Why did the British scuttle all the captured U-boats?

[bill_c]

I am curious if anyone has any information on WHY the British navy scuttled over a 100 U-boats at the end of the war instead of scrapping them? Given Britain's economic mess in the late 1940s, it would seem to have been a natural outcome instead of sinking all that valuable iron.

[Anakin]

I found this while surfing...

By the winter of 1945/1946, the Brits debated if this formidable armada of enemy vessels was more of a liability than an asset. Many of the boats were in very poor mechanical condition, sorely in need of parts and maintenance. Most were made totally obsolete due to the advances made in their newer, faster, deeper-diving, quieter sisters. Considered of no practical value, the decision was made to scuttle them. Thus, in more-or-less random order, 121 captured U-boats were disposed of in a program known as Operation Deadlight. Towed in groups of six to ten to pre-arranged offshore dump sites well beyond the 20-fathom curve, the boats were scuttled with demolition charges. The bulk of the boats disposed of in this operation (93) were conventionally-powered Type II, VII, IXC and IXD hulks. Twenty-two of the fast new Elektro submarines and four of the larger XXI type were also scuttled in this manner. Last to be sunk in Operation Deadlight was U-3514, its sea valves opened on 12 February 1946.

All 32 remaining U-boats were eventually divided between the Allies as prizes of war. In this distribution, twelve units became British prizes. Eight of each went to the Soviets and France. Four to Norway. Some of these vessels were used briefly in research roles, others were eventually broken up as scrap or sunk as Naval targets by their respective owners.

I guess there was a lot of political reasons and mostly allied wanted to show people that justice always follows the sword of the winner! The value of the scrap metal is indeed interesting question...

[dougie47]

Hi Anakin and Bill,

Good point about the economic situation post war. There was still rationing for years afterwards. There may have been some in the Royal Navy that were pleased to scuttle the boats rather than scrap them. After all,  only a few years before that, the U-boats were were rather too successful against the brave men in the merchant navy.

Cheers,

Dougie   

[Pat]

Something about the retribution idea doesn't make sense to me because the Brits also destroyed much of their own materiel.

To my knowledge, there is only one HP Halifax remaining (it's in Trenton, Ontario, not far from me) and 2 flyable AVRO Lancasters and another few on pylons.  There aren't many Spitfires or Hurricanes and no Mosquitos that I know of.

You hardly see any Churchill tanks, Valentines, and such either.

Meanwhile, the Americans have all sort of B-17's, Mustangs, Duantlesses etc. and Sherman tanks are a dime a dozen.

[NZSnowman]

Its a petty they did not save two of each things after the war Just imagine finding a warehouse with two original Type VII's in it.....Would answer many of our questions.

[Pat]

LOL, they might need more than 2.  There's so much variation in them all, that they might have to have a dozen to answer all the questions.

Obviously, their sense of history wasn't as developed at the time as ours is now.  Must have just been such a relief that the war was over that they didn't think this far ahead.

[NZSnowman]

"two of each things".....That the entomologist in me You must collected a male and female of anything.

[Rokket]

would 2x VIIs make a IX? or a XXI? or no, you'd need 3 for that

[Pat]

Male and female U-boats?  That's a funny thought Snowman!

[dbauer]

Hello All!
Very interesting bit here. I remember that my father once told me that when U-805 was surrendered ; the Americans removed certain equipment off the Boat and they took the latest Trops. off . They then took the Boat off Cape Cod and opened the valves and let her go....! What a waste.... a Type IX C/40 in their hands and they let her go!!! As I remember after Vietnam they did the same thing with equipment, supplies etc... they just dumped it all! I saw so much waste when I was in the Marines, if the public ever knew they would scream!!
Regards,
Dan

[wildspear]

Dan,

I remember when I was in Desert Storm. We were over their for many months before the war kicked off. When we started moving up to get on line with the "Berm" they tole us to pack what we could and bury the rest.....we buried a whole refrigderated semi truck...very crazy time.

[Rokket]

I think the same with the end of WWII, trucks, jeeps, "useless" supplies were left or destroyed. You'd think th metal alone would be a resource, not for $$$ but for the fact that metal ain't renewable!

[Pat]

wildspear, I can imagine archaeologists 1,000 years from now (if humans haven't managed to kill themselves off by then) digging into suspicious looking sand dunes in the desert, and coming across these strange machines and wondering what they were used for and how they were powered?  (unlikely to be much petroleum left by then either).

As rokket says, metal ain't renewable so most vehicles left unburied would have long since either been recycled into something else or rusted away in the wet air, leaving that buried reefer truck as one of the only examples of 20th century technology they have.

[Don in Cincinnati]

Its a petty they did not save two of each things after the war Just imagine finding a warehouse with two original Type VII's in it.....Would answer many of our questions.

Back in 2001 I was doing research for a diorama of a U-boat sub pen such as the ones built along the west coast of (then ) occupied France. Somewhere among all that information was an article about how at least one of the concrete bunkers housed two intact U-boats, but had been sealed off because the Germans had dumped a ton of unexploded ordinance in that chamber around the boats and the dangers greatly outweighed any potential exploration. I have searched through my notes, as well as on the Internet but found nothing as of today to verify this.

Many of the subpens are still in use today, both by the French navy and by private businesses for winter storage of pleasure craft. I do know that some of them are permantely sealed off.

It'a an intriguing thought that there may be a few WW2 German subs still in existence.

Anybody with a metal detector want to crawl in there? 

[NZSnowman]

I think I remember only a couple of years ago they found a Type VIIC/41 in a U-boat sub pen in France. I think a Type VIIC was laying on top of it. Can anyone remember this?