7th submarine flotilla

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 7th submarine flotilla ( 7th submarine flotilla for short , also submarine flotilla "Wegener" ) was an association of the German navy of the Second World War and belonged to the front flotilla of the submarine weapon. She was one of 33 flotillas deployed during the war. Since the beginning of the war in September 1939, the association was used as a front flotilla. The field post number was 14971.

history

7. U-Flotilla.jpg

The flotilla was set up on June 25, 1939 in Kiel . This flotilla was named after a submarine commander of the First World War - Bernd Wegener - who was killed in the so-called Baralong incident on SM U 27 in 1915 . Based on the successful attack by Günther Prien on the British Home Fleet base in Scapa Flow , Scotland , the Flotilla Priens took over the boat mark: Scapa Flow's bull , which was designed by its first watch officer Engelbert Endrass based on a comic drawing. By order of the flotilla chief Sohler, which was issued after the death of Prien became known, all boats of the flotilla were to attach the "Bull of Scapa Flow" to the tower.

Immediately after the Franco-German armistice , Karl Dönitz went to the western French Atlantic coast in June to inspect the coastal locations for possible suitability for submarine bases. He chose Brest , Lorient , Bordeaux , La Pallice and Saint-Nazaire . In September 1940, the association was relocated to Saint-Nazaire, where the Wehrmacht had also secured large amounts of fuel for an initial fuel supply to the submarines. In addition, the 6th U-Flotilla was stationed here. The two flotillas were subordinate to a total of more than 1,800 soldiers. Initially, the staff was housed in confiscated city dormitories and a school. Hotels and houses in the seaside resort of La Baule , ten kilometers away, were later requisitioned. The first boat to reach the new port of operations was U 46 under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Engelbert Endrass on September 21, 1940 .

In June 1942, the first bunkered berths on the entire Atlantic coast that could be used as dry docks were completed in Saint-Nazaire. More were added by the end of the year, so that the bunker systems finally had 20 berths.

The Führer der U-Boats (West) moved his headquarters to Norway in the summer of 1944, but some of the flotillas under his control, including the 7th U-Flotilla, remained in France. In the second half of 1944, the 6th U-Flotilla surrendered some no longer operational submarines to the 7th U-Flotilla. In the late summer of 1944, the remaining boats in the flotilla moved to Norway. U 267 was the last boat to leave the port on the Atlantic on September 23, 1944 .

Flotilla Chiefs

The 7th U-Flotilla was initially stationed in Kiel, then additionally in Saint-Nazaire and from October 1940 exclusively in Saint-Nazaire.

Boat stock

Number of assigned boats: 111. When the base was abandoned in August 1944, the flotilla had eight submarines: U 255 , U 281 , U 300 , U 618 , U 650 , U 667 , U 714 and U 985 . Over the years, the flotilla has included several living and escort ships. These included the tender Hertha (from June 1938 to December 1938), the auxiliary boats Thuringia (in spring 1941), Ubenia (from November 1939 to February 1941) and Hamburg (January 1940 to February 1941) as well as the U-tender Krefeld (from October 1940 to January 1941), the escort ship I and T 157 .

Used U types

literature

  • Lars Hellwinkel: Hitler's Gate to the Atlantic. The German naval bases in France 1940 - 1945 , first edition, Ch. Links Verlag, Bonn 2012, ISBN 978-3-86153-672-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Högel: Embleme Wappen Maling's German U-Boats 1939 - 1945 , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7822-1002-7 , page 28
  2. ↑ Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 1. Die Jäger 1939-1942 , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-453-12345-X , page 217
  3. ↑ a b Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. The U-Boat Construction in German Shipyards , Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3 8132 0512 6 , page 314
  4. ^ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Rüll: The submarine war 1939-1945. The submarine construction in German shipyards , Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3 8132 0512 6 , page 435
  5. ^ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Rüll: The submarine war 1939-1945. The submarine construction in German shipyards , Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3 8132 0512 6 , page 297