For nineteen military campaigns, she sank 226 ships.
The U-35 trophies were not paper boats, as evidenced by the total tonnage of the drowned - half a million tons. Well, to be precise, 575,387 tons.
Unimaginable.
And, frankly speaking, scary.
At the end of the 12th combat patrol, the boat destroyed the Gaul with the only remaining torpedo. On board the high-speed military transport there were 1,650 French legionnaires, 350 people. crew and three hundred Serbian soldiers. The hit caused the ammunition load to detonate. The exact number of victims of that disaster remained unknown. According to historians, up to 1800 people could go to the bottom together with "Gaul".
In another voyage, the course of the "formidable thirtieth" crossed with the liner "La Provence". 742 people were raised from the water. The exact number of those on board is unknown; the liner officially carried 1,700 soldiers.
Those who tried to stop U-35 from doing bloody mayhem were torn to shreds by her. Four auxiliary cruisers, a destroyer, two patrol ships and a couple of submarine hunters.
Of course, she was not forgiven for this. When U-35 ended up in British hands, it was cut into metal and forgotten.
The record remained unbroken. The most militant, deadly and destructive ship was erased from history in disgrace.
No movies, no books, no Discovery Top 10 Ships.
The winners had something to be ashamed of. Who wants to remember how all the military fleets of the WWI era were helpless in front of a small shell with a crew of 35 people.
And if they could withstand the submarines, but did not attach any importance to it, this indicates the complete unsuitability of the Admiralty. They did not take the proper measures. We missed the threat.
Although all these arguments are not serious. Built in 1914, the U-35 was not even a submarine in the sense in which we imagine such ships.
She could only dive for a short time, spending most of the trek on the surface. Most of the attacks were made from there (3000 fired shells, 74 torpedoes).
Submersion in those years was considered only as a tactical maneuver, which made it possible to “disappear” from the enemy's view at the decisive moment. And this "trick", coupled with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the aquatic environment, provided the boats with absolute superiority over the enemy.
Those who refer to the imperfection of anti-submarine weapons, first let them appreciate the perfection of the U-35 itself. The operational-tactical speed of the underwater course (5 knots), the working depth of immersion (50 m), the means of detection and the range of its torpedoes (one and a half to two miles). No sonar. There is no normal radio communication. In the surface position, a radiotelegraph with a folding antenna was used.
The living conditions of the crew are hell. Showers on the upper deck, dry food.
The allies quickly realized what was the matter and introduced separate surveillance of the sea surface by sectors. The ships were ordered to keep full speed with the implementation of anti-submarine zigzag. The crews of small-caliber guns were ordered to open fire on any suspicious objects.
In the fight against the underwater threat, technical innovations were used (network barriers with electrical alarms about a submarine passing through them), patrol seaplanes, sound direction finders and depth charges of various designs were used. Distorting camouflage was invented. Trap cruisers were actively used, the victims of which were three boats from the "formidable thirties" series.
Someone was torpedoed (U-40), someone was covered from the air (U-39).
However, the fighting qualities and the advantage of the submarines turned out to be great. "Thirty-fifth" managed to go through the entire war, survive and inflict huge losses on the enemy.
It remains to complain about the unsportsmanlike behavior of U-35, which “jackal” in places of busy shipping, preferring to smash peaceful transports instead of military cruisers and destroyers. The accusation is, to put it mildly, meaningless.
The times of knightly duels and officers in lace are long over. The economy is the core of the global war. Sea water is of no value, no one drinks it. Various cargoes are transported by sea on ships from point A to point B. The enemy is trying to prevent this, its own Navy is fighting the enemy.
Suddenly a situation arises when the enemy begins to sink everything, not paying attention to the presence of dreadnought fleets, destroyers and special anti-submarine forces … This may indicate either the complete mediocrity of the command, or the unique properties of the new weapon.
All of the sunken steamers ("transports" in military jargon) were legal prey for U-35 and its commander, Lothar von Arnaud de la Perrier. After the war, no claims were presented to him: he did not shoot lifeboats, he did not commit any other war crimes.
The tragically dead "Gallia" was officially listed as an auxiliary cruiser with the appropriate crew and weapons, there was a military cargo on board. Her sinking was no less legal than the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff.
Some of the steamers, when the boat appeared, were abandoned by the crew (for which heroes: the ship and cargo are insured). The sailors lowered the lifeboats while the U-35 boarding party set up explosive charges.
There have been such things.
With a score of more than two hundred “points”, everything was enough. And dashing pursuits, and the smoke of sea battles, and torpedo attacks, and white flags, and artillery duels …
The only question is: will the U-35 achievement be beaten in the foreseeable future?
The answer lies in assessing the balance between the capabilities of submarines and modern anti-submarine weapons.
On the side of nuclear submarines - high stealth, the ability to do without surfacing for months. They extract oxygen and fresh water directly from sea water. And their working depth of immersion can reach a kilometer.
Modern submarines are equipped with sonar systems with spherical, conformal and towed antennas. With the acoustic “portraits” of hundreds of ships stored in the memory of their BIUS.
Instead of a periscope eyepiece, there is a multifunctional mast with television cameras and a laser rangefinder.
New types of weapons that only science fiction writers could dream of in the days of Lothar von Arno. Homing torpedoes and cruise missiles capable of reaching the enemy out of line-of-sight, from over the horizon. New samples of mine weapons, Captor-type traps, programmed to fire at passing targets.
The speed of modern torpedo models has doubled, and the range has increased by 25 times. The ammunition on board was increased many times over.
The latest developments allow boats to shoot down helicopters and anti-submarine aircraft directly from under the water. Anti-aircraft missile control - via fiber optic cable. Target detection - according to the sonar data of the submarine itself.
In 2011, the Mersk Group company and the South Korean Daewoo signed a contract for the construction of 20 "Triple E" ocean liner container ships. With a length of 400 meters, they have a deadweight of 165 thousand tons (capacity is 18 thousand standard 40-foot containers).
Modern supertankers of the TI class have a deadweight of 440 thousand tons.
The total displacement of each of the 10 US nuclear-powered aircraft carriers exceeds 100 thousand tons.
All these facts indicate that the incredible achievement of the U-35 in terms of tonnage of sunken ships (575 thousand grt) is not so incredible from the point of view of modern realities. Nowadays, only a couple of successful mine-laying or torpedo attacks can bring such a “catch”.
With regard to the number of victories (226 sunk and 10 damaged), then repeating this record is hardly possible. Boats remain the most effective naval weapon, but the rules of naval warfare have changed. The anti-submarine defense has become angrier, the targets are larger and more serious. “Nightmare” sea routes for months, as it was in the era of WWI, now will not work.
It is worth noting that the most effective submarine of the Second World War (U-48) managed to sink “only” 51 transport and 1 warship with a total tonnage of 308 thousand brt.
