October 25, 2025 • 25 mins
Toward the end of World War II, the German Type VIIC submarine was acknowledged to be one of the most advanced -- and deadliest -- predators on the seas. Yet, in at least one case, some of the same technological breakthroughs that made these subs astonishing also led to their demise. Join the guys as they dive (get it?) into the strange story of U-1206 and the high-tech toilet that led to its doom.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. We are
returning with another classic episode for you. Just quick peak
behind the curtain. My pal Nola and I made it
back from the High Seas while our super producer Max
was holding down the fort like a hero, like a
war hero of podcasting, and we are still kind of
(00:25):
recovering schedule wise, a couple of us caught some travel crid.
So while we're resting up and working on new episodes
Ridiculous History, we wanted to share a maritime classic episode
that Max, I believe you are around for this one
right twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
No, I didn't come around until twenty twenty one. We
still got a while. Lash.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Wow, we've been at this for a while, my friend.
All right, So here's the pitch. Folks travel back with
us toward the end of World War Two. Germany is
absolutely wrecking stuff with their submarine technology, and one of
their submarines is acknowledged to be by far the most
advanced deadliest predator on the seats. However, the same technological
(01:15):
breakthroughs that made these subs so effective also and at
least one case, led to their demise. And this reminds
us of our conversation with the world's premiere underwater explosion expert,
doctor Rachel big Spinach Lance. Remember when she told us that,
Remember when she told us that people figured out how
(01:37):
to make submarines work way before they figured out how
people could enter or exit submarines safely.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, the Benz is terrifying. I learned that from Radiohead. Yeah.
I learned what the bends was from the name of
the Radiohead album. But yeah, no, that is that's awful.
It's like, oh, you can go down, but you can't
come back up exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So in this classic episode, we hope you join us.
This is from twenty nineteen, wherein we discovered the strange
story of the U twelve O six and the high
tech toilet that led to its doom. Ridiculous History is
(02:18):
a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to the show, Ridiculous Historians,
(02:45):
as well as fans of The Hunt for Red October
The Thrillers starring Sean Connery.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
What about das Boots?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Boot is more of a classic, I would say, and
set a precedent for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah. Do you know? Do you know directed us Boot
Wolfgang Peterson, Kank.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Peterson's case that's our super producer, Casey Pegram.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
He's already on the case. But we have how do
we do that?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Can we combine this Casey fairy sound effect with the dundun.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Well?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I like the way that it just rolled in with
the with the sound effect after you know what?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, who cares? May we double it up? Sure?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
I don't know, it's already happened. I'm ben, I'm knowl
and yeah. Wolfgang Peterson also directed a nightmare Fuel movie
from mine, probably many other people's childhoods, the never ending.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Story nightmare Fuel really fine, amazing.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Yeah it is, but as a kid, it is a
very dark, depressing film, like when the horse gets sucked
into the swamp and like those creepy uh sphinx that
shoot lasers and have breasts.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Those were cool, though I still think of what I'm
trying to describe various rites of passage to people. I
use the metaphor of those three gates that a tray
who has to go through.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
No, it's true.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
So I think it just traumatized me a little bit
as a child. And that's sort of a bit of
an internet trope where it's a screenshot of that scene
where the horse is like sinking into the swamps of sadness,
and it's sort of like this is where it all
started going south for me mental health wise.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Speaking of fantastic segues, today's episode is not about the
never ending story, but it is related to maritime adventures
dost Boot, dust Boot, the Hunt for Red October, which
to me, for nostalgic reasons, is probably closer to my heart.
In a previous episode, we explored life on submarines because
(04:34):
of that potato war. Ah, yes, yes, very short lived
potato war, a potato skirmish.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Here you go.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, And today's episode brings us to another tale of
maritime mishaps. There we go, that's the way to say it.
We are traveling back to April fourteenth, nineteen forty five,
and we are aboard one of the most advanced submarines
at the time, a little thing called a U twelve
(05:01):
oh six.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Now is that not to harp on dust Boot, because
obviously I like to say it, But isn't that what
that movie was about.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Wasn't it about the crew of a U boat? Yes?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, cool, that's right, Ben. Today's episode is in fact
about a sort of two point zero version of one
of these boats because this was kind of the scourge
of the Nazi Party, well, their scourge on the Allies.
That was one of their most covert and successful ways
of wreaking havoc, isn't that right? That is correct.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
U boats were quite dangerous, and one of the reasons
they were dangerous is because they were very difficult to detect, right,
and they.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Were very nimble.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Last yeah, fast, agile creatures. I believe the submarine in
dos Boot is based on a U ninety six. All
the U boats submarines were called boats at the time too.
All the U boats had that designation of you dash something.
(06:02):
And in the case of today's story, we're looking that
U twelve six. The U twelve oh six was a
premiere vessel. I mean, this thing was a big deal.
It went into service in March of nineteen forty four.
