Unterseeboot 23 (1936)

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Career (Nazi Germany)
Model of U-23 as in 1938.
Name:	U-23
Ordered:	February 2, 1935
Builder:	Germaniawerft, Kiel, yard 553
Laid down:	April 11, 1936
Launched:	August 28, 1936
Commissioned:	September 24, 1936
Fate:	Scuttled September 10, 1944 off the coast of Turkey in the Black Sea.
Class and type:	Type II U-boat

Service record
Part of	Kriegsmarine: 1. Unterseebootsflottille 21. Unterseebootsflottille 30. Unterseebootsflottille
Identification codes	M 01 984
Commanders	Eberhard Godt Hans-Günther Looff Otto Kretschmer Heinz Beduhn Heinrich Driver Kurt Reichenbach-Klinke Ernst-Ulrich Brüller Ulrich Gräf Rolf-Birger Wahlen Rudolf Arendt
Operations	16
Victories	7 ships sunk for a total of 11.179 gross register tons (GRT) 2 warships sunk for a total of 1.410 tons 1 auxiliary warship damaged for a total of 1.005 GRT 1 warship damaged for a total of 56 tons 3 ships a total loss for a total of 18.199 GRT

Unterseeboot 23 (usually abbreviated to U-23) was a German IIB type U-boat of the Nazi Kriegsmarine, built in Germaniawerft, Kiel, laid down on April 11, 1936 and commissioned on September 24 1936.

[edit] Career

At 4:45 am on October 4, 1939, U-23 scored one of the early successes of the Kriegsmarine in the war when she torpedoed and sank by gunfire the merchant ship Glen Farg about 60 miles south-southwest of Sumburgh Head. One person died, while 16 survivors were picked up by HMS Firedrake and landed at Kirkwall the next day.

In 16 patrols U-23 sank 7 ships for a total of 11.179 GRT including two warships, as well as damaging a warship and an auxiliary warship.

Over the course of her service with the Kriegsmarine U-23 had ten commanding officers, the most famous of whom was Kapitänleutnant Otto Kretschmer, who went on to become the top scoring U-boat ace. After service in the Atlantic with the 1. Unterseebootsflottille, U-23 served as a school boat with the 21. Unterseebootsflottille from July, 1940 until September, 1942. U-23 was then refit and transported overland to the Black Sea port of Constanţa, Romania, with the 30. Unterseebootsflottille until September, 1944.

[edit] Fate

U-23 was scuttled by her crew on September 10, 1944 off the coast of Turkey in the Black Sea at position 41°11′N, 30°00′E to prevent capture by the advancing Soviets.

On February 3, 2008, The Telegraph reported that U-23 had been discovered by Selçuk Kolay, a Turkish marine engineer, in 160 feet of water, three miles from the town of Agva.^[1]