"unnecessary" Kriegsmarine ship. German submarines of the Second World War: photos and technical characteristics Kriegsmarine flag

...We did everything possible, but the slippery black death walked ahead of us.

We introduced a convoy system, but this only spurred their excitement - they gathered in flocks and pursued us even more. During the day they disappeared. But as soon as dusk deepened, tenacious paws grabbed the throat and dragged it to the seabed.

The evil fish found out about our secrets and changed their tactics - now, having discovered the convoy, they surfaced and followed a parallel course with it, guided by the smoke of the ships. The Enigma chirped madly, invisible electric lightning pierced the radio air - after an hour other creatures gathered in the area, gradually surrounding us and coming out to cross our ships. And then they rushed at us, and something terrible began...

We have created a centimeter-wave radar for total control of the ocean surface. Their answer was the “Maltese cross” - a sensitive radar detector that detected the radiation of our radars long before the operators began to see the light from a large surface object. When the Sunderland patrol entered a given square, the black death managed to submerge and disappear without a trace in the sea water.

We laid 76,000 sea mines on the approaches to their bases in the North Sea and the English Channel, mined the Kiel Canal, the Skagerrak and Kattegat straits. 500 production aircraft were lost in dangerous raids, but all in vain - during the entire war, only thirty-two of them became victims of our mines, the remaining 800 skillfully bypassed the barriers and went into the ocean to engage in robbery.

We regularly bombed their bases and shipyards, where predatory fish were born, dropping a total of 100,000 tons of bombs. All in vain - their losses were minimal. There are 59 steel demons in total. The rest, having waited out the raid, immediately crawled out of their reinforced concrete shelters and crawled across the entire Atlantic.

We increased the number of escort forces, built in two years 350 corvettes of the Hunt and Flower types, which became our T-34s in the vast Atlantic. We armed transport and fishing vessels, and involved Royal Navy cruisers and destroyers in the fight against the underwater threat. The naval command requisitioned 1,240 yachts, trawlers and whaling ships from ship owners, turning them into hunters of the Black Death - with a set of sonar equipment and a supply of depth charges on board.

Catalina!

We have created a sonar - ASDIC, capable of scanning the depths of the sea and identifying creeping creatures. Alas, gritting their teeth, they, as before, overtook the convoys of ships and stubbornly strangled Britain, leaving us without the most necessary things. Blood gushed from both sides, but their rage turned out to be stronger than high technology.

The underwater killers boldly rushed forward, without fear of our instruments - they knew that the primitive ASDIC had too small a capture angle, and its effective range in echolocation mode did not exceed one mile and was rapidly decreasing with worsening weather and increasing speed of the anti-submarine ship. At 16 knots the sonar became completely deaf.
As soon as we started the pursuit, we immediately lost contact with them.

We developed new noise direction finders and ultrasonic surveillance devices, installed coastal hydroacoustic stations at the entrance to river mouths, every port and naval base... all in vain!

The slippery black monsters were also continuously improving. They reduced the level of their own noise by using damping mechanisms and means to interfere with the operation of our hydroacoustic equipment. They learned to quickly change the diving depth, making our anti-submarine and depth charges ineffective.

They had new dangerous toys - FAT and LUT maneuvering devices for torpedo weapons, the simplest mechanisms that made it possible to attack convoys from any position. And then the acoustic homing torpedoes T4 “Falke” and T5 “Zaunkonig” appeared. Any of our ships that risked entering into an open duel with a steel fish could come under attack at any moment.

We equipped our ships with towed noise decoys, but they immediately created a noise-proof guidance system for acoustic torpedoes.

We felt, literally felt with our salted skin, that a new threat was approaching - new, even more formidable underwater monsters were being conceived in the shipyards of Germany...

"Electrobots". Type XXI and XXIII. Boats designed to be permanently submerged. Optimized contours and an increased number of batteries allowed them to accelerate under water to 15 knots - their pursuit by our anti-submarine ships was almost impossible; ASDIC did not work at that speed. Equipped with snorkels, they could not appear on the surface for weeks; and a sophisticated hydroacoustics complex provided them with exceptional opportunities to control the maritime situation.

We didn’t know all this then. There was only an oppressive feeling of danger and powerlessness.
Britain was preparing for the worst...

Deutschland Stolz

...yes, 1942 was a great success. The valiant submariners managed to triple the achievements of all previous years of the war, sinking 1,149 enemy ships and vessels during the year, with a total tonnage of 6.2 million gross registered tons. Fantastic!

The list of victories includes a couple of notable trophies - the aircraft carrier Eagle (sunk on 08/11/1942 by the submarine U-73) and the cruiser Edinburgh with a cargo of gold on board (shot on 05/2/1942 in the Barents Sea by the submarine U-473). In addition, the “sea wolves” tore to pieces the legendary convoy PQ-17, carried out Operation Wunderland in the Kara Sea, and sank 2 more enemy cruisers and 13 destroyers. Zer gut.

Kirk Sound, Scapa Flow, Scotland. Here, on the dark night of October 13-14, 1939, the U-47 boat under the command of Gunther Prien crawled through, almost scratching the bottom with its hull. How did he do it? Das ist fantastic. However, this night turned out to be the last for the battleship Royal Oak and its 833 crew. Having carried out a pogrom in the harbor of the most protected British base, U-47, amid the roar of anti-aircraft guns, got out the same way and returned home safely.
To avoid a repeat of the next Pearl Harbor with a German accent, the British urgently blocked the strait with a stone dam.

Behind the bright events are hidden the gray everyday life of war. Our submariners have clear instructions - if possible, not touch warships, focusing their attention on merchant fleet vessels. It is not profitable for a submarine to chase a high-speed destroyer - the target is too mobile and maneuverable, the destroyer is able to dodge fired torpedoes and launch a counterattack itself.

The laws of naval warfare are far from the common misconceptions about the “smoke of naval battles.” People don't live in the open ocean. The blue-green water surface cannot be captured or destroyed. The ocean is used only as a transport artery through which Britain receives critically important goods, raw materials and equipment.

And if so, then why does the boat take so long and carefully to aim, and engage in a useless and dangerous duel with the escort forces of the convoy? It is much more effective and useful to shoot slow-moving tankers and transports with aircraft, tanks, cars, mechanisms, cargo of ore and rubber, uniforms and food...

Let the high-speed destroyer then rush around in circles, and its commander tearing his hair out - the wreckage of transports is immersed in the water, the task is failed. Upon arrival at the base, the destroyer's crew will have nothing to eat, and the destroyer, left without fuel, will be laid up on its own. Exhausted Britain will sooner or later sign surrender.

Here it is, the right path to victory! And we continued to increase our strikes in the chosen direction...

American verdict on the Kriegsmarine

...We will build ships faster than the enemy can sink them. We will DAILY launch two warships of the main classes (aircraft carrier, battleship, cruiser, destroyer, or submarine) and commission three transports.

It is necessary to immediately expand the production of anti-submarine equipment - thousands of hunters and corvettes, escort aircraft carriers based on transport ships and basic naval aviation - Catalina seaplanes, long-range sea reconnaissance aircraft PB4Y-1 and PB4Y-2 "Privateer" (modification of the "Flying Fortresses").

