A First World War U-Boat in the Medway (II)

I was able to visit the remains of a First World War U-boat in the Medway in August 2016 with Alex Langlands and CiTiZAN in connection with the making of Britain at Low Tide for Channel 4 by Tern TV.

The remains of the U-boat are very striking. It lies against a small islet in the marshes, almost entirely submerged at high tide but exposed when the tide is low.

The U-boat is an important site, even though it is not a new discovery. In fact, the U-boat has been known since it was first abandoned in the Medway, but it has been a largely unremarked feature of the landscape until the last decade or so. Photographs of the U-boat were published in the newspapers in 2013 and it has featured on BBC Coast (Series 8) and in Britain’s Great War (Episode 3).

The U-boat is quite often referred to as the remains of UB 122, which is probably not correct. In its online record PastScape, Historic England concludes that the U-boat is probably the remains of UB 144, UB 145 or UB 150; UB 122 is thought to have been dumped in deep water after leaving Portsmouth.

A detailed account by Pat O’Driscoll in the magazine After the Battle (No. 36, 1982) relates how several U-boats came to be abandoned in the Medway following the end of the First World War. Briefly, Germany was obliged to hand over all of its U-boats at the Armistice. A total of 114 were surrendered and brought in to Harwich from 20th to 27th November 1918 where they were laid up in ‘U-boat Avenue’; Stephen King-Hall provides a compelling eye witness account in his book A North Sea Diary 1914-18. A few of the U-boats were distributed amongst the Allies but many were disposed of or sold off. The one we visited appears to have been in a batch sold at Chatham and broken up in Rochester in 1922 – where the diesel engines in particular were removed and subsequently re-used for a variety of industrial purposes. The falling value of scrap metal led to some of the U-boat hulks being simply discarded in the marshes.

The remains of two other U-boats can still be seen less than a kilometre to the south of the one we visited, but they have been cut down to bed level and are harder to identify.

If the U-boat we visited is UB 144, UB 145 or UB 150 then it would have been launched very shortly before the Armistice in November 1918 and only completed afterwards. It would not have seen military service and was finished only to be handed over and scrapped. Why then, should it be considered important?

The interest in the Medway U-boat arises partly because of its evocative and relatively visible remains, but also because it represents a very important class of First World War U-boat, known as the UB III type. They are referred to as ‘coastal attack’ U-boats, distinguishing them from minelaying U-boats of the UC types and the ocean-going types. The UB III type was introduced in summer 1917 and was the most numerous class of U-boat – a total of 89 were built (though not all before the end of the war). Even though they are referred to as coastal U-boats they had a wide range of action and were used very successfully in the Baltic, the Mediterranean and the Western Approaches, sinking many ships.

This UB III is also interesting because this type was used in the North Sea, against merchant shipping in the East Coast War Channels. Hence the Medway U-boat still lies close to one of the theatres in which it was intended to fight. Certainly, there are many wrecks of ships sunk by UB III types associated with the War Channels. It is also poignant that some of the Royal Navy personnel who were lost at sea whilst trying to combat UB IIIs and other U-boat types in the North Sea have their names commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial, overlooking the Medway where this U-boat still lies.

The intense conflict between merchant ships and U-boats in the East Coast War Channels was not one-sided, however. Although very effective, U-boats were also vulnerable and many were sunk. Four UB IIIs are known to have been lost in the War Channels off the coast of Yorkshire and the North East. UB 75 ran into a trap of deep mines laid by the RN off Robin Hood’s Bay; UB 107 was lost near Flamborough Head; UB 110 was caught whilst trying to attack a convoy off Hartlepool; and UB 115 was spotted by a patrolling airship off Northumberland and depth charged by destroyers and armed trawlers. UB 110 was commanded by Werner Fürbringer who survived to write an account of the action in his memoire Fips: legendary U-boat commander 1915-1918. UB 110 is also notable because the U-boat was recovered and examined in a dry dock on the Tyne before subsequently being scrapped; Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums hold an evocative set of photographs of UB 110.

The Medway U-boat is not unique – there are dozens of known wrecks of UB III type U-boats – but there are none in museums so the Medway example is unusually visible. With its connections to the nearby War Channels and also to the post war story of the surrender and disposal of Germany’s U-boat fleet, this particular site is an important monument.

My visit to the Medway U-boat has been recorded on the Home Front Legacy and CITiZAN apps.