UJ 116 Xanten

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UJ 116 Xanten
The sister ships FM 27 as Polish ORP Jaskółka (front) and FM 28 as Polish ORP Mewa (rear) around 1925
The sister ships FM 27 as Polish ORP Jaskółka (front) and FM 28 as Polish ORP Mewa (rear) around 1925
Ship data
flag German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge) German Empire Romania German Empire
IndonesiaRomania (war flag) 
German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge) 
other ship names
  • FM 13
  • Socratis
  • Xanten
Ship type Minesweeper
class Flat minesweeper
Shipyard Union foundry Königsberg
Launch July 20, 1918
Whereabouts Sunk 30 August 1944 in the Black Sea itself
Ship dimensions and crew
length
43.00 m ( Lüa )
width 6.00 m
Draft Max. 1.85 m
displacement 176/257 t
 
crew 61 men
Machine system
machine 2 × 3-cylinder triple expansion machines
Machine
performance 		600 hp (441 kW)
Top
speed 		14 kn (26 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament
  • 2 × 37 mm anti-aircraft guns
  • 40 depth charges

UJ 116 Xanten was originally a minesweeper of the type flat minesweeper of the German Imperial Navy whichwas originally put into service in 1918and was designated FM 13 . After the First World War it was sold to Romania and served as the Socratis ferry . The Navy bought it in 1941 and initially used it as the Xanten mine ship , and from 1942 as the UJ 116 submarine hunterin the Black Sea . During the German retreat in 1944, it was sunk by the crew themselves.

Construction and technical data

Due to the incomplete tradition, the later UJ 116 / Xanten was initially associated with the boat FM 36 and only later identified as FM 13 . The boat was laid down in 1918 for the Imperial Navy at the shipyard of the Union Foundry in Königsberg under construction number 189. The launch took place as FM 13 on July 20, 1918, the delivery and commissioning took place on October 7, 1918.

The boat was 43.00 meters long, 6.00 meters wide and had a draft of 1.85 meters. The construction displacement was 176 tons, the maximum 257 tons. The drive consisted of two 3-cylinder triple expansion machines that achieved 600 hp and worked on two screws. With this she originally reached 14.0 knots, in the Kriegsmarine initially 8.9 knots at top speed. The range after commissioning was 650 nm at 14 knots. The crew consisted of an officer and 60 men. An 88 mm gun / L30 was originally installed as armament.

history

FM 13 in the Imperial and Provisional Imperial Navy

Between the time of commissioning on October 7, 1918 and the imminent retirement on May 8, 1919, the use of the boat by the Imperial and Provisional Reichsmarine is unclear. Since this type of boat could only be used to a limited extent due to its poor sea characteristics, the Reichsmarine decommissioned all boats of the type in the context of disarmament and gave preference to the minesweeper in 1916 . She sold the boat for 300,000 Reichsmarks to the Antwerp ship and mechanical engineering company in Hamburg .

Romanian ferry Socratis

The boat is said to have already been converted into a ferry by the Antwerp ship and mechanical engineering company. It was then sold to Romania in 1920, where it served as a passenger and ferry ship on the Danube under the name Socratis . The last civilian owner before the navy bought it in 1941 was the Danubiana Smarda sugar factory in Giurgiu , which used the ship as a tug . There is no entry in Lloyd's Register.

Mining ship Xanten and U-Boot-Jäger UJ 116 in the Kriegsmarine

In search of suitable shipping space for the tasks to be carried out in the Black Sea, the Navy made purchases in Romania and Bulgaria in addition to confiscations, the bringing in of boats from Germany and the lifting of sunk ships. The Socratis was purchased by the Navy on October 2, 1941. The ship was renamed Xanten and provisionally put into service in October.

First of all, the Xanten was transferred to Linz, where it was converted from a ferry or tugboat to a mine ship at the Linz shipyard in 1941–1942. She now carried two 20 mm anti-aircraft guns and had a loading capacity of 20 mines . The re-commissioning took place in September 1942 and the ship was assigned to the Danube flotilla, which was part of the German naval forces in the Black Sea.

