U-boat

GERMAN propaganda films of the Second World War depict the crews of U-boat submarines as swashbuckling marauders trawling the vast oceans for enemy ships to attack and destroy.

About 30 U-boats were sunk off the East Coast, including UC32 which was laying mines just off the coast of Sunderland in February 1917.

Moreover, after the Battle of the Atlantic, the Germans could no longer rely on as great a number of U-Boats as they could early on, which meant they now required more accurate intelligence on the locations and routes of the convoys.

During another difficult crossing, a tanker loaded with high-octane gasoline, was torpedoed during the night (U-boats rarely operated during the day).

"Of the 11 downed U-Boats in Belgian waters, this one is the best preserved example," the province of West Flanders said.

The SS Bayreaulx was one of a number of ships targeted by the lethal German U-boats at the time Others of note included the SS Feliciana, which was travelling from London and Cardiff to New York in April, 1916.

Naval escorts fought off each attack, sinking three U-boats and shooting down six German torpedo bombers.

They were used on RAF and RAAF Beaufighter aircraft based at Valley and tasked with anti U-boat patrols in the Irish Sea during the conflict.

The Germans proffered a serious threat to Allied ships by using the Luftwaffe, U-boats, and heavy surface ships based in northern Norway.

World War I saw the Germans use U-boats to devastate British shipping, nearly driving the country out of the war.

In 1940 Britain faced the deadly threat from German U-boats, which in the six months following the collapse of France in May 1940 sank three million tons of Allied shipping.

Between February and April 1917, German U-boats sank more than 500 merchant ships, with a quarter of all ships bound for Britain sunk in the month of March.

David Hird discovered that a tiny loch was the scene of the mass surrender of Nazi U-boats in 1945.

Turning the Tide: How a Small Band of Allied Sailors Defeated the U-Boats and Won the Battle of the Atlantic.