U-Boat on the Mersey

A few weeks ago I went over to Birkenhead to have a look at the “U-Boat Story” located at the Woodside Mersey Ferry terminal. It’s a museum devoted to the U-534, a real German U-Boat from the second world war that was salvaged in the Baltic in 1993 and has ended up on the banks of the Mersey.

U-534 is a type IX/40 long range ocean-going U-boat that was used for training and weather reporting during the war. It never took part in attacks on Allied shipping. It did carry torpedoes, though, in forward and aft torpedo rooms, and was heavily armed with  twin 37mm flak guns and four smaller 20 mm guns.

On May 5th, 1945 U534 was in the Kattegat, north-west of Helsingor, Denmark when Admiral Donitz ordered all his U-boats to surrender, but for some unknown reason U-534 set off up the Baltic with another two U-boats. However, as they were heading north towards Norway, U-534 was spotted on the surface and when attacked by RAF Liberator bombers was sunk when hit by a depth charge.

We’d originally seen the U-boat a number of years ago when it was on display at the former Historic Warships museum a short way up the Mersey at Wallasey. When the Trust that ran this museum went broke, the U-Boat was cut into 5 pieces and transported down the river to Birkenhead. Two of the bits were welded back together again and it’s now displayed in four sections.

The disadvantage of being displayed like this is that you don’t get the full sense of size of the vessel, as you did when it was at Wallasey. However, it does allow you to have a look inside as each section has transparent panels over the open ends. Due to the condition of the vessel (it was on the sea bed for 48 years) it wouldn’t be possible to let a stream of visitors look inside. However, much of it is intact and you can get a feel of what it was like inside the U-boat when it was operational

Looking inside - view of the Engine room

The following picture (taken from the BBC news website) shows what the U-534 looked like when it was intact.

Intact U-boat when displayed at Wallasey

There’s a guided tour every day at 2 o’clock when one of the staff show visitors around the boat, telling it’s history and pointing out key features. It’s worth timing a visit to take in this tour as it was very informative and we wouldn’t have learned as much about the vessel without it.

The guide pointed out the damage that had been caused  when the U-boat was sunk during its final, fatal voyage. One depth charge landed on deck, bounced off and exploded, leaving a serious dent that was clearly visible. The hull was holed letting in water and caused the vessel to sink. Luckily, all the crew managed to get off, including 5 men who were trapped in the front torpedo room, although one of these did die later from the bends. Two other members of the crew dies, but a total of 49 survived.

Damage to hull caused by depth charge

As well as the U-boat, there’s an indoor display of artefacts rescued from the vessel, an introductory video and some interactive exhibits. I was particularly interested in the Enigma machines. There were two – one in very good condition. One of the interactive exhibits gave an insight into how these coding machines worked and it was good fun playing with it!

Enigma machine

 

From the ferry terminal there’s a good view over the Mersey to the Liverpool waterfront. Probably the best urban view in Britain.

We took the underground train from Liverpool to Hamilton Square station, which is a short walk from the ferry terminal. You can, if you want, take a Merseytravel ferry or “river cruise” (depending on the time) from the Liverpool Pierhead.