Horrific Hauntings : The Haunting of a German Submarine || UB-65

 After the outbreak of the first world war, warfare remained a somewhat gentlemanly and traditional affair for the allied nations, where combatants lined up to expose their might before engaging in organized and decisive encounters. However, the central powers utilised superior technology and rapidly evolving battlefield tactics to eliminate their enemies in the quickest way possible. It did not take a long time for Great Britain and her compatriots to encounter the effects of their short-sightedness.

 As poison gas flowed over European battlefields and firebombs rained over London, the Allied generals hysterically demanded new ideas and innovations to combat the German weapons. Britain had entered the war with the world’s mightiest navy, unrivalled in terms of numbers and pedigree and thus, the effect was more evident on the high seas.

 Britain’s admirals believed that bigger was better, constructing gigantic steel colossuses equipped with impregnable firepower. But her ships were ageing and becoming superannuated, an aspect the Imperial German Navy were keenly aware of. They knew that the Royal Navy was insurmountable in open combat, so instead leaned towards the undersea boat, a new form of naval technology back then. However, the 24 operational undersea boats they possessed during the commencement of the conflict were dwarfed by the 80 submarines of the Royal Navy.

 Despite the commendable advantage, the British admirals viewed the submarines as a cowardly and underhand weapons. They constructed them out of a feeling of necessity and had little idea of how best to operate them. Thus, what followed was a series of tragically failed attempts to add the submarines as a component of the main fleet.

 On the 22^nd of September 1914, the 7^th Cruiser Squadron, commanded by Rear Admiral Arthur Christian, was confronted by the German submarine U-9 in the North Sea. Within the next couple of hours, three British cruisers had sunk into the depths, taking 1450 sailors with them. The following spring, RMS Lusitania was sunk by U-20 near the Irish coast, claiming 1198 lives. Over the next six months, tonnes of shipping would be decimated by undersea boat activity, leaving the Royal Navy seemingly powerless to retaliate. At its peak, the undersea boat fleet consisted of 142 operational submarines and their commanders were viewed as the aces of the German armed forces. In the early days of August 1917, UB-65 became a member of the fleet.

(Source: Fandom)

Background

 Designed to operate in close proximity to coastlines, UB-65 had the ability to hold up to ten torpedoes. But even before her hull had touched the water, she had gained a terrifying reputation as one of the unluckiest vessels to ever be released into the sea. Like most other vessels in the fleet, UB-65 was built at the Vulcan Shipyards in Hamburg, but unlike the others, her time under construction was plagued by an unusually high number of accidents.

 While the U-boat’s keel was in the process of being laid, a couple of dock workers were mashed by a falling girder. While one of them succumbed immediately, the other remained trapped under the huge metal mass for a little over two hours. His agonizing screams echoed around the shipyard before the unfortunate man eventually met his painful demise. A few months later, after the boat was scheduled for its first test, another tragic incident followed. Three engineers were missing at the end of the working hours of the day. They were later found lying dead in the motor room, having been suffocated by diesel fumes leaking from a fault in the engine.

 Even after the submarine eventually left the dry dock, things did not seem to change. On her first test run, a squall suddenly raised out of nowhere before washing one of the sailors overboard, never to be seen again. Apart from these tragic deaths, the submarine was also plagued with technical difficulties. During another test run, one of the ballast tanks malfunctioned, thus causing the undersea boat to crash down onto the sea bed. After twelve hours of desperate attempts, the crew were finally able to resurface the vessel. On a further sea trial, a gas leak killed two more crewmen. These events formed a general opinion of the boat being cursed.

 After the new submarine was commissioned on the 18^th of August 1917, a crew of submariners led by Martin Schelle was assigned to the UB-65. As the young commander relentlessly drilled and trained his crew, he remained confident that the thrill of stalking the enemy would focus their minds but the events that followed would prove otherwise.

 On the evening of UB-65’s first voyage, one of its torpedoes detonated without any explanation or warning. The submarine escaped with minor damage, but five of its sailors, including the Second Officer named Richter, were severely injured. Over the following two weeks, Richter died of his injuries, repairs were completed and replacement crew members were found. Finally, in October 1917, the vessel silently made her way into the North Sea. Her first mission was greatly successful, as Schelle sunk five enemy vessels. Quickly afterwards, a string of unnerving incidents began.

Tales of the Haunting

 One evening, when Schelle was resting in his cabin, one of the crewmen knocked on his door to inform him about a situation on the submarine’s deck. As he made his way through the control room and up into the conning tower, he found Petersen, the duty lookout, crouched down in fear. When the angered commander demanded the terrified lookout to explain himself, he recounted that he had been up in the conning tower, looking out across the waves, when he had realized there was someone standing a few feet away on the ship's bow. The figure allegedly seemed to be an officer sporting a great coat and cap.

 When Petersen had called out for the officer to identify himself, the figure turned to face him, revealing itself to be the deceased Lieutenant Richter, before fading away. The commander accused Petersen of everything from drunkenness to cowardice before giving him a stern warning. The news of the incident immediately travelled throughout the vessel and as Schelle walked back to his cabin, he could feel his men regarding him nervously.

 Several days later, terrified screams emanating from the control room broke the morning’s serenity. The vessel had been on the surface for most of the previous evening, venting and recharging her batteries. As the morning lookout had clambered up into the conning tower to do a final sweep before it submerged, he had felt a tap on his shoulder. The sailor found Richter standing behind him and his face had an eerie smile etched upon it.  

