Better late then never!

In this entry I'll mostly talk about the U-955 German Submarine

We had an incredibly busy day yesterday and I forgot to blog, oops!

To make it up, I'll write two posts!

Getting to Laboe

Yesterday we went to Laboe to visit the U-955 German Submarine.

Laboe is a town 20 kilometres southeast from Kiel. It's a solid 50 minute bus ride from Kiel's central station.

After we arrived at Laboe, we immediately went to the submarine.

Here's a quick rundown on the U-955 Submarine:

• The submarine is build by Blohm & Voss (they make cruise ships and yachts now, wowie!);
• They started building her (water vessels have gender, apparently) in nov. 25, 1942;
• She was commissioned in 16 sept. 1943 (for the attentive reader, that means that this vessel was build in 9 months and 22 days, which is absolutely bonkers)

When the U-995 was commissioned in sept. 1943, the main usage of this vessel was training. I'd like to envision this (might totally be inaccurate!):

A total of 56 men testing the murky waters at a rough sea. All of them in awe and reverence of this gigantic, technologically advanced monster of a vessel. 56 men working around the clock, making sure this submarine stays in proper shape and ready for attack -- What a rough time it must've been for these lads.

After the U-955 personnel was 'properly' trained on the ins and outs of the vessel, the U-955 was now officially used as, you might've guessed it, a war machine!

Starting from June 1944, the U-955 became part of a flotilla. This flotilla is also known as the 13th U-boat flotilla, this flotilla consisted of 55 U-boats.

Henceforth the U-955's main mission was, well, war. The 13th U-boat Flotilla were primarily deployed to destroy the allied merchant ships and steal/ destroy their goods, such as; raw materials (fuels, metals, rubber etc), food supplies (food!) and military supplies (ammunition, weapons, tanks, armoured vehicles).

Fun fact: The While the 13th U-boat flotilla had some 'success' in the very beginning, that rapidly declined due to allied countermeasures, such as; sonars, air patrol and sea mines. This meant that the 13th flotilla probably might've cost Nazi Germany more then it'd delivered.

After the war, the U-955 was seized by the British in Norway where the submarine was used again for training purposes.

The submarine was decommissioned in 1965, and the Norwegians wanted to scrap it, while Germany wanted to preserve it as an historical monument. After a few years of negotiation, Norway sold the U-955 back to Germany for 1 Deutsche Mark. And now its displayed in Laboe as a museum.

I do want you to take a minute and consider just how many lives were lost, how much slave labour went into the creation of these war vessels, how many families were torn apart and have never seen each other again. War is not a means to an end or the great solution to ... . It destroys lives, hopes and dreams. Consider that, and be grateful for what you have.

Later on I'll write another entry and tell you more about the Laboe Naval Memorial.

Author: Robin van Eijkelenborg
Created at: 2025-02-23 16:16:47
Updated at: 2025-02-24 14:19:37

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