We will place dozens of airfields and hydroacoustic stations in the North Atlantic - on the coasts of Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

We will compensate for ANY losses of the merchant fleet - the number of Liberty-class transports built by the end of the war will exceed 2700 units. No matter how atrocious the German submariners may be, our allies (primarily Britain) are guaranteed to receive their quota of goods, equipment and raw materials to continue the war.

We will “pump up” Her Majesty’s fleet with anti-submarine technology, transferring to British sailors several dozen escort aircraft carriers, hundreds of destroyers and thousands of patrol ships. We will rearm British naval aviation with Catalinas and Privateers.

Military-industrial joke: "The Yankees are going to war." Actually, this explains why the Germans started having serious problems in 1943

Backed by American industrial strength, Britain would rise and continue to develop its own air force and navy. Working together, we will flood the ocean with anti-submarine equipment. And even though American sonars are still inferior to British models, quantity will sooner or later turn into quality. Grand Admiral Dönitz's "wolf packs" will choke in the cold water, without the ability to float to the surface - the air will buzz with Allied aircraft, and the sea surface will be painted with patterns of anti-submarine ship groups.

That's how it all happened. The turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic occurred in the spring of 1943 - “Black May” became a terrible warning for German sailors - the Kriegsmarine lost 43 submarines in a month. It only got worse from there. The results of the combat work of the boats in 1943 were a complete disappointment for the German leadership - only 2.5 million tons of sunk cargo.

U-134 comes to an end

In 1944, the situation took a catastrophic turn: losses, compared to 1940, increased 11 times! The boats perished en masse, sometimes not even having time to get close to the convoys. Submarine bases on the French coast were lost. The Kriegsmarine was left without target designation - the use of long-range naval reconnaissance aircraft "Condor" and "Grif" became impossible due to the absolute superiority of the Allies in the air. Interruptions in the supply of fuel and spare parts, cracked naval codes, continuous raids by strategic bombers... the result was logical - in 1944, the tonnage of ships sunk by U-bots amounted to “only” 765,000 gr. reg. tons

By this time, the American industrial monster was completely out of control and continued to thresh equipment in completely paranormal quantities. The average pace of construction of the Liberty transports was only 24 days (the record holder is the Robert E. Peary, from the moment of its laying until the 135-meter vessel was ready for loading, 4 days and 15 hours passed).

Liberty were not the only commercial ships built during this period. At the same time, the Yankees launched 534 Victory type transports, about 500 T2 type tankers, etc. and so on. If necessary, the Americans were preparing to cast ship hulls entirely from reinforced concrete (concrete ship) - cheap and cheerful. And most importantly - extremely massively.

The Fritz were doomed - they simply did not have enough torpedoes for so many enemies.

130 escort aircraft carriers, 850 destroyers, 2710 Liberty transports... just for fun, the Yankees carried out “ideological sabotage” in Germany, scattering leaflets with statistical data about their own industry from airplanes. American humor turned out to be incomprehensible to the inhabitants of the Old World - Nazi propaganda confidently declared these figures to be “nonsense.”

Seven are not afraid of one

The losses of German submariners during the war years amounted to 768 sunk and destroyed boats. More than 20,000 people were trapped in steel coffins at the bottom of the Atlantic, Arctic and Indian oceans.

The Allied losses are no less frightening - more than 2,700 sunk ships with a total tonnage of 14.5 MILLION TONS

In addition, Kriegsmarine submariners destroyed 123 warships, including 2 British battleships, 3 attack and 4 escort aircraft carriers, 8 cruisers and 33 destroyers (the remaining losses were anti-submarine corvettes, frigates, sloops, submarines and naval tankers).

The Battle of the Atlantic is clearly divided into two periods:

The first period (September 1939 - end of 1942) – a confident victory for Germany. The magnificent British fleet turned out to be powerless against the underwater power of the Kriegsmarine; none of the technical and organizational measures taken could save the British from defeat; the Germans had their own answer to every British “trick”.

The British “sea wolves” were very lucky that they found an ally in the United States (could it have been otherwise? After all, they are Anglo-Saxon brothers). It is also worth considering that the main headache of the Reich was still connected with the Eastern Front - Her Majesty's Navy and the mighty US Navy received a considerable time bonus for the development of their own anti-submarine weapons. It is obvious that in a “fair fight”, one on one, German boats could completely destroy the British fleet and strangle Britain already in the early 1940s.

The spring of 1943 became a turning point for the Chrismarine sailors - from now on the boats lost the initiative, and in the future the fascist fleet expected inevitable defeat.

But who was the true fighter of the Battle of the Atlantic? The answer will seem a little strange to you: for example, this young black girl, a shipyard worker in Richmond, Virginia.

The Battle of the Atlantic was another confirmation of the well-known wisdom “seven are not afraid of one.” There were no super-ships, ingenious tactics and miracle weapons - the same flimsy corvettes and patrol seaplanes, with the same radars and Asdics, which regularly lost to submarines in 1939-1943, suddenly gained strength, squeezed the German fleet in a vice and tore him to shreds. The paradox has a simple explanation: there are 10 times more anti-submarine ships and aircraft.

Only the absolute quantitative superiority of the Allies in ships, aircraft and resources allowed them to withstand the attacks of German submarines. American industry won the war at sea - the Yankees simply crushed the Kriegsmarine with their enormous amount of equipment, like a steam roller rolling out a helpless frog on the asphalt. Brute force and nothing more.

Epilogue

On January 15, 1945, the British escort aircraft carrier HMS Thane was torpedoed at the mouth of the River Clyde - the damage was so severe that the ship was scrapped.
On May 7, 1945, German submariners achieved their last victory - "Electrobot" U-2353 destroyed two ships in one salvo - the Norwegian "Sneland I" and the British "Avondale Park" right in the Firth of Clyde.

Surprisingly, even in conditions of absolute Allied dominance at sea and air, broken codes, endless bombings, supply interruptions and other unfavorable circumstances, German submarines operated right under the enemy’s nose and continued to inflict sensitive blows on him - a direct confirmation of fantastic secrecy and the highest combat capability. stability of the submarine fleet.

U-218 leaves Kiel

Captured crew of U-175 aboard the US Coast Guard ship USCGC Spencer

http://www.libma.ru/
http://tsushima.su/
http://www.kriegsmarine.ru/
http://www.u-boote.ru/

Statistical data taken from the monograph “Actions of German submarines during the Second World War on sea communications”, Vershinin, D. A., Eremeev L. M., Shergin A. P., Voenizdat, 1956

Well, as I promised earlier, I’ll tell you a little about the German submarine type VII, which we will then have a tour of from the inside - and for brevity, I will henceforth simply call it “seven”.

This is not a simple boat, but a famous one. Even more.
She is the most important heroine of the “Battle of the Atlantic” on the German side. But not only that. It was also noted in the Mediterranean Sea, and it was noted quite well. In the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. And in the Western Arctic. And she even stuck her nose into the Indian Ocean once.

Sixty-five years have passed, and there are still fierce debates about it among historians and amateurs.
Some call such boats “Dönitz steel coffins.” Yes it is. Of all the series of German submarines, the most of them died during the war. And their “habitability” (level of internal comfort) was extremely low compared to other boats - both Germany and other countries. It was maximally “sharpened for weapons” to the detriment of the crew’s conditions of service, yes.
Others rightly say that such a boat, in the hands of a skillful crew and an enterprising commander, achieved fantastic success after a military campaign. And this is also true - some “sevens” returned to base with 7-8 pennants after one successful military campaign.