Its emblem was a white stork on a black shield
with a green beak and legs. So let's get an
(06:25):
idea of the size of this thing. It was two
hundred and twenty feet seven inches long, or for the
rest of the world outside of the US, that's sixty
seven point two to three meters. It was about thirty
one feet or nine point six meters high, and it
was able to, despite its size, disappear under the water
(06:49):
pretty quickly. It could operate at depths of up to
seven hundred and fifty feet or two hundred and thirty meters.
It also, in addition to its heightened functional capacities, right,
it's a superior armament and so on, it had a
couple of amenities which were pretty rare for submarines at
(07:09):
the time. In particular, it had a very high tech toilet,
a complicated toilet.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Very complicated. Let's backtrack just slightly. In previous models they
did have toilets, but they hadn't quite cracked the code
yet on how to get these toilets to flush and
expel the waste while the boat was submerged while the
sub was submerged.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Right, there was problem operating the previous models of the
toilet at depth.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
This one, however, they figured it out. Those crafty German
engineers figured it out. But as you said, Ben, it
wasn't easy. In fact, it was so complicated that they
had to designate a toilet specialist to be on board
who could assist with the flushing of this latrin. Can
you imagine that ben having to call in the toilet
specialist to flush down your business.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah, multiple specialists.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
In fact, yeah, they had multiple specialists because someone who
was trained in the operation of this contraption had to
be present to flush it. It had a complicated system
of valves. That's essentially what it boils down to. You
couldn't just hit a handle and then call it a day.
This thing was complicated, but it was also poorly placed
(08:24):
in terms of the interior of the submarine. It was
directly over the batteries that powered the sub.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
The power the sub when it was submerged, because the
engines had to be shut off at that right, right,
And I actually wasn't aware that battery technology was quite
as advanced as it clearly was in this time. They
were banks of batteries that would supply an ordinate amount
of electricity because can you imagine like how much you
would need to keep a boat like that moving.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
That's right, These batteries provided five hundred in sixty kilowatts
of power for propulsion when there was when the sub
was submerged. And you're right about killing the engines as well,
because diesel electric submarines had a had a larger signature.
When they were running underwater, it was loud, it was
(09:16):
easier to detect, so ideally you want a quieter source
of power.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
And Ben, I just want to point out we're getting
a little bit of this information from a website with
a delightful url.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
It is toilet Dashguru dot com. I'm also a fan
of war is Boring dot com. Very very good, and
I've got a little spoiler alert, a surprise that I'm
saving for the end I think you will appreciate. But
for now, onward onward to this the very epitome of
subtechnology at the time. On April sixth, nineteen forty five,
(09:53):
this fantastic submarine with its very complicated toilet, the U
twelve oh six, leaves the port city of christ Jansan
in Nazi occupied Norway and it goes on its first
combat patrol. Its mission, like that of many U boats,
is to seek out and destroy British and US ships
(10:15):
so you can destroy like the like the Stooges was
a search and destroy same day. Eh, you know you're
looking for something and then to destroy them. Yeah, So
it's on patrol for about eight days. And I mentioned
this to underline the fact that the U twelve oh
(10:38):
six was in the service of the Nazi war effort
that only had three more weeks to go at best
before it was the end of the game for them.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I think at this point Hitler was already holed up
and what I had not heard the term for until
just a little while ago, his furor bunker.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
That's true, Yeah, And I think on April thirtieth he
commits side in that same fieldher bunker. Seven days after that,
Germany completely surrenders and the war is over. But no
one knew that on the U twelve oh six at
the time. They knew they were just out to find
and obliterate any Allied ship they could they could get
(11:19):
in their sights or within range of their torpedoes. And
so they're out on the open sea and it's fairly uneventful.
How big was their crew again, it was around forty.
So these thirty to forty crew members trapped in this
tin can beneath the waves while they have their eyes peeled.
(11:42):
They're not running into they're not running into any action,
any war. But they are doing the normal things that
you do. They're eating, they're sleeping in shifts, they're using
that very, very fancy toilet. Again, this is like the
version of this is to sub toilets, as the Japanese
(12:03):
toto bidets are to normal commotes.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
I think we've talked about this our sponsorship by Tushi,
But man, those things are high tech and incredible life changing.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I know, listen to US America. You've got to stop
pooping like barbarians.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Seriously so.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
But that's that's actually a fairly accurate comparison because a
lot of people were confused by this. And this is
when we introduced Captain Carl Adolph Schlitt to the story.
He was twenty seven years old and in charge of
the sub at the time.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yeah, it's true, and it was just it was It
was in fact his first rodeo, and when it comes
to going out on a sub, he was very new
to the game, a little bit green.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
And if I'm not mistaken, Ben.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Where our story really starts to get interesting is about
eight miles off of the coast of Scotland, at about
two hundred feet below the surface of the ocean. That's
when our man Schlitt had to take a Schlit. Captain Schlitt,
he keep the chain and command there. Yes, So he
(13:09):
decided that he wasn't going to request the assistance of
the toilet technician. Right, surely, I'm a captain, I'm a submarine,
the chief commodist. I can operate a toilet. I can
do this.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
The toilet tinker was either not desired or not around,
and so Schlitz said, you know what, I'm I am
in charge of this, this entire sub I'm a captain.
