German submarine U-140 (1940)

U-Boat Infobox
type=IID
fieldpost number=
yard number=
order date=
keel=November 16, 1939
launch=June 28, 1940
commission=August 7, 1940
yard=Deutschewerk, Kiel
U-Boat Patrol
startdate=Start Date
enddate=End Date
assigned unit=Assigned Unit
U-Boat Patrol
startdate=November 20, 1940
enddate=December 17, 1940
assigned unit=1st FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=June 19, 1941
enddate=June 30, 1941
assigned unit=22nd FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=July 7, 1941
enddate=July 24, 1941
assigned unit=22nd FlotillaU_Boat Command
startdate=August, 1940
enddate=April, 1941
name=Kptlt. Hans-Peter Hinsch
U_Boat Command
startdate=April, 1941
enddate=December, 1941
name=Kptlt. Hans-Jürgen Hellriegel
U_Boat Command
startdate=December, 1941
enddate=August, 1942
name=Kptlt. Klaus Popp
U_Boat Command
startdate=September, 1942
enddate=July, 1944
name=Kptlt. Albrecht Markert
U_Boat Command
startdate=August, 1944
enddate=November, 1944
name=Kptlt. Herbert Zeissier
U_Boat Command
startdate=November, 1944
enddate=May, 1945
name=Kptlt. Wolfgang Scherfling
U_Boat Sink
type=Type of Ship Sunk
total=Number of Ships Sunk
tonnage=Gross Registered Tonnage
U_Boat Sink
type=Commercial Vessels
total=3
tonnage=13,204
U_Boat Sink
type=Military Vessels
total=1
tonnage=206

Unterseeboot 140 (or U-140), was a German submarine built during World War II. She saw only one combat patrol, but still managed to see action as a training boat in the summer of 1941. Built at Kiel shipyards during 1939 and 1940, "U-140" was a IID Type U-boat, which meant she was too small for major operational work in the Atlantic Ocean, which was now required by the Kriegsmarine as the Second Battle of the Atlantic expanded.

War Patrol

The "U-140" only had one raiding patrol, under her first captain, Hans-Peter Hinsch. He took her round the north of Scotland in December 1940 following her work-up program, and it was here she sank her first victim, twelve days into the cruise. He sank two more six days later north of Ireland before he headed home towards retirement for the boat. "U-140" was docked, her crew transferred and she was converted into a training ship, designed to operate solely in the Baltic Sea, training submariners for the main U-boat force.

It was during this necessary yet onerous duty that her new captain, Hans-Jürgen Hellriegel, found himself facing a small Soviet submarine on the surface, well into the Baltic a month after the invasion of Russia. In a careful attack, "U-140" torpedoed and sank her rival with his scratch crew of new recruits. Orders had been pushing "U-140" further into the Baltic during the preceding months, with the hope that she might achieve just such a victory.

Following this excitement, "U-140" returned to training duties, which she continued for the remained of the war without further incident, save in the final months, when she was transferred to Wilhelmshaven in a general ship of equipment and personnel to te West. It was there, on the 2 May 1945 in Jade Bay, that "U-140" was scuttled by her crew to prevent her seizure by the advancing British forces. Post-war she was raised and scrapped.

Raiding career

References

* Sharpe, Peter, "U-Boat Fact File", Midland Publishing, Great Britain: 1998. ISBN 1-85780-072-9.
* [http://www.uboat.net/boats/u140.htm U-boat.net webpage for "U-140"]

*See Also: List of U-boats
*For other boats of the same name, see: Unterseeboot 140