SM U-63 in the Great War - The Wartime Memories Project -

SM U-63

11th March 1916   SM U-63
Type U 63 Shipyard Germaniawerft, Kiel (Werk 247) Ordered 17 May 1915 Laid down 30 Apr 1915 Launched 8 Feb 1916 Commissioned 11 Mar 1916.
Commanders.
11 Mar 1916 - 27 Aug 1917 Otto Schultze.
28 Aug 1917 - 14 Oct 1917 Heinrich Metzger.
15 Oct 1917 - 24 Dec 1917 Otto Schultze.
25 Dec 1917 - 11 Nov 1918 Kurt Hartwig
Career 12 patrols.
2 May 1916 - 6 Nov 1916 IV Flotilla.
6 Nov 1916 - 11 Nov 1918 Pola/Mittelmeer I Flotilla
Successes 72 ships sunk with a total of 198,168 tons.
11 ships damaged with a total of 47,700 tons.
1 warship sunk with a total of 5,250 tons.
2 ships damaged with a total of 2,540 tons.

4 Jul 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Rosemary (damaged) 1,250 br
20 Aug 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Falmouth 5,250 br
23 Oct 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Bayreaulx 3,009 br
28 Oct 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Lanao 692 am
28 Oct 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Rio Pirahy 3,561 br
28 Oct 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Selene 3,955 it
28 Oct 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Torsdal 3,621 nw
29 Oct 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Massalia 2,186 gr
29 Oct 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Meroë 3,552 br
29 Oct 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Torino 1,850 br
31 Oct 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Delto 3,193 nw
31 Oct 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Fedelta 1,906 it
27 Nov 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Maude Larssen 1,222 br
28 Nov 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Sigurd 2,119 da
30 Nov 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Roma 125 br
2 Dec 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Luigi C. 71 it
2 Dec 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Roma 643 it
3 Dec 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Perugia 4,348 br
5 Dec 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Grigorios Anghelatos 3,635 gr
11 Dec 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Magellan 6,027 fr
11 Dec 1916 U 63 Otto Schultze Sinai 4,624 fr
25 Mar 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Vellore 4,926 br
26 Mar 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze L. Rahmanich 79 ag
1 Apr 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Zambesi 3,759 br
4 Apr 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Margit 2,490 br
5 Apr 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Solstad 4,147 nw
5 Apr 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Kangaroo (damaged) 4,348 br
28 Apr 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Carmelo Padre 74 it
28 Apr 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Giuseppe Padre I 102 it
28 Apr 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Giuseppina G. 100 it
28 Apr 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze I Due Fratelli P. 100 it
28 Apr 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Karonga 4,665 br
28 Apr 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Natale B. 55 it
28 Apr 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze San Francesco Di Paola 41 it
3 May 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Washington 5,080 br
4 May 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Transylvania 14,348 br
5 May 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Talawa (damaged) 3,834 br
7 May 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Crown Of Leon (damaged) 3,391 br
14 May 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Francesco Raiola 181 it
14 May 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Volga (damaged) 4,404 br
15 May 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Ferrara (damaged) 5,660 it
22 Jun 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Himalaya 5,620 fr
23 Jun 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Craonne 777 fr
23 Jun 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Kalypso Vergotti 2,819 gr
26 Jun 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Birdoswald 4,013 br
27 Jun 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Tong Hong 2,184 br
30 Jun 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Alkelda 98 it
30 Jun 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Enrichetta 3,638 it
1 Jul 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Marie 118 fr
2 Jul 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Argentario 739 it
3 Jul 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Immacolatina 54 it
5 Sep 1917 U 63 Heinrich Metzger Proletaire 101 fr
11 Sep 1917 U 63 Heinrich Metzger Embleton 5,377 br
12 Sep 1917 U 63 Heinrich Metzger Reim 1,126 nw
15 Sep 1917 U 63 Heinrich Metzger Platuria 3,445 am
18 Sep 1917 U 63 Heinrich Metzger Arendal 1,387 br
26 Sep 1917 U 63 Heinrich Metzger Heraklios 2,878 gr
5 Nov 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Hilda R. 136 br
5 Nov 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Kai 1,391 da
6 Nov 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Peveril 1,459 br
8 Nov 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Candytuft (damaged) 1,290 br
8 Nov 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Benledi (damaged) 3,931 br
9 Nov 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Ardglamis 4,540 br
14 Nov 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Trowbridge 3,712 br
16 Nov 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Gasconia 3,801 br
16 Nov 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Kyno 3,034 br 8 Nov 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Huntsgulf (damaged) 3,185 br
20 Nov 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Commendatore Carlo Bruno 813 it
21 Nov 1917 U 63 Otto Schultze Mossoul 3,135 fr
5 Jan 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig Rio Claro 3,687 br
8 Jan 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig San Guglielmo 8,145 it
15 Jan 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig Bonanova 933 sp
18 Jan 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig Maria P. 263 br
18 Jan 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig Ville De Bordeaux 4,857 fr
22 Jan 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig Anglo-canadian 4,239 br
22 Jan 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig Manchester Spinner 4,247 br
19 May 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig Saxilby (damaged) 3,630 br
19 May 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig Snowdon 3,189 br
24 May 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig Elysia (damaged) 6,397 br
30 May 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig Antinous (damaged) 3,682 br
30 May 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig Asiatic Prince 2,887 br
30 May 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig Aymeric 4,363 br
11 Aug 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig City Of Adelaide 8,389 br
12 Aug 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig G6 213 it
24 Aug 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig Delphinula (damaged) 5,238 br
16 Oct 1918 U 63 Kurt Hartwig War Council 5,875 br

