Death Drifted In With the Tide: The Story of U-118

The German submarine U-118 met an unusual end off the coast of Hastings during the final months of the First World War. On 15 April 1919, while being towed to France after Germany’s surrender, the massive U-boat broke free from its tow line during a storm and ran aground on the beach near Hastings. The submarine quickly became a bizarre tourist attraction, drawing thousands of curious visitors eager to climb aboard the stranded war machine. Local vendors sold postcards and souvenirs, and for a short time the wreck became one of Britain’s strangest seaside spectacles.

Although U-118 was not actually sunk in combat, confusion has often linked it with the 1917 sinking of the British steamer SS Thordis, which famously rammed and destroyed the German submarine UB-57 during the war. U-118 itself had been one of Germany’s larger ocean-going submarines, capable of laying mines and attacking Allied shipping across the Atlantic. Conditions aboard the wreck soon became hazardous, however, as toxic gases and rotting material built up inside the submarine. Several coastguards and visitors reportedly became seriously ill after exploring it. By late 1919 the vessel was dismantled for scrap, though parts of the keel are said to remain buried beneath the sands of Hastings to this day.