The “Seven” was perfectly controllable, and it holds a kind of record for reacting to danger - it was capable of battening down the hatches while cruising in 25-27 seconds (!) after detecting the enemy and diving to a depth of 10 meters (with an experienced crew, of course). She had an inconspicuous, low silhouette, and a fairly advanced torpedo weapon.

Let's not forget that the "seven" was also Gunter Prien's U-47, which sank the battleship Royal Oak in the very lair of the enemy - the British base of Scapa Flow, in October 1939.
The “Seven” U-331 in the Mediterranean Sea was led into an attack by Baron Tizengausen in 1941. The result of the attack was the sinking of the English battleship “Barham” on the high seas. This is undoubtedly an outstanding achievement. So, there are already two battleships.
Underwater ace No. 1 of World War II, Otto Kretschmer, fought on the U-99 U-99. Other aces also fought in the same type - for example, Joachim Schepke or Albrecht Brandi (by the way, he received all possible degrees of distinction for the Knight's Cross - Oak Leaves, Swords, Diamonds).
It was the “sevens” that sank the aircraft carriers - U-29 - Coreys in September 1939 and U-81 - Ark Royal in 1941.
And how many other things they sank, and what kind of binds they didn’t get into! They even shot down planes on their own (with standard anti-aircraft weapons). A few books are not enough! In short, the enemy is serious.

Meanwhile, the “seven” is just a piglet for an ocean boat: only 761-767 tons of displacement.
And the characteristics are not very serious. Judge for yourself: under the diesel engine in the surface position, they squeezed out a maximum of 17 knots, and the “economic” (optimal in terms of fuel consumption) speed was 10 knots. Just everything. And if the boat sailed at 12 knots, then its range decreased by 3000 (!) miles, to 6500 miles.
Their main enemies - destroyers - had 32-36 knots of surface speed. That is, twice the maximum of “seven”.
As for underwater travel (on electric motors), it’s time to burst into tears: the “seven” could travel 140 miles at a speed of 2 (two!) knots or 80 miles at a speed of 4 knots. And the maximum (for a very short time!) could give about 6.5 knots. That is, under water she did not move vigorously, but actually “crept on tiptoe.”

Actually, if the big war had started later, about three years, then this boat would hardly have had to fight seriously. It would be replaced as the main IX, and then, perhaps, XXI - the “boat of the future.” But history has no subjunctive mood, and be that as it may, these submarines broke into the security of convoys, sank countless transports and even - sometimes - enemy battleships and aircraft carriers.

The “seven” also has one more record, which is unlikely to ever be surpassed. This is the most massive submarine in the history of shipbuilding, 660 (six hundred and sixty!) of them were built. But only one has survived to this day - U-995, now standing in Laboe.

Now look at the archive photos of the “seven”.

Here is the launching of a new boat of project VIIc/41, Kiel, "Germania Werft". 1943

And this is, perhaps, the most famous “seven” - U-47 under the command of Gunther Prien, the first holder of the Knight's Cross among the Kriegsmarine submariners. She penetrated the protected and heavily guarded main British naval base of Scapa Flow, torpedoed the battleship Royal Oak and successfully escaped using deep currents, then returning back to Germany.
After this trip, the U-47 boat itself received this emblem (pictured) - “Bull of Scapa Flow”, as did the corvette captain Gunther Prien himself (he stands on the right with binoculars on the wheelhouse). The distinctive sign of the boat commander is a cap with a white top.

"Seven" in "Atlantic camouflage" returns to the Lorient base in France. You can also identify the boat commander here by his cap with a white top.

A visit to the "seven" by the Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine, Admiral Raeder (third from the left, with the admiral's insignia).
The farthest right is the modest captain zur see (in our opinion, a whim) Karl Dönitz - yes, yes, this same “Papa Karl”, commander of the Kriegsmarine submarine forces and the inspirer of unlimited submarine warfare. Four years later, he would become Grand Admiral of Germany, replacing Raeder as Commander-in-Chief, and two years later, Hitler, in his political will on April 30, 1945, would transfer the powers of Fuhrer of the German Reich and Reich President to him.

Loading a G7e torpedo through the torpedo hatch in the 2nd compartment.
Lorient base, France, 1941

Poster showing U-552 commanded by submarine ace Erich Topp. Presumably the base of Saint-Nazaire, France - return from a military campaign from the shores of the United States, where he sank a record tonnage of transports and tankers in early 1942.

And here is the underwater ace Erich Topp himself, filmed at the U-552 anti-aircraft periscope.

Another officer of U-552, while cruising off the US coast, early 1942.

And this is a watch in the enclosure of the conning tower of U-86. While cruising off the coast of the United States, October 1942. This thing is called UZO binoculars, a kind of replacement for a periscope on the surface.

U-203. Maintenance of torpedo tubes in the 1st (bow torpedo) compartment.

On Kriegsmarine submarines, it was customary to remove torpedoes from torpedo tubes every 4-5 days to check the instruments and preventive maintenance. Usually this work was performed by a sergeant major, deputy. Commander of the mine and torpedo unit of the boat.

Cooking in the galley of a Project VIIc/41 boat.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find many pictures of the interior of the VIIc boat, which is what we'll need for comparison. But what it is, you have a general idea.

The photographs are taken from the book by M. Morozov “German submarines of the VII series”, the text is mine.

The next post will be about my trip inside the U-995 boat and a short story about its compartments.

For those who want more details.
Some interesting information from the above-mentioned book by M. Morozov (extracts).

Torpedo weapons

The main weapon of the "sevens", of course, was the torpedo. It was represented by four bow and one stern 533-mm torpedo tubes with a supply of torpedoes (“eels,” as German submariners called them in their jargon). Modification A boats had only six spare torpedoes in the bow compartment, but in subsequent series the ammunition load increased due to the placement of one spare torpedo in the electric motor compartment and two in the superstructure. The latter were abandoned at the beginning of 1943, as cases of their damage as a result of attacks by anti-submarine forces became more frequent.
Torpedo tubes, in most respects similar to those of other world fleets, nevertheless had a number of interesting features. The torpedoes were pushed out of them not by compressed air, but by a special pneumatic piston, which greatly simplified the bubble-free torpedo firing system.
Changing the depth of stroke and the angle of rotation of the gyroscope of the “eels” could be done directly in the devices, from the calculating and solving device (CSD) located in the conning tower.
The design of the device ensured free exit of the torpedo from depths of up to 22 m. Reloading took relatively little time - for torpedoes stored inside a durable hull - from 10 to 20 minutes.

The central place in the submarine's torpedo armament complex was occupied by a computing device located in the conning tower. Mechanically, it received data on the submarine’s course and its speed, as well as the direction to the target read from the azimuth circle of the periscope or the “surface sighting optics” (Uber-wasserzieloptik) rack.
The Oberfeldwebel serving the SRP manually, at the commands of the commander, entered into the device the course, distance, speed and length of the target, as well as the combat course of the boat. Within a few seconds after this, the device calculated all the data necessary for firing and entered it into the torpedoes. Firing was carried out at the command of the commander by pressing buttons on the fire control stand located in the central post. In case of failure of the main rack, there was a reserve one in the bow compartment. It is interesting to note that, despite such advanced technology for that time, starting from the middle of the war, torpedo firing methods that did not require precise aiming began to become increasingly important.

