U-28 creature

The U-28 creature originates in a wartime eyewitness report that later entered public discussion. Commander Georg‑Günther Freiherr von Forstner published a reminiscence on 19 December 1933 in Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung recounting an incident of 30 July 1915, when his submarine SM U-28 had torpedoed the British steamer Iberian. In von Forstner's account the sinking produced a violent underwater explosion that ejected wreckage and, he claimed, a gigantic sea‑animal among the debris. The report was publicized during a period of intense popular interest in sea monsters (notably the 1933 Loch Ness publicity), and subsequent writers in cryptozoology and popular media treated the account as evidence of a surviving large marine reptile while skeptics questioned the physical mechanics and evidentiary basis.

According to von Forstner's published description, the animal was about 60 feet long and 'like a crocodile in shape,' with four limbs and 'powerful webbed feet' and a long tail tapering to a point. Von Forstner emphasized the length, insisting on his measurement. Some secondary retellings note variant details—e.g., Captain George Hope (H.M.S. Fly) is reported in summaries to have described a long neck reminiscent of plesiosaurs—though such differing details are presented in the sources as uncertain or inconsistent.

Sources do not attribute sustained supernatural powers to the U-28 creature; the reported capabilities are limited to large body size, swimming, and an eyewitness claim that it was propelled out of the water by an explosion to a height of some tens of metres and observed struggling and gasping for a brief interval before sinking. Commentators in the supplied material debate the physical plausibility of an underwater explosion ejecting so large an animal and associated wreckage, and no verified observations of additional abilities or repeated behavior are recorded in the provided sources.