German WWII U-boat U-94

**U-94**, also known as **Kriegsmarine U-94**,is a German U-boat from the Second World War owned by the Moorland Steam Railway. It forms as a special display at Gladsville Dockyard to the naval usage of the submarine during warfare. It played a role in attack on Atlantic convoy ON 92 during WWII.

## History

U-94 was launched from Kiel in June 1940 and was commissioned just two months later on August 28th. During her service from 1940 to 1942, she sunk 26 ships at over 141,852 gross tons in just ten patrols. Two years into her service on the same date the submarine was commissioned, U-94 was spotted near Haiti and persued by the Canadian corvette HMCS Oakville and an American PBY Catalina anphibious and coastal patrol aircraft from VP-92 and was depth charged from the Catalina and rammed by the corvette, which caused the U-boat to sink. Nineteen crew were killed in the U-boat while 26 were rescued and claimed as prisoners-of-war (POWs).

In 1994, a salvage team lead by the Moorland Steam Railway set out to raise the wreck of U-94 to both preserve the U-boat and to finally give the families of the nineteen German sailors some closure. The wreck had the bodies removed once the vessel was brought about a floating dry dock the remains were sent to Germany to be buried. The U-boat was brought to Gladsville Dockyard (much to the dismay to almost all of the railway's resident locomotives, who knew the trouble that U-boats caused in the war) and wanted the sub to be sent back to "where it belongs, on the seafloor." The reason the sub was raised was so it could be on display as a memorial to the role submarines played during WWII and a restoration began to return the U-boat to look like a traditional German U-boat during WWII.

## Livery

U-94 is painted the standard Kreigsmarine U-boat livery with the number '94' painted in small white writing on the conning tower and the "laughing swordfish" emblem.

When it arrived, with covered in rust after sitting on the ocean floor for around 42 years.

## Basis

   U-94 is based on the real the U-boat of the same number. It was one of 703 Type VII submarines ("U-boats") built in secrecy by Adolf Hitler to rebuild Germany's military (when the Treaty of Versailles doesn't allow Germany's navy any submarines) from 1936 to the end of WWII. The design was based on older designs including the Type UB III U-boat that saw service in World War Two and by the time German surrendered in May 1945, six other navies used the design right up until 1970, when Spanish submarine G-7 (formerly Type VIIC U-boat U-573) was decommissioned. The Royal Navy did use one, U-570, when it surrendered in 1941 and was commissioned 'HMS Graph' under the RN, until it ran aground in 1944. One Type VII survives today, U-995 in Norway (Type VIIC/41).

Kriegsmarine U-94 was commissioned in 1940 and was sunk by an American PBY Catalina and Canadian corvette HMCS Oakville in 1942. The original plan for the Allies was to capture it (like U-505 two years later and U-570 in 1941).

## Trivia

U-94 is mentioned in Sabaton's song 'Wolfpack', which the song refers to the attack on Convoy ON 92.

* Shane Sowter's interest of Sabaton songs could explain why U-94 is in the series.

The real U-94 was sunk in 1942 after taking heavy poundings from a Canadian warship and American planes. Could it that they re-floated the U-94 and restored it?

U-94's model is a 3D-printed model that took some time to assemble and size correctly. The model was originally meant for a larger scale but was resized to 1:76 scale.

The condition when the vessel arrived was inspired by the condition of U-534 (a Type IXC/40 U-boat) after it was raised from the sea floor in 1993 after being sunk by the Royal Navy in 1945.

U-94 is the least favourite vehicle preserved on the Moorland Steam Railway by the locomotives, due to many hearing the destruction of merchant ships by the U-94 and other U-boats during both World Wars.

This U-94 is the second ship to bear the title 'U-94' and the third with '94' as its pendant number. The first, SM U-94, was a Type U 93 submarine commissioned in March 1917 and surrendered in 1918 before being scrapped at Inverness in 1921. The second, UB-94, was a Type UB III commissioned in 1918 and was surrendered to the French Navy that same year. It served under the French as 'Trinité-Schillemans' until it was scrapped in 1935.

Like all vessels in the series, U-94 isn't sentient due to the size of the model.