 Falling from the ladder and into the control room, the sailor had managed to break his leg. As the other crewmen hastily gathered to help him, two of them swore that they had seen Richter staring emotionlessly at them from the conning tower, before disappearing into thin air. Schelle again threatened to take disciplinary actions against the men involved, but the incident had him feeling apprehensive.

 The hauntings continued into the submarine’s second mission, increasing both in intensity and count. One evening, a couple of engineers were working on a piece of machinery, when they noticed a figure resembling Richter survey the control panel behind them. When they had called out for it, it walked straight through a nearby bulkhead.

 No enemy ships were sunk during this patrol and the captain suspected that the fear in the heart of his crewmen made them incapable of performing their duties. Schelle had been keeping the issue from his commanders, but now he considered requesting a new crew to save his reputation.

 As the submarine headed back for its home base at Wilhelmshaven another tragedy occurred. A torpedo man working in the bow compartment witnessed Richter walk past before disappearing into the steel hull. The terrified sailor squealed in fear and fought his way through the vessel, leaving behind chaos. He hastily ascended the conning tower ladder and before he could be detained, he had hurled himself into the waters of the ocean. As Schelle stood helplessly on the deck, he turned to see Richter stand amidst the crewmen and stare directly at him, before disappearing.

 Schelle’s superiors depicted a predictable mixture of bemusement and anger upon listening to his pleas for crew assignment. However, the corroborating testimony provided by his junior officers and the remainder of his crew proved compelling enough to launch an investigation. In order to stop the affair before its story spread to the other ships at the base, a Lutheran pastor was asked to exorcise the vessel, and a majority of the crew were stealthily replaced. The next two patrols passed without any incidents, but on the evening of the 10^th of July, 1918, the haunting of the submarine would come to a quick and violent conclusion.

A Tragic Ending

 An American submarine had been hurrying to assist a Portuguese freighter that had been torpedoed near Padstow when her crew had observed UB-65 sitting motionless on the surface of the sea. As Lieutenant Augustine was preparing to get the better of the unsuspecting enemy ship, something caught his attention. Upon looking through his binoculars, the Lieutenant realised that the German vessel was already tilting heavily to its right. On top of its deck was a solitary officer, staring at the open sea.

 Before his American counterparts could load their torpedoes, Augustine noted UB-65 shaking violently as if she had been hit by an explosion. The very next moment, she sank into the depths. For a couple of hours that followed, the American ship sailed across the region looking out for possible survivors, but they found none. Almost 90 years would pass before the haunted vessel would be seen again.

 In the year of 2004, a documentary crew working for Channel 4 discovered the remains of UB-65. The wreck was inspected by Dr Innes McCarthy, a renowned nautical historian, and he could find no indications of enemy action. The ship’s aft hatches were open, suggesting that at least some of her members had tried to escape the sinking vessel. So, did the spirit of the submarine’s deceased second officer play a role in her expiration? Her first crew members certainly believed so. Strangely, this is not the only bewildering incident that occurred to a U-boat of the German fleet.

A Monstrous Creature in the Depths of the Ocean

 In the year of 1915, after torpedoing the British steamer Iberian, George Von Forstner, commander of U-28, and his crewmen gleefully watched their enemy vessel sink under the waves. Moments later, they witnessed a huge sea creature hurtle itself out of the sea and jump into the air before the ship’s engines exploded.

 On the 30^th of April 1918, two months before the loss of UB-65, HMS Coreopsis encountered UB-85 at the coast of Belfast. The undersea boat was half flooded and sinking fast, but the arrival of the Royal Navy vessel saved the crew.

 Her captain Gunter claimed that she had been sunk after encountering a monster. He recounted ordering the ship to surface in order to recharge her batteries before a huge creature emerged from the water and climbed up onto the deck. Its weight had quickly pulled the vessel under the waterline, causing water to enter through the hatches that had been opened in order to ventilate the ship. The petrified commander had assembled his entire crew for arms but they were not able to use the deck gun as the creature had coiled around it. Thus, the crew opened fire on the beast with their sidearms before the creature crashed back into the water, causing further damage as it went.

 The German crew spent the next few hours working tirelessly to slow down the flooding and they were eventually taken into the custody of their enemies. Despite the ridicule and accusations he faced over time, captain Gunter stood firm on his claims until his death. In the year of 2016, the remains of the submarine were discovered by a telecommunication company in the Irish Sea but the cause of the sinking couldn’t be determined.

A Sceptical Point of View

 Across the two world wars, being a submariner was an extremely arduous task. Housed beneath the waves in cramped conditions for weeks together, it was immensely taxing on the sailor’s physical and mental health. Furthermore, they were only a detonation or leak away from their death. To add on, the constant pressure of fighting for victory while trying to preserve the lives of other crew members couldn’t have made things better. Thus, the state of affairs could have caused the sailors to lean upon superstition to explain an otherwise natural thing.

 Although plausible, the speculation is far from conclusive due to the fact that the men knew that by leaning towards a paranormal explanation, they would open themselves up to ridicule and punishment.

Conclusion

 These are happenings that were witnessed and verified not just by individual members but by entire crews. Moreover, it can be argued that the soldiers who made these reports had nothing to gain from fabricating them except ridicule and abuse. Examination of their remains seems to rule out the involvement of actions of their enemies.

 The sea remains a vast and inadequately explored zone, which almost certainly is filled with unrevealed secrets. Ships continue to disappear under mysterious circumstances even with huge advancements in safety and communication. Unfortunately, we will neither know if the UB-65 was haunted nor know if the man witnessed by the American captain was the deceased German lieutenant. However, the one thing we know for certain is that whatever answers may have existed about the fate of the vessel had been buried in an unbreakable coffin whose location would never be found.