Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, UK
(Tyne and Wear Museums & Archives)
During the First World War, the German Navy possessed a fleet of approximately 350 submarines, known as unterseeboote or U-boats. The German U-boat campaign, begun in February 1915, undermined the British naval blockade in place around the British Isles.
For the German Navy, any ship in British waters was a target. Between October 1916 and January 1917 alone, U-boats sank almost 1.5 million tons of shipping.
This picture shows the interior of U-boat 110. The U-boat had been sunk in July 1918 in the North Sea, close to the town of Hartlepool, by HMS Garry. The controls include the air pressure gauges, hand wheels for pressure gear, the manhole to the periscope well and valve wheels for flooding and blowing.
Salvaged soon after, the boat is photographed here in Swan Hunter’s Wallsend dry docks. After the Armistice, U-boat 110 was sold for scrap.
‘Shall I risk another run at him, as he is still showing up on the surface? At all costs, he must not escape, so, once again we race through the water and settle the matter by hitting again and this time ripping her up completely and ourselves as well. Down went “U 110” where she belonged and down we went by the bows. I left the rescue work to the others, who picked up fifteen out of the water and then took stock of the damage we had sustained. No doubt it was serious and the vital question now was – should we chance it and try and get back to our base in the Humber?’
Charles Herbert Lightoller, Commander of the HMS Garry in Titanic and Other Ships, 1935
