspect the main reason for his jealousy was a simple case of jealousy - most other American s were thankful for any help they could get!
And here was me thinking 'everyone gets a prize' was a recent phenomenon. 'Credit where credit is due' is the only way to get the best people & best results.
A lot of the U-boat crews were true kool-aid drinkers. Papago prison in Phoenix(now a big park/golf course) held a lot of captured crews.
Is there anything worth seeing there history wise? I actually am in Phoenix right now
@@HiddenHistoryYT no gone info:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Papago_Park
@@billenright2788 that’s unfortunate
Conscription was in place in Nazi Germany. You were going to serve if you were a healty male....
A lot of the crews were raised under the upswing of mid-'30s Germany & the rise of their Führer- and probably served in Hilter Youth groups and so on.
I find it hard to point fingers when we would've accepted anything we were taught as kids as well- like anyone would....
Granted, they were taught evil. How were those 10 year olds, ect., supposed to know different. Yes, they DID drink the kool aid. But luckily ? It could have been anybody & luckily it wasn't us....
But today's college student in the US ?.....
Me thinks they drink the kool aid aplenty as well.
See ? Given the chance ? They'll STILL do it & it's here they're doing it at- in the current day.....alas.
🚬😎
True. I keep reading how the younger crew were consistently dull, uneducated, and could not even hold conversations without parroting Nazi propaganda like NPCs.
Icarus flew too close to the sun and U-352 sailed too close to the Icarus.
Appreciate you watching and have a great weekend :)
Why did the sub already need an engine overhaul so soon? I thought that it had been recently constructed.
Advice ( if you care).
When I am reading German stuff for my videos I keep a tab for Google Translate open and there is an Audio Listen button.. that is ‘usually’ right accent..
I discovered that trick after a few butcherings😊
Appreciate the feedback! Hope you can notice improvements in my newer videos compared to this one! Thanks for watching and have a great rest of your week :)
Not such much the worst U-Boat, but the worst commanded/crewed!
Would like to ask a question. I was always under the impression that only experience u boat captains and crews were sent to patrol American shores???
I believe that policy changed later in the war as experienced men didn’t exactly exist in great numbers by that point. Thanks for watching!
I have one word for this Uboat commander, DUD!!
Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
@@HiddenHistoryYT You as well, thank you.
Why would you award U-boat commander such high level of accomplishment for sinking unarmed vessels of no challenge. Sure I get why they did it but they should not be rewarded such Commissions. They were always on the run from armed vessels they were not the silent killers everybody makes them out to be.
Pour encouragé les autres. (To encourage the others).
The U boats I would argue were the most successful military weapons ever.
Commander Jester, USCG, received the Navy Cross.
Deservedly so!
@@HiddenHistoryYT I concur. Did you know he was a former CPO that received a direct commision.
@@majorlee76251 I did not! You have got me interested in Commander Jester and his story now!
Can you imagine if the Uboat wasn't raked with fire and was captured intact lol?
Thanks for watching and have a great weekend :)
a pity for the allies that this example wasn't more widespread
The Battle of the Atlantic is always overshadowed by The Battle of Britain, but is just as important, if not more so, it's also a battle that the allies won. The part that the U-boats in the BOTA is usually the only part covered, and what the allies did to win the battle isn't really ever spoken about.
Compeltely agree with you! Thanks for watching and have a great weekend!
@@HiddenHistoryYT Have you ever watched the 1973 British documentary series, World at War? It's an amazing series, has lots of interviews with the war time players. The episode on the Battle of the Atlantic is really good, it has extensive interviews with Admiral Doenitz. Doenitz's youngest son actually died in a U-Boat during the conflict. WaW has well over 20 episodes, and is narrated by Laurance Oliva, having such an amazing actor doing the narration really adds to the films.
@@yakacm It’s actually what I put on every night when I go to bed 😂 I need to actually watch it through though as I’m not sure if I’ve paid attention to more than an hour total. It’s definitely one of the best series though just off of what I’ve seen!