Throughout the war, the German fleet was armed with torpedoes of two basic designs: designed in the early 20s. the steam-gas G7a (G is the designation of the torpedo caliber, 7 is the length in meters) and the electric G7e, which was put into service in 1929 (its design and testing were carried out in 1923-1929 by the German company IvS registered in Sweden under a veil of strict secrecy). The 500-mm G7 torpedo of the 1916 model served as a prototype for their development. Both torpedoes had a length of 7186 mm and a 280-kg combat charging compartment (BZO). Due to the heavy (665 kg) battery, the G7e weighed 75 kg more than the G7a (1603 versus 1528 kg). The greatest differences, of course, were the speed characteristics. The G7a could be equipped with 44, 40 and 30-knot modes, in which it could travel 5500, 7500 and 12,500 m, respectively (later, due to the improvement of the heating apparatus, the cruising range increased to 6000, 8000 and 14,000 m).
The electric G7e, when tested in 1929, covered only 2000 m at 28 knots, but by 1939 these figures had increased to 5000 m at 30 knots. In 1943, a new modification G7e (TZa) entered service, in which, by changing the design of the battery and introducing a torpedo heating system in the torpedo tube, the range was increased to 7500 m at 29 - 30 knots.
It should be noted that in the creation of traceless electric torpedoes, the Germans for a long time left behind the rest of the world's fleets, who managed to acquire such weapons only by the middle of the war. The G7e production technology was developed so effectively that the production of electric torpedoes turned out to be both cheaper and simpler compared to their combined-cycle counterpart.

It became increasingly difficult for the “wolf packs” to break through the guards of the convoys, and shooting from long distances rarely led to success. The response to this situation was the appearance of the FAT maneuvering device. The G7a torpedo equipped with it, after firing, could cover a distance from 500 to 12,500 m, after which it could turn in any direction at an angle of up to 135 degrees. Further movement was carried out at a speed of 5-7 knots in a “snake” pattern: the length of the section was from 800 to 1600 m, the circulation diameter was 300 m. The probability of being hit by such a torpedo, fired from the bow heading angles of the convoy across its course of movement, turned out to be very high. The first "seven", armed with FAT, left the port on November 23, 1942, and on December 29 the first successful attack took place. Since May 1943, the FAT II device (the length of the “snake” section is 800 m) began to be installed on G7e torpedoes. Due to the short range of the electric torpedo, this modification was considered by the German command as a self-defense weapon, fired from the stern torpedo tube towards the pursuing escort ship.

Artillery weapons

By the beginning of the war, boats of the VII series carried an 88-mm SKC/35 cannon with a barrel length of 45 calibers, located in front of the wheelhouse fence (ammunition capacity of 220 shells; shells were transferred from the artillery magazine to the top manually, along a chain), and a single-barreled 20-mm Flaks anti-aircraft gun on the installation SZO/37 with ammunition of 1500 shells.

The last use of an 88-mm gun in the Atlantic took place on June 19, 1942, when the U-701 “seven” sank the American armed trawler YP-389 off Hatteras Cape in a fierce surface battle. On November 14 of the same year, the BdU ordered the dismantling of all 88-mm guns - there was no longer a need to carry this extra weight.

The first batch of 40 20-mm twins entered the fleet only on July 15, 1943, and the number of quad “firlings” by this time did not exceed a dozen. However, it was then that a new composition of anti-aircraft weapons, known as “Tower 4,” received approval. It provided for the placement of two paired Flak38 on the upper platform and one “firling” in the “wintergarten”. The first “seven” converted in this way, U-758, won a battle against eight aircraft of the American aircraft carrier “Bogue” on June 8, 1943. Although the boat, like some of the attackers, was seriously damaged, and 11 of its crew were killed or wounded, the Avengers were unable to either sink or drive the submarine under water. On June 30, 1943, the BdU issued an order according to which only those “u-bots” that received “Tower 4” with a “firling” could be released on the campaign.

At the same time, the next stage of improving the anti-aircraft weapons of the “u-bots” took place. In the battles of the spring and summer of 1943, it became clear that numerous 20-mm anti-aircraft guns could cause serious damage to a patrol aircraft, but not before it had time to carry out an attack, which, with due persistence of the pilot, should have been fatal for the boat. In order to stop the attacker, a much more powerful and long-range weapon was required. It was the automatic 37-mm Flak M42 cannon, which entered service with the Kriegsmarine in mid-1943. By December 1, 18 “sevens” had exchanged their “fierlings” for a new machine gun.

During the war, German submarines of all types shot down at least 125 Allied aircraft (these figures do not include Soviet aircraft), losing 247 submarines to air action (not counting 51 destroyed by strategic aircraft in ports and another 42 sunk in interaction with surface ships). It should be noted that the vast majority of the 247 lost boats were attacked suddenly and only 31 were lost trying to defend themselves on the surface. The greatest successes in this non-trivial activity for submarines were achieved by the “sevens” U-333, U-648, which shot down three aircraft, and U-256, which defeated four aircraft.

Surveillance equipment

Not much is known about the commander's periscopes used on the VII series. It was a tube with a fixed eyepiece, which in the upper part could be telescopically extended to a considerable height. The periscope head could move in the vertical sector. Two pairs of optical prisms ensured greater accuracy in measuring the distance to the target. The commander's periscope was controlled by the commander himself, sitting on a bicycle-type seat. Rotating the pedals, he observed the horizon, and with a button in the right handle of the periscope, he focused it on the selected object. As noted in Soviet post-war reports, “periscope optics are coated. The glass is of very high quality.” The anti-aircraft periscope had a more primitive design, and observation through it was carried out from the central post.
The so-called “surface sighting optics” included a rack mechanically connected to the torpedo SRP, on which Zeiss binoculars with multiple magnification were installed during a surface attack. During surface navigation, the binoculars hung on the watch officer's neck and, during the dive, were carried to the central post.

Crew and habitability

The Type VIIC submarine had a crew of 44, including four officers. The regular category commander had the rank of lieutenant commander. The second figure on the ship was the 1st watch officer, who combined the duties of senior mate and commander of the mine-torpedo warhead. The 2nd watch officer performed duties corresponding in our fleet to the duties of the commander of the warhead-2. The last, fourth officer was the boat mechanic.
An important set of responsibilities fell on the shoulders of four chief sergeants. One of them acted as a navigator, the second as a boatswain, and the other two as a senior diesel operator and a senior engine operator, respectively.
The duties of a paramedic were performed by one of the non-commissioned officers. The rest of the boat's personnel were divided into technical (diesel operators, mechanics, radio operators and torpedo operators) and marine (helmswomen, signalmen, gunners, cook and boatswain's crew) divisions.

The organization of service on German submarines bore little resemblance to the domestic one. The personnel of the naval division were divided into three shifts. Every day, each sailor in the division spent eight hours on duty inside the boat, four on top watch, four on food and activities, and eight hours on sleep. Diesel operators and engine mechanics of the technical division carried out six-hour shifts in two shifts. The top watch changed every four hours. It consisted of a watch officer and four signalmen. The 1st and 2nd watch officers took over the top watch twice a day at 12-hour intervals.