I know how everything works. And the instruction manual is
right here by the toilet. Did we mention that it
had a comprehensive instruction manual?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I'm picturing a massive tome, spiral bound, hanging from a
chain on the wall.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
That's what I don't know. And that's just how I'm
looking at.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
It, which is helpful from a design perspective when you
think about it, because a lot of people like to
read when they're using the restroom. So this is actually
good engineering.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
But whatever, Maybe he was in a hurry because being captain,
he had other things to do. Maybe he just misread it.
Maybe he wasn't as smart on the as quick on
the uptake as he thought he was, because something went
wrong and then he goes, you know, oh, Schlit. And
so he says, Okay, I know when I need to delegate.
(14:19):
Where's the toilet specialist, right, where's the the komodesman. Yeah,
so Schlitt asked that crew member to come help them out,
and then that crew member takes a stab, and maybe
because something was already messed up with the valves, they
make the problem worse.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I mean, we were not trying to throw this specialist
under the bus here, you know. I'm sure he knew
his craft, but I have a feeling that our boy
Schlitt kind of pre botched.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
The whole works right, right, And there's the toilet, there's
the commode, probably still full of Schlit. And now the
specialist has to figure out not just how to operate
the toilet correctly, but how to make up for Schlit's mishap.
And so the specialist opens the outside valve of the commode,
the one that goes directly to the sea, while the
(15:05):
inside valve is still open, and this causes a deluge
of seawater into the sub and also probably the rest
of Schlitz, leaving Schlitz Schlitz.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Right, it's fun to say. And we talked about the
Bank of batteries. Did we talk about the design and
where they were located, or just the fact that the
sub operated on them?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
The we did mention it did mention that the batteries
are directly under the toilet, right, it seems problematic. It's
tough to design this kind of stuff, you know, it's
tough to to put all the needed gadgetry into a
space with such a sharp, strong form constraint.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Totally, it's sort of like they keep making the iPhone
thinner and finish. They got to remove the headphone jack. Sure,
just like that. I don't buy it. I don't buy it.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
They actually brought it back, but they made it a
little thicker, right. Or it's it's like looking under the
hood of a high end sports car, right, because so
much stuff is put in this weird tetris like arrangement,
and that's kind of what was happening in this sub.
I mean, clearly, it's not a good idea to have
the power source directly under something like the toilet, But
(16:11):
then it's a question of where else are you going
to put it? Right, you don't want it necessarily near
the torpedoes.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, No, it seemed like it probably seemed like a
good idea at the time, probably seemed very clever to
those crafty German engineers. Right, So, Ben, is this the
part where we want to get into a little chemistry.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, yeah, it is. It is so salt. The symbol
for that in acl right water is H two to oh.
And if you dissolve salt in water you get a
solution of various ions. And H two O on itself
is not conductive, doesn't conduct anything, but an ionic solution
certainly is conductive and insertantly does conduct stuff. So when
(16:51):
this water floods in through the valve system of this
complicated toilet, the water and the salt in the sea
water hit the sub battery, and the sub battery as
a result of this chemical interaction, produces lie plus hydrogen
(17:11):
gas plus most importantly chloring.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Gas, because the sub battery is full of acid.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
So the problem with chloring gas is that it is
a deadly, deadly poison.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
And they're in a tube, a metal tube, under the water,
with their pants down. Well, you presumably she lets pants
are up at this point.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
I like the idea of him still having his trousers
around his ankles in a blind panic. That would be Yeah,
just kind of you know, scooting around doing the little
penguin run.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
That's the one. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
So so we don't have pictures of it, of the
scene at that pictures. We have mental pictures. We have imaginings,
dreams of this, of this moment. But we do know
what happens next. The submarine is filling with chlorine gas.
This could be a death sentence if they don't do something.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Do you think they clocked instantly what was happening on
a chemical level, or do you think they just started
gagging and choking uncontrollably and new, oh, Schlitz, something's gone wrong.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I'm absolutely sure they knew because they were very well
aware of how the batteries worked. Fair if the toilet
was complicated, that's because it was new, but diesel electric
battery power would have been familiar to them.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
So this is when our boy Schlitt has to kind
of jump into action, and, despite having sort of botched
the whole thing to begin with, had to sort of
exercise his thinking on his feet.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Muscles right, and the captain quickly realized that he had
no choice but to order the submarine to surface because
they had to vent this gas. As quickly as possible
and then replace it with breathable air.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Mind you there doing this in enemy territory off the
coast of Scotland.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
About eight miles. Yeah, and so they surface within sight
of the Scottish coastline. In one story you will hear
that they surfaced almost directly beneath an Allied ship. But
we do know for sure they surfaced so close to
shuore that they were quickly spotted by Allied aircraft. They
were attacked and the captain to order the crew to
(19:24):
abandon ship. Three three members of the crew fell overboard
and drowned, and I believe one died in the malay
fighting that I heard.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
So we were right at forty crew members then, because
thirty six survived.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeap, that is correct. So what happened? What happened during
this attack? The U twelve oh six was badly damaged
and couldn't dive. And this is when Schlitz starts ordering
the crew into lifeboats. And then he makes the game
time decision that only a captain can make abandoned.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah right, get on, get ye a hands to a lifeboat.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
He's done that. But now he does the very last thing.