@@yakacmDoenitz actually lost both his sons during the war.
Sounds like the U-boats were sent off without nautical maps of the Eastern Coastline that showed depths and coastal currents. His single torpedo probably was on target but was eased over by the current to hit a shallow shoal instead.
You are very close to the mark there! A Type XI, skipper Hardigan was the first U-Boat to reach and attack America in Operation Drumbeat. All he had to work with due to security risks associated with requesting the correct maps was a map in a World Atlas. Absolutely crazy when you think about risking a vessel and crew by navigation using a large scale map in a atlas? Hardigan, had a very successful patrol and returned home to a Heroes Welcome!
I am sure U570 comfortably takes the award as worst U boat.
I’m really like your videos so please don’t take this the wrong way but hearing “icarius” the whole video was killing me….her real name was “USCGC Icarus” pronounces Ick-ar-us.
All good! And appreciate you watching J.R.!
Wow I wonder if they were ever at camp Ripley in Illinois?
Good question. Right now I can’t find anything further than them being in North Carolina
@@HiddenHistoryYT camp Ripley was a German prison camp during WW2.
It's reported that 2 or 3 German tiger tanks are buried there
Vielleicht hatte Rathke auch einfach keine Lust einen Krieg zu führen und hat dafür gesorgt dass er, ohne große Verluste zu generieren , aus dem Rennen genommen wurde.......
The worst thing is probably that the American sailors shot at the Germans swimming in the water and did not want to save them. It was only on the orders of his superiors that the U.S. captain rescued the Germans.
Ya definitely not a good look but tough to judge their response without going through their experiences in my opinion. Still probably not morally justifiable though. Thanks for watching!
Yeah. And think of this. Only a single one of the 1,200+ U-Boat captains and crews did that to survivors.
@@reyganbriggs6785 source?
Don't know your source but I suspect it's very wrong! In my years of researching the N ATLANTIC battle I have never heard of such a xlaim as yours! Perhaps the British?
@@jerrymccrae7202 The English anyway. They already started with it in the 1st World War. There were also various incidents with the Americans. E.g. the USS Roper which threw water bombs on swimming German sailors.
During a reconnaissance mission off New Guinea the American submarine Wahoo sank. Submarine Wahoo (LtCdr Morton) sinks the japan. Buyo Maru (5447 GRT) and the freighter Fukuei Maru #2 (1901 GRT). When Wahoo surfaces at the sinking site, it is in a crowd of an estimated 10,000 surviving Japanese on rafts and floating in the water. Soldiers. For over 1 hour, the submarine commander has the castaways shelled with guns and machine guns before the submarine leaves.
There is an article in US Naval Institute's Proceedings (July 2003) with more recent information on this case. According to this, the Buyo Maru was carrying Japanese POWs from Singapore (more specifically, Indian soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 16th Punjab Regiment). She had 1126 people on board, of whom 282 perished (many probably during the torpedo attack). 87 of them were Japanese, 195 Indians.
The Americans even shot their own allies floating in the water.
The U-boat captain deserves credit for torniqueting his crewman's freshly severed leg with his own belt. Too bad the crewman died several hours after being rescued from the sea.
Great point! Thanks for watching and have a fantastic week :)
The name is pronounced IK ER US.
He was the son of Daedalus.
Flew to close to the sun a melted the wax holding his wings together.
Greek mythology.
I researched this incident for the wikipedia, and this video contains several inaccurate elements. Here are two:
USCG sailors fired on Uboat, even though it was unable to engage in hostilities, after it surfaced.
The video says Jester was ordered to pick up the German - without noting USN controllers initially ordered him to abandon the floating German survivors. He obeyed, and sailed away, but contacted his USCG superiors, who issued orders countermanding those initial orders, telling him to rescue them, after all.
It must have been terrifying for the Germans to see the Icarus sail away.
One more thing - U-352's, 88 mm cannon was a larger gun than Icarus's 3 inch, and it had a greater displacement.
