German submarine U-60 (1939)

German submarine U-60 was a Type IIC U-boat of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine that served in the Second World War. She was built by Deutsche Werke AG, Kiel. Ordered on 21 July 1937, she was laid down on 1 October that year as 'werk' 259. She was launched on 1 June 1939 and commissioned on 22 July under the command of Oberleutnant Georg Schewe.

U-60 was initially sent to the 5th U-boat Flotilla for training, until 1 October 1939, when she was re-assigned to the 1st flotilla for a front-line combat role. U-60 carried out nine war patrols, sinking three ships for a total of 7,561 GRT and damaging one other of 15,434 tons GRT. She then became a 'school' or training boat with the 21st flotilla for the rest of her career.

She was scuttled in May 1945 at Wilhelmshaven.

1st, 2nd and 3rd patrols
U-60's first patrol meant that she left and returned to Kiel in November 1939, it involved the boat keeping close to the Norwegian coast.

She moved from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven on 4 December 1939.

The boat began her second patrol on 12 December 1939 and laid mines off Great Yarmouth on the 15th. One of them was struck by the City of Kobe on the 19th. The ship sank, one crew member was lost.

The submarine's third sortie involved patrolling the southern North Sea. It was uneventful.

4th, 5th and 6th patrols
U-60's next three outings took her as far north as the eastern Scottish coast, as far east as the Norwegian coast and as far south as Belgium in the North Sea, all to no avail.

7th, 8th and 9th patrols
Nor did her run of bad luck end there. On 1 August 1940 she was attacked by the Dutch submarine O-21. That same day Junkers Ju 88s of KG 30 also attacked the boat. No damage from either assault was sustained. Things changed when she sank the Nils Gorthan 25 mi north northeast of Malin Head (the northernmost tip of the island of Ireland), on the 13th. After the patrol, she docked at Lorient in occupied France, on 18 August.

The boat's eighth patrol included an attack on the Volendam about 200 mi west of the Bloody Foreland (northwest Ireland) on 31 August 1940. The ship survived a hit from a torpedo, but while she was being docked prior to repairs being carried out, a second, unexploded torpedo was discovered lodged in the vessel's hull. U-60 was more successful with the Ulva, sinking her on 3 September 180 mi north northwest of Inishtrahull (the most northerly island of Ireland).

U-60 departed her French Atlantic base (Lorient) on 16 September 1940, heading for Bergen in Norway. Her route took her west of Ireland and through the 'gap' between the Faroe and the Shetland Islands. The boat arrived in the Nordic port on 2 October.

She then moved from Bergen back to Kiel over October.