Inside a German U-boat
A sunken sub, raised from the depths
Alex Q. Arbuckle
1918
Throughout World War I, Germany used its fleet of 351 unterseeboote (colloquially called U-boats in English) to wage submarine warfare against Allied ships.Facing an overwhelming naval blockade by the British, the Germans responded on Feb. 4, 1915 by declaring the waters around the British Isles a war zone.While the U-boats had limited success against nimble British warships, merchant vessels and civilian ships operating in the “war zone” were ripe targets for torpedoes. The sinking of civilian vessels such as the R.M.S. Lusitania ultimately caused the United States to join the war on the side of the Allies.
On July 19, 1918, the twin-screw U-boat 110 was engaging a merchant vessel convoy in the North Sea off the town of Hartlepool when she was forced to the surface by Allied depth charges. She was then rammed and sunk by the H.M.S. Garry, a torpedo boat destroyer.Later that year she was salvaged and placed in the Wallsend dry docks of Swan Hunter Wigham Richardson Ltd. in England, with orders to restore her to working condition.These photos of her cramped and complex interior were taken before the armistice of Nov. 11, 1918, after which she was dismantled and sold as scrap.
