German submarine U - 30 ( 1936 ) German submarine " U - 30 " was a Type VIIA U - boat of the Nazi German " Kriegsmarine " that served during World War II . She was ordered in April 1935 in violation of the Treaty of Versailles , which prevented the construction and commissioning of any U - boats for the German navy , and as part of the German naval rearmament program known as Plan Z . She sank the liner , the first ship sunk in World War II , on 3 September 1939 , under the command of Fritz - Julius Lemp . She was retired from front - line service in September 1940 after undertaking eight war patrols , having sunk 17 vessels and damaging two others . " U - 30 " then served in a training role until the end of the war when she was scuttled . She was later raised and broken up for scrap in 1948 . Construction . " U - 30 " was ordered by the " Kriegsmarine " on 1 April 1935 ( as part of Plan Z and in violation of the Treaty of Versailles ) . Her keel was laid down on 24 January 1936 by AG Weser , Bremen as " Werk " 911 . She was launched on 4 August and formally commissioned into the " Kriegsmarine " on 8 October under the command of " Kapitänleutnant " ( " Kptlt . " ) Hans Cohausz . Like all Type VIIA submarines , " U - 30 " had two MAN 6 - cylinder 4 - stroke M6V 40 / 46 diesel engines totalling as well as two Brown , Boveri & Cie GG UB 720 / 8 electric motors , that produced and allowed her to travel at a maximum of while surfaced and submerged . She had a range of at while on the surface and at while submerged . " U - 30 " had five torpedo tubes , ( four in the bow , one in the stern ) . She could also carry a total of eleven torpedoes or 22 TMA mines or 33 TMB mines and had a C35 88 mm gun / L45 deck gun ( with 220 rounds ) . She was equipped with one C30 20 mm AA anti - aircraft gun . After being commissioned and deployed , " U - 30 " was stationed in the German port city of Wilhelmshaven . Service history . During her career " U - 30 " was involved in eight war patrols and sank 16 merchant ships , totalling and one auxiliary warship of . " U - 30 " also damaged one ship of and damaged the British battleship . All of these attacks took place under the command of ' Kptlt . ' Fritz - Julius Lemp . First patrol and the sinking of the " Athenia " . " U - 30 " went to sea on 22 August 1939 , before World War II began . Her active service career began on 3 September 1939 , just 12 days after leaving Wilhelmshaven and only 10 hours after Great Britain declared war on Germany , she sank the 13 , 581 ton passenger ship SS " Athenia " about west of the Hebrides while she was en route from Liverpool to Montreal in Canada . The " Athenia " was the first ship sunk in World War II ; out of 1 , 400 passengers , 112 of them , including 28 neutral Americans , died . After sinking the " Athenia " , " U - 30 " went on to sink two more vessels , the " Blairlogie " and the . Following the attack , the German Ministry of Propaganda checked incoming reports from both London and the German Naval High command . Having been told by the " Kriegsmarine " that there was not a single U - boat in the vicinity of the " Athenia " on the day of her sinking , the Propaganda Ministry promptly denied all allegations that any German U - boat had sunk the " Athenia " . They claimed instead that the British had torpedoed their own vessel in an attempt to bring the United States into the war on the side of the Allies . In order to calm - down any American response to the sinking of the " Athenia " , Joachim von Ribbentrop , the German Foreign Minister , arranged a meeting between Grand Admiral Erich Raeder and the American naval attaché on 16 September 1939 . During the meeting , Raeder assured the attaché that he had received reports from every German submarine at sea and " as a result of which it was definitely established that the " Athenia " had not been sunk by a German U - boat " . Raeder then asked the attaché to inform the American government . However , not every submarine had returned to port and all U - boats maintained radio silence while at sea . Once " U - 30 " docked on 27 September , Admiral Karl Dönitz met Lemp while he was disembarking from the U - boat . Dönitz later said that Lemp looked " very unhappy " and that he told the Admiral that he was in fact responsible for the sinking of the " Athenia " . Lemp had mistaken the " Athenia " for an armed merchant cruiser , which he claimed was zig - zagging . Dönitz subsequently received orders that the " Athenia " affair was to be kept a " total secret " , the High Command of the Navy ( OKM ) were not to court - martial Lemp as they considered his actions in good - faith , and that any other political explanations about the sinking of the " Athenia " were to be handled by the OKM who would deny any allegations that a German U - boat had sunk the vessel . In order to keep the sinking of the " Athenia " a secret , Dönitz had " U - 30 " s log altered in order to erase any evidence . It was not until the Nuremberg trials in 1946 that the truth about the fate of the liner was brought forth publicly by the Germans . Second patrol . As a result of the investigation undertaken by the German General Staff following the sinking of the " Athenia " , " U - 30 " remained in port until 9 December 1939 when she was finally allowed to put to sea again for her second war patrol . It lasted only six