He scuttles the ship.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
What does that mean? I don't think I know that term.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
It means to purposely sink a ship of any sort.
So in the rough definition, it means to cut a
hole through the bottom deck or side of a ship.
But you, you know, you destroy it. That's what he did.
He destroyed the submarine his own ship, and it went down,
and as the ship sank, he got away. By the
way as the ship sank. We can only imagine what
(20:32):
he thought. Maybe he thought I should have just contacted
the toiletsman when I was supposed.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
To the headsman. Sure, that's that's something different. That's someone
that's like an executioner.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
They canner.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
But he also entered into history, the annals of history,
as the captain of the only warship in the entirety
of naval history to be doomed by its own malfunctioning toilet.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Cool. You think it's on his tombstone?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I think they probably He probably wanted to go with
something a little more prestigious, like loving father or husband
or something.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
So presumably they were captured by the Allies, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, yeah. Thirty six members of the crew were rescued
by small boats in the area. Some people made it
to shore in their lifeboats and then were captured, but
nobody really got away, so they.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Would have ended up in like pow camps or something.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Right, Yeah, they would have ended up in pow camps,
and they probably would have been well. They were certainly
well aware of the severity of the situation on the
axis side. They knew was getting toward the end.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah, And speaking of the end, we are reaching the
end of our story today, but we're reaching the beginning
of something else. We just went off Mike for a
second and realized that this episode is coming out on
New Year's Day, so new Years don't.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Happy New Year's to you, Ben, Happy New Year to you, Casey,
thank you, Happy New Year's to everyone.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
And to all a good night. No, it's been it's
been a hell of a good run. And we didn't
even don't think we'ven talked about this, but not too
long ago. I don't remember the exact day we reached
a solid year of doing this show, that's true.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, I don't think either of us realized it until
we were well off air.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Yeah, and or we were well past the time and
then it was just too late. So if we're talking about,
you know, New Year's business, I think we could recognize
that fact and just say how much we appreciate all
the folks that tune in and seem to dig the show,
and then allow us to kind of keep doing it.
I sure enjoy doing it, and I hope we can
keep doing it for many years to come.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah, agreed.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
You know, if I could turn back time, the only
thing that would change is a little bit more energy.
At the opening of this episode, because we totally forgot
it's our first episode of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Oh, that's true. It's okay. We saved it for the
back end.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
There we go, There we go. It's a reward for
everyone who's stuck around, right, So thank you so much.
We would like to hear. Oh oh, no, I forgot
the surprise. I found a lovely list of wacky submarine terms,
because you'll remember in our Potato episode we use some
terms that I think we're a little bit off because
(23:16):
neither of us have a history in the Navy, So
there are so many terms that people have. There's burn,
a flick just means watch a movie. There's bull George
by navy tradition. The most junior ensign is called George,
and the most senior is called the Bull. In the
Submarine Force, it takes so long for junior officers to
get to the boat two six months schools, a ten
(23:38):
week school, at least two moves, and oh and a
bunch of red tape that most arrive as lieutenant's junior grade.
When you only have one ensign, as many of them
do by tradition, he is both the Bull and the George,
or the bull George. And things that don't work are
called broke dick. Anything that doesn't work, that pump has
been broke dick for a week, broke dick, broke dick,
(24:02):
I like it. There are a lot of vulgar terms
of this thing, so we learned even more strange slang phrases,
many of which are not fit for air on this show.
But we would like to hear some of your favorite
military slang or naval slang phrases. Anything that made you laugh,
(24:22):
anything that made no sense, or anything with a really
compelling story behind it.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Let us know.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We'd
especially like to recommend you check out our Facebook community page,
Ridiculous Historians, where you can interact with your fellow listeners,
many of whom have some fascinating stories to tell. Have
you been checking out some of that tooth fairy stuff?
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Love the tooth fairy stuff? That seemed to hit a nerve,
like in your tooth nerves nerve ending I don't know now,
I thought, I really enjoyed that episode a lot. I
want to say, I really had a good time doing it.
And when we listen back to these sometimes it feels
like a chore, and I actually found myself kind of
enjoying that one.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
That's good to hear.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Man, that's good to hear.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
We want to thank our super producer, Casey Pegram, Sure
we do. We want to thank Alex Williams, who composed
our track.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
We'd like to thank Gabe Lozier are a wonderful research
associate who hipped us to this topic. And I'd like
to thank you Rol. It's been a great year, Ben,
I thank you as well. It has been a great
year and I look forward to many more on Ridiculous History.
