Qualla: German submarine U-58 (1938)

German submarine U-58 (1938): Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

U-58 was small. At forty-four metres long, with a complement of twenty-five men and three torpedo tubes, she belonged to the class of coastal submarines the Kriegsmarine called Einbäume - dugout canoes. She was launched on 12 October 1938 at the Deutsche Werke yard in Kiel and commissioned the following February. The first eight months of her war passed without incident. Then her luck changed on New Year's Day 1940, when she sank a neutral Swedish merchantman off Scotland and began a run that ended with seven ships at the bottom of the North Sea.

German submarine U-58 (1938): The Einbaum

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Type IIC was an enlarged version of the original 1930s coastal U-boat designs - a stretched hull with more fuel and range, but still tiny by Atlantic standards. U-58 displaced 291 tons surfaced, 341 submerged. Two MWM diesel engines pushed her along at twelve knots on the sur...

German submarine U-58 (1938): Twelve Patrols

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

U-58 made twelve war patrols. The first three, during her workup, were uneventful North Sea cruises. The fourth, in late December 1939 and early January 1940, brought her first kills. On New Year's Day she sank the neutral Swedish steam merchant Lars Magnus Trozelli with a single...

German submarine U-58 (1938): The Schnorchel Test

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

By 1943 U-58 was no longer on combat duty. She had been transferred to the 22nd U-boat Flotilla and was being used as a training boat. That August, the Deutsche Werke yard pulled her into another role - test platform. The yard had built a new flooding-valve schnorchel head in Jun...

German submarine U-58 (1938): End in Kiel

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

U-58 spent the rest of the war as a training boat under various commanders. On 3 May 1945, with Allied forces advancing on Kiel and the war days from ending, her crew scuttled her in the harbour. Mass scuttling of U-boats at this time was part of Operation Regenbogen - Operation ...