U 118 (Navy)

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U 118 (Kriegsmarine)
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U-118 air raid.jpg
Air raid on U 118
Type : XB
Field Post Number : M 41 181
Shipyard: Germania shipyard , Kiel
Construction contract: January 31, 1939
Build number: 617
Keel laying: March 1, 1940
Launch: September 23, 1941
Commissioning: December 6, 1941
Commanders:

December 6, 1941 - June 12, 1943
Corvette Captain Werner Czygan

Calls: 4 activities
Sinkings:
  • 3 ships (14,199 GRT)
  • 1 warship (925 t)
Whereabouts: sunk in the mid-Atlantic on June 12, 1943 (43 dead, 16 prisoners of war)

U 118 was a German submarine of the type X B , a class of submarine mine layers , which was usedby the German navy during World War II . During its four patrols, it sank a Canadian corvette with 925 t and 7 dead, as well as 3 merchant ships with a total of 14,199 GRT, with 57 seamen dying. On July 12, 1943, the submarine wassunkin the mid-Atlantic by eight US carrier aircraft . Of the 59 crew members, 43 died while 16 were taken prisoner by the United States.

history

The order for the boat was placed on January 31, 1939 at the Germania shipyard in Kiel . The keel was laid on March 1, 1940, the launch on September 23, 1941, the commissioning under Corvette Captain Werner Czygan finally took place on December 6, 1941. The health resort Bad Gastein (State of Salzburg) took over the sponsorship of the boat .

After its commissioning on December 6, 1941 until September 30, 1942, the boat belonged to the 4th U-Flotilla in Stettin as a training boat . After training, U 118 belonged to the 10th U-Flotilla in Lorient as a front boat from October 1, 1942 to October 31, 1942 , and from November 1, 1942 to its sinking on June 12, 1943 as a front boat to the 12th U Flotilla in Bordeaux .

Like many German submarines of its time, the U 118 also had an emblem on the tower : a silver jug ​​on a blue background. It is the coat of arms of Bad Gastein, the godfather city of the boat. The coat of arms was worn as a badge by the crew on the boats and caps.

During its service life , U 118 ran out of four operations, on which four ships with a tonnage of 14,989 GRT were sunk and three ships with 13,065 GRT were damaged.

Use statistics

First venture

The boat left Kiel on September 19, 1942 at 7:00 a.m. and arrived in Kristiansand on September 21, 1942 at 4:15 a.m. to replenish fuel. It left Kristiansand at 1 p.m. on the same day and arrived in Lorient on October 16, 1942 at 4.45 p.m. No ships were sunk or damaged on this 28-day and approximately 3,700 nm above and 285 nm underwater expedition in the North Atlantic , east of Newfoundland . Five submarines were supplied.

  • October 4, 1942: U 410 is supplied with 55 m³ of fuel and two weeks of provisions.
  • October 4, 1942: U 607 is supplied with 55 m³ of fuel and two weeks of provisions.
  • October 5, 1942: U 216 is supplied with 25 m³ of fuel.
  • October 7, 1942: Supply of U 615 with 65 m³ of fuel and two weeks of provisions.
  • October 7, 1942: U 599 is supplied with 65 m³ of fuel and two weeks of provisions.

Second venture

The boat left Lorient on November 12, 1942 at 5:00 p.m. and returned there on December 13, 1942 at 3:45 p.m. No ships were sunk or damaged during this 27-day and approximately 3,300 nm above and 213 nm underwater undertaking in the Central Atlantic , west of Gibraltar . Nine submarines were supplied.

  • November 21, 1942: U 511 is supplied with 42 m³ of fuel.
  • November 28, 1942: U 564 is supplied with 60 m³ of fuel and three weeks of provisions.
  • November 28, 1942: U 519 is supplied with 40 m³ of fuel and three weeks of provisions.
  • November 29, 1942: U 86 is supplied with 40 m³ of fuel and one week of provisions.
  • November 29, 1942: U 92 is supplied with 80 m³ of fuel and three weeks of provisions.
  • November 30, 1942: U 653 is supplied with 60 m³ of fuel and two weeks of provisions.
  • December 3, 1942: U 160 is supplied with 20 m³ of fuel.
  • December 3, 1942: U 105 is supplied with 20 m³ of fuel.
  • December 4, 1942: U 124 is supplied with 20 m³ of fuel.

