Deutsches U-Boot-Museum

• U-456 torpedoes the Cruiser HMS "Edinburgh"

At 04.00 hrs German Time in the early morning of the 29th of April 1942, Kriegsmarine U-Boat "U-456" under the command of Kapitänleutnant (= Lieutenant Commander) Max-Martin Teichert left Kirkenes, Northern Norway for her 5th combat patrol. Meanwhile, convoy PQ-15 with 25 merchant vessels was underway, having left Iceland on the 26th of April. Almost at the same time, i.e. the 28th of April, convoy QP-11 with 13 merchant vessels, had left Murmansk, Soviet Union. The convoy escort was composed of four destroyers, four corvettes and one antisub-marine craft. The close distance escort of QP-11 was maintained by the British cruiser HMS "Edinburgh", flagship of the Commander of the Royal Navy´s 18th Cruiser Squadron, Rear Admiral Stuart Sumner Bonham-Carter, together with the destroyers HMS "Foresight" and HMS "Forester".

On 29th of April, the U-Boat Task Group "Strauchritter" (= "Footpad") was formed against the two convoys, composed of the Type VIIC U-Boats U-88, U-251, U-405, U-436, U-456, U-589 und U-703. In the mor-ning of the 29th of April, German air recon-naissance established contact to convoy QP-11 and in the evening of that day U-456 reached her assigned Naval quadrant AC 5843. At the same time, HMS "Edinburgh" escorted the convoy with its speed of just 6 kts, about 100 nm northeast of U-456´s position. At approximately 02.30 hrs, the convoy had to steer westerly courses due to the ice boundary, with "Edinburgh" tasked to repeatedly search the sea areas ahead.

Commissioning of U 456 on 09/18/1941

At 01.20 hrs of the 30th of April, Kapitänleutnant Teichert received the message by U-88 of the sighting of a con-voy in quadrat AC 5924. The commanding officer of U-456 concluded, that the convoy was steering northwesterly courses. When maintaining its own northwesterly course the U-Boat should cross the course of the convoy not later than at the forenoon of the 30th of April. Indeed, at 10.12 hrs a report came down from the conning tower about a sighting of smoke trails. Choosing a few changes in course, the CO tried to bring his boat slowly towards the target detected. At 11.20 hrs, U-456 was in quadrat AC 5554, when the lookouts at the conning tower obser-ved a cruiser in southerly bearing, clearly identified as a British cruiser of the "Belfast"-class.

Immediately, Teichert sent a R/T message to his superior Flag Officer Polar Sea, reporting the sighting of a crui-ser. Shortly afterwards the cruiser got out of sight. The U-Boat´s CO estimate should prove correct soon, that the cruiser was to resume its original convoy course after its advanced screening of the sea areas ahead. At 15.10 hrs the cruiser came nearer again, executed some zig-zagging and headed then over the horizon, coming directly towards U-456, showing just its bow. Quickly, Teichert ordered to level the boat at periscope depth. However, since the attack periscope´s lens was hardly useable due to damp, the boat had to be kept on parallel course by listening bearings only. The opponent zig-zagged to south, but changed course again after ten minutes. At 16.10 hrs, the cruiser zig-zagged once more, directly towards U-456. It could be observed through the periscope only faint and rather blurred. Soon the cruiser was steering with inclination 20°, course 180 °, distance 4.000 meters, coming directly before the torpedo tubes of the U-Boat. Immediately, U-456 got ready for attack.

In fast sequences Kapitänleutnant Teichert gave few orders down to the central operations room to pick up the target. Then the or-der came: "Spread of three torpedoes from tubes I, II and IV!" The confirmation reports came back straight away. At 16.18 hrs Teichert had given the firing order so fatal to the cruiser.

Eventually, after 80 seconds of endless waiting, which correspon-ded with a distance of roughly 1.200 meters, they could hear under water two detonations by torpedoes in quick succession. Teichert ordered to raise the periscope again, but he could not observe anything apart from dark spots. At 16.32 hrs, he finally ordered to surface again. After they had brought the boat up to the surface, Teichert discovered by executing a look around, that the cruiser had turned starboard being covered by high yellow cloud of fume. Moreover, it had a list towards its starboard side and it was making speed of only five to six knots, heading slowly to northeast. An attempt was given up to sink the cruiser with a coup-de-grace shot since three destroyers approached the U-Boat with high speed, now having submerged again. Kapitänleutnant Teichert decided to move away from the scene submerged, to evade a threatening at-tack by depth charges.

