On the 24th of August 1941, a German submarine left its base at La Palis in France out on its first war patrol into the Atlantic.

Admiral Carl Dernets had ordered the U570 plus 15 other Yubot to head for an area south of Iceland and attack a large concentration of Allied merchant ships the German naval codereakers were tracking.

U570 was a type 7C Yubot, a workhorse of the German hubot service and had been commissioned on the 15th of May 1941.

She displaced 871 tons submerged, was just over 220 ft in length, and had a range of 8 12,000 mi.

Her crew numbered 48 men under the command of Capetain Litnant Hans Yuim Ramlaw.

The problem was the relative inexperience of the commander and most of his crew.

Ramlaw was on his first Yubot war patrol.

He had transferred from the naval gunnery and coastal defensive branch.

Apart from some training time on the submarine U58, he had no yubot experience.

Likewise, the first watch officer, the boat’s second in command, came from the destroyer branch and had only a few months on hubot.

And the second watch officer, the third in command, had only recently been commissioned.

The only officer with Ubird experience was the engineering officer with one war patrol under his belt.

Ramlo and his crew had conducted some working up voyages aboard U570 in the Baltic and then in Norway, including firing torpedoes.

By the 27th of August 1941, U570 had been at sea for 4 days, and many of the inexperienced crew were incapacitated with severe seasickness.

Specifically because of this problem, Ramlo had submerged U570 in order to give the crew a rest from the constant motion of moving on the surface.

U570 had also suffered its first enemy attack that morning when a Loheed Hudson maritime bomber flying out of Iceland had found the Yubert on the surface and immediately launched an attack.

The RAF number 269 squadron Hudson had dived in to deliver her load of depth charges as U570 performed an emergency crash dive, but the depth charges had failed to release from the aircraft racks.

After waiting for some time, Ramlo ordered his yubot back to the surface, and the submarine emerged directly below a second Hudson, searching for it around 10:50 a.

m.

Ramlo had just clambored up the Conning Tower ladder to the bridge when he heard the plane and ordered another desperate crash dive, but he was too late.

U70’s Conning Tower had not fully submerged when the Hudson successfully released four 250lb depth charges.

one landing and detonating just 10 yards from the hubot’s hull.

Ramllo evidently ordered his yubot to surface soon after.

The close detonation of the depth charges had caused extensive damage to the boat.

All electrical power was out.

Instruments were shattered.

Water was entering the hull, and in the engine room, water had made contact with the battery cells, generating a choking cloud of smoke.

The engine room crew had panicked and fled their posts, fearful of chlorine gas from the soaked batteries.

Dead in the water due to the crew’s inexperience on Ubot, Ramlo believed that if he didn’t immediately surface, his crew would be killed by chlorine gas.

Once the conning tower hatch was clear of the waters, 10 crew appeared.

But the circling Hudson opened fire with machine guns at the German submarine, only ceasing fire when a white bed sheet was displayed as an ad hoc surrender flag, while two Hudsons circled the Ubot menacingly.

After a radio call for assistance, 3 hours later, a Catalina flying boat of number 209 squadron, the RAF, from Reyik in Iceland, arrived at the scene.

In the meantime, Ramlo had contacted Yubot headquarters, sending his message in the clear and uncoded and received orders to immediately destroy his Enigma machine, code books, radio, and secret papers from the skipper safe, which was done.

By now, the Royal Navy had issued orders for several vessels to race to the scene and capture the Yubot, a valuable war prize and full of intelligence, extremely useful for the Allies.

By early afternoon, the Hudsons had to break off due to low fuel, leaving only the Catalina circling the Yubot.

Eventually, at 1000 p.m.

, an Allied warship arrived in the form of the anti-ubmarine twler HMT Northern Chief, the Catalina departing for Iceland after circling the stricken Yubot for an astounding 13 hours.

The crew of the Northern Chief made no attempt to board the Yubot.

The Germans staying aboard all night, though they indicated several times that they believed that their submarine was sinking.

During the night, more Allied vessels arrived at the scene.

The armed twroller HMT Kingston Agot, the destroyer HMS Burwell, and the Canadian destroyer HMCS Niagara, and two anti-ubmarine whalers.

However, during the night, a Northrop N3PB of number 330 Norwegian squadron of the RAF arrived and attacked the Yubot and the twler with small bombs, forcing the naval vessel to open fire at the RAF plane.

Eventually, radio contact was established between HMS Burwell and the overeager Norwegian airmen, and the plane backed off.

The following morning, attempts were made to attach a tow line to the hubot, but the Germans seemed uncooperative, and Captain Woods of HMS Wwell ordered a machine gun to fire a few warning shots across the submarine’s bow, accidentally wounding five German crew who were on the casing.

Eventually, a line was successfully attached to the submarine’s bow by an officer and three men from Kingston Agot, who searched the Yubot.

The German wounded were transferred to the Trollwer and the rest of the Yubot men boarded the Canadian destroyer Niagara as prisoners of war.

At dawn on the 29th of August 1941, U570 arrived undertoe in Iceland.

She was beed and then 2 days later a British submarine commander and a specialist team from the Navy and civilians arrived to survey the vessel and begin the process of making her seaorthy again.

After cleaning her up inside and affecting some minor repairs, U570 was made ready to sail to Britain.

Masses of intelligence and engineering secrets had been found aboard and escorted by Royal Navy destroyers U570 arrived safely at Barrow Infernace in Cumbria on the 3rd of October.

filmed by news companies.

During dry dock repairs to buckle plating, two G7E torpedoes were found lodged inside the submarine, and very careful cutting and diffusing was required to recover them.

One officer, Lieutenant Martin Johnson, received the George Medal for making the torpedoes safe.

Three of the RAF crewmen involved in capturing the yubot received the distinguished flying cross and the captain of the troller Kingston Agot the distinguished service cross.

Things didn’t work out very well for some of the captured crew.

Following extensive interrogation the officers except Ramllo who was kept separate were transferred to the officers camp at Graleale Hall in Cumbria which housed many Yubot and Luftvafa officers.

There they were tried by their fellow prisoners, the Court of Honor, including the Yubot Ace Otto Cretchmer.

Ramllo was tried in absentia.

Ramllo and his second in command, Bernhard Bent, were found guilty of cowardice.

Bant escaped from the camp, but was shot dead by local home guard.

On the 5th of October 1941, U570 became his majesty’s submarine Graph and was very extensively tested at sea.

After trials, HMS Graph became a combat submarine of the Royal Navy, actually firing at the damaged German submarine U333 commanded by Peter Edd Kramer, another notable Yubot ace.

But Kramer managed to avoid the four German torpedoes that were fired at him.

After three war patrols and failing to sink any enemy ships, HMS Graph became a training boat.

Without a supply of spares and spare batteries in particular, the Royal Navy could not keep this yubot in service and she was decommissioned on the 21st of June 1943 and subsequently used as a target.

She sank in a gale whilst being towed to Scotland for scrapping.

Some of the wreck remains in situ today near Santiago Beach in Scotland.

This battle flag from U570 is today on display at the Royal Air Force Museum Henden in London.

It is an emotive trophy taken by the RAF and marks the absolutely extraordinary story of when a German submarine surrendered to a plane.

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