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U-559
U-boat
from which codebooks and valuable cryptographic materials were recovered before
sinking, facilitating, in late 1942, the second major Allied breakthrough in
reading German U-boat communications. (For more on the breaking of the Enigma,
see Decoding Nazi Secrets.)
Type: VII C
Built: Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Keel laid: 1 February 1940
Launched: 8 January 1941
Commissioned: 27 February 1941
Commander: KL Hans Heidtmann
Fate: While operating in the eastern Mediterranean, U-559 came under
attack by several British warships and an aircraft on 30 October 1942. Fatally
damaged and forced to the surface, the sub was abandoned. A British boarding
party from destroyer HMS Petard recovered the cryptographic materials,
but the vessel sank before the cipher machine could be brought out. Eight
German crewmen and two British seamen were lost, and 37 German survivors were
taken prisoner.
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