Commander KptLt. Max-Martin Teichert 

After the hits by the torpedoes from U-456, the "Edinburgh" moved slowly and laboriously to the east, her bow two more meters in the water than normal, only two of her four screw propellers working and no rudder. At 06.00 hrs of the 01st of May the two escorting Soviet destroyers had to return home due to fuel shortage. The destroyer HMS "Foresight", which had tied up at the cruiser´s stern to keep her on course, casted off its ropes to resume escort duties. After all, the British knew, that there must be a U-Boat nearby. Given the persistence of the U-Boat´s CO, it was of utmost importance to find this U-Boat, to press it down by depth charges, preventing it to close to the cruiser, at least for a while. Left alone, the cruiser yawed from one side to the other like a drunken sailor.

Therefore, its commanding officer, Captain Hugh Webb Faulkner, reduced the speed down to two knots. At 18.00 hrs, the "Edinburgh" received support by the Soviet tug "Rubin", and some six hours later by the British mine-sweepers HMS "Gossamer", HMS "Harrier", HMS "Niger" and HMS "Hussar". Since the tug was not powerful enough to tow the 10.000 tons cruiser, it rather tied up at forward port side of the cruiser. Once HMS "Gossa-mer" had taken over a stabilizing role at a towing line astern, a speed of about three knots and a roughly straight course could be maintained. The remaining warships formed a larger screen around the stricken cruiser to secure.

At 06.27 hrs on the 02nd of May, HMS "Hussar", proceeding at the starboard side of the "Edinburgh", suddenly was under artillery fire. On board the minesweeper three fast warships were detected, their silhouettes clearly showed German destroyers. Indeed, these were the German destroyers "Z-7 Hermann Schoemann", "Z-24" and "Z-25", which had been given order to sink the British cruiser for good. Soon, the destroyers had designated their target and tried to close to torpedo range through obscuring smoke. But a bold maneuver by the British destroy-ers "Foresight" and "Forester" prevented them to do so. After the tug and the "Gossamer" had unbent their ropes from the cruiser, the cruiser started to shell the German destroyers with its 15,2 cm heavy gun "Bravo". Already salvo number two hit the "Hermann Schoemann", putting the destroyer out of action. Now, a fierce exchange of artillery fire developed, with "Forester" subsequently being hit by three shells from destroyer "Z-24". Following to that, "Z-24" launched four torpedoes against the "Forester", which for some reasons passed under the British destroyer. However, the torpedoes now were racing towards the "Edinburgh", which was unable to do any evasive steering.

Eventually, one of the torpedoes hit "Edinburgh" midships at her portside, causing her to further list. It became obvious, that the cruiser was threatened by breaking up at any moment. Immediately, Rear Admiral Stuart Bon-ham-Carter ordered "Gossamer" to come alongside to take over the injured and parts of the crew, although the cruiser´s artillery still was firing. The fire by the cruiser hampered "Z-24" to close to "Hermann Schoen" to help taking over its crew. Meanwhile, the list of the "Edinburgh" became greater. When she reached 17 degrees list, preventing any further aiming by the guns, Captain Hugh Faulkner ordered to abandon ship. "Gossamer" embar-ked 440 of "Edinburgh´s" men, whereas "Harrier" took 350 men, Rear Admiral Bonham-Carter included, and "Hussar" laid a smoke screen to cover up the rescue operation. In the meantime, "Z-24" and "Z-25" attacked again. Another intensive exchange of fire developed, with "Forester" and "Foresight" coming under well placed salvos from the German destroyers. Within a short period of time "Foresight" received four direct hits, leaving her with just one operational gun. Though, the two German destroyers refrained from finishing off "Foresight", in order to rescue the crew of "Hermann Schoemann". After "Z-24" had taken over the majority of the crew of the stricken "Hermann Schoemann", the destroyer eventually was scuttled by its crew. "Z-25", covering the rescue operation by "Z-24", received another hit damaging its R/T communication equipment, but was just able to report an own torpedo hit on the cruiser. Eventually, the German destroyers, now short of sufficient ammunition, left off their opponents and returned to Kirkenes with high speed. The remaining survivors of "Hermann Schoemann", drifting in their life boats, where rescued later by U-Boat "U-88". However, there was no chance any longer for the survival of the "Edinburgh", any further salvage attempt was completely hopeless. Consequently, Read Admiral Bonham-Carter ordered "Foresight" to launch a coup-de-grace torpedo against the cruiser, using her last torpedo in stock. After "Foresight´s" torpedo hit the portside of cruiser, "Edinburgh" capsized over her portside and sank within two minutes, stern first down the icy Barents Sea.

