Touring the National USAF Museum-- Part 4: A Follow Up on the U-139 and Walther Schwiger

From Wikipedia. //// Saturday, I wrote about seeing the weather flag of the U-139. A bit of a closer look. //// The U-139 was the lead ship of a three-vessel class of long range German U-boats launched near the end of World War I. Ordered in 1916, it was commissioned 18 May 1918 and sank five ships. It was surrendered to France 24 November 1918 and served in its Navy until 1935. The U-139 was 302 feet long and carried 24 torpedoes fired from 4 bow and 2 aft tubes. //// I mentioned that the U-20 had sunk the Lusitania under the command of Walther Schweiger. The U-139 was named after him. He was killed in action 5 September 1917 after his U-88 was chased by the HMS Stonecrop and hit a British mine. His body is still entombed in the wreck. //// At the time of his death, he had commanded three submarines, had been on 34 missions and had sunk 49 ships. (This might be the most by any submarine commander during the war.) //// --RoadDog