Lieutenant Jester was middle-aged. When war was imminent the USCG picked some of its most reliable senior Petty Officers, and rpmoted them to the commissioned ranks. Jester was one of those officers who had been an enlisted sailor for decades.
Following this incident he graced the cover of an issue of Life magazine.
The Coast Guard recently named one of its new Sentinel class cutters after him.
Chat shit get banged!
Good vid, though Ick-Airy-Us grates:-)
Put a surface putz on a subsurface craft, the crew pays for it.
The most eye opening thing for me about U-Boats from the Second World War is just how often they actually spent on the surface
@@HiddenHistoryYT Iwas lucky once and took a tour on a russian diesel electric sub that was on display in seattle years ago, then went to OMSI museum in Oregon and went on last diesel electric boat US made. Russian sub was copy of german IX i think, it-still on display now maybe in San Diego. Russian sub was definitely not built with safety in mind
Actually U-352 DID sink one ship....itself!
Poor Rathka😭
Sure. He'd have been more successful leading an SS Einsatzgruppe detachment machine-gunning men, women and children into a pit. Much easier targets and no risk to his men, while proving himself to be the ardent Nazi he was.
The remains of any of those 13 sailors haven't been found by divers since?
Not as far as I am aware. Appreciate you watching and have a great week :)
@@HiddenHistoryYT Thanks, thr pleasure is shared ☺️
The boat is thoroughly silted in.
@@hifi6638 silted in?
What does that mean?
I looked in a dictionary but didn't find it.
Cheers
after the happy times everything where felt a part... my opinion the IXC-D2 and XXI. IF Germany had saved the enigma codes had extra protection at dockyard about sabotages or stole the prototypes blueprints etc and had aerial support at sky of Atlantic and do NOT suicide at the coasts of USA and if Germany had more more time for extra prototypes designers and stuff everything would change the balance
I am pretty sure there are WW II submarines which performed a lot worse than this one. Let alone a couple more modern ones.
Maybe!
@@HiddenHistoryYT USS Thresher and USS Scorpion for example.
His picture shows a iron cross second class - so that means he managed to survive 2 patrols
Thanks for watching :)
I used to take divers to her resting place.
Very cool! Have you dived it yourself?
Do you know Eric Rhule(sp)?He was a tattoo artist and diver in Jacksonville he was one of the first to dive on it he actually had some dinner ware and other things off the sub including I heard a skull for which he got in trouble for
Isn't she reagrded as a war grave, and therefore off limits...?
@@Lassisvulgaris Supposed to be but bottom feeders like the aforementioned Eric Rhule and others have NO sense of morality and steal from these graves as they wish.
@@richardcline1337 Happens everywhere. Used to be a diving instructor myself, so I know. Guess that's why I didn't get an answer....
U-boat captain: what is the plan to win the war, Hitler?
Hitler: piss off everyone to the point they can't think straight.
Piss off Americans, Russian, English, & French troops: So how did that plan work out?
Lol
Haha that poor excuse for a commander took his crippled piece of junk submarine that couldn't survive one tour without having the engine totally rebuilt what a pitiful excuse
I from live on the coast where she was sunk she not allowed to dive there anymore
I wouldnt talk either, they didnt have to go balls out with the mg's. Pretty obvious there probably lookin to surrender
Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
Just to say that in danish waters there lays lots of german uboats - lots of 7 c and 7 c 41 and the ultimo price the elektro-boat type 21 , the latest find is still laying at a secret location awating permission to get raised from the dark grave it lays in - the company thats trying to get permit from the german war grave administration to raise U- 3534 , the salvage company has dived on the uboat to check if the turret entrance was open and a diver has dived into the turret to check the inner entrance to see if it was open and it was open signaling that the crew has left the boat and in that it would be legal to raise the boat , its a type 21 in route to Norway (Horten) sunk 1945 . Waiting for news about this uboat - the type 7 c41 raised for 10 years ago cost around 20million danish kroners to raise from the sea ended up at a ground on Grenå harbour , i was inside to see - only hit my head al over , these boats are not build for men at 1meter84centimeters - the end of the story for this uboat was it was sold to a maritime museum in Liverpool England and is on display there.
