Operation Primrose
U-110 and U-201 were attacking convoy OB 318 in the North Atlantic south of Iceland when a torpedo launch failure resulted in Lemp's guard being dropped. In this crisis, the escorting corvette, HMS Aubretia, had responded to U-110's attack, located her with ASDIC and dropped depth charges.
U-110 survived the attack, but was seriously damaged. After a second depth-charge attack, she surfaced, to the crew's relief, and Lemp announced "Last stop, everybody out", meaning "Abandon ship". As the crew turned out onto the U-boat's deck they came under fire from two attacking destroyers (HMS Bulldog and Hunt) with casualties from gunfire and drowning. The British had believed that the German deck gun was to be used and ceased fire when they realised that the U-boat was being abandoned and the crew would surrender.
The escort commander, Captain Joe Baker-Cresswell in Bulldog, had initially made to ram, but recognising the opportunity for capture, pulled out and hove to, before strafing the submarine. Broadway also closed in, intending to prevent U-110 submerging and suffering incidental damage.
Lemp assumed that the boat, with vents open, would sink, and ordered radio operator Heinz Wilde to leave the codebooks and Enigma machine and get out; he is reported to have said "the U-boat is sinking". Another radio operator recovered personal effects, but left the secret material.
Lemp realised that U-110 was not sinking and attempted to swim back to it to destroy the secret material, but was never seen again. A German eyewitness testified that he was shot in the water by a British sailor, but his fate is not confirmed. Including Lemp, 15 men were killed in the action and 32 captured.
Bulldog's crew, led by sub-lieutenant David Balme, boarded U-110 and stripped it of everything portable on the spot, including her secret documents and Enigma machine. Scotsman William Stewart Pollock, former radio signalman in the Royal Navy and on loan to the HMS Bulldog was on the second boat to board the U-110. He retrieved the Enigma machine and books as they looked out of place in the radio room. U-110 was taken in tow back toward Britain, but sank en route to Scapa Flow.
The documents captured from U-110 helped Bletchley Park codebreakers solve Reservehandverfahren, a reserve German hand cipher.
The film U-571 was partially inspired by the capture of U-110.
Read more about this topic: German Submarine U-110 (1940)
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