On this day 25th November 1945, Operation Deadlight commences.

On this day 25th November 1945, Operation Deadlight commences.

On 4 May 1945 Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz, who Hitler named as his successor as head of State shortly before he committed suicide, ordered all combat U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases with a brief one-line message: ‘All U-boats cease fire at once.

Stop all hostile action against Allied shipping. Dönitz.’ Generaladmiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, Dönitz’s successor as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine, surrendered the German Navy at 11.10pm on 7 May 1945 at a ceremony held at Reims in France, followed by a repeat signing in Berlin the next day at the insistence of the Russians.

The terms included the entire German fleet, but apart from the cruisers Prinz Eugen, Nurnberg and Leipzig, only 15 destroyers, 11 torpedo-boats, and two dozen minesweepers were all that remained of the Kriegsmarine’s surface fleet

Operation Deadlight was the Royal Navy code name for the remaining 116 U-boats to be sunk at sea between 25th November 1945 and 11 February 1946.

On 31 October 1945 the Admiralty instructed Commander-in-Chief Rosyth, Vice Admiral Sir William Jock Whitworth, to commence arrangements to dispose of 30 boats at Lishally and 86 boats at Loch Ryan in deep water off the north coast of Ireland starting from 25 November.

The U-boats comprised one Type IID, 76 Type VIIC, one Type VIID, one Type VIIF, 11 Type IXC, four Type IXD2, four Type XXI and 18 Type XXIII. The Royal Navy towed the unmanned boats out to sea, but things didn’t go entirely to plan.

Bad weather caused 20 of the U-boats to founder on tow; the demolition charges failed except on two occasions; only 13 air-attack sinkings were effected instead of the planned 29; the torpedo exercise attacks were reduced from 13 to eight, leaving the balance of 73 submarines to be despatched by gunfire.

In all, only 58 of the 116 U-boats reached the disposal area, the rest lie scattered in a line across the north coast of Donegal ranging in depth from 46m to 130m.

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