Great info here! Appreciate you watching :)
According to "U-boat net" U-3534 was an uncompleted Type XXI boat whose hulk was "Towed to Wesermünde and broken up."?
@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 I stated the wrong number uboat - the one found in Skagerrak has number U-3524 and the story goes around gold cargo or high ranking nazi persons but the history around seeking and raising the uboat is set on hold becauce one of the key persons died , he had the nickname dynamite Åge becauce he years back salvaged lots of cargo by blowing the wrecks open . He and his friends has gathered a huge number of location on wrecks laying in danish waters including the one raised some 10 years ago now laying in Liverpool war museum - its a 7C / 41 ( four meters longer than a normal 7C uboat) and the 3524 was found some years back but was keept a secret until now .
@@oleriis-vestergaard6844 Hi Ole, No problems, we all make typing errors.
Yes I know the U534 pretty well. I used to live in Liverpool in the mid 1990s when it arrived at the warship preservation trust museum, and actually went for a guided tour through its interior before it was disgracefully cut into 3 pieces in the 2000s.
There is currently an ongoing project to rehouse the sections in a purpose built new home and then to preserve both the sections and the plethora of artifacts it contained, as currently it is sited out of doors and exposed to the elements 24/7.
There is an occasional vlog by the youtuber "Drachinifel" on it projects progress.
czcams.com/video/IgIwQ72m_C8/video.html
All the best, Ole.
@@oleriis-vestergaard6844 U-3524 was scuttled in operation rainbow in the gelting bay, not sunk in the skagerrak, also the position wasnt a secret and it was broken up long ago.
Sometimes luck is just not on your side.
Thanks for watching :)
das boot long version the bomb !
You know, I'm not much of a history buff, but I remember when Germany went to war, and it chose as it's adversary...the world
Germany had a number of allies and would have had more, if things had gone better for them.
You’d think the world would have done something about it
Actually, Britain and France chose to go to war against Germany, over latter aggression to Poland. For some reason they chose not to declare war on USSR, which invaded Poland in concert with germans. It was much later that USA and USSR ended up with the allies. And after the war Churchill and Patton were not the only ones to realize that they "took out the wrong bastard."
You know, with Hitler, the more I learn about that guy, the more I don't care for him. 😒
@@kelvyquayo he's a jerk!
I still vividly remember as a teen in the mid 1970's going to dive shops in North Carolina. Many had displays of things removed from U-352. The most disrespectful were all of the human bones that had been removed from the wreck and on display. By 1980 something happened, and the human bones were removed from display from all of them. What exactly happened I do not know .
Wow, did not realize that they had displayed bones. Very distasteful in my opinion!
People these days sure do have painfully sensitive palates regarding what is and is not tasteful, these days. The stupidity that comes from living lives insulated from war, I suppose
What happened is the German govt heard about it and had a diplomatic fit. Justifiably in my opinion. The USN stepped in and removed some of the torpedoes and welded a grate over the entrances. But in time those were cut by recreational divers and visits resumed.
People these days sure do have painfully sensitive palates regarding what is and is not tasteful, these days. The stupidity that comes from living lives insulated from war, I suppose
Did Rathke remain a Nazi until 2002? and why on earth did they allow him to remain with his men on shore? as well as on the cutter? And why did they allow any officers to remain with any enlisted men? They certainly should have segregated prisoners by rank like in Stalag 17, in which they were all sergeants.
I will have to look more into that, right now I can’t find too much on Rathke’s life postwar. And as far as I know, German POW’s were generally all left together as they would essentially “police” themselves and made the jobs of the guards easier. But ya not segregating them is probably a mistake in retrospect
@@HiddenHistoryYT I would focus 90% of conversion hearts and minds type efforts on privates and pretty much assume all higher ranks will remain hostile. And it would help greatly in this regard if the privates were segregated, even perhaps separating draftee privates from volunteers.
