SM U-66 in the Great War - The Wartime Memories Project -

SM U-66

23rd July 1915   SM U-66
Type U 66 Shipyard Germaniawerft, Kiel (Werk 203) Ordered 2 Feb 1913 Laid down 1 Nov 1913 Launched 22 Apr 1915 Commissioned 23 Jul 1915
Commanders.
23 Jul 1915 - 16 Jun 1917 Thorwald von Bothmer.
17 Jun 1917 - 3 Sep 1917 Gerhard Muhle
Career 7 patrols.
17 Oct 1915 - 15 Jan 1916 Baltic Flotilla.
15 Jan 1916 - 3 Sep 1917 IV Flotilla
Successes 24 ships sunk with a total of 69,016 tons.
2 ships damaged with a total of 6,714 tons.
1 ship taken as prize with a total of 1,005 tons.
1 ship damaged with a total of 5,250 tons.

5 Apr 1916 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Zent 3,890 br
6 Apr 1916 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Binicaise 151 fr
7 Apr 1916 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Sainte Marie 397 fr
7 Apr 1916 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Rijndijk (damaged) 3,557 nl
8 Apr 1916 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Santanderino 3,346 sp
9 Apr 1916 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Eastern City 4,341 br
9 Apr 1916 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Glenalmond 2,888 br
9 Apr 1916 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Sjolyst 997 nw
10 Apr 1916 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Margam Abbey 4,471 br
10 Apr 1916 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Unione 2,367 it
11 Aug 1916 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Inverdruie 613 nw
19 Aug 1916 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Falmouth (damaged) 5,250 br
11 Dec 1916 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Bjor 1,090 nw
11 Dec 1916 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Palander 311 sw
1 Mar 1917 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Gurre 1,733 nw
1 Mar 1917 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Livingstone (prize) 1,005 nw
22 Mar 1917 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Stuart Prince 3,597 br
27 Mar 1917 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Neath 5,548 br
6 Apr 1917 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Powhatan 6,117 br
5 Jun 1917 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Amor 3,472 it
5 Jun 1917 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Manchester Miller 4,234 br
7 Jun 1917 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Cranmore (damaged) 3,157 br
7 Jun 1917 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Ikalis 4,329 br
10 Jun 1917 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Bay State 6,583 br
14 Jun 1917 U 66 Thorwald von Bothmer Perfect 1,088 nw
9 Jul 1917 U 66 Gerhard Muhle Iparraguirre 1,161 sp
21 Jul 1917 U 66 Gerhard Muhle African Prince 4,916 br
21 Jul 1917 U 66 Gerhard Muhle Harold 1,376 br

Fate 3 Sep 1917 - Lost on or after September 3, 1917, possibly in the Dogger Bank area to a mine. 40 dead (all hands lost).
There was another U 66 in World War Two.
That boat was launched from its shipyard on 10 Oct 1940 and commissioned into the Kriegsmarine on 2 Jan 1941.

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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