See you next year, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
(25:43):
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows,
Welcome back to the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. We are
returning with another classic episode for you. Just quick peak
behind the curtain. My pal Nola and I made it
back from the High Seas while our super producer Max
was holding down the fort like a hero, like a
war hero of podcasting, and we are still kind of
(00:25):
recovering schedule wise, a couple of us caught some travel crid.
So while we're resting up and working on new episodes
Ridiculous History, we wanted to share a maritime classic episode
that Max, I believe you are around for this one
right twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
No, I didn't come around until twenty twenty one. We
still got a while. Lash.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Wow, we've been at this for a while, my friend.
All right, So here's the pitch. Folks travel back with
us toward the end of World War Two. Germany is
absolutely wrecking stuff with their submarine technology, and one of
their submarines is acknowledged to be by far the most
advanced deadliest predator on the seats. However, the same technological
(01:15):
breakthroughs that made these subs so effective also and at
least one case, led to their demise. And this reminds
us of our conversation with the world's premiere underwater explosion expert,
doctor Rachel big Spinach Lance. Remember when she told us that,
Remember when she told us that people figured out how
(01:37):
to make submarines work way before they figured out how
people could enter or exit submarines safely.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, the Benz is terrifying. I learned that from Radiohead. Yeah.
I learned what the bends was from the name of
the Radiohead album. But yeah, no, that is that's awful.
It's like, oh, you can go down, but you can't
come back up exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So in this classic episode, we hope you join us.
This is from twenty nineteen, wherein we discovered the strange
story of the U twelve O six and the high
tech toilet that led to its doom. Ridiculous History is
(02:18):
a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to the show, Ridiculous Historians,
(02:45):
as well as fans of The Hunt for Red October
The Thrillers starring Sean Connery.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
What about das Boots?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Boot is more of a classic, I would say, and
set a precedent for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah. Do you know? Do you know directed us Boot
Wolfgang Peterson, Kank.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Peterson's case that's our super producer, Casey Pegram.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
He's already on the case. But we have how do
we do that?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Can we combine this Casey fairy sound effect with the dundun.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Well?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I like the way that it just rolled in with
the with the sound effect after you know what?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, who cares? May we double it up? Sure?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
I don't know, it's already happened. I'm ben, I'm knowl
and yeah. Wolfgang Peterson also directed a nightmare Fuel movie
from mine, probably many other people's childhoods, the never ending.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Story nightmare Fuel really fine, amazing.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Yeah it is, but as a kid, it is a
very dark, depressing film, like when the horse gets sucked
into the swamp and like those creepy uh sphinx that
shoot lasers and have breasts.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Those were cool, though I still think of what I'm
trying to describe various rites of passage to people. I
use the metaphor of those three gates that a tray
who has to go through.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
No, it's true.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
So I think it just traumatized me a little bit
as a child. And that's sort of a bit of
an internet trope where it's a screenshot of that scene
where the horse is like sinking into the swamps of sadness,
and it's sort of like this is where it all
started going south for me mental health wise.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Speaking of fantastic segues, today's episode is not about the
never ending story, but it is related to maritime adventures
dost Boot, dust Boot, the Hunt for Red October, which
to me, for nostalgic reasons, is probably closer to my heart.
In a previous episode, we explored life on submarines because
(04:34):
of that potato war. Ah, yes, yes, very short lived
potato war, a potato skirmish.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Here you go.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, And today's episode brings us to another tale of
maritime mishaps. There we go, that's the way to say it.
We are traveling back to April fourteenth, nineteen forty five,
and we are aboard one of the most advanced submarines
at the time, a little thing called a U twelve
(05:01):
oh six.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Now is that not to harp on dust Boot, because
obviously I like to say it, But isn't that what
that movie was about.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Wasn't it about the crew of a U boat? Yes?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, cool, that's right, Ben. Today's episode is in fact
about a sort of two point zero version of one
of these boats because this was kind of the scourge
of the Nazi Party, well, their scourge on the Allies.
That was one of their most covert and successful ways
of wreaking havoc, isn't that right? That is correct.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
U boats were quite dangerous, and one of the reasons
they were dangerous is because they were very difficult to detect, right,
and they.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Were very nimble.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Last yeah, fast, agile creatures. I believe the submarine in
dos Boot is based on a U ninety six. All
the U boats submarines were called boats at the time too.
All the U boats had that designation of you dash something.
(06:02):
And in the case of today's story, we're looking that
U twelve six. The U twelve oh six was a
premiere vessel. I mean, this thing was a big deal.
It went into service in March of nineteen forty four.
Its emblem was a white stork on a black shield
with a green beak and legs. So let's get an
(06:25):
idea of the size of this thing. It was two
hundred and twenty feet seven inches long, or for the
rest of the world outside of the US, that's sixty
seven point two to three meters. It was about thirty
one feet or nine point six meters high, and it
was able to, despite its size, disappear under the water
(06:49):
pretty quickly. It could operate at depths of up to
seven hundred and fifty feet or two hundred and thirty meters.
