Qualla: German submarine U-573

German submarine U-573: Introduction

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Most of the U-boats that went to war for Nazi Germany ended up on the seabed. This one ended up in a Spanish naval yard, wearing a new name and a new flag, and it outlived the Third Reich by a quarter of a century. U-573 fired her torpedoes for Germany, was crippled by British aircraft, and crawled into the neutral harbour of Cartagena to die. Except she did not die. She was sold, rebuilt, and sailed on as a Spanish submarine until 1970.

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German submarine U-573: The Landeck Boat

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

U-573 was a Type VIIC, the workhorse design of the German submarine fleet, laid down at the Blohm & Voss yard in Hamburg in June 1940 and commissioned a year later under Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Heinsohn. She carried an unusual honorary name. In 1941 Heinsohn arranged for the Alp...

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German submarine U-573: One Ship in Four Patrols

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

For all her menace, U-573 was not a lucky hunter. She left Kiel in September 1941, crossed into the Atlantic through the gap between Iceland and the Faroes, and ranged almost to the coast of Labrador before turning for occupied Saint-Nazaire. Her second patrol was her only real s...

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German submarine U-573: Cornered at Cartagena

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Being found is what ended her German career. On 29 April 1942, Lockheed Hudsons of the RAF's No. 233 Squadron caught her on the surface northwest of Algiers and worked her over with depth charges. Badly damaged, she limped north and slid into Cartagena on 2 May. International law...

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German submarine U-573: A Second Life as G-7

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Spain renamed her G-7 and set about the repairs, which took four years rather than months. The British bombs had done more harm than anyone first realised, German parts were nearly impossible to obtain in the last years of the war, and Spain's own economy was still hollow after i...

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