The Time a Toilet Sank a U-Boat: U-1206
Ordered on April 2nd, 1942, then commissioned on March 16th, 1944, the German U-1206 was one of the last German U-boats to be sunk. The time was the mid-70s, just off the coast of Scotland, workers surveying the BP Forties Field oil pipeline to Cruden Bay had discovered something interesting. It was, indeed, the wreckage of a German U-boat, specifically, the German U-1206.
It first served with the 8th U-boat Flotilla while partaking in training exercises, until in July 1944, when the command was handed over to 27-year-old Kapitänleutnant Karl-Adolf Schlitt of the 11th U-boat Flotilla.
Two subsequent training patrols were led by Schlitt in March and April of 1945, and on April 6th, 1945, U-1206 departed from Kristiansand for its first-ever active patrol mission…
The “High-Tech” Toilet
There was a problem with submarines during World War II: the toilet — or in maritime terms, the head. Due to the pressure inside submarines, unlike ships, they cannot simply dump human waste into the ocean.