It also, in addition to its heightened functional capacities, right,
it's a superior armament and so on, it had a
couple of amenities which were pretty rare for submarines at
(07:09):
the time. In particular, it had a very high tech toilet,
a complicated toilet.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Very complicated. Let's backtrack just slightly. In previous models they
did have toilets, but they hadn't quite cracked the code
yet on how to get these toilets to flush and
expel the waste while the boat was submerged while the
sub was submerged.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Right, there was problem operating the previous models of the
toilet at depth.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
This one, however, they figured it out. Those crafty German
engineers figured it out. But as you said, Ben, it
wasn't easy. In fact, it was so complicated that they
had to designate a toilet specialist to be on board
who could assist with the flushing of this latrin. Can
you imagine that ben having to call in the toilet
specialist to flush down your business.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah, multiple specialists.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
In fact, yeah, they had multiple specialists because someone who
was trained in the operation of this contraption had to
be present to flush it. It had a complicated system
of valves. That's essentially what it boils down to. You
couldn't just hit a handle and then call it a day.
This thing was complicated, but it was also poorly placed
(08:24):
in terms of the interior of the submarine. It was
directly over the batteries that powered the sub.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
The power the sub when it was submerged, because the
engines had to be shut off at that right, right,
And I actually wasn't aware that battery technology was quite
as advanced as it clearly was in this time. They
were banks of batteries that would supply an ordinate amount
of electricity because can you imagine like how much you
would need to keep a boat like that moving.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
That's right, These batteries provided five hundred in sixty kilowatts
of power for propulsion when there was when the sub
was submerged. And you're right about killing the engines as well,
because diesel electric submarines had a had a larger signature.
When they were running underwater, it was loud, it was
(09:16):
easier to detect, so ideally you want a quieter source
of power.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
And Ben, I just want to point out we're getting
a little bit of this information from a website with
a delightful url.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
It is toilet Dashguru dot com. I'm also a fan
of war is Boring dot com. Very very good, and
I've got a little spoiler alert, a surprise that I'm
saving for the end I think you will appreciate. But
for now, onward onward to this the very epitome of
subtechnology at the time. On April sixth, nineteen forty five,
(09:53):
this fantastic submarine with its very complicated toilet, the U
twelve oh six, leaves the port city of christ Jansan
in Nazi occupied Norway and it goes on its first
combat patrol. Its mission, like that of many U boats,
is to seek out and destroy British and US ships
(10:15):
so you can destroy like the like the Stooges was
a search and destroy same day. Eh, you know you're
looking for something and then to destroy them. Yeah, So
it's on patrol for about eight days. And I mentioned
this to underline the fact that the U twelve oh
(10:38):
six was in the service of the Nazi war effort
that only had three more weeks to go at best
before it was the end of the game for them.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I think at this point Hitler was already holed up
and what I had not heard the term for until
just a little while ago, his furor bunker.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
That's true, Yeah, And I think on April thirtieth he
commits side in that same fieldher bunker. Seven days after that,
Germany completely surrenders and the war is over. But no
one knew that on the U twelve oh six at
the time. They knew they were just out to find
and obliterate any Allied ship they could they could get
(11:19):
in their sights or within range of their torpedoes. And
so they're out on the open sea and it's fairly uneventful.
How big was their crew again, it was around forty.
So these thirty to forty crew members trapped in this
tin can beneath the waves while they have their eyes peeled.
(11:42):
They're not running into they're not running into any action,
any war. But they are doing the normal things that
you do. They're eating, they're sleeping in shifts, they're using
that very, very fancy toilet. Again, this is like the
version of this is to sub toilets, as the Japanese
(12:03):
toto bidets are to normal commotes.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
I think we've talked about this our sponsorship by Tushi,
But man, those things are high tech and incredible life changing.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I know, listen to US America. You've got to stop
pooping like barbarians.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Seriously so.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
But that's that's actually a fairly accurate comparison because a
lot of people were confused by this. And this is
when we introduced Captain Carl Adolph Schlitt to the story.
He was twenty seven years old and in charge of
the sub at the time.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yeah, it's true, and it was just it was It
was in fact his first rodeo, and when it comes
to going out on a sub, he was very new
to the game, a little bit green.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
And if I'm not mistaken, Ben.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Where our story really starts to get interesting is about
eight miles off of the coast of Scotland, at about
two hundred feet below the surface of the ocean. That's
when our man Schlitt had to take a Schlit. Captain Schlitt,
he keep the chain and command there. Yes, So he
(13:09):
decided that he wasn't going to request the assistance of
the toilet technician. Right, surely, I'm a captain, I'm a submarine,
the chief commodist. I can operate a toilet. I can
do this.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
The toilet tinker was either not desired or not around,
and so Schlitz said, you know what, I'm I am
in charge of this, this entire sub I'm a captain.