In October 1942, the two 20-mm were replaced with two 37-mm anti-aircraft guns and locking device and winds and 40 depth charges taken on board. In December 1942 the boat received the identification UJ 116 ; it was then referred to as UJ 116 Xanten when the name was also mentioned . At that time it was already in use as an escort boat and submarine hunter. The boat is assigned the sinking of up to three Soviet submarines. On October 14, 1942, UJ 116 Xanten was attacked by the Shch-213 submarine off the Romanian coast near Tulcea , but it missed the submarine hunter. UJ 116 Xanten then sank the submarine with depth charges. On December 17, 1942, UJ 116 Xanten sank the Soviet submarine M-31, also with depth charges.

From January to March 1943, UJ 116 Xanten was again in the shipyard when a second boiler had to be installed for the machine, as 6 kn cruising speed was too slow. Back in service, UJ 116 was again the target of a Soviet submarine attack on November 18, 1943. The boat D-4 fired torpedoes at the boat southwest of the Crimean peninsula Tarchankut , but missed the target. The ship was again targeted by a submarine on December 24, 1943. The Xanten attacked the submarine with depth charges and reported a probable sinking; however, this is not confirmed. Furthermore, UJ 116 Xanten was entrusted with escort and security tasks. During the supply trips between the Sevastopol fortress, which was enclosed by Soviet troops, and the Romanian port of Constanta , the boat secured the transport traffic in April and May 1944.

A few months later, Soviet troops had recaptured more areas, and on August 23, 1944, the coup d'état took place in Romania , whereupon the German troops had to withdraw from the country. During the evacuation of the German bases, the crew of UJ 116 Xanten sank their boat on August 30, 1944 outside Bulgarian territorial waters, south of Cape Kaliakra .

literature

  • Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945, Vol. 2: Torpedo boats, destroyers, speed boats, minesweepers, mine clearance boats , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1983, ISBN 3-7637-4801-6 .
  • Erich Gröner, Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945, Vol. 3: U-Boats, auxiliary cruisers, mine ships, net layers and barrier breakers , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1985, ISBN 3-7637-4802-4 .
  • Erich Gröner, Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945, Vol. 8/1: River vehicles, Ujäger, outpost boats, auxiliary minesweepers, coastal protection associations (Part 1) , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1993, ISBN 3-7637-4807 -5
  • Karl von Kutzleben, Wilhelm Schroeder, Jochen Brennecke: Mine ships 1939–1945. The mysterious missions of the “midnight squadron” , Köhler, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-7822-0844-7 .
  • Harald Fock: Fleet Chronicle. The active warships involved in both world wars and their whereabouts , Koehler's publishing company, revised and expanded version Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-7822-0788-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ on the tradition: Gröner, vol. 8, p. 110 and the clear identification as "Union-Bau", i.e. the restriction to FM 13 , FM 14 or FM 35 . Since there is a transmission line to Norway for FM 14 and one to Persia for FM 35 , there is still FM 13 for the connection from the Imperial German Navy to the Navy .
  2. ↑ Gröner, vol. 8, p. 109f., Id., Vol. 2, p. 170
  3. ↑ Gröner, Vol. 2, p. 171
  4. ↑ cf. Russian forum post at: http://forum-kenig.ru/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=3122&start=90
  5. ↑ http://www.graptolite.net/niemcy/UJ116.html (Polish), as well as the Russian forum post: http://forum-kenig.ru/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=3122&start=90
  6. ↑ Gröner, vol. 8, p. 109, von Kutzleben, p. 250f., Cf. to Lloyd's Register: http://www.plimsollshipdata.org/
  7. ↑ Gröner, vol. 8, p. 110, von Kutzleben, p. 250f., In contrast to this, in older editions by Gröner, October 5th is also mentioned as the date.
  8. ↑ Gröner, Vol. 8, p. 110, von Kutzleben, p. 250f.
  9. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/km/mittelmeer/suedost/donauflottille.htm
  10. ↑ Gröner, Vol. 3, p. 200, the other, Vol. 8, p. 110
  11. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/42-10.htm , Fock, p. 244, cf. http://www.graptolite.net/niemcy/UJ116.html
  12. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/anf/sowj.u-verluste-sm.htm , cf. http://www.graptolite.net/niemcy/UJ116.html
  13. ↑ Gröner, Vol. 8, p. 110
  14. ↑ http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4867.html
  15. ↑ http://www.graptolite.net/niemcy/UJ116.html
  16. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/44-04.htm
  17. ↑ Gröner, Vol. 8, p. 110, von Kutzleben, p. 250f., Fock, p. 148, http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/44-08.htm