I knew 2 guys that flew sub patrol on the east coast in 2 different areas, they both told me , after a while they would be seeing periscopes everywhere, even in their sleep, it was nerve racking know what damage the sub could do if not sunk
My father was a Merchant Marine during WW2. Admiral King was hated by them. He wouldn’t allow military convoys for the Merchant ships off the East Coast. He cost so many of them their lives.
Thank you to him for his service! And ya King seems to have some pros and cons to him for sure. Appreciate you watching and have a great weekend :)
Convoys would not have worked for the east coast. First thing that happens is sea commerce halts. Dead stop while convoy formed. Then its off to… where? Which east coast port? The US east coast has a huge number of ports. Its not like going from NY and Boston assembling in Nova Scotia, then one long run to a major port in western Britain. So is it Miami, Norfolk, NYC, finally Boston? Going to be reeeeaaaaal slow. And skipping all the other ports means goods are not landing close to destinations, so further transport needed. Btw, no Interstate Hiway System with tractor trailers speeding along.
Convoys would have slowed commerce to a crawl. Yes there were losses even after summer of ‘42. But the losses under the increased patrolling were less damaging to commerce than the crimping of overall commerce and shipping would have been attempting to form up and use them, and deal with the extensive issues of prolonged delivery given the bypassing non major ports.
I reject the idea that a martinet attitude is a Good Way to inspire warriors. This fool of a commander is probably a supporting experiment.
Both Dowding and Montgomery cared about their men more than about their military reputation.
Beaufort, SC is pronounced "byoo-fert", not "bow-fert".
Ya realize that after unfortunately 🫠 Appreciate you watching though and have a great weekend :)
@Hidden History
No problem. In NC, it's pronounced the way you said it. My parents-in-law lived in Beaufort SC, and except for that, this Jersey boy wouldn't know. Thanks for the response!
@@rnascak Interesting that there’s a difference between 2 places so close! Hope you have a great weekend!
@@rnascak this Jersey boy learned because it's next to MCRD PISC.
A large 3" deck gun?
8,8 marine version
The Germans did use the 88mm on submarines. The US on pre-war built submarines used a 3" deck gun.
you should also mention how US submarines were sinking German ships PRIOR to the opening of the second war, and that the greatest loss of life during the war was by the Communist Allies towards a German Passenger liner in the Baltic sea The Wilhelm Gustloff where ten thousand German men women and children were attempting to get away from the red butchers.
The bombing of Dresden was a greater loss of life and more purposeful than a random Kriegsmarine ship at night
Had to be done!
@@HiddenHistoryYT there is no justification ,none!
@@desdicado999 the justification being that that dead Nazis are a good thing. Those wiped out on the Gustloff were being evacuated from territory they’d occupied after forcing the Soviets off of it. Commies were horrible too, but at that point they were reclaiming territory, not invading new areas like they were in other places.
@@mattwilliams3456 if you consider the death of 10 thousand women and children and wounded as justifiable then you are lower than the Bolsheviks that murdered sixty million Russian and other ethnicities ,The soviet regime knew exactly what they were doing as they did at the Katyn forest with the murder of thirty thousand Poles but at that time said nothing except to blame the Germans that event was pinned on the them at Nurnberg ,which makes the entire trial a farce .The sickening thing is the Soviet regime were propped up by western monied interests and they were the allies of the west ,what does that say about us ?
Why wasn't the shipyard not bombed, it was relatively close to English airfields.
Rest assured the German shipyards were heavily targetted from 1941 onwards.
Captain Hellmut Rathke must have been a polical appointee. Thus soldiers are expendable. Same with WW 2 soviets with their embedded comisars.
406 SUFFERS FAILURE TO LAUNCH
Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
why is this not treated as a war grave and the dead respected?
If I had to guess it’s cause they were on the wrong side of the battle
Hitlers boats never came close to starving the UK the Kaisers boats did come close in 1917, also U Boat veterans would tell you the happy times are a myth it was always dangerous and it says much about their service that they fought to the end but at a ridiculous cost in young lives.
