German submarine U-140 (1940)

German submarine U-140 was a Type IID U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. She saw only one combat patrol, but still managed to see action as a training boat in the summer of 1941. Built at Kiel shipyards during 1939 and 1940, as a Type IID U-boat, she was too small for major operational work in the Atlantic Ocean, which was now required by the Kriegsmarine as the Battle of the Atlantic expanded.

Contents  [hide]  1 War patrol 2 Training ship 3 Raiding career 4 References

[edit] War patrol

The U-140 only had one raiding patrol, under her first captain, Hans-Peter Hinsch. He took her round the north of Scotland in December 1940 following her work-up program, and it was here she sank her first victim, twelve days into the cruise. Six days later north of Ireland, on 8 December she sank the steel 3-mast barque Penang of neutral Finland, inbound from Stenhouse Bay, South Australia to Cobh in neutral Ireland with a cargo of grain. The "Penang" and her 18 crew were all lost at 55°15′N 10°09′W / 55.25°N 10.15°W / 55.25; -10.15.^[1] Later that day she heard the British freighter Ashcrest broadcast that she needed assistance as her rudder was broken, at 54°35′N 09°20′W / 54.583°N 9.333°W / 54.583; -9.333. U-140 sank Ashcrest with the loss of the entire crew of 37.^[2] Then she headed home towards retirement for the boat. U-140 was docked, her crew transferred and she was converted into a training ship, designed to operate solely in the Baltic Sea, training submariners for the main U-boat force.

[edit] Training ship

It was during this necessary yet onerous duty that her new captain, Hans-Jürgen Hellriegel, found himself facing a small Soviet submarine on the surface, well into the Baltic a month after the invasion of Russia. In a careful attack, U-140 torpedoed and sank her rival with his scratch crew of new recruits. Orders had been pushing U-140 further into the Baltic during the preceding months, with the hope that she might achieve just such a victory.
Following this excitement, U-140 returned to training duties, which she continued for the remainder of the war without further incident, save in the final months, when she was transferred to Wilhelmshaven in a general shipment of equipment and personnel to the West. It was there, on the 2 May 1945 in Jade Bay, that U-140 was scuttled by her crew to prevent her seizure by the advancing British forces. Post-war she was raised and scrapped.

[edit] Raiding career

Date	Ship	Nationality	Tonnage	Fate
2 December 1940	SS Victoria City	British	4,739	Sunk
8 December 1940	Bq "Penang"	Finnish	2,816	Sunk
8 December 1940	SS Ashcrest	British	5,652	Sunk
21 July 1941	Submarine M-94	Soviet	206	Sunk

[edit] References

• Sharpe, Peter, U-Boat Fact File, Midland Publishing, Great Britain: 1998. ISBN 1-85780-072-9.
• U-boat.net webpage for U-140

1. ^ "Penang". Ships hit by U-boats. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/708.html. Retrieved 29 April 2010. 
2. ^ "Ashcrest". Ships hit by U-boats. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/709.html. Retrieved 29 April 2010. 

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Type IIB	U-7 · U-8 · U-9 · U-10 · U-11 · U-12 · U-13 · U-14 · U-15 · U-16 · U-17 · U-18 · U-19 · U-20 · U-21 · U-22 · U-23 · U-24 · U-120 · U-121
Type IIC	U-56 · U-57 · U-58 · U-59 · U-60 · U-61 · U-62 · U-63
Type IID	U-137 · U-138 · U-139 · U-140 · U-141 · U-142 · U-143 · U-144 · U-145 · U-146 · U-147 · U-148 · U-149 · U-150 · U-151 · U-152
List of submarines of Germany