UC32 Hildawell

[Guest keithediver]

Does anyone have any info on UC32 and the SS Hildawell which was sunk by this sub ?

[milford_lass]

http://www.uboat.net/wwi/ships_hit/2854.html info on the ship

http://www.uboat.net/wwi/boats/successes/u...html............ info on the ships sunk

Type UC 32

Shipyard Vulcan, Hamburg (Werk 71)

Ordered 29 Aug, 1915 Laid down

Launched 12 Aug, 1916 Commissioned 13 Sep, 1916

Commanders 13 Sep, 1916 - 23 Feb, 1917 Oblt. Herbert Breyer

Career 3 patrols

27 Nov, 1918 - 23 Feb, 1917 I Flotilla

Successes 6 ships sunk for a total of 9.083 tons.

Fate 23 Feb, 1917 - Blew up on her own mines off Roker Pier LH 54.54.521N 01.19.320W. 19 dead and 3 survivors.

SM UC 32 lies in position 54 54'.521 N 001 19'.320 W (WGS84) about 0.25-miles E by N from Roker lighthouse at Sunderland and three men were picked up after she blew up. Her Captain Herbert Breyer and two crewmen. She lies in 13m of water, in three broken sections, with her batteries etc strewn all over. Unfortunately local divers lifted her props and periscope about 14-years ago.

here is a scetch of the sub

http://www.uboat.net/wwi/types/index.html?type=UC+II

hope it helps........ all this was on www.u-boat.net

shirl

[milford_lass]

HILDAWELL, 2,494grt, 20 December 1916, North Sea, mined and sunk, 22 lives lost including Master

[Clio]

Chapter and verse on UC 32 in Silent Warriors vol 1

[Guest keithediver]

http://www.uboat.net/wwi/ships_hit/2854.html info on the ship

http://www.uboat.net/wwi/boats/successes/u...html............ info on the ships sunk

Type UC 32

Shipyard Vulcan, Hamburg (Werk 71)

Ordered 29 Aug, 1915 Laid down

Launched 12 Aug, 1916 Commissioned 13 Sep, 1916

Commanders 13 Sep, 1916 - 23 Feb, 1917 Oblt. Herbert Breyer

Career 3 patrols

27 Nov, 1918 - 23 Feb, 1917 I Flotilla

Successes 6 ships sunk for a total of 9.083 tons.

Fate 23 Feb, 1917 - Blew up on her own mines off Roker Pier LH 54.54.521N 01.19.320W. 19 dead and 3 survivors.

SM UC 32 lies in position 54 54'.521 N 001 19'.320 W (WGS84) about 0.25-miles E by N from Roker lighthouse at Sunderland and three men were picked up after she blew up. Her Captain Herbert Breyer and two crewmen. She lies in 13m of water, in three broken sections, with her batteries etc strewn all over. Unfortunately local divers lifted her props and periscope about 14-years ago.

here is a scetch of the sub

http://www.uboat.net/wwi/types/index.html?type=UC+II

hope it helps........ all this was on www.u-boat.net

shirl

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thanks do you know what happened to herbert breyer ?

[Wrecktec]

thanks do you know what happened to herbert breyer ?

Hi Keith,

Mr Rolf Mitchinson, a resident of Hendon, Sunderland at the time, stated, “As a young boy of nine years old, I can remember living in a house that overlooked the quayside and docks and I remember watching as three U-boat sailors, one of whom was the commander or captain, were brought ashore under armed escort. I can still see the hatred against the Germans on the faces of those local Hendon people, who lined the quay, they must have really despised them”. Mr Mitchinson said. “The three men were jeered and spat on when they were helped ashore from the boat and onto the quayside, before some armed policemen led them away”. He lightly smiled and said “The captain, however, did show his gratitude at being rescued because he gave one of his rescuers a memento from his pocket, I think it may have been a cigarette lighter or case, they certainly seemed happy to still be alive, because the North Sea around here is very cold at the best of times”.

Breyer was sent to a prison camp along with his two crewmen and they were released after the war.

The wreck of the Hildawell was never located, but it is firmly believed that she sank after striking one of UC 32's mines, laid just a little south of Sunderland, however there is no proof of that until the wreck can be identified?

First patrol of UC 32:

UC 32 left Germany on 11 December 1916 and cruised along the English east coast to lay mines, between the Rivers Tees and Tyne. On the evening of 13 December six mines were laid and twelve more the following morning off Sunderland. On the 14th, the 1,941-ton SS BURNHOPE (1907- Captain William C. Saddler) detonated one of the mines laid that same day. The steamer had just set out on a voyage from Hartlepool to London with a 2,600-ton cargo of coal and was swinging to starboard before altering course in Hartlepool Bay. The pressure and blast from the enormous explosion that followed smashed the ships wheelhouse windows and even the glass in the compass binnacles; a second explosion beneath the port bow followed seconds later, which so seriously damaged the vessel that she began to sink by the bows. The captain immediately ordered the starboard lifeboat made ready and swung the ship to portside in order to reach shallow water. After 20-minutes, her bows touched ground and a minesweeper towed her stern-end round, into the shallower water. However at 0900hrs, the BURNHOPE (1907 - Burnett S.S. Co., Ltd., Newcastle) took on a big list to port and her crew, except for the captain, abandoned ship. Gradually the list got so bad that by 1015hrs she went over onto her side and Captain Saddler had to be picked up out of the sea by the crew of the minesweeper, unfortunately, only to suffer a heart attack and die soon afterwards.

A mine from UC 32 also probably sunk the 2,494-ton defensively armed SS HILDAWELL (1892 - T.W. Willis, West Hartlepool) off Sunderland; she was bound from Bilbao for Middlesbrough with iron ore and all of her crew was lost; the mine was laid on 14 December. Having dropped her pilot off at Yarmouth in Norfolk on 19 December 1916, the ship was never seen again.

Cheers Ron