Unterseeboot 33

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Note there is a modern type 212 submarine in German service called the U 33.

Unterseeboot 33 (U-33) was a German Type VIIA U-boat operating during World War II. It was launched in 1936, and was sunk on 12 February 1940. From the survivors, rotors from the German Navy's Enigma machine were captured, the wirings of which were at that time unknown to British codebreakers at Bletchley Park.

U-33 was laid down on 1 September 1935 in Kiel, and was commissioned on 25 July 1936, initially commanded by Kptlt. Ottoheinrich Junker.

1 Career
2 Fate
3 Sources
4 External links

[edit] Career

In just 3 patrols, U-33 sank 10 ships for a total of 19,261 GRT.

On November 20, 1939 she sank 3 British steam trawlers near Tory Island with about five rounds from the deck gun : At 10:30 am, the Thomas Hankins 14 miles northwest of Tory, at 4:00 pm the Delphine 18 miles north-northeast of Tory and at 5:05 pm the Sea Sweeper 25 miles west-northwest of Tory. The crew of Thomas Hankins under Master M. Hankins was rescued by another trawler 10 hours later in a lifeboat and landed in Northern Ireland. They reported that they had been shelled without warning. The second shell went through the bows and the fifth through the boiler, causing the trawler to sink in about 25 minutes.

[edit] Fate

In February 1940, then captained by Hans-Wilhelm von Dresky, the U-33 had been ordered to lay mines in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland. However, Minesweeper HMS Gleaner detected the U-boat on 12 February and dropped depth charges over a period of several hours. Eventually, the damaged U-33 was forced to surface and the crew abandoned the ship, which sank soon after. 25 men died while 17 survived. Before the ship was abandoned, the U-boat's secret Enigma rotors were distributed amongst a few of the crew, who were instructed to release them into the sea to avoid capture. This was not done, however, and as a result the British captured three rotors, including two rotors (VI and VII) used only by the Navy for which the wiring was then unknown.

[edit] Sources

Guðmundur Helgason, "U-33", U-boat.net, accessed 31 March 2006.
David Kahn, Seizing the Enigma, 1991, pp. 104-112.
Hugh Sebag-Montefiore, "Enigma: The Battle for the Code", 2000, pp. 67-77, ISBN 0-7538-1130-8