S-Boats in the Kriegsmarine 1935 - 1945

War-Zones of the S-Boats

 Black Sea 1942

The first boats of the 1. SFltl transferred to the Black Sea were "S 26" (Kptlt. Fimmen), "S 27" (Oblt.z.S. Büchting), "S 28" (Oblt.z.S. Künzel), "S 40" (Kptlt. Schneider, K.), "S 72" (Oblt.z.S. Schneider, W.), and "S 102" (Kptlt. Töniges).

The boats were cut off above the main deck and all equipment was removed. They were towed up the river Elbe to Dresden, there they were put on special vehicles and brought to Ingolstadt cross country on roads, from there they were towed on the river Danube to Linz/Austria. There parts of the equipment which had been shipped there by railway were built in again. Thereafter they were towed again to Galati/Romenia, were the main engines were installed. Then the boats sailed with own power to Constanta/Romania, were the remainder of equipment was installed. 

S-Boat hauled up on the bank of Elbe-River at Dresden - Picture: Archives H. Frank

S-Boat under Transport on the Autobahn - Picture: Archives H. Frank

Passing the Stone-Bridge at Regensburg - Picture: From the heritage of Kpt.z.S. Künzel

Re-installation of the forecastle "S-102" - Picture: Archives H. Frank

Mounting the Bridge-House "S 102" at Linz - Picture: Archives H. Frank

• Re-Instellation of the Main-Engines at Linz - Picture: Archives H. Frank

"S 26" and "S 28" in tow on the Danube - Picture: Archives Förderverein

S-Boats being towed past Budapest - Picture: Archives H. Frank

The two first boats, "S 26" and "S 28", arrived at Constanta on 24.05.1942 . On June 2nd 1942 they performed their first operation, but had to return due to engine failure. On June 3rd 1942 boats "S 72" and "S 102" arrived at Constanta, while "S 26" and "S 28" operated off Cape Chersones without sighting of enemies. 

On June 6th 1942 the first pair operated off Sevastopol without sighting of any ship traffic. The second pair took part in a search and rescue operation for the crew of a downed German sea reconaissance aircraft.

 On June 10th 1942 the 1. SFltl performed an operation in the northern Black Sea again without  finding worthwhile targets. On the way back "S 26" broke in fire and had to go back to Linz for repairs.

" S 26" on Fire in the Black Sea - Picture from the Heritage Kpt.z.S. Künzel

On June 12th 1942 the remainder of the flotilla transsitted to Ak Mečet at the western coast of the Crimea. From there sorties against the Soviet ship traffic were performed. In so doing "S 102", sank the steamer "Belostok" (2.048 BRT) out of a convoy. In all other operations until the end of the month the enemies could evade the torpedoes, since firing positions and wakes of the torpedoes were clearly to be seen because of bright marine luminescense.

On June 26th 1942 the 1. SFltl was allocated two captured Soviet S-boats of 17,8 t displacement each and armed with two 53,3 cm torpedo launching rails and one 12,7 mm-MG ("TKA-47" from the Baltic Sea and "TKA-111" stranded off Eupatrorija and salvaged). The boats were propelled by to GAM 34 BSF gasoline engines. They were faster than 50 knots, however, showed strong corrosion problems soon.

"TKA-45" at high Speed - Picture: Unknown

In a fight with three Soviet gunboats of type MO 24, armed with 4,5 cm guns and MGs, during the night July 2nd/3rd 1942 "SKA 0112" and "SKA 0124" could be sunk, however, "S 40"  took a heavy hit in the port torpedo tube. The explosion of the air-cylinder caused heavy damages so that the boat had to go to the shipyard and was not available for a long time. The CO, Kptl. Schneider, and nine men were wounded. On "S 28" one man was killed in action. The German S-Boats picked 37 survivers of the two boats out of the water, among them Generalmajor Petr Georgevič Nowikov, formerly commander of the 109. Rifles Division and acting deputy commander at Sevastopol, and brought them to Jalta. 

The survivors of SKA 0124, front right GenMaj Nowikov - Picture: Archives A. Artemichenko

On July 3rd 1942 the "fortress" Sevastopol surrendered. The flotilla transferred with four boats to Iwan Baba, the new base on the southeast side of the Crimea close to Feodosija. The objectives were escorting own traffic from and to the Crimea and sorties against the Caucasian coast.

On July 28th 1942 "S 40" transitted on own power to Galati and from there in tow to Linz for repairs.

Iwan Baba is the little rock at the end of the peninsula after which the S-boat-base was called - Picture: Google Earth

For the defence of Iwan Baba inter alia a gun of the soviet Cruiser "Chervona Ukraina" was used - Picture: Archives Atari Chen 

On August 31st 1942 Kptlt. Stuhr-Christiansen relieved the commander 1. SFltl. 

