Herbert Zoller
Member #366-1987
HERBERT ZOLLER was born 19 May in
1919 and was in the Naval Academy Crew (Class) 1938 at the German Naval Academy
at Flensburg/Mürwik. During his training, he commanded U-3 in a
training flotilla then he was given command of U-315, a Type VII-C
Frontboot. He was promoted to Oberleutnant zur See 1 April 1943.
In one major operation, in September 1944, ZOLLER was ordered to take U-315
into Kola Fjord (Soviet Union) and to sink the Soviet battleship ARCHANGELSK
(the former HMS ROYAL SOVEREIGN) much in the same fashion as
Günther Prien did with his U-47 in Scapa Flow when he sank the
battleship HMS ROYAL OAK in October 1939. This would make a great
propaganda coup to lift the spirits of a German public and military who could
see that the end was getting closer and closer for Germany. They needed
something to lift their spirits, but the days when a U-Boat could slip into an
anchorage, sink a battleship then return to a hero's welcome were long
past. The Allies had learned much higher levels of security, and this
anticipated success was not to be for ZOLLER and his U-315.
The Soviet Navy was quite afraid of the U-Boats, and so ARCHANGELSK had
not been to sea but rather, had been hiding far up Kola Fjord for protection
much as the German battleship TIRPITZ had done in Tromso Fjord,
Norway. On a dark night in September 1944, ZOLLER and his U-315
slipped quietly toward the entrance to Kola Bay and learned to their horror,
that the Soviets had strung an anti-submarine net across the entrance to the
Fjord and now U-315 was firmly entangled in this net. They tried
again and again, all through the night, but to no avail.....U-315 would
not budge; she was trapped.
The clock was ticking faster and faster and soon the rays of the morning sun
would reveal to the Soviets that they had snagged a U-Boat in their net and the
end would come quickly for the men aboard U-315. One more try to
break free - and the boat finally broke the bonds that held her almost to her
destruction, and she was now free. ZOLLER decided that it was impossible
to penetrate the defenses of the Fjord and he returned to base. His
troubles were not over. When he returned to base, he was confronted with
the very real possibility that he was going to be court-martialled for failing
to penetrate the defenses and sink ARCHANGELSK!
He successfully avoided this horror and commanded U-315 for additional
patrols, and was somewhat successful in the closing months of the war when the
boats didn't return let alone sink anything. He attacked several ships,
sinking at least one confirmed. When the war ended, he and the crew of U-315
were ordered to wait in Trondheim with their flotilla until some group of the
Allies came to take them in. They could keep their weapons and frequently
went hunting with the Norwegian police. They were finally taken in
September 1945, but ZOLLER's bad luck had not left him.
Some years after the war, his fortunes took a bad turn and he went broke, highly
unusual for a former U-Boat Skipper. He suffered several strokes and went
into a nursing home. He ultimately passed away, a broken man but he still
had the deep affection of his former crew.