The Sevens were among the smallest ocean-class submarines. Hence the extremely primitive, uncomfortable habitability for humans in all variants of this submarine, not excluding VIIC/41. Even Dönitz in his memoirs was forced to admit: “German submarines, compared to submarines of other countries, had much worse habitability, since they were built on the principle of maximizing the use of each ton of displacement for the actual combat qualities of the boat. On the boats, everything that could be called comfort was abandoned; everything necessary for combat operations was loaded to acceptable limits. The beds were occupied by boxes of provisions for several weeks. In the crowded compartments there were only narrow passages left.”
Even according to the staffing schedule, ordinary sailors lived in a compartment where there were only 12 beds for 22 people. Non-commissioned officers were not much better accommodated, with eight beds for 14 people. Officers and chief sergeants had individual beds arranged in two tiers, like in a soldier's barracks. To store personal belongings of crew members there was a special closet with many individual drawers that could be locked with a key. The characteristic heavy smell on the boat was richly flavored with French cologne, which was available to almost every member of the crew.

The fate of the surviving "Sevens"

After the end of World War II, the fate of the Kriegsmarine ships was decided at the Potsdam Conference. Some of them were divided between the fleets of the great powers, the rest were subject to destruction.
German submarines, which were among the last, were assembled at Lough Raine on the coast of Scotland. They were then taken out to sea in groups to be scuttled 30 miles north of Malin Head. If the demolition charges did not go off, the submarines sank the destroyers - the British Onslow and the Polish Bliskawica - with artillery fire. During this operation, codenamed “Deadlight” and lasting from November 1945 to January 1946, 119 German submarines sank, including 83 units of the VII series: of which one boat each of the VIID and VIIF series , the rest are VIIC and VIIC/41.
30 “u-bots” of various types were distributed among the three victorious countries - the USA, the USSR and the UK - as trophies. Two “sevens” became part of the French naval forces in the post-war period under the names “Mille” (formerly U-471) and “Lobi” (formerly LJ-766). The first was damaged by Allied aircraft in Toulon during a raid on August 6, 1944, and in this condition fell to the French. The second, expelled from the Kriegsmarine in August 1944, was captured after the surrender in La Rochelle. The French managed to collect spare parts from a dozen damaged boats left after the Germans surrendered in France, and put both named submarines into operation. "Mille" remained in the French fleet for a long time, and was decommissioned only in October 1963, "Lobi" - three years earlier.
Three Type VII boats - U-926, U-995 and U-1202 from the British share of the division became part of the Royal Norwegian Navy. They began to be called, respectively, “Kia”, “Kaura” and “Kinn” and for another fifteen years they were among the operating ones. One of them, U-995, will be discussed below.
The United States accepted U-977 and U-1105 as trophies, the first of which was sunk on February 2, 1946 during torpedo firing. Great Britain received as many as six “sevens” and also used them for experimental purposes.
In 1946, after the division of the German fleet, four boats of the VII series - U-1057, U-1058, U-1064 and U-1305 - arrived in the Soviet Union. All of them, under the names N-22-N-25, and from June 1949 as S-81-S-84, served in the Baltic Fleet until the end of December 1955, then three of them were excluded from the lists of Navy ships in 1957-1958 It is interesting to note that the former U-1305 was used by the Northern Fleet in 1957 in the area of ​​the Novaya Zemlya Islands as a target when testing new types of weapons, including nuclear torpedoes. There she was sunk in October of the same year. The long-lived U-1064 turned out to be, which after disarmament was reorganized first into the floating charging station PZS-33, and from June 1, 1957 into the training station UTS-49. She served in this capacity until March 1974.

One of the VIIC series boats has survived to this day. This is U-995, built by Blom und Voss in 1943. May 8, 1945, i.e. At the time of the surrender of Nazi Germany, she was undergoing repairs in Trondheim and did not share the fate of other German submarines, but was incorporated into the Norwegian fleet under the name Kaura and served mainly as a training ship. In January 1963, she was removed from the lists of the fleet. At the same time, negotiations began at the government level between Norway and Germany about the fate of this boat, which lasted for several years. In 1965, the submarine was delivered to West Germany; She stood in Kiel for several years. Finally, in 1971, she was transferred to the German Maritime Union. The submarine was reconstructed, giving it the appearance it had at the end of the war. Since March 1972, U-995 has been an integral part of the maritime memorial complex in the town of Laboe, near Kiel.

The outcome of any war depends on many factors, among which, of course, weapons are of considerable importance. Despite the fact that absolutely all German weapons were very powerful, since Adolf Hitler personally considered them the most important weapon and paid considerable attention to the development of this industry, they failed to inflict damage on their opponents that would significantly influence the course of the war. Why did it happen? Who is at the origins of the creation of a submarine army? Were the German submarines of World War II really that invincible? Why were such prudent Nazis unable to defeat the Red Army? You will find the answer to these and other questions in the review.

general information

Collectively, all equipment in service with the Third Reich during World War II was called the Kriegsmarine, and submarines made up a significant part of the arsenal. Underwater equipment became a separate industry on November 1, 1934, and the fleet was disbanded after the war ended, i.e., having existed for less than a dozen years. In such a short period of time, German submarines of World War II brought a lot of fear into the souls of their opponents, leaving their huge mark on the bloody pages of the history of the Third Reich. Thousands of dead, hundreds of sunk ships, all this remained on the conscience of the surviving Nazis and their subordinates.

Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine

During World War II, one of the most famous Nazis, Karl Doenitz, was at the helm of the Kriegsmarine. German submarines certainly played an important role in World War II, but without this man this would not have happened. He was personally involved in creating plans to attack opponents, participated in attacks on many ships and achieved success in this path, for which he was awarded one of the most significant awards of Nazi Germany. Doenitz was an admirer of Hitler and was his successor, which did a lot of harm to him during the Nuremberg trials, because after the death of the Fuhrer he was considered the commander-in-chief of the Third Reich.

Specifications

It is easy to guess that Karl Doenitz was responsible for the condition of the submarine army. German submarines in World War II, photos of which prove their power, had impressive parameters.

In general, the Kriegsmarine was armed with 21 types of submarines. They had the following characteristics:

• displacement: from 275 to 2710 tons;
• surface speed: from 9.7 to 19.2 knots;
• underwater speed: from 6.9 to 17.2;
• diving depth: from 150 to 280 meters.

This proves that the German submarines of World War II were not just powerful, they were the most powerful among the weapons of the countries that fought with Germany.

Composition of the Kriegsmarine

The warships of the German fleet included 1,154 submarines. It is noteworthy that until September 1939 there were only 57 submarines, the rest were built specifically to participate in the war. Some of them were trophies. Thus, there were 5 Dutch, 4 Italian, 2 Norwegian and one English and French submarines. All of them were also in service with the Third Reich.

Achievements of the Navy

The Kriegsmarine inflicted considerable damage on its opponents throughout the war. For example, the most effective captain Otto Kretschmer sank almost fifty enemy ships. There are also record holders among ships. For example, the German submarine U-48 sank 52 ships.