I know how everything works. And the instruction manual is
right here by the toilet. Did we mention that it
had a comprehensive instruction manual?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I'm picturing a massive tome, spiral bound, hanging from a
chain on the wall.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
That's what I don't know. And that's just how I'm
looking at.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
It, which is helpful from a design perspective when you
think about it, because a lot of people like to
read when they're using the restroom. So this is actually
good engineering.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
But whatever, Maybe he was in a hurry because being captain,
he had other things to do. Maybe he just misread it.
Maybe he wasn't as smart on the as quick on
the uptake as he thought he was, because something went
wrong and then he goes, you know, oh, Schlit. And
so he says, Okay, I know when I need to delegate.
(14:19):
Where's the toilet specialist, right, where's the the komodesman. Yeah,
so Schlitt asked that crew member to come help them out,
and then that crew member takes a stab, and maybe
because something was already messed up with the valves, they
make the problem worse.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I mean, we were not trying to throw this specialist
under the bus here, you know. I'm sure he knew
his craft, but I have a feeling that our boy
Schlitt kind of pre botched.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
The whole works right, right, And there's the toilet, there's
the commode, probably still full of Schlit. And now the
specialist has to figure out not just how to operate
the toilet correctly, but how to make up for Schlit's mishap.
And so the specialist opens the outside valve of the commode,
the one that goes directly to the sea, while the
(15:05):
inside valve is still open, and this causes a deluge
of seawater into the sub and also probably the rest
of Schlitz, leaving Schlitz Schlitz.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Right, it's fun to say. And we talked about the
Bank of batteries. Did we talk about the design and
where they were located, or just the fact that the
sub operated on them?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
The we did mention it did mention that the batteries
are directly under the toilet, right, it seems problematic. It's
tough to design this kind of stuff, you know, it's
tough to to put all the needed gadgetry into a
space with such a sharp, strong form constraint.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Totally, it's sort of like they keep making the iPhone
thinner and finish. They got to remove the headphone jack. Sure,
just like that. I don't buy it. I don't buy it.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
They actually brought it back, but they made it a
little thicker, right. Or it's it's like looking under the
hood of a high end sports car, right, because so
much stuff is put in this weird tetris like arrangement,
and that's kind of what was happening in this sub.
I mean, clearly, it's not a good idea to have
the power source directly under something like the toilet, But
(16:11):
then it's a question of where else are you going
to put it? Right, you don't want it necessarily near
the torpedoes.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, No, it seemed like it probably seemed like a
good idea at the time, probably seemed very clever to
those crafty German engineers. Right, So, Ben, is this the
part where we want to get into a little chemistry.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, yeah, it is. It is so salt. The symbol
for that in acl right water is H two to oh.
And if you dissolve salt in water you get a
solution of various ions. And H two O on itself
is not conductive, doesn't conduct anything, but an ionic solution
certainly is conductive and insertantly does conduct stuff. So when
(16:51):
this water floods in through the valve system of this
complicated toilet, the water and the salt in the sea
water hit the sub battery, and the sub battery as
a result of this chemical interaction, produces lie plus hydrogen
(17:11):
gas plus most importantly chloring.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Gas, because the sub battery is full of acid.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
So the problem with chloring gas is that it is
a deadly, deadly poison.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
And they're in a tube, a metal tube, under the water,
with their pants down. Well, you presumably she lets pants
are up at this point.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
I like the idea of him still having his trousers
around his ankles in a blind panic. That would be Yeah,
just kind of you know, scooting around doing the little
penguin run.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
That's the one. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
So so we don't have pictures of it, of the
scene at that pictures. We have mental pictures. We have imaginings,
dreams of this, of this moment. But we do know
what happens next. The submarine is filling with chlorine gas.
This could be a death sentence if they don't do something.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Do you think they clocked instantly what was happening on
a chemical level, or do you think they just started
gagging and choking uncontrollably and new, oh, Schlitz, something's gone wrong.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I'm absolutely sure they knew because they were very well
aware of how the batteries worked. Fair if the toilet
was complicated, that's because it was new, but diesel electric
battery power would have been familiar to them.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
So this is when our boy Schlitt has to kind
of jump into action, and, despite having sort of botched
the whole thing to begin with, had to sort of
exercise his thinking on his feet.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Muscles right, and the captain quickly realized that he had
no choice but to order the submarine to surface because
they had to vent this gas. As quickly as possible
and then replace it with breathable air.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Mind you there doing this in enemy territory off the
coast of Scotland.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
About eight miles. Yeah, and so they surface within sight
of the Scottish coastline. In one story you will hear
that they surfaced almost directly beneath an Allied ship. But
we do know for sure they surfaced so close to
shuore that they were quickly spotted by Allied aircraft. They
were attacked and the captain to order the crew to
(19:24):
abandon ship. Three three members of the crew fell overboard
and drowned, and I believe one died in the malay
fighting that I heard.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
So we were right at forty crew members then, because
thirty six survived.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeap, that is correct. So what happened? What happened during
this attack? The U twelve oh six was badly damaged
and couldn't dive. And this is when Schlitz starts ordering
the crew into lifeboats. And then he makes the game
time decision that only a captain can make abandoned.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah right, get on, get ye a hands to a lifeboat.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
He's done that. But now he does the very last thing.
