SM U-20 (Germany)

{{See also|Sinking of RMS Lusitania}}

On 7 May 1915, U-20 was patrolling off the southern coast of Ireland under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger. Three months earlier, on 4 February, the Germans had established a U-boat blockade around the British Isles and had declared any vessel in it a legitimate target. At about 13:40 Schwieger was at the periscope and saw a vessel approaching. From a distance of about {{cvt|700|m|yd}}, Schwieger noted she had four funnels and two masts, making her a passenger liner and he fired a torpedo. It hit on the starboard side, almost directly below the bridge. Schwieger wrote that he was surprised by the size of the explosion, reasoning that a second explosion must have happened, possibly caused by coal dust, a boiler explosion or powder. According to his logs, only then did he recognise her as Lusitania, a vessel in the British Fleet Reserve.{{cite web|URL=https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/english-translation-u20-war-diary|title=English Translation of His Majesty's Submarine U-20 War Diary}} In 18 minutes, Lusitania sank with 1,197 casualties. The wreck lies in {{cvt|300|ft}} of water.

Fifteen minutes after he had fired his torpedo, Schwieger noted in his war diary,

{{blockquote|It looks as if the ship will stay afloat only for a very short time. [I gave order to] dive to {{convert|25|m|ft}} and leave the area seawards. I couldn't have fired another torpedo into this mass of humans desperately trying to save themselves.}}

There was at the time a great controversy about the sinking, over whether Lusitania was armed, carrying troops or illegal explosives to England and over Schwieger's method of attack. The Allies and the United States originally thought the U-20 fired two torpedoes. Postwar investigations showed only one was fired.

Before Schwieger got back to the docks at Wilhelmshaven for refuelling and supplies, the United States had formally protested to Berlin against the brutality of his action. Kaiser Wilhelm II wrote in the margins of the American note, "Utterly impertinent", "outrageous" and "this is the most insolent thing in tone and bearing that I have had to read since the Japanese note last August". To keep America out of the war, in June the Kaiser was compelled to rescind unrestricted submarine warfare and require all passenger liners be left unmolested. On 4 September 1915 Schwieger was back at sea with U-20, {{cvt|85|nmi}} off the Fastnet Rock in the south Irish Sea. This rock held one of the key navigational markers in the western ocean, the Fastnet Lighthouse, and any ships passing in and out of the Irish Sea would be within visual contact of it.

RMS Hesperian was beginning a run outward bound from Liverpool to Quebec and Montreal, with a general cargo, also doubling as a hospital ship, and carrying about 800 passengers when she was attacked and sunk by U-20 off the Fastnet.

{{blockquote|Only a few days before, Count Bernsdorff, the German Ambassador, had assured the United States government that passenger liners will not be sunk without warning and without ensuring the safety of the non-combatants aboard providing that the liners do not try to escape or offer resistance.|Archibald HurdThe History of the Great War: The Merchant Navy, Vol. II}}

Schwieger was reprimanded by the Admiralty but was unrepentant. The Germans decided to report that the ship was hit by a mine.

File:U 20 grounded Denmark 1916.JPG coast in 1916. Torpedoes had been exploded in the bow to destroy the boat]]

On 4 November 1916, U-20 grounded on the Danish coast south of Vrist, a little north of Thorsminde after suffering damage to its engines. Her crew attempted to destroy her with explosives the following day, succeeding only in damaging the boat's bow but making it inoperative as a warship.[https://web.archive.org/web/20071008001927/http://www.orlogsmuseet.dk/kroneng522.htm "Major themes of the exhibition"], 'World War I'. Royal Danish Naval Museum (Archived from [http://www.orlogsmuseet.dk/kroneng522.htm the original] on 8 October 2007) U-20 remained on the beach until 1925 when the Danish government blew it up in a "spectacular explosion". The Danish navy removed the deck gun and made it unserviceable by cutting holes in vital parts. The gun was kept in the naval stores at Holmen in Copenhagen for almost 80 years.{{cite web |url=https://www.rmslusitania.info/u-20/ |title=U-20 {{!}} {{!}} The Lusitania ResourceThe Lusitania Resource |website=www.rmslusitania.info |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512044353/http://www.rmslusitania.info/u-20/ |archive-date=2011-05-12}}rmslusitania.info The conning tower was removed and placed on the front lawn of the local museum Strandingsmuseum St. George Thorsminde, where it remains.{{cite book |title=Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania |publisher=Crown |author=Erik Larson |year=2015 |chapter=Epilogue: Person Effects |page=349|author-link=Erik Larson (author) }}{{cite web|url=http://www.strandmus.dk/uk-version/index-uk.htm|title=Strandingsmuseum St. George Thorsminde|access-date=15 March 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029192123/http://www.strandmus.dk/uk-version/index-uk.htm|archive-date=29 October 2013}}{{Cite web | url=http://www.seawarmuseum.dk/da |title = Sea War Museum Jutland}} The novelist Clive Cussler claimed his National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) located the remains of U-20 in 1984, about {{cvt|400|yd}} from shore.[http://www.numa.net/expeditions/north_sea_and_english_channel_hunt.html North Sea and English Channel Hunt] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031228064254/http://www.numa.net/expeditions/north_sea_and_english_channel_hunt.html |date=28 December 2003 }}

