Lothar von Arnauld Ace of U-Boats

WWI Submarine Captain Sank More Ships than any man in History

Jun 21, 2008

The Submariner's Ace of Aces has to be Lothar von Arnauld de la Periere, the gentleman skipper of U-35 that sank almost 200 ships in World War One.

Born during 1886 in Posen (now part of Poland) in what was then Prussia, Lothar von Arnauld de la Periere was from a long line of warriors. His great grandfather was a Frenchman who had served that legend of Teutonic military history, Fredrick the Great and was rewarded with the rank of General. Von Arnauld joined the Kaiserliche Marine in 1903 after attending the Naval Academy. There he served on a series of warships including the cruiser Emden and then as an aide to the General Staff just before the outbreak of war. When the Great War erupted in 1914, he requested assignment to the U-boat arm after being turned down by the Zeppelin service. He went through U-boat school in the calm waters of the Baltic and then headed to his first command, U-35 and her 35 man crew in November 1915.

Von Arnauld’s boat was large and new. Her 65m (213feet) long hull could be propelled as fast as 16knots, faster than most merchant ships of the day. Her reliable diesel engines made her capable of a 9000-mile combat patrol. She carried six torpedoes and a 105mm deck gun with 300 rounds. After a series of mishaps including almost being sunk by a British decoy ship, he began to rack up a string of one sided victories. His former gunnery service on cruisers showed in the fact that he preferred using his deck gun while surfaced instead of his ships torpedoes- the submarines traditional weapon. In all, Von Arnauld only fired four torpedoes across his wartime career and more than 3000 round from his deck gun. He made a further 14 war patrols in U-35 from November 1915- May 1918.. These patrols were mainly in the Mediterranean Sea although he did pass through the Straits of Gibraltar once and sink a number of ships in the eastern Atlantic. On these patrols he engaged and sank 189 merchant vessels along with the British sloop HMS Primula, and the French gunboat Rigel totaling more than 446,708 tons in combined weight. This included no less than 54 ships in one four week period in 1916.

He was praised in the German press and given the adoration of a Kaiser looking for heroes. He was awarded first the Iron Cross 2nd class, then 1st class, then the rare Pour Ie Merite (Blue Max) and finally made a noble knight of the House Order of Hohenzollern. The Kaiser even sent him an autographed picture of himself along with a handwritten royal letter of commendation. Von Arnauld said of his war record- "My cruise was quite tame and humdrum...We stopped ships. The crews took to the boats. We examined the ships' papers, gave sailing instructions to the nearest land, and then sank the captured prizes.”

In May 1918 he was recalled to Germany given command of the larger U-139 in which he sank a further five allied ships in the North Atlantic before surrendering that boat to the British at the end of the War. He was then and remains to this day the Ace of Aces among submarine commanders. The next closest man to his record was another German, Otto Kretschmer, who accounted for 56 ships and 313,616 tons in World War Two. After Kretschmer, only USN Captain Richard O'Kane who was credited with sinking 31 Japanese ships to total 227,800 tons in World War Two even comes close.

Sources

Gregory Mackenzie J Top Ten US Navy Submarine Captains in WW2 By Number of Confirmed Ships Sunk

Gregory Mackenzie J The Top Ten German U-Boat Aces of World War 2 By Number of Confirmed Ships Sunk

The copyright of the article Lothar von Arnauld Ace of U-Boats in Military History is owned by Christopher Eger. Permission to republish Lothar von Arnauld Ace of U-Boats in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.