days , during which time she travelled up to the southern coast of ( then neutral ) Norway before returning to Wilhelmshaven on 14 December 1939 . During the voyage " U - 30 " did not encounter any enemy vessels , consequently she returned to port without any claims . Third patrol . " U - 30 " s third patrol was much more successful . Having left Wilhelmshaven on 23 December 1939 , she journeyed into the North Sea . She then circumnavigated the British Isles and travelled along the southern coast of Ireland . It was near to the west coast of Scotland that " U - 30 " sank her first enemy vessel during her third patrol , the 325 ton anti - submarine trawler HMS " Barbara Robertson " , on 28 December . That same day , she hit a much bigger target , the British battleship HMS " Barham " . Following the sinking of the " Barbara Robertson " , " U - 30 " fired a torpedo at the battleship and damaged her , killing four crew members . " U - 30 " ' s next three victims were sunk by mines laid by the U - boat : the " El Oso " , sunk on 11 January ; the " Gracia " , damaged on 16 January and the " Cairnross " , sunk on 17 January . Meanwhile , " U - 30 " returned to her home port of Wilhelmshaven on 17 January 1940 . Fourth patrol . The fourth patrol that " U - 30 " undertook began on 11 March 1940 when she left Wilhelmshaven for the west coast of Norway in preparation for the invasion of that country . For a period of 20 days , she traveled northeast along the Norwegian coast in search of any Allied convoys , she did not find any and returned to Wilhelmshaven on 30 March 1940 . Fifth patrol . Like her fourth patrol , " U - 30 " s fifth patrol ended without any losses . She put to sea on 3 April 1940 to support the German invasion of Norway and Denmark ( codenamed Operation " Weserubung " ) . For 32 days , " U - 30 " travelled up the west coast of Norway . She then headed southwest to Scotland in order to intercept British warships that were heading north to defend Norway . She failed to encounter any vessels , however , and returned to Wilhelmshaven , arriving there on 4 May . Sixth patrol . " U - 30 " s sixth patrol was the first time in which she had sunk any enemy ships since her third patrol . Having left Wilhelmshaven on 8 June 1940 , she once again entered the North Sea in an attempt to sink any Allied ships in the area . For 32 days , " U - 30 " circumnavigated the British Isles and sank five enemy ships in the Bay of Biscay . The first vessel to be attacked was the 4 , 876 ton British merchantman , " Otterpool " which was sunk on 20 June 1940 . Two days later , the 3 , 999 ton Norwegian vessel " Randsfjord " was sunk . On 28 June , the British ship " Llanarth " was torpedoed , followed by the " Beignon " on 1 July and the Egyptian " Angele Mabro " on 6 July . Following these attacks , " U - 30 " headed back to port . Instead of returning to Wilhelmshaven , however , U - 30 put in at Lorient , in France , which had been captured after the fall of that country . In doing so , she became the first German U - boat to enter the port . Later patrols and retirement . " U - 30 " began her first patrol operating from Lorient and her seventh overall on 13 July 1940 . During a period of 12 days , she traveled as far south as Portugal and sank the 712 ton British ship " Ellaroy " on the 21st . Three days later , on 24 July , " U - 30 " returned to Lorient , having experienced a malfunction in one of her engines . It then became clear that the boat was suffering a number of mechanical difficulties and as a result it was decided that she would need to be used sparingly . For her next patrol it was decided that she would leave from Lorient , but would return to Germany . The eighth and last war patrol that " U - 30 " was to undertake , began on 5 August 1940 when she left Lorient for the North Atlantic . In 26 days , she travelled north of the British Isles , into the North Sea and entered the German port city of Kiel on 30 August 1940 . During that time , she sank the Swedish vessel " Canton " on 9 August and the British steam merchantman " Clan Macphee " on 16 August 1940 . Both of these attacks took place off the west coast of neutral Ireland . After these successes , however , " U - 30 " once again experienced engine trouble and was forced to end her patrol early , returning to Germany . Before she arrived , Lemp received word that he had been awarded the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross for the boat ' s previous war patrols . Following her eighth patrol , " U - 30 " was retired from front - line service on 15 September 1940 and was assigned to training flotillas in the Baltic for the rest of the war . After her retirement , many of " U - 30 " s experienced crew members , including Lemp , were transferred to . In the last months of the war , " U - 30 " was used as a range boat ( gunnery platform ) before being scuttled by her crew on 4 May 1945 at Flensburg in Kupfermühlen Bay , in order to avoid surrendering the boat to the Allies as part of Operation Regenbogen . The wreck of the U - boat was later raised and broken up in 1948 . Summary of raiding career . During her service in the " Kriegsmarine " , " U - 30 " sank 16 commercial ships , a loss of , and one warship for a loss of . She also damaged one commercial ship of and damaged the battleship HMS " Barham " . See also . List of German U - boats