U 118 left Lorient on January 17, 1943 at 4.30 p.m. and entered Brest on January 18, 1943 at 9.30 a.m. The boat was in the dock at Brest from 19 to 21 January 1943. This was followed by the equipment with mines.

Third company

The boat left Brest on January 25, 1943 at 4:30 p.m. and entered Bordeaux on February 26, 1943 at 9:00 a.m. On this 32-day and about 3,500 nm above and 321 nm underwater undertaking in the mid-Atlantic, on which 66 mines were laid off the Strait of Gibraltar , three ships with 14,064 GRT were sunk and three ships with 13,065 GRT were damaged (by Mines). Nine submarines were supplied.

  • February 7, 1943: sinking of the British steamer Baltonia ( Lage ) with 2,013 GRT. The steamer was sunk by a mine hit. He had loaded 1,215 t of oranges and 6 t of general cargo and was on the way from Seville and Gibraltar to Belfast . The ship belonged to convoy MKS-7 with 65 ships. There were ten dead and 52 survivors.
  • February 7, 1943: sinking of the British motor ship Mary Slessor ( Lage ) with 5,027 GRT. The ship was sunk by a mine hit. It had general cargo loaded and was on its way from Algiers and Gibraltar to Liverpool . The ship belonged to convoy MKS-7 with 65 ships. There were 32 dead and 48 survivors.
  • February 7, 1943: sinking of the British steamer Empire Mordred ( Lage ) with 7,024 GRT. The steamer was sunk by a mine hit. He was ballasted and on his way from Bona and Gibraltar to Great Britain. The ship belonged to convoy MKS-7 with 65 ships. There were 15 dead and 55 survivors.
  • February 10, 1943: Damage to the Spanish steamer Duero with 2,008 GRT. The steamer was damaged by a mine hit. He was on his way from Barcelona to Cádiz .
  • February 22, 1943: Damage to the Norwegian tanker Thorsholm with 9,937 GRT. The tanker was damaged by a mine hit. The ship belonged to the CIS-4 convoy.
  • February 22, 1943: Damage to the British destroyer Wivern with 1,120 tons. The destroyer was damaged during the rescue operation for the sinking corvette Weyburn by the exploding depth charges.
  • February 23, 1943: sinking of the Canadian corvette Weyburn ( Lage ) with 925 tons. The corvette was sunk by a mine hit. There were seven dead.
  • February 8, 1943: U 176 was supplied with 15 m³ of fuel and one week of provisions.
  • February 11, 1943: Supply of U 175 with 30 m³ of fuel and one week of provisions.
  • February 12, 1943: Supply of U 214 with 20 m³ of fuel and one week of provisions.
  • February 13, 1943: U 558 is supplied with 30 m³ of fuel and two weeks of provisions.
  • February 13, 1943: U 258 is supplied with 30 m³ of fuel and two weeks of provisions.
  • February 13, 1943: Supply of U 202 with 31 m³ of fuel and two weeks of provisions.
  • February 14, 1943: Supply of U 87 with 30 m³ of fuel and one week of provisions.
  • February 14, 1943: U 264 is supplied with 30 m³ of fuel and two weeks of provisions.
  • February 14, 1943: Supply of U 504 with 71 m³ of fuel and three weeks of provisions.

Fourth venture

Bomb hit

The boat left Bordeaux on May 25, 1943 and was sunk on June 12, 1943 due to deciphered ENIGMA radio messages . On this 19-day undertaking in the mid-Atlantic, the Canary Islands and southwest of the Azorean Islands ( U 118 was supposed to lay 66 mines off Halifax ), it did not sunk or damage any ships or supply any submarines. ( On June 10, 1943, U 118 took over 50 m³ of fuel from U 460 ).