The "Edinburgh" sank at position 72°04' North and 035°01' East, 57 of her crew went down, the wreckage hit the seabed at a depth of about 260 meters. The remaining British force headed for the Kola inlet, rea-ching it on the 03rd of May 1942. Only after the end of WW II it became known, that five tons of gold on board the "Edinburgh" had gone down as well. It was the state treasu-re of the tsar, which the cruiser had taken on board. Soviet leader Stalin intended to pay parts of the arms delivery from the allies by means of 465 gold bars, which still had the double eagle seal of the tsar engra-ved. Now, the gold bars were stored in 93 plain boxes on board the "Edinburgh".

Although the British War Ministry had offi-cially declared the "Edinburgh" to be a war grave, whose peace may not be distur-bed, ideas to lift the gold trea-sure were not given up. Nevertheless, for years the trea-sure seemed to have been lost for good, even, when the British government in 1957 partially relaxed its ban on diving down to the wreck site. However, new deep sea techniques allowed a new approach to a possible salvage operation at 260 meters depth, since the exploitation of oil and gas field in the North Sea have produced enough experience with that meanwhile.

Between the 04th of September and the 05th of October 1981 eventually - 39 years after the sinking of the "Edinburgh", the Scottish salvage company "Wharton Williams" managed to raise a total of 431 gold bars out of the wreckage of the "Edinburgh". After the completion of the salvage operation 159 gold bars entitled to the Soviet Union were handed over to Soviet officials at Murmansk, whereas the remaining 272 gold bars were depo-sited at the Bank of England. Now, the first operation to raise the gold from the "Edinburgh" had been completed, its code name was operation "Greyhound".

A second salvage operation began on the 03rd of September 1986, ending already on the 12th of September, af-ter the divers had found another 29 gold bars. Five remaining gold bars were not traceable. 16 gold bars were handed over to the Soviets at Murmansk, the remaining 13 came to England.

With that, the saga about the gold of HMS "Edinburgh" came to an end. The entire load of gold had been salva-ged, just five bars were missing. Nobody will disturb the cruiser´s peace and silence will remain henceforth over the war grave at sea of the British soldiers. Some words about the history of Kapitänleutnant Max-Martin Teichert and U-456. The sinking of the "Edinburgh" was accredited to him and his boat U-456, although he had just torpe-doed the cruiser. However, the German side believed that the "Edinburgh" has been scuttled by the British follo-wing the heavy damage done by U-456. The hits by the torpedoes from "Z-24" and possibly another by "Z-25" were not confirmed at that time.

Max-Martin Teichert executed another five combat patrols with U-456 in the Polar Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. On the 12th of May 1943 a "Liberator" aircraft of the RAF 86th Squadron sank U-456 in the North Atlantic Ocean. The approximate position is 46°39' North and 026°54' West. U-456 was the first U-boat to have been hit by a Mk XXIV torpedo and most probably to have been sunk by it. It was a total loss, there were no survivors of the 49strong crew.
On 19th of December 1943, Kapitänleutnant Max Martin Teichert was awarded posthumous the Knights Cross to the Iron Cross for his achievement in the war at sea. During ten war patrols he managed to sink six merchant vessels with a total tonnage of 31.721 BRT. And, the sinking of the 11.500 tons "Edinburgh" was accredited to him and U-465 as well.

Written by Hans-Joachim Röll, unofficial translation by Peter Monte - Picture Deutsches U-Boot-Museum