{{Clear}}

• Room 40

{{Reflist|group=Note}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |first1=Thomas A. |last1=Bailey |first2=Paul B. |last2=Ryan |title=The Lusitania Disaster: An Episode in Modern Warfare and Diplomacy |publisher=Free Press/Collier Macmillan |location=New York/London |year=1975}}
• {{cite book

|last1=Gröner

|first1=Erich

|last2=Jung

|first2=Dieter

|last3=Maass

|first3=Martin

|translator-last1=Thomas

|translator-first1=Keith

|translator-last2=Magowan

|translator-first2=Rachel

|year=1991

|title=German Warships 1815–1945, U-boats and Mine Warfare Vessels

|volume=2

|location=London

|publisher=Conway Maritime Press

|isbn=0-85177-593-4

|ref=CITEREFGröner1991

}}

• {{cite book |title=Der Handelskrieg mit U-Booten. 5 Vols |last=Spindler |first=Arno |orig-year=1932|year=1966|publisher= Mittler & Sohn. Vols. 4+5, dealing with 1917+18, are very hard to find: Guildhall Library, London, has them all, also Vol. 1-3 in an English translation: The submarine war against commerce|location=Berlin }}
• {{cite book |title=Room 40: British Naval Intelligence 1914–1918|last=Beesly |first=Patrick |year=1982 |publisher= H Hamilton |location=London |isbn=978-0241108642 }}
• {{cite book |title=A Naval History of World War I|last=Halpern |first=Paul G. |year=1995 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-1857284980 }}
• {{cite book |title=Die Unterseeboote der Kaiserlichen Marine |last=Roessler |first=Eberhard |year=1997 |publisher= Bernard & Graefe |location=Bonn |isbn=978-3763759637 }}
• {{cite book |title=Die U-Boote des Kaisers |last=Schroeder |first=Joachim |year=2002 |publisher= Bernard & Graefe |location=Bonn |isbn=978-3763762354 }}
• {{cite book |title=Room 40: German Naval Warfare 1914–1918. Vol I., The Fleet in Action|last=Koerver |first=Hans Joachim |year=2008 |publisher=LIS Reinisch |location=Steinbach |isbn=978-3-902433-76-3 }}
• {{cite book |title=Room 40: German Naval Warfare 1914–1918. Vol II., The Fleet in Being|last=Koerver |first=Hans Joachim |year=2009 |publisher=LIS Reinisch |location=Steinbach |isbn=978-3-902433-77-0 }}

{{Commons category|German Type U 20 submarine}}

• [http://www.strandingsmuseet.dk/U20 U20] at Strandingsmuseum St. George, Thorsminde
• [http://www.orlogsmuseet.dk/info/eng.htm Royal Danish Naval Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723012946/http://www.orlogsmuseet.dk/info/eng.htm |date=23 July 2012 }}
• [http://www.u54.suedholland-ferienhaus.de/html/s_m__u_54.html Photos of cruises of German submarine U-54 in 1916–1918.] Great photo quality, comments in German.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20091130023342/http://www.europafilmtreasures.eu/PY/269/see-the-film-the_enchanted_circle A 44 min. film from 1917 about a cruise of the German submarine U-35.] A German propaganda film without dead or wounded; many details about submarine warfare in World War I.
• {{cite Uboat.net

|id=20

|name=U 20

|type=1sub

}}

• [http://germannavalwarfare.info/indexbr.htm Room 40:] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181015003000/http://germannavalwarfare.info/indexbr.htm |date=15 October 2018 }} original documents, photos and maps about World War I German submarine warfare and British Room 40 Intelligence from The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, UK.

{{U-19 class submarines}}

{{November 1916 shipwrecks}}

{{Coord |56|35|00|N|08|07|50|E|type:landmark_region:DK|display=title}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:U0020}}

Category:Type U 19 submarines

Category:Ships built in Danzig

Category:1912 ships

Category:U-boats commissioned in 1913

Category:World War I submarines of Germany

Category:RMS Lusitania

Category:Maritime incidents in 1916

Category:U-boats sunk in 1916

Category:World War I shipwrecks in the North Sea