Patrol and Sinking U-39 conducted only one war patrol during her entire career, as part of the
6th U-boat Flotilla. She left Wilhelmshaven with , , and all of which were also a part of the 6th Flotilla, on 19 August 1939, in preparation for the beginning of
World War II. She headed into the
North Sea and eventually circumnavigated the
British Isles. Prior to her sinking,
U-39 was attacked in the North Sea on 10 September while en route to the British Isles. She was depth charged by an unidentified British vessel and was forced to dive to 100 meters (328 feet) to escape the attack. On 14 September 1939, after only 27 days at sea,
U-39 fired two torpedoes at the British aircraft carrier off
Rockall Bank north-west of Scotland. Lookouts spotted the torpedo tracks and
Ark Royal turned towards the attack, reducing her cross-section and causing both torpedoes to miss and explode short of their target. Following the failed attack, three British destroyers in the vicinity of the
Ark Royal, , , and detected
U-39. All three destroyers depth charged the U-boat and seconds after
Firedrake released her depth charges,
U-39 surfaced.
Foxhound, which was the closest to the U-boat, picked up 25 crew members while
Faulknor rescued 11 and
Firedrake saved the remaining eight. The crewmen were then taken ashore in Scotland and spent the rest of the war in various prisoner-of-war camps, including the
Tower of London, before being shipped to Canada.
U-39 was the first of many U-boats to be sunk in World War II; at .
Aftermath Four other U-boats joined
U-39 on her ill-fated patrol, , , and . According to a report by the
Seekriegsleitung (German Supreme Naval Command) on 22 September 1939,
U-32 and
U-53 were heading back to their home port of
Kiel while only
U-31 and
U-35 remained in the operational area north of the British Isles. According to plan,
U-39 should also have made for Kiel. However, there had been no contact with the U-boat for several days. A lack of response from
U-39, despite several requests to give her current location, began to fuel rumours that she was sunk. This belief was later confirmed by a British radio transmission detailing the arrival of the first German prisoners of war who were members of the
Kriegsmarine, at a London railway station a few days later. ==References==