Throughout World War II, 63 destroyers, 9 cruisers, 7 aircraft carriers and even 2 battleships were destroyed. The largest and most notable victory for the German army among them can be considered the sinking of the battleship Royal Oak, whose crew consisted of a thousand people and its displacement was 31,200 tons.

Plan Z

Since Hitler considered his fleet extremely important for Germany’s triumph over other countries and had extremely positive feelings towards it, he paid considerable attention to it and did not limit funding. In 1939, a plan was developed for the development of the Kriegsmarine for the next 10 years, which, fortunately, never came to fruition. According to this plan, several hundred more of the most powerful battleships, cruisers and submarines were to be built.

Powerful German submarines of World War II

Photos of some surviving German submarine technology give an idea of ​​the power of the Third Reich, but only weakly reflect how strong this army was. The majority of the German fleet consisted of Type VII submarines; they had optimal seaworthiness, were of medium size, and most importantly, their construction was relatively inexpensive, which is important in

They could dive to a depth of 320 meters with a displacement of up to 769 tons, the crew ranged from 42 to 52 employees. Despite the fact that the “sevens” were quite high-quality boats, over time, Germany’s enemy countries improved their weapons, so the Germans also had to work on modernizing their brainchild. As a result of this, the boat received several more modifications. The most popular of these was the VIIC model, which not only became the personification of Germany's military power during the attack on the Atlantic, but was also much more convenient than previous versions. The impressive dimensions made it possible to install more powerful diesel engines, and subsequent modifications also featured durable hulls, which made it possible to dive deeper.

German submarines of the Second World War were subject to constant, as they would say now, upgrades. Type XXI is considered one of the most innovative models. An air conditioning system and additional equipment were created in this submarine, which was intended for a longer stay of the crew under water. A total of 118 boats of this type were built.

Kriegsmarine performance results

Germany of the Second World War, photos of which can often be found in books about military equipment, played a very important role in the offensive of the Third Reich. Their power cannot be underestimated, but it is worth considering that even with such patronage from the bloodiest Fuhrer in world history, the German fleet did not manage to bring its power closer to victory. Probably, good equipment and a strong army were not enough; for Germany’s victory, the ingenuity and courage that the brave soldiers of the Soviet Union possessed was not enough. Everyone knows that the Nazis were incredibly bloodthirsty and did not disdain much on their way, but neither an incredibly equipped army nor a lack of principles helped them. Armored vehicles, a huge amount of ammunition and the latest developments did not bring the expected results to the Third Reich.

In 1919, Germany was allowed to have the following ships in its fleet:

Type	Displacement, t	Main caliber	In service	In reserve
Battleships	10 000	280 mm	6	2
Light cruisers	6 000	150 mm	6	2
Destroyers	800		12
Destroyers	200		12

In addition to this, a number of small auxiliary vessels were allowed. Submarines and aircraft were banned.

July 1937 - Germany accedes to the Second London Naval Agreement (1936) (English).

Other

Light cruisers

• Type "Emden":
  • "Emden" - commissioned in 1925, sunk in 1945.
• Type "K":
  • "Konigsberg"
  • "Karlsruhe" - commissioned in 1927, sunk in 1940.
  • "Cologne" - commissioned in 1928, sunk in 1945.
• Leipzig type:
  • "Leipzig" - commissioned in 1929, scuttled in 1946.
  • "Nuremberg" - commissioned in 1934, transferred to the USSR in 1945.

Auxiliary cruisers

With the beginning of the war, a large number of civilian transport ships entered the fleet. Since the beginning of the war, 11 of them were converted into auxiliary cruisers (five more were being prepared, but never entered service). Moreover, the vessels for conversion were chosen not from the fastest ships, which were usually passenger vessels, but from commercial transport. The maximum speed of the raiders was in the region of 17-18 knots. 10 out of 11 raiders took part in hostilities, the total tonnage of ships captured and sunk by them, including those blown up by mines they laid, for the entire period of their active operations (1940-1943) amounted to approximately 950,000 GRT. Masquerading as ships from neutral countries, they were used as raiders, mainly in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Each ship, in addition to its name, which could change, had its own unique number.

Artillery training ships

Destroyers

By the beginning of the war, 21 destroyers were in service, and during the war, 19 more were commissioned.

In addition, the Kriegsmarine had transport ships, supply ships, blockade runners and a large number of small ships - minesweepers, submarine hunters, torpedo boats and others.

Kriegsmarine compared to the Royal Navy at the beginning of the war

• 15 battleships and battlecruisers (5 more were under construction),
• 7 aircraft carriers (5 were under construction),
• 66 cruisers (23 under construction),
• 184 destroyers (52 under construction) and
• 60 submarines.

Fleet actions

• Presence in waters around Spain during the Civil War - 1936-1939.
• Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945)
  • U-29 sinks HMS Courageous (1916) - September 1939
  • U-47 sinks the battleship HMS Royal Oak (1914) - October 1939
  • Battle of La Plata, Admiral Graf Spee scuttled - December 1939
  • Danish-Norwegian operation, Blücher sunk - April-June 1940
  • Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sink HMS Glorious (1916) - June 1940
  • Bismarck sinks HMS Hood (51) and dies - May 1941
  • Countering Arctic convoys:
    • Operation Cerberus - February 1942
    • German destroyers and U-456 cause fatal damage to HMS Edinburgh (C16) - May 1942
    • Operation "Knight's Move" - ​​June-July 1942
    • Operation Wunderland - August 1942
    • Battle in the Barents Sea - December 1942
    • Operation Citronella - September 1943
    • Battle of the North Cape, Scharnhorst sunk - December 1943
  • “Black May”, Germany lost 43 submarines - May 1943
  • Tirpitz sunk - November 1944
• Baltic Sea
  • Wilhelm Gustloff sunk - January 1945
• Mediterranean Theatre: until May 1944
  • U-331 sinks HMS Barham (1914) - November 1941
  • U-81 sinks HMS Ark Royal (91) - November 1941
  • U-557 sinks HMS Galatea (71) - December 1941
  • U-73 sinks HMS Eagle (1918) - August 1942
• Raiding of auxiliary cruisers:
  • Cormoran destroys HMAS Sydney and succumbs to damage - November 1941.
• Liquidation of the fleet
  • "Gneisenau", "Admiral Hipper", "Lutzow", "Graf Zeppelin" scuttled by the crew, "Admiral Scheer" sunk - March-May 1945
  • Operation Regenbogen (1945) - sinking of the fleet.

In total, 2,759 merchant ships and 148 allied ships were sunk by submarines, including 2 battleships, 3 aircraft carriers, 3 escort aircraft carriers. 630 Kriegsmarine submarines were lost in military campaigns, 123 in German waters, 215 were destroyed by their own crews, 38 were written off due to damage and wear and tear, 11 were transferred abroad, 153 went to the allies.

Among other things, one Royal Navy aircraft carrier and one Royal Navy battlecruiser were sunk by Kriegsmarine surface ships.

