Built at Hamburg, the submarine was commissioned in October 1917. Initially intended as a submersible merchantman for transporting critical war materiel through the British blockade, she was converted to a combat ship while under construction.
Service history
U-152 was actively employed in the Atlantic during the last year of the conflict. Among her victims were two American schooners, Julia Frances (sunk on 27 January 1918) and A.E. Whyland (sunk on 13 March 1918), the Norwegian barqueStifinder (boarded and scuttled on 13 October 1918), the Spanish Giralda (sunk on 25 January 1918), and the U.S. Navy cargo ship USS Ticonderoga. The latter was sunk, after a two-hour gun battle, with heavy casualties among her crew and passengers, on 30 September 1918. The previous day, 29 September, the submarine had also fought a gun battle with the Navy oiler USS George G. Henry, but despite being badly damaged the American ship escaped.
After returning to Germany in November 1918, at the end of her final wartime cruise, U-152 was surrendered to the Allies at Harwich on 24 November 1918 in accordance with the requirements of the Armistice with Germany. She was exhibited at Tower Bridge in London in December 1918, and then laid up at Portsmouth. On 30 June 1921, she was towed out into the English Channel and scuttled.[2][3]
Newspaper report on the sinking of USS Ticonderoga
Bark Stifinder sinking
James Jonas Madison
Two U.S. Navy officers captured when the submarine sank USS Ticonderoga on 30 September 1918. They are Lt. Frank L. Muller, USNRF (left), and Lt. (j.g) Junius H. Fulcher, USNRF
USS George G. Henry
Officers, crewmen and a former prisoner of war, Lt. Frank L. Muller, USNRF, Executive Officer of USS Ticonderoga (standing third from right, wearing his uniform and a civilian cap), on the submarine's foredeck, while she was passing through the Kiel Canal on the way to Harwich, England to be surrendered, 28 November 1918.
^*McCartney, Innes (2002). Lost patrols : submarine wrecks of the English Channel. Penzance: Periscope. ISBN978-1-90438-104-4.
^Dodson, Aidan; Cant, Serena (2020). Spoils of War: the fate of enemy fleets after the two World Wars. Barnsley: Seaforth. pp. 54, 12. ISBN978-1-5267-4198-1.
^Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit by U 152". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
Bibliography
Gröner, Erich; Jung, Dieter; Maass, Martin (1991). U-boats and Mine Warfare Vessels. German Warships 1815–1945. Vol. 2. Translated by Thomas, Keith; Magowan, Rachel. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN0-85177-593-4.
Bodo Herzog/Günter Schomaekers: Ritter der Tiefe – Die erfolgreichsten U-Bootkommandanten der Welt. Verlag Welsermühl, Wels und München 1976, ISBN3-85339-136-2
Jung, Dieter (2004). Die Schiffe der Kaiserlichen Marine 1914-1918 und ihr Verbleib [German Imperial Navy ships 1914-1918 and their fate] (in German). Bonn: Bernard & Graefe. ISBN3-7637-6247-7.
Paul Kemp: Die deutschen und österreichischen U-Boot Verluste in beiden Weltkriegen. Urbes Verlag Hans Jürgen Hansen, Gräfelfing vor München 1998, ISBN3-924896-43-7
Eberhard Möller / Werner Brack: Enzyklopädie deutscher U-Boote, Von 1904 bis zur Gegenwart, Motorbuch Verlag, ISBN3-613-02245-1