In August and early September the flotilla carried out picket- and reconnaissance voyages into the street of Kerč off  Soči and off Tuaspe, minelaying operations and attacks on Soviet  ship trafic, they could report 23 sinking successes (freighters, tankers, and lighters) .

 

On September 3rd 1942  "S 49" (Kptlt. Karl Schneider-Pungs) and "S 26" (Kptlt. Kurt Fimmen), repaired at Linz, arrived at Constanta.

 On September 5th 1942 "S 27" was hit by a torpedo fired at a steamer by "S 72", which developed as circular runner torpedo, and sank. 12 men  were killed, three severely and three lightly wounded. The severely wounded flotilla doctor, MarStArzt Dr. Rolf Haenisch, died because of his wounds at the hospital at Simferopol. 

From September 6th to 7th 1942 "S 28", "S 72", "S 102" transitted from Iwan Baba to Constanta for the big motoroverhaul, which lasted until 27.09.1942.

On September 8th 1942 "S 49" and "S 26" arrived at Iwan Baba ein.

The Italian S-boats in the harbour of Yalta had been targets of a bomb raid of the Soviet airforce on September 9th 1942, during which "MAS 571" and "MAS 573" were destroyed by direct hits, " MAS 567", "MAS 569", and "MAS 572" were severely damaged. As a consequence the Soviet ship trafic was almost unendangered, since "S 28", "S 72", and "S 102" were in the ship-yard at Constanta, there were only two boats, "S 26" and "S 49", fresh from the ship-yard,  available in the operations area.

On September 10th 1942 the OBdM, Großadmiral Raeder, inspected the 1. SFltl at Iwan Baba.

Inspection by the OBdM, Großadmiral Raeder - Picture: Archives F.K. Künzel

During the night September 14th/15th 1942 they advanced into the area off Cape Idokopas, without finding targets. The same happened during the night 18./19.09.1942 off Tuaspe

Air attacks by the Soviet airforce against Iwan Baba were without success because of the good acting air defence, so on 24th and 25th 1942.

 "S 26" and "S 49" could sink two steamers of 1500 BRT and of 2000 BRT during the night to September 25th 1942. During the night to September 27th 1942 "S 26" sank a steamer  of estimated 1000 BRT laying off Cape Idokopas.

An attack of a Sovjet SFltl against Iwan Baba on September 28th 1942 could be repelled by strong defensive fire. 

On September 30th 1942 both boats had to go to Constanta for engine overhaul. "S 26", "S 28", "S 49", and "S 102" transitted from Constanta to Iwan Baba and performed sorties from there against the Soviet ship traffic, until end of October, however, without noteworthy successes.

On October 1st 1942 the commander 1. SFltl had the following boats at his disposal:

Boat	Commanding Officers
S 26	Kptlt. Kurt Fimmen
S 28	Oblt.z.S. Friedrich- Karl Künzel
S 49	Oblt.z.S. Hans-Joachim Stöve
S 102	Lt.z.S. Günther Lutherer

 Early October 1942 the boats carried out torpedo firing and air target exercises based on Constanta.

During the night October 12th/13th 1942 the flotilla transitted back to Iwan Baba.

On October 14th 1942 the boats performed a reconnaissance advance to the Caukasian coast without sighting of enemies. On the way back to Iwan Baba the boats were attacked by three Soviet bombers without success.

Bombs are dropped into the Water - Picture: Archives F.K. Künzel

On  October 22nd 1942 "S 72" (Oblt.z.S. Walter Schneider) came back to the flotilla from Constanta.

In the evening the flotilla left harbour in order to attack a battlegroup off Tuaspe. They sighted a cruiser and the destroyers "Krasnyj Kavkas", "Charkov", and "Bespoščadnyj", which repelled their attacks. When the enemy ships were just before entering harbour the boats fired two torpedoes each, five detonated in the harbour entrance, three went on the beach. 

When the boats were on their way back, two Soviet S-boats attacked the harbour. By the defensive fire one was sunk, the other one bumped into the 1. SFltl when turning away. In the fight the CO of "S 49" was wounded by a hit in his head what caused the flotilla to break off the fight, what permitted the other boat to escape.

Bad weather kept the boats on October 25th 1942 in harbour. On October 27th 1942 the flotilla performed a reconnaissance operation off Tuaspe, "S 72" and "S 102" fought without result with guardboat "SKA 0105". On October 31st no targets other than two gunboats were detected off Tuaspe. 

Because of a period of bad weather the next action could not be carried out before  the November 5th 1942, all torpedoes fired against an escorted steamship went wrong. "S 72" reported sinking of a lighter which lay close to the shore.