Such a waste! Thanks for watching David!
Maybe look up the food situation in the UK in WW2, befor WW2 the UK imported more than 50% of their food and the rationing ended only 10 years after the war
@@wolf310ii There is a bit more to the rationing story here in the so called UK Wolf and it has nothing much to do with your U Boats and more to do with the Government exercising control over the population. There was never a real shortage of food during the second world war, post war rationing was controversial to say the least but the History of the post war world including the Cold War is only starting to be told much of what was taken for granted in the past being a load of rubbish.
Very True! Myth of war that U-boat crews celebrated “Happy Times”. That was creation of propaganda ministry. Otto Kretschmer was adamant about that during my interviews with him.
He told me that he once after receiving his orders for next patrol in a certain area, he researched the reports from previous patrols there. Of six uboats sent, three were sunk. “Fifty percent losses,” he said! “This was not a happy time!”
Imagine you're a POW and the medal hungry moron who landed you in captivity is the one who gets to boss you around. 😂
Lmao
being a pow in the us was almost a holiday in camparison to everywhere else, even more safer then being in the allied army fighting the axis.
Pap-A-go park dude.
I’ve heard so many different variations here in Scottsdale haha
@@HiddenHistoryYT Scottsdale was the Apache junction when I was a kid. I still see it that way.
Germany over many centuries have proven they are this, or that. Say what you want, but without a doubt they have the best scientists, and engineers.
Thanks for watching :)
It's I-CA-RUS and NOT I-CAR-E-US. I congratulate you on your excellent research. I don't want to sound nit picking but I do suggest you work harder on checking pronunciation. Every video I've watched is full of glaring errors in that regard and after a while it becomes rather distracting. Think about it, if a newscaster on TV mispronounced a lot of words all the time, wouldn't you find that a little irritating? It's just a matter of professionalism I don't think it would actually add much time to the tremendous amount of research you undoubtedly do but it would vastly improve these videos..
*33 survivors is a very large number for any sunken submarine. In most cases, if there were survivors, only those on the bridge would make it out*
Detaining a crew member for the remainder of his off-shore leave for getting drunk on leave. Wow. Any other ship's brig must have seemed like a luxury hotel in comparison.
Trying to sink a single cargo ship, then being confronted by no less than four escorts. Talk about being unlucky.
Of course he was given his first Iron Cross (2nd Class) because he was a party favourite. That was also probably the reason why he got the command in the first place.
Also, being attacked by US patrol planes the moment they entered the region, was a sure sign times had changed.
During the height of the "Happy Time," German U-boats sank many US cargo ships and tankers with impunity, as surface escorts were deemed more needed at other fronts and effective air patrols did not exist at that time.
Of course I'm no submarine commander but I played "Silent Service" on my Commodore 64 back in the day enough times to understand that an attack in shallow waters is extremely dangerous for the attacking submarine. You cannot dive, at least not very deeply.
In the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Allied escorts would often set their depth charges to go off too deeply.
Experienced U-boat commanders would counter these attacks by remaining at periscope depth.
In shallow waters, there was no uncertainty about the estimated depth of the attacking U-boat...
thats right, hence the term iron coffins!
I beg to differ. Read the history of the U-505 culminating in her capture.
Genuinely interested to hear why!
@@HiddenHistoryYT it is a long story so see Dan Gallery's "Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea." The book covers his career and that of U-505 up to the point of capture.
Why the WORST? Plenty of U-Boot were unsuccessful. There is nothing special in U-352 history. Never heard of U-570? U-373? U-111? U-501? U-1206 sunked by it's toilet?
SALTY DOG 🌊🧜🏽♀️🐬🐬⚓️🏴☠️🌅
Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
Shouldn't the title of this video be Worst U Boat Captain of WW2
Could argue that. Thanks for watching and have a great week :)
@@HiddenHistoryYT The way the title is written you would think their was something wrong with the U Boat , the U Boat worked fine , the captain messed up. Maybe the title should be , the U Boat which did nothing.