Fantastic German WWI submarine film!!

[oksnevad_2]

Fantastic original 16mm film in HD from my private collection, showing german WWI submarine in action!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUNVKWydEeg

[harryamb2]

many thanks.harry.

[oksnevad_2]

The uboat is named U206/33...
Does anybody hav any info about this uboat?

[drmessimer]

Oksnevad_2: That's an interesting film, thanks for posting it. Actually there are at least three U-boats shown in the film, which was put together with footage from 1915 to 1918. In the order they appear the boats are U-20, U-33 (possibly), and U-35. There was no U-206 commissioned in WWI. The last U-boat launched in WWI was U-168 on 19 October 1918 and she was not commissioned.

The first boat in the film was U-20, launched 18 December 1912 and one of the first four diesel boats deployed in August 1914 (U-19 to U-22). She is readily recognized by the shape of her conning tower, her two, equal-length, fixed periscopes, the rise of her bow, and the absence of a deck gun. During her operational career she sank 36 vessels totaling 144,300 BRT. On 4 November 1916 she ran aground north of Point Blavands near Lyngvig, Denmark where her crew scuttled her on 5 November. Her captain at the time was Kapitänleutant Kurt Schweiger.

The second boat is possibly U-33, though it could also be U-35. Whichever she is, she was definitely a 30's boat. The U-32 survived the war and was surrendered to the British on 16 January 1919 and scrapped at Blyth in 1919-20.

The last boat is definitely U-35 commanded by Kapitänleutant Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière who the highest scoring U-boat captain in WWI. In the part in the film showing the captain lining out the entry in the Lloyd's Registry of Ships, the man shown is definitely von Arnauld de la Perière. The U-35 survived the war and was surrendered to the British on 26 November 1918. The boat was scrapped at Blyth, 1919-20.

Of particular interest in the portion of the film that featured the U-35 was the British destroyer in "dazzle camouflage" firing depth charges with a Thorny Croft depth charge thrower, which was similar to the US Navy Y-gun, except that the Thorny Croft had only one arm. The dazzle paint scheme and thorny Croft DC thrower place the date the film was made after August 1917.

[oksnevad_2]

WOW, thanks for all that great info!!!
Here is another WW1 film you might like