Scuttling accelerated between 1 and 5 May while Allied surrender terms required the German naval force to be handed over intact. On 5 May, a Regenbogen order was issued and countermanded within eight minutes, yet a further 87 boats were destroyed. That unusually large total prompts suspicion that the brief order and swift cancellation provided a convenient excuse, rather than establishing an accidental transmission as fact. The earlier totals are corrected during the account and should be treated cautiously. Two Type XVII boats were wrecked at Cuxhaven on 7 May, with the purportedly accidental nature of their loss also questioned.
Chapter · 21:34-26:35
The May 1945 scuttlings and U-boat surrender
The May scuttling chronology shows how rapidly boats were destroyed while Allied surrender terms required Germany to hand over its naval forces intact.