Whereabouts

The boat was launched on June 12, 1943 in the mid-Atlantic west of the Canary Islands by four Avenger and four Wildcat aircraft of Squadron VC-9 of US escort Bogue at position 30 ° 49 ′  N , 28 ° 21 ′  W in the naval reference grid DG 5563 sunk with 14 depth charges. There were 43 dead - including the commander Korvettenkapitän Werner Czygan - and 16 survivors who were rescued, some seriously injured , by the crew of the US destroyer Osmond Ingram and who were taken prisoner by the US . Initially there were 17 submarine drivers from U 118 , including no officer, who were brought on board the Osmond Ingram , but Corporal Wilhelm Ervin died of his wounds only a few minutes later and was buried at sea in the presence of a comrade . Two seriously wounded prisoners were operated on aboard the Osmond Ingram . On June 20, 1943, the prisoners were brought ashore at Naval Station Norfolk , USA. The two seriously wounded were taken to hospital, while the remaining 14 prisoners were taken to Fort Meade, Maryland and Fort Hunt near Alexandria, Virginia for interrogation .

One of the main reasons for the discovery of the boat is the successful American deciphering of the "Triton" key network used by the submarines , which was used to encrypt radio communications with the BdU . From April 1943 onwards, more than 120 specially developed Desch bombes were manufactured in the US Naval Computing Machine Laboratory , which were directed against the Enigma-M4 used by the Navy .

interrogation

Arrival of prisoners from U 118 in a bus at Naval Station Norfolk on June 20, 1943 . The second from the left is Werner Drechsler .

The crew was routinely interrogated while in captivity. Lance corporal Werner Drechsler , 23 years old, was very cooperative and was used as an informant by the US Naval Intelligence for seven months. Upon completion of this activity, he was mistakenly transferred to Camp Papago Park Detention Center , Phoenix, Arizona, where other submarine drivers were also held. There he was exposed on the day of his arrival and murdered by fellow prisoners. As a result, six allegedly involved prisoners were sentenced to death by an American court martial and executed in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

literature

  • Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 1: The Hunters. 1939-1942. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X .
  • Clay Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 .
  • Robert M. Browning Jr .: US Merchant Vessel War casualties of World War II. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 1996, ISBN 1-55750-087-8 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 5: The knight's cross bearers of the submarine weapon from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-8132-0515-0 .
  • Erich Gröner : Die Handelsflotten der Welt 1942 and supplement 1944. JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-469-00552-4 (reprint of the 1942–1943 edition).
  • Erich Gröner: Search list for ship names (= The merchant fleets of the world. Supplementary volume). JF Lehmanns Verlag Munich 1976, ISBN 3-469-00553-2 (reprint of the 1943 edition).
  • Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes Verlag, Graefelfing before Munich 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 .
  • Laurenz Krisch: Bad Gastein during the Nazi regime. In: Communications from the Society for Regional Studies in Salzburg. Vol. 147, 2007, pp. 255-322, here pp. 296-299.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Högel: Emblems, coats of arms, Malings German submarines 1939-1945. 5th edition. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7822-1002-7 , page 58
  2. ↑ Jennifer Wilcox : Solving the Enigma - History of the Cryptanalytic Bombe . Center for Cryptologic History, NSA, Fort Meade (USA) 2001, p. 52. PDF; 0.6 MB ( memento from January 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ John AN Lee, Colin Burke, Deborah Anderson: The US Bombes, NCR, Joseph Desch, and 600 WAVES - The first Reunion of the US Naval Computing Machine Laboratory . IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 2000. p. 35. PDF; 0.5 MB , accessed May 22, 2018.
  4. ↑ Report On The Interrogation Of Survivors From U-118, Sunk On June 12, 1943 . Navy Department, Office Of The Chief Of Naval Operations, Washington, ONI 250-G / Serial 15
  5. ↑ amazon.com