On May 9, 1941, seventy years ago today, the German submarines U110 and U201 were attacking a British convoy in the Atlantic south of Iceland. U110 was forced to surface after being depth changed and was abandoned by her crew who thought that the submarine was sinking. A boarding party from HMS Bulldog boarded the submarine and carried off its code books, ciphers and a Naval Enigma machine. The Enigma machine and the documents allowed Alan Turing and his codebreakers at Bletchley Park to break the German Naval Enigma code, an intelligence breakthrough which changed the course of the war in the Atlantic.
Bletchley Park opens U-110 Enigma exhibit
The exhibition contains photographs of the capture of the secret coding device of the U-boat 110 on 9 May 1941, as well as the first-hand account of the 20-year-old sub lieutenant who climbed into the U-boat to seize the documents and the factual material, providing a background to the story. Mercifully the much-derided Hollywood version of the story, U-571 – which featured Americans and not Brits capturing the device – doesn’t get a look-in.
The exhibit also covers the story from the German side, with testimony from some of the U-boat survivors. Historian Hugh Sebag-Montefiore has added background material to provide context to the display.
The capture of the U-110 was crucial in breaking the naval Enigma code. Alan Turing and his Bletchley Park codebreakers were not at first able to break the naval Enigma code used by Germany’s U-boats, but the capture of codebooks from U-110 provided vital clues that helped crack the code.
Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing the news along.
A friend of mine, Georg Hoegel was the radio operator who was attributed with losing the Enigma. He spent 1941-1947 in a POW camp in Canada. He became an artist after the war and wrote the book on U-boat ensignia “Embleme, Wappen, Malings der deutschen U-Boote”.
Very interesting. Thanks for the comment.
Good article, but man did Hollywood screw this up with the Matthew McConaughey movie ‘U-571’.
“When a German U-Boat is damaged and is waiting for assistance, the Americans decide that this is an opportunity for them to get the machine.”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141926/plotsummary
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What is not said is the captain of the U-110, Julius Lemp was either shot dead in the water or on the deck of the U-110 while the British boarding party captured the U-Boat. The methodology put into place for capturing the enigma machine and an entire U-Boat was nothing short of planned murder. The boarding party were to shoot anyone who may “get in their way”, are seen or thought to have seen to be throwing things into the water,
shooting several members of the crew in the water to scare them, the same goes for any U-Boat sailor still on board that may or may not be in the way of the boarding party. It’s interesting that Admiral Doenitz was charged and convicted of war crimes when it was the Allies and most especially the British who murdered U-Boat sailors either on boats or in the water. And as for the part he was convicted of engaging in
“Unrestricted Submarine Warfare”, the head of the US Submarines in the
Pacific war against Japan testified to the Nuremberg court that he ordered all of his submarines to “Engage in Unrestricted Submarine Warfare” against the ‘Japanese Empire” as soon as he could put out the order after Pearl Harbor. I’m don’t believe that Nuremberg was “Victors Justice” despite all the clues that show it very well could have been. What gets me is that nations such as the US will never have anyone charged by any international tribunal because the US is the world’s strongest military power. The US would never cooperate in sending over to the Hague
say there was a war crime trial against an American soldier or President simply because no one is strong enough to force the US to do so.
When a certain US President launched a war against Iraq without declaring war or giving any warning whatsoever, that President was not any better than the Japanese during WWII with Pearl. That’s the reason
that Robert Kennedy refused to allow the US Air Force from attacking
Cuba without warning during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He said he would not allow his brother to ever do the same thing as the Japanese had done at Pearl Harbor. Not to mention if no warning is given to a country that is about to be attacked it is in violation of a number of international treaties that the Western Countries have all been a part of and signed.
Brian Korbelik should see a doctor.
To the victor, history and judgements are always in their favour…..the spoils of war Brian
Lieutenant Commander Balme, who died in January this year spent 6 hours on u110 and encountered no one. No sailors,were killed by RN other than any killed during the action. The RN does not kill prisoners, we leave that to Americans
Really? From British War Crimes:
In July 1941, the submarine HMS Torbay, under Lieutenant Commander Anthony Miers, was based in the Mediterranean where it sank several German ships. On two occasions, once off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt, and the other off the coast of Crete, the crew fired upon shipwrecked German sailors and troops. Miers made no attempt to hide his actions, and reported them in his official logs. He received a strongly worded reprimand from his superiors following the first incident. Mier’s actions violated the Hague Convention of 1907, which banned the killing of shipwreck survivors under any circumstances.
To the victors go the spoils… And they determine what judgements are to be issued on those in charge on tge losing side after an unconditional surrender. I see these arguments against the allies methods during the war… Frankly they are absurd. Should we shed a tear for those in the Nazi and Imperial high command? Forgetting that all these events were brought about because of their own actions? The concept of it is ridiculous. Like feeling bad for a rapist who is punished because he could not find a partner to submit to his advances willingly. Oh, the poor guy couldnt get a mate so when he took one by force its really the womans fault for rejecting his advances… Get real. Admiral Donitz took his orders from the Fuhrer and Hitlers orders sometimes completely dismissed the “rules of war” and any sense of honor during wartime. Not rescuing sailors in the water, torpedoing commercial passenger ships, executing prisoners of war, the list goes on… There were Generals, Admirals, Colonels, and other high ranking military officers in the Nazi vommand who disobeyed these directives and in most cases were removed from their posts and sometimes shot for treason. These men are true heroes. Those who took a stand against tyranny and evil from their own leaders and countrymen. Knowing in their hearts that the orders given were criminal. Dont argue for those who knew better but carried out these orders anyways… They were cowards who were more committed to keeping theor stations than to keep to the soldiers sense of honor and code. Admiral Donitz allowed himself to be used as a tool to pass these orders to his officers and they passed them to their officers and so on and so on. “You dont question the orders given to you by a higher ranking officer” was the common excuse of these war criminals. As if saying “well I knew they were illegal, immoral, and against all accepted rules of war, but I was just doing them cause I had to…” No. You didnt have to. Rommel didnt. Van Staufenberg didnt. The only officers who still retained their positions, rank, or lives at the end of the war were those who made the choice to be a Nazi rather than a military officer or even a decent human being. Thats a fact. So dont pander to us about the Allies doing what was necessary to stop these evil men from enslaving the world. Do you suggest we should have let tgem win? Would that have made as nuch sense as letting the rapist rape at will? Take your complaints to the mass graves all over Europe and Asia full of millions of civilians… Women and children who received no such quarter.