U boat - 100
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The 'bloody fool' that dumped me in the drink'
U- 100 was a Mittel Unterseeboot built at the A.G. Weser Shipyard in Bremen
and was commissioned on 16 April, 1917.
Commanded by
Frhr. von Loe-Degenhart
(31 May 1917 - 30 September 1918)
previously commanded U - 28 from 5 August 1916 - 14 January 1917 *1
U-28 conducted four patrols, sinking 39 ships totalling 93,782 tons.
2 ships damaged totalling 11,188 tons
2 ships taken as prize totalling 3,226 tons
On 19-9-17,after attacking the British steamer
SS 'Olive Branch' with torpedo, U-28 came to close range to finish with her
deck gun. A shell detonated a cargo of munitions. The explosion severely damaged the U-boot causing it to sink,
all hands lost.
U-Boat World War One * 2
U - 100 Mittel Class
Commanded by Frhr. von Loe-Degenhart (31 May - 30 September 1918)
She was fitted with a single 105 mm deck gun, had a surface speed of 16 knots
and a submerged speed of 9 knots.
U - 100 carried a crew of 39
Excerpts from Chapter 5, "Gus Goes to War"
'Gus of his Royal Majesty's Merchant Marine'
by Paul and Edith Lyman-Shafiroff
“It was quiet; all we could hear was the hum of our engines and the gentle break of the water when all of a sudden
the silence was broken by a call down from the crows
nest ‘Torpedo off the starboard!
Just below the waterline our ship shuddered and then the sound like broken glass was deafening."
"There was an explosion just forward of the engine room. * 4
Suddenly one of the crew yelled, ‘U-boat.’ We scanned the surface.
It looked like a huge whale coming up and then I could make out crew scurrying out of the coning tower."
U - Boat surfacing * 5
"They just looked around, sized up the situation and saw no need to use their deck gun."
U - Boat evaluating the kill * 6
"Finally, a destroyer found us, hoisted us out of the water and later transferred us to another freighter."
Crew disembarking from Destroyer to freighter * 7
"Once onboard the freighter, a muster was taken of the crew; several wounded and one missing,
our captain… he had gone down with his ship."
Captain A.J. Peters
read the whole story
go to 'Home from the sea'
Bos'n Gus
History of U-Boat 100 under the command of
Frhr. von Loe-Degenhart
8 ships sunk - 27,655 tons
2 vessels damaged - 5,272 tons
Ships sunk by Unterseeboot 100, Kapitanleutenant Freiher Degenhart von Löe
SS 'Kathleen', torpedoed on 8th May 1917 on her way Norfolk to Limerick, Master lost
SS 'Melford Hall': a 6,339grt, torpedoed on the 22nd of June,1917, armed British merchant ship,
95 miles N by W off Tory Island on her way from Liverpool to Bombay
SS 'Blagdon' , 1996 tons, torpedoed 9th August 1917 on her way to Bergen & Archangel,
12 lost including Master
HMS 'Leinster' 27 December, fired one torpedo and missed, other torpedo tubes jammed
by debris unable to fire again,* Ship's log entry
SS 'Adela' 685 tons, torpedoed 27th December 1917, on her way from Dublin to Liverpool, 24 crew lost
SS 'Lake Michigan' * 8 6007 tons, defensively armed, on her way from Liverpool,
torpedoed on the 16th of April,1918, 93 miles NW of Eagle Island, 1 lost, the Master
SS 'Montebello' torpedoed on 21st June 1918 on her way London to Montreal,
41 lost including Master
T.S.S. 'Lake Michigan'
SMS 'Roon'
A Bremen class heavy cruiser
Prior to being assigned to U-Boats
Frhr. von Loe Degenhart served aboard the SMS 'Roon'
as a Watch Officer
January - December 1915
After the war, Baron von Löe-Degenhart designed engineering parts and presented in 1934 a design
for harding a new type of bearing.
An Improved Method for the Production of Bearings -9
Abstract of GB436705 436,705. Making bearings. LOE, DEGENHART, BARON VON, 5, Bugenhagenstrasse, Hamburg, Germany. Feb. 6, 1935, No. 3853. Convention date, Feb. 6, 1934. [Classes 83 (i), 83 (ii), and 83 (iv)] Casting composite articles.-A copper-coated bearing-shell, of iron which is not hardenable by chilling, is heated in borax to 1050-1085 C. and inserted in a mould which is then filled with molten copper-lead alloy and plunged into cold water. The copper coating may be 1À5-2À5 mm. thick and the iron may contain 0À3 per cent of carbon, 0À3 of silicon, and 0À6 of manganese. Two halves 10 of a shell with lugs 11 are welded at 9, leaving a gap between them and after heating &c. are placed in a conical cast-iron mould 1 with a radially grooved base 6 of graphite. Clamps 5 are then fitted over the lugs 11 and others 4 on the mould. The bearing metal may comprise copper with 20 to 40 per cent of lead, deoxidized with phosphor copper and is poured until one half overflows at 8. Perforating by forging.-After boring, a hard ball, i.e. of chrome-nickel-steel is forced through a number of times to compress the metal.
We would appreciate any additional information you can share on Frhr.von Loe-Degenhart and his submarine U-100
References: - British Merchant Shipping Losses WW1 - Der Krieg Zur See: Der Handelskrieg mit U-Booten;
Image credits: 1- photo published 1915-Battleships-Cruisers.co.uk ;
2- Collier's New Photographic History of the World's War (New York) 1918; 3-
4- Colliers Photographic History of the European War, (New York, 1916} 5- US Navy
6- worldwar1.com 7- Liberty's Victorious Conflict: A Photographic History of the World War,(Womans Weekly), Chicago,1918;
8- Photoship.co.uk; 9-wikipatents.com;