German submarine U-20 was a Type IIB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. Her keel was laid down on 1 August 1935, by Germaniawerft of Kiel as yard number 550. She was commissioned on 1 February 1936. During World War II, she conducted operations against enemy shipping.
U-20 went on 16 war patrols, sinking 13 ships totalling and 9 tons, damaging one more of .
German Type IIB submarines were enlarged versions of the original Type IIs. U-20 had a displacement of 279t when at the surface and 328t while submerged. Officially, the standard tonnage was 2500NaN0, however. The U-boat had a total length of 42.7m (140.1feet), a pressure hull length of 28.2m (92.5feet), a beam of 4.08m (13.39feet), a height of 8.6m (28.2feet), and a draught of 3.9m (12.8feet). The submarine was powered by two MWM RS 127 S four-stroke, six-cylinder diesel engines of 700PS for cruising, two Siemens-Schuckert PG VV 322/36 double-acting electric motors producing a total of 460PS for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two 0.85abbr=onNaNabbr=on propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to 80-.
The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of . When submerged, the boat could operate for 35- at ; when surfaced, she could travel at . U-20 was fitted with three 53.30NaN0 torpedo tubes at the bow, five torpedoes or up to twelve Type A torpedo mines, and a 2cm (01inches) anti-aircraft gun. The boat had a complement of twenty five.
U-20s first three patrols involved observation (in August 1939) and the laying of mines in the North Sea and off the British east coast. She would start in Kiel and finish in Wilhelmshaven; then reverse the process.
She sank Magnus about 40nmi east northeast of Peterhead in Scotland. The ship went down in 90 seconds; there was only one survivor. She also sank Ionian and Willowpool in November and December respectively, with mines laid in November.
The boat sank Sylvia northeast of Aberdeen on her fifth sortie on 13 October 1940.
U-20 sank a steady number of ships on her sixth and seventh patrols, (her eighth foray was relatively quiet), but a series of changes were on the way.
She was transferred to the U-Ausbildungsflottille as a school boat on 1 May 1940, then the Black Sea, avoiding the heavy British presence at Gibraltar and throughout the Mediterranean by being transported in sections along the Danube to the Romanian port of Galați. She was then re-assembled by the Romanians at the Galați shipyard and sent to her new home in the Black Sea so she could serve with the 30th U-boat Flotilla.[1]
The boat's first patrol in the new environment, but her ninth overall, almost ended in disaster when she tried to torpedo a Soviet submarine chaser; the vessel responded by dropping eight depth charges. U-20 was obliged to stay submerged for four hours and returned to base with various mechanical failures.
Near the end of sally number ten, a crew member from who had been taken sick, was transferred to U-20 on 4 August 1943. The boat docked at Constanta on the seventh.
These patrols were conducted between Constanta and Sevastopol. U-20 sank the Soviet Vaijan Kutur'e on 16 January 1944 off Cape Anakria.
The boat sank Pestel on 19 June 1944 off Trabzon. The Soviets reported that this ship was sunk in Turkish territorial waters.
She also sank the Soviet landing craft DB-26 on 26 June with gunfire and demolition charges.
She was scuttled on 10 September 1944, in the Black Sea off the coast of Turkey.
On 3 February 2008, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that U-20 had been discovered by Selçuk Kolay, a Turkish marine engineer, in of water off the coast of the Turkish city of Karasu.[2]
| Date | Name | Nationality | Tonnage[3] | Fate[4] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 November 1939 | Ionian |  | 3,114 | Sunk (mine) | |
| 9 December 1939 | Magnus |  | 1,339 | Sunk | |
| 10 December 1939 | Føina |  | 1,674 | Sunk | |
| 10 December 1939 | Willowpool | | 4,815 | Sunk (mine) | |
| 13 January 1940 | Sylvia |  | 1,524 | Sunk | |
| 27 January 1940 | England | | 2,319 | Sunk | |
| 27 January 1940 | Faro | | 844 | Total loss | |
| 27 January 1940 | Fredensborg | | 2,094 | Sunk | |
| 27 January 1940 | Hosanger | | 1,591 | Sunk | |
| 29 February 1940 | Maria Rosa | 4,211 | Sunk | ||
| 1 March 1940 | Mirella | 5,340 | Sunk | ||
| 29 November 1943 | Peredovik | 1,846 | Damaged | ||
| 16 January 1944 | Vaijan Kutur'e | 7,602 | Total loss | ||
| 7 April 1944 | Rion | 187 | Sunk (mine) | ||
| 19 June 1944 | Pestel | 1,850 | Sunk | ||
| 24 June 1944 | DB-26 | 9 | Sunk |