Fate 16 Jan 1919 - Surrendered. Broken up at Blyth in 1919-20.
There was another U 63 in World War Two.
That boat was launched from its shipyard on 6 Dec 1939 and commissioned into the Kriegsmarine on 18 Jan 1940.

19th August 1916 Bombardment of Sunderland   The raid on Sunderland, 19th August 1916, was part of a German post-Jutland attempt to draw our units of the British Grand Fleet to ambush them hoping to inflict losses to try to address the numerical superiority of the British Fleet.
The Action of 19 August 1916 was one of two further attempts made by the German High Seas Fleet in 1916 to engage elements of the British Royal Navy following the mixed results of the Battle of Jutland in World War I. The lesson of Jutland for Germany had been the vital need for reconnaissance so as to avoid the unexpected arrival of the British Grand Fleet during any raid, so on this occasion four Zeppelins were deployed to scout the North Sea between Scotland and Norway for signs of British ships, while four more scouted immediately ahead of German ships. Twenty four submarines were also deployed off the English coast in the southern North Sea and off the Dogger Bank.
Background
Although Jutland had been officially hailed as a success, the German commander Admiral Reinhard Scheer felt it important that another raid should be mounted as quickly as possible to maintain morale in his severely battered fleet. It was decided that the raid should follow the pattern of previous ones, with the battlecruisers carrying out a dawn artillery bombardment of an English town, in this case Sunderland. Only two battlecruisers were still serviceable after Jutland, Moltke and Von der Tann, so the force was bolstered by the addition of three battleships, Bayern, Markgraf and Grosser Kurfürst. The remainder of the High Seas Fleet, comprising 16 dreadnought battleships, was to carry out close support 20 miles behind. The fleet set sail at 2100 on 18 August from the Jade river.
Intelligence
Information about the upcoming raid was obtained by British Intelligence in Room 40 through intercepted and decoded radio messages. Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, commander of the British fleet, was on leave so had to be recalled urgently and boarded the light cruiser Royalist at Dundee to meet his fleet in the early hours of 19 August off the river Tay. In his absence, Admiral Cecil Burney took the fleet to sea on the afternoon of 18 August. Vice-Admiral David Beatty left the Firth of Forth with his squadron of six battlecruisers to meet the main fleet in the Long Forties. The Harwich Force of 20 destroyers and 5 light cruisers commanded by Commodore Tyrwhitt was ordered out, as were 25 British submarines which were stationed in likely areas to intercept German ships. The battlecruisers together with the 5th Battle Squadron of five fast battleships were stationed 30 miles ahead of the main fleet to scout for the enemy. The assembled fleet now moved south seeking the German fleet, but suffered the loss of one of the light cruisers screening the battlecruiser group, HMS Nottingham, which was hit by three torpedoes from submarine U-52 at 0600.
Finding the opposition
At 0615 Jellicoe received information from the Admiralty that one hour earlier the enemy had been 200 miles to his south east. However, the loss of the cruiser caused him to first head north for fear of endangering his other ships. No torpedo tracks or submarines had been seen, so it was unclear whether the cause had been a submarine or entering an unknown minefield. He did not resume a south-easterly course until 0900 when William Goodenough, commanding the light cruisers, advised that the cause had been a submarine attack. Further information from the admiralty indicated that the battlecruisers