Ranks

• Grossadmiral ( Großadmiral)
• Admiral General ( Generaladmiral)
• Admiral ( Admiral)
• Vice Admiral ( Vizeadmiral)
• Rear Admiral ( Konteradmiral)
• Commander ( Kommodore)
• Captain of the Sea ( Kapitän zur See)
• Frigate Captain ( Fregattenkapitän)
• Corvette Captain ( Korvettenkapitän)
• Lieutenant Captain ( Kapitänleutnant)
• Senior Lieutenant ( Oberleutnant zur See)
• Lieutenant of the Sea ( Leutnant zur See)
• Senior Warrant Officer of the Sea ( Oberfähnrich zur See)
• Ensign of the Sea ( Fahnrich zur See)
• Naval Cadet ( Seekadett)
• Headquarters chief boatswain ( Staboberbootsmann)
• Chief boatswain ( Oberbootsmann)
• Stabsbotsman ( Stabsbootsmann)
• Boatswain ( Bootsmann)
• Ober-maat ( Obermaat)
• Ma'at ( Maat)
• Sailor-ober-staff-corporal ( Matrosenoberstabsgefreiter)
• Sailor-staff-corporal ( Matrosenstabsgefreiter)
• Sailor-haupt-corporal ( Matrosenhauptgefreiter)
• Sailor-Ober-Corporal ( Matrosenobergefreiter)
• Sailor-corporal ( Matrosengefreiter)
• Sailor ( Matrose)

Flags of ships and vessels of the German Navy

Flags of German Navy officials

Kriegsmarine OF9-Generaladmiral-Flag 1945 v1.svg

Flag of the Admiral General of the German Navy

Kriegsmarine OF8-Admiral-Flag 1945 v2.svg

Flag of the Admiral of the German Navy

Kriegsmarine OF7-Vizeadmiral-Flag 1945 v1.svg

Flag of a Vice Admiral of the German Navy

Kriegsmarine OF6-Konteradmiral-Flag 1945.svg

Flag of a Rear Admiral of the German Navy

see also

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Notes

Literature

• Zalessky K. A. Kriegsmarine. Navy of the Third Reich. M.: Yauza, Eksmo, 2005. ISBN 5-699-10354-6
• Kriegsmarine. Navy of the Third Reich. Eksmo, 2009. ISBN 5-699-29857-6, 978-5-699-29857-0
• Patyanin S., Morozov M., Nagirnyak V. Hitler's Navy: The Complete Kriegsmarine Encyclopedia. Eksmo, 2012. ISBN 978-5-699-56035-6
• Porten, E. von der
• Ruge F.
• Dönitz K.
• Reder E.
• Assman K. War at sea. Godt E. Submarine warfare In the book: Results of the Second World War. M.: Foreign Literature Publishing House, 1957. Pp. 156-195

Links

• , and Kriegsmarine on drittereich.info
• (English)
• (English)
• (English)
• (German)
• (German)
• , and (German)
• - photographs of operations for laying mines and Kriegsmarine ships of various types.

Kriegsmarine Commanders Large surface ships Battleships Aircraft carriers Heavy cruisers Light cruisers Auxiliary cruisers Destroyers Types: Fleets: Destroyers Types: Fleets: Torpedo boats Types Fleets: Artillery training Submarines (list) Projects Fleets

Excerpt characterizing the Kriegsmarine

- Well, tell him so.
- Mom, are you angry? You’re not angry, my dear, what’s my fault?
- No, what about it, my friend? If you want, I’ll go and tell him,” said the countess, smiling.
- No, I’ll do it myself, just teach me. Everything is easy for you,” she added, responding to her smile. - If only you could see how he told me this! After all, I know that he didn’t mean to say this, but he said it by accident.
- Well, you still have to refuse.
- No, don't. I feel so sorry for him! He is so cute.
- Well, then accept the offer. “And then it’s time to get married,” the mother said angrily and mockingly.
- No, mom, I feel so sorry for him. I don't know how I'll say it.
“You don’t have anything to say, I’ll say it myself,” said the countess, indignant that they dared to look at this little Natasha as if she were big.
“No, no way, I myself, and you listen at the door,” and Natasha ran through the living room into the hall, where Denisov was sitting on the same chair, by the clavichord, covering his face with his hands. He jumped up at the sound of her light steps.
“Natalie,” he said, approaching her with quick steps, “decide my fate.” It's in your hands!
- Vasily Dmitrich, I feel so sorry for you!... No, but you are so nice... but don’t... this... otherwise I will always love you.
Denisov bent over her hand, and she heard strange sounds, incomprehensible to her. She kissed his black, matted, curly head. At this time, the hasty noise of the countess's dress was heard. She approached them.
“Vasily Dmitrich, I thank you for the honor,” said the countess in an embarrassed voice, but which seemed stern to Denisov, “but my daughter is so young, and I thought that you, as a friend of my son, would turn to me first.” In this case, you would not put me in the need of refusal.
“Athena,” Denisov said with downcast eyes and a guilty look, he wanted to say something else and faltered.
Natasha could not calmly see him so pitiful. She began to sob loudly.
“Countess, I am guilty before you,” Denisov continued in a broken voice, “but know that I adore your daughter and your entire family so much that I would give two lives...” He looked at the countess and, noticing her stern face... “Well, goodbye, Athena,” he said, kissed her hand and, without looking at Natasha, walked out of the room with quick, decisive steps.

The next day, Rostov saw off Denisov, who did not want to stay in Moscow for another day. Denisov was seen off at the gypsies by all his Moscow friends, and he did not remember how they put him in the sleigh and how they took him to the first three stations.
After Denisov’s departure, Rostov, waiting for the money that the old count could not suddenly collect, spent another two weeks in Moscow, without leaving the house, and mainly in the young ladies’ room.
Sonya was more tender and devoted to him than before. She seemed to want to show him that his loss was a feat for which she now loves him even more; but Nikolai now considered himself unworthy of her.
He filled the girls' albums with poems and notes, and without saying goodbye to any of his acquaintances, finally sending all 43 thousand and receiving Dolokhov's signature, he left at the end of November to catch up with the regiment, which was already in Poland.

