Transcript The U-Boat

The U-Boat
U-Boats were undersea boats
that attacked allied ships.
The Enigma was born
Receiving coded messages that contained the location
of enemy ships, U-boats were constantly on the move,
and looking for a plot for their next attack.
British supply ships were constantly targeted. The loss
of men and supplies were putting a heavy burden on
the British.
In 1923, Arthur Scherbius, who was a German
engineer, introduced an encryption device (called the
Enigma) that was designed to help businesses
conduct secure overseas communication.
By the time Hitler and his party were elected to be in
charge of Germany, however, Scherbius had a buyer
for all the machines he could produce.
Hitler’s best weapon
• One of Hitler’s best weapons to destroy Allied ships
was called the Unterseebooten (U-Boat).
• The U-Boats were German submarines that attacked
Allied ships.
• World War II submarines were like regular boats, only
they could submerge into the water. Men had to live in
cramped spaces, and sometimes the stale air was
freezing in the sub.
• The chance of losing your life inside one of these UBoats was very high.
U-Boat 110: The Secret
U-Boats had deadly torpedoes that they could
fire at their enemies.
U-110 was a U-Boat that gave away where it
was by leaving up their periscope too long.
U-110:The Investigation
• David Balme is ordered to board U-110 to
see what could be found on board.
• They found the radio compartment in perfect
condition. Codebooks, signal logs, pay books
and general correspondence were all intact.
• They also found a coding machine.
• It was removed, and it was sent to Bletchley
Park where a mathematical genius and his
team worked on a method to crack Hitler’s
uncrackable code.
Worrying
None of the survivors of
the U-110 crew knew that
it had been captured
The British Royal Navy
tried to tow U-110 back to
Iceland, but it sunk.
All of the supporting data,
and the Enigma machine,
was given to Alan Turing
and his team.
The Attack
 HMS Aubretia saw U-110’s periscope, and the ship
thundered toward the spot.
 The ship’s crew dropped depth charges.
 The crew thought the first batch missed, they
dropped more.
 U-110 was hit, but it was not destroyed.
 Some of U-110’s crew died.
 U-110 surfaced, and all of its crew plunged into the
sea.
Cracking the Code
• In 1943, U-Boat codes started to
be cracked on a regular basis.
• Before 1943, Fasson, and
Grazier, all drowned from trying
to recover Enigma documents.
• Tommy Brown, a sixteen year
old, turned over one of the most
important finds of World War II.
Today

There are Enigma Encryption Machines
that exist today. The excitement of
Enigma, submarines, secret codes, and
valiant men fighting on the seas is the
meaning of adventure and movies.
U-Boats Difference
The war effort was improved by the UBoats in many ways.
They increased the amount of messages
moving from front to front.
From all sides, U-Boats made a huge
importance to the navies.