German submarine U-70 (1940)

German submarine U-70 was a Type VIIC submarine of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.

The U-boat was laid down on 19 December 1939 at the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft shipyard at Kiel as yard number 604, launched on 12 October 1940, and commissioned on 23 November under the command of Kapitänleutnant Joachim Matz to serve with the 7th U-boat Flotilla from 23 November 1940 until she was sunk on 7 March 1941.

Design
German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. U-70 had a displacement of 769 t when at the surface and 871 t while submerged. She had a total length of 67.10 m, a pressure hull length of 50.50 m, a beam of 6.20 m, a height of 9.60 m, and a draught of 4.74 m. The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder supercharged diesel engines producing a total of 2800 to 3200 PS for use while surfaced, two Garbe, Lahmeyer & Co. RP 137/c double-acting electric motors producing a total of 750 PS for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two 1.23 m propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to 230 m.

The submarine had a maximum surface speed of 17.7 kn and a maximum submerged speed of 7.6 kn. When submerged, the boat could operate for 80 nmi at 4 kn; when surfaced, she could travel 8500 nmi at 10 kn. U-70 was fitted with five 53.3 cm torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and one at the stern), fourteen torpedoes, one 8.8 cm SK C/35 naval gun, 220 rounds, and one 2 cm C/30 anti-aircraft gun. The boat had a complement of between forty-four and sixty.

Service history
U-70's first and only patrol began on 20 February 1941. On 26 February she sank the 820 GRT Swedish merchant ship Göteborg, south of Iceland.

U-70 joined GS U-47 (1938), GS U-99 (1940), and GS UA (1939) in a wolfpack that attacked Convoy OB 293 south-east of Iceland on 7 March 1941. In her first attack at 04:45 U-70 damaged the 6,568 GRT British tanker Athelbeach (later sunk by U-99), and the 6,423 GRT British merchant vessel Delilian.

At 07:25 U-70 struck again and hit the 7,493 GRT Dutch tanker Mijdrecht. However the master spotted the periscope of U-70, rammed the submerged U-boat at 7 kn, damaging the conning tower and reported its position to the convoy escorts.

Fate
At 08:15, the British corvette HMS Camellia (K31) sighted U-70, which promptly dived. Until 10:30 Camellia and her sister ship HMS Arbutus (K86) attacked five times with depth charges, then Arbutus made another four attacks. In total the two corvettes dropped 48 depth charges. Finally, at 12:44, U-70 was forced to the surface and was abandoned by her crew at 60.25°N, -14°W. Twenty-five survivors of her crew of forty-five, were picked up and taken prisoner.