After his explanation with his wife, Pierre went to St. Petersburg. In Torzhok there were no horses at the station, or the caretaker did not want them. Pierre had to wait. Without undressing, he lay down on a leather sofa in front of a round table, put his big feet in warm boots on this table and thought.
– Will you order the suitcases to be brought in? Make the bed, would you like some tea? – asked the valet.
Pierre did not answer because he did not hear or see anything. He began to think at the last station and continued to think about the same thing - about something so important that he did not pay any attention to what was happening around him. Not only was he not interested in the fact that he would arrive in St. Petersburg later or earlier, or whether he would or would not have a place to rest at this station, but it was still in comparison with the thoughts that occupied him now whether he would stay for a few days. hours or a lifetime at this station.
The caretaker, the caretaker, the valet, the woman with Torzhkov sewing came into the room, offering their services. Pierre, without changing his position with his legs raised, looked at them through his glasses, and did not understand what they could need and how they could all live without resolving the questions that occupied him. And he was preoccupied with the same questions from the very day he returned from Sokolniki after the duel and spent the first, painful, sleepless night; only now, in the solitude of the journey, did they take possession of him with special power. No matter what he started to think about, he returned to the same questions that he could not solve, and could not stop asking himself. It was as if the main screw on which his whole life was held had turned in his head. The screw did not go in further, did not go out, but spun, not grabbing anything, still on the same groove, and it was impossible to stop turning it.
The caretaker came in and humbly began to ask His Excellency to wait only two hours, after which he would give courier for His Excellency (what will happen, will happen). The caretaker was obviously lying and only wanted to get extra money from the passerby. “Was it bad or good?” Pierre asked himself. “For me it’s good, for another person passing through it’s bad, but for him it’s inevitable, because he has nothing to eat: he said that an officer beat him for this. And the officer nailed him because he needed to go faster. And I shot at Dolokhov because I considered myself insulted, and Louis XVI was executed because he was considered a criminal, and a year later they killed those who executed him, also for something. What's wrong? What well? What should you love, what should you hate? Why live, and what am I? What is life, what is death? What force controls everything?” he asked himself. And there was no answer to any of these questions, except one, not a logical answer, not to these questions at all. This answer was: “If you die, everything will end. You’ll die and find out everything, or you’ll stop asking.” But it was also scary to die.
The Torzhkov merchant offered her goods in a shrill voice, especially goat shoes. “I have hundreds of rubles that I have nowhere to put, and she stands in a torn fur coat and timidly looks at me,” thought Pierre. And why is this money needed? Can this money add exactly one hair to her happiness, peace of mind? Could anything in the world make her and me less susceptible to evil and death? Death, which will end everything and which should come today or tomorrow, is still in a moment, in comparison with eternity.” And he again pressed the screw that was not gripping anything, and the screw still turned in the same place.
His servant handed him a book of the novel in letters to m m e Suza, cut in half. [Madame Suza.] He began to read about the suffering and virtuous struggle of some Amelie de Mansfeld. [Amalia Mansfeld] “And why did she fight against her seducer,” he thought, “when she loved him? God could not put into her soul aspirations that were contrary to His will. My ex-wife didn't fight and maybe she was right. Nothing has been found, Pierre told himself again, nothing has been invented. We can only know that we know nothing. And this is the highest degree of human wisdom.”
Everything in himself and around him seemed to him confusing, meaningless and disgusting. But in this very disgust for everything around him, Pierre found a kind of irritating pleasure.
“I dare to ask your Excellency to make room for a little bit, for them,” said the caretaker, entering the room and leading behind him another traveler who had been stopped for lack of horses. The man passing by was a squat, broad-boned, yellow, wrinkled old man with gray overhanging eyebrows over shiny eyes of an indeterminate grayish color.
Pierre took his feet off the table, stood up and lay down on the bed prepared for him, occasionally glancing at the newcomer, who with a sullenly tired look, without looking at Pierre, was heavily undressing with the help of a servant. Left in a worn-out sheepskin coat covered with nankin and in felt boots on thin, bony legs, the traveler sat down on the sofa, leaning his very large, short-cropped head, wide at the temples, against the back and looked at Bezukhy. The stern, intelligent and insightful expression of this look struck Pierre. He wanted to talk to the passerby, but when he was about to turn to him with a question about the road, the passerby had already closed his eyes and folded his wrinkled old hands, on the finger of one of which there was a large cast-iron ring with the image of Adam’s head, sat motionless, either resting, or about thinking deeply and calmly about something, as it seemed to Pierre. The traveler's servant was covered with wrinkles, also a yellow old man, without a mustache or beard, which apparently had not been shaved, and had never grown on him. A nimble old servant dismantled the cellar, prepared the tea table, and brought a boiling samovar. When everything was ready, the traveler opened his eyes, moved closer to the table and poured himself one glass of tea, poured another for the beardless old man and handed it to him. Pierre began to feel uneasy and necessary, and even inevitable, to enter into a conversation with this passing person.
The servant brought back his empty, overturned glass with a half-eaten piece of sugar and asked if anything was needed.
- Nothing. “Give me the book,” said the passerby. The servant handed him a book, which seemed spiritual to Pierre, and the traveler began to read. Pierre looked at him. Suddenly the traveler put the book aside, laid it closed, and, again closing his eyes and leaning on the back, sat down in his previous position. Pierre looked at him and did not have time to turn away when the old man opened his eyes and fixed his firm and stern gaze straight into Pierre’s face.
Pierre felt embarrassed and wanted to deviate from this gaze, but the brilliant, senile eyes irresistibly attracted him to them.

“I have the pleasure of speaking with Count Bezukhy, if I’m not mistaken,” said the traveler slowly and loudly. Pierre silently and questioningly looked through his glasses at his interlocutor.
“I heard about you,” continued the traveler, “and about the misfortune that befell you, my lord.” “He seemed to emphasize the last word, as if he said: “yes, misfortune, whatever you call it, I know that what happened to you in Moscow was a misfortune.” “I’m very sorry about that, my lord.”
Pierre blushed and, hastily lowering his legs from the bed, bent over to the old man, smiling unnaturally and timidly.
“I didn’t mention this to you out of curiosity, my lord, but for more important reasons.” “He paused, not letting Pierre out of his gaze, and shifted on the sofa, inviting Pierre to sit next to him with this gesture. It was unpleasant for Pierre to enter into conversation with this old man, but he, involuntarily submitting to him, came up and sat down next to him.
“You are unhappy, my lord,” he continued. -You are young, I am old. I would like to help you to the best of my ability.
“Oh, yes,” Pierre said with an unnatural smile. - Thank you very much...Where are you passing from? “The face of the traveler was not kind, even cold and stern, but despite that, both the speech and the face of the new acquaintance had an irresistibly attractive effect on Pierre.
“But if for some reason you don’t like talking to me,” said the old man, “then just say so, my lord.” - And he suddenly smiled unexpectedly, a fatherly tender smile.
“Oh no, not at all, on the contrary, I’m very glad to meet you,” said Pierre, and, looking again at the hands of his new acquaintance, he took a closer look at the ring. He saw Adam's head on it, a sign of Freemasonry.
“Let me ask,” he said. -Are you a Mason?
“Yes, I belong to the brotherhood of free stonemasons,” said the traveler, looking deeper and deeper into Pierre’s eyes. “Both on my own behalf and on their behalf, I extend a brotherly hand to you.”
“I’m afraid,” said Pierre, smiling and hesitating between the trust instilled in him by the personality of a Freemason, and the habit of mocking the beliefs of the Freemasons, “I’m afraid that I’m very far from understanding how to say this, I’m afraid that my way of thinking about everything the universe is so opposite to yours that we will not understand each other.
“I know your way of thinking,” said the Mason, “and that way of thinking that you are talking about, and which seems to you to be the product of your mental labor, is the way of thinking of most people, it is the monotonous fruit of pride, laziness and ignorance.” Excuse me, my lord, if I did not know him, I would not have spoken to you. Your way of thinking is a sad delusion.
“Just as I can assume that you are also in error,” said Pierre, smiling faintly.
“I will never dare to say that I know the truth,” said the Mason, more and more striking Pierre with his certainty and firmness of speech. – No one alone can reach the truth; “Only stone by stone, with the participation of everyone, millions of generations, from the forefather Adam to our time, is the temple being erected, which should be a worthy dwelling of the Great God,” said the Mason and closed his eyes.
“I have to tell you, I don’t believe, I don’t... believe in God,” Pierre said with regret and effort, feeling the need to express the whole truth.
The Mason looked carefully at Pierre and smiled, as a rich man holding millions in his hands would smile at a poor man who would tell him that he, the poor man, does not have five rubles that can make him happy.