He scuttles the ship.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
What does that mean? I don't think I know that term.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
It means to purposely sink a ship of any sort.
So in the rough definition, it means to cut a
hole through the bottom deck or side of a ship.
But you, you know, you destroy it. That's what he did.
He destroyed the submarine his own ship, and it went down,
and as the ship sank, he got away. By the
way as the ship sank. We can only imagine what
(20:32):
he thought. Maybe he thought I should have just contacted
the toiletsman when I was supposed.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
To the headsman. Sure, that's that's something different. That's someone
that's like an executioner.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
They canner.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
But he also entered into history, the annals of history,
as the captain of the only warship in the entirety
of naval history to be doomed by its own malfunctioning toilet.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Cool. You think it's on his tombstone?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
I think they probably He probably wanted to go with
something a little more prestigious, like loving father or husband
or something.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
So presumably they were captured by the Allies, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, yeah. Thirty six members of the crew were rescued
by small boats in the area. Some people made it
to shore in their lifeboats and then were captured, but
nobody really got away, so they.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Would have ended up in like pow camps or something.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Right, Yeah, they would have ended up in pow camps,
and they probably would have been well. They were certainly
well aware of the severity of the situation on the
axis side. They knew was getting toward the end.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah, And speaking of the end, we are reaching the
end of our story today, but we're reaching the beginning
of something else. We just went off Mike for a
second and realized that this episode is coming out on
New Year's Day, so new Years don't.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Happy New Year's to you, Ben, Happy New Year to you, Casey,
thank you, Happy New Year's to everyone.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
And to all a good night. No, it's been it's
been a hell of a good run. And we didn't
even don't think we'ven talked about this, but not too
long ago. I don't remember the exact day we reached
a solid year of doing this show, that's true.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, I don't think either of us realized it until
we were well off air.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Yeah, and or we were well past the time and
then it was just too late. So if we're talking about,
you know, New Year's business, I think we could recognize
that fact and just say how much we appreciate all
the folks that tune in and seem to dig the show,
and then allow us to kind of keep doing it.
I sure enjoy doing it, and I hope we can
keep doing it for many years to come.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah, agreed.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
You know, if I could turn back time, the only
thing that would change is a little bit more energy.
At the opening of this episode, because we totally forgot
it's our first episode of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Oh, that's true. It's okay. We saved it for the
back end.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
There we go, There we go. It's a reward for
everyone who's stuck around, right, So thank you so much.
We would like to hear. Oh oh, no, I forgot
the surprise. I found a lovely list of wacky submarine terms,
because you'll remember in our Potato episode we use some
terms that I think we're a little bit off because
(23:16):
neither of us have a history in the Navy, So
there are so many terms that people have. There's burn,
a flick just means watch a movie. There's bull George
by navy tradition. The most junior ensign is called George,
and the most senior is called the Bull. In the
Submarine Force, it takes so long for junior officers to
get to the boat two six months schools, a ten
(23:38):
week school, at least two moves, and oh and a
bunch of red tape that most arrive as lieutenant's junior grade.
When you only have one ensign, as many of them
do by tradition, he is both the Bull and the George,
or the bull George. And things that don't work are
called broke dick. Anything that doesn't work, that pump has
been broke dick for a week, broke dick, broke dick,
(24:02):
I like it. There are a lot of vulgar terms
of this thing, so we learned even more strange slang phrases,
many of which are not fit for air on this show.
But we would like to hear some of your favorite
military slang or naval slang phrases. Anything that made you laugh,
(24:22):
anything that made no sense, or anything with a really
compelling story behind it.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Let us know.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We'd
especially like to recommend you check out our Facebook community page,
Ridiculous Historians, where you can interact with your fellow listeners,
many of whom have some fascinating stories to tell. Have
you been checking out some of that tooth fairy stuff?
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Love the tooth fairy stuff? That seemed to hit a nerve,
like in your tooth nerves nerve ending I don't know now,
I thought, I really enjoyed that episode a lot. I
want to say, I really had a good time doing it.
And when we listen back to these sometimes it feels
like a chore, and I actually found myself kind of
enjoying that one.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
That's good to hear.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Man, that's good to hear.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
We want to thank our super producer, Casey Pegram, Sure
we do. We want to thank Alex Williams, who composed
our track.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
We'd like to thank Gabe Lozier are a wonderful research
associate who hipped us to this topic. And I'd like
to thank you Rol. It's been a great year, Ben,
I thank you as well. It has been a great
year and I look forward to many more on Ridiculous History.
See you next year, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
(25:43):
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows,
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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