U‑1023: The “Black Wolf” in Swansea and the Long Road to Operation Deadlight
U‑1023: The “Black Wolf” in Swansea and the Long Road to Operation Deadlight U-1023 at Plymouth May 1945 Between November 1945 and February 1946 , the Royal Navy carried out Operation Deadlight , the codename for the final disposal of the German U‑boat fleet surrendered at the end of the Second World War. After VE‑Day, the Allies debated the fate of the surviving vessels. The eventual agreement allowed only thirty U‑boats to be retained—ten each for the United Kingdom , the United States , and the Soviet Union —for technical evaluation. The remainder, more than a hundred submarines, were to be scuttled in the Atlantic , ending the long and bitter U‑boat war. Among the boats selected for destruction was U‑1023 , a submarine whose brief but eventful career made her one of the most widely recognised U‑boats to reach British shores. Construction, Commissioning, and Wartime Service U‑1023 was laid down in 1943 as part of the Type VIIC/41 programme, a refined and strengthened development o...