would be within 40 miles of the main German fleet by 1400 and Jellicoe increased to maximum speed. Weather conditions were good, with plenty of time for a fleet engagement before dark. The German force had received reassurances about Jellicoe's position, when a zeppelin had spotted the Grand Fleet heading north away from Scheer, at the time it had been avoiding the possible minefield. Unfortunately for the British, the Zeppelin L 13 sighted the Harwich force approximately 75 miles ENE of Cromer, mistakenly identifying the cruisers as battleships. This was precisely the sort of target Scheer was seeking, so he changed course at 1215 also to the south-east and away from the approaching British fleet. No further reports were received from zeppelins about the British fleet, but it was spotted by a U-boat just 65 miles north of Scheer. Scheer turned for home at 1435 abandoning his potential target. By 1600 Jellicoe had been advised that Scheer had abandoned the operation and so turned north himself.
The actual attack
A second cruiser attached to the battlecruiser squadron, HMS Falmouth, was hit by two torpedoes from U-63 at 1652 and sank the following day while being towed to the Humber, when hit by two more torpedoes fired by U-66. By 1745 the Harwich force had sighted German ships, but was too far behind for any prospect of an attack before nightfall so abandoned the chase. A British submarine HMS E23 commanded by Lieutenant-Commander R.R Turner managed to hit the German battleship SMS Westfalen at 0505 on the 19th, but the ship was able to return home.
Outcomes
This was the last occasion on which the German fleet travelled so far west into the North Sea. On 6 October a decision was made in Germany to resume attacks against merchant vessels by submarine, which meant the submarine fleet was no longer available for combined attacks against surface vessels. On 13 September a conference took place on Jellicoe's flagship to discuss recent events and it was decided that it was unsafe to conduct fleet operations south of latitude 55.5° North (approximately level with Horns reef and where the battle of Jutland had taken place), except in extreme emergency such as a German invasion force. Scheer was unimpressed by the efficiency of the zeppelin reconnaissance. Only three zeppelins had spotted anything and from seven reports four had been wrong. On 18,19 October Scheer once again led a brief sortie into the North Sea and British intelligence gave warning. However, the Grand Fleet declined to prepare an ambush, staying in port with steam raised ready to sail. The German sortie was abandoned after a few hours when SMS München was hit by a torpedo fired by E38, Lieutenant-Commander J. de B. Jessop, and it was feared other submarines might be in the area. Scheer suffered further difficulties when in November he sailed with Moltke and a division of dreadnoughts to rescue U-20 and U-30 which had become stranded on the Danish coast. British submarine J1, Commander J. Laurence, managed to hit the battleships Grosser Kurfürst and Kronprinz. The failure of these operations reinforced the belief, created at Jutland, that the risks involved in such operations were not justified by the outcomes. Both sides feared the loss of their capital ships to submarines or mines.

20th August 1916 HMS Falmouth
HMS Falmouth
Name HMS Falmouth, Type Light cruiser, Country British.
GRT 5,250 tons, Built 1910, Builder W. Beardmore & Co., Ltd., Glasgow.
Operator Royal Navy
History
U-boat attacks on Light cruiser Falmouth 19th August 1916, damaged when torpedoed in the North Sea by U-66 (Thorwald von Bothmer).
20 Aug 1916 U 63 (Otto Schultze) Sunk when torpedoed whilst under tow off Flamborough Head. 11 casualties.

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