10th submarine flotilla

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The 10th U-Flottille (Unterseebootflottille) was an association of the German Navy during the Second World War . She was one of the eight German submarine flotillas whose boats operated from the five naval bases in northern France. The 10th U-Flotilla was stationed in Lorient .

10 Flotilla emblem.svg

history

The 10th U-Flotilla was set up in Lorient in January 1942. From July 1942 she was subordinate to the Führer der U-Boats West . Until the flotilla was dissolved in October 1944, the chief of the flotilla was Corvette Captain Günter Kuhnke . The headquarters of the flotilla was in Kernevel, the former headquarters of the BdU Karl Dönitz . The submarines of the flotilla were equipped for their operations in submarine bunkers . The staff of the flotilla lived in a barrack camp on the east bank of the base as well as in the premises of the former French port barracks and the city music school.

Flotilla sign

The coat of arms of the 10th U-Flotilla showed a stylized submarine in front of a black bar cross. The stylized 10.5 cm cannon on the bow of the boat looked like the number 10 and thus stood for the number of the flotilla. The flotilla logo was designed by the flotilla chief Kuhnke and was also worn as a hat badge by some members of the flotilla.

Boats of the flotilla

The 10th sub-flotilla included submarines of the large Type IX , a Type XB minelayer and six Type XIV "dairy cows" :

U 118 U 155 U 158 U 159 U 160 U 163 U 164 U 165 U 166 U 167 U 169 U 170 U 171 U 172 U 174 U 175 U 176 U 177 U 178 U 179 U 181 U 185 U 186 U 187 U 188 U 192 U 193 U 194 U 459 U 460 U 461 U 462 U 463 U 464 U 506 U 508 U 509 U 510 U 511 U 512 U 513 U 514 U 515 U 516 U 517 U 523 U 524 U 525 U 526 U 527 U 528 U 529 U 530 U 533 U 535 U 537 U 539 U 540 U 541 U 542 U 543 U 544 U 546 U 549 U 550 U 804 U 844 U 845 U 846 U 853 U 855 U 857 U 865 U 866 U 1221 U 1222 U 1229 U 1230

Some of the boats in this flotilla were used as part of the Monsoon group and accordingly relocated their area of ​​operations to the Southeast Asian maritime area in order to patrol the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea . These boats were still part of the 10th submarine flotilla, but in Japanese-occupied bases, e.g. B. Penang , Batavia or Singapore stationed. In terms of troops, the crews were subordinate to the German naval attaché in Japan and the commanders received their orders directly from BdU Dönitz.

End of the 10th U-Flotilla

After the liberation of France began , the FdU West moved its headquarters to Norway. Some U-flotillas remained in the bases in northern France, but most - including the 10th U-Flotilla - were disbanded by October 1944.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bodo Herzog : German U-Boats 1906-1966. Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 , page 226
  2. ^ Lars Hellwinkel : Hitler's Gate to the Atlantic The German naval bases in France 1940-1945. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86153-672-7 , page 92
  3. ^ Georg Högel: Emblems, coats of arms, Maling's German submarines 1939-1945. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7822-1002-7 , page 28

literature

  • 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 .