U 1061
|
U 1061 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
|
|---|---|
| Type : | VII F |
| Field Post Number : | M-52,982 |
| Shipyard: | Germania shipyard , Kiel |
| Construction contract: | August 25, 1941 |
| Build number: | 695 |
| Keel laying: | August 21, 1942 |
| Launch: | April 22, 1943 |
| Commissioning: | August 25, 1943 |
| Commanders: |
|
| Flotilla: |
|
| Calls: | Five transport trips |
| Sinkings: |
no |
| Whereabouts: | capitulated in Bergen on May 9, 1945 . Transferred to Loch Ryan, Scotland and sunk on December 1, 1945 in Operation Deadlight . |
U 1061 was a German class VII F submarine that was used by the Kriegsmarine for transport tasks during the submarine war in World War II . U 1061 transported torpedoes , ammunition and supplies between the naval base in Kiel and the German bases in Norway . It was the only German type VII F submarine that saw the end of the war.
Construction and technical data
From the beginning of the war, the Kieler Germaniawerft mainly produced submarines for the German Navy, mainly submarines of the class VII . On August 25, 1941, the eleventh building contract from the Navy was placed with the Germania shipyard in Kiel. It comprised a total of four boats of the type VII F. A boat of this class had a length of 77.63 m and was 7.3 m wide. It displaced 1,345 m³ under water and was able to reach a speed of 7.9 knots (kn) when underwater , which corresponds to 14.3 km / h . On August 21, 1942, U 1061 with the hull number 695 attached to Kiel . The launch took place on April 22, 1943. The boat was put into service on August 25 by Oberleutnant zur See Otto Hinrichs.
Commanders
Otto Hinrichs was born in Brake on November 30, 1913 . He was part of crew 36 and, as an officer on watch, completed five patrols on the Type IX B boat U 105 and the Type IX C boat U 154 . He handed over command of U 1061 on March 19, 1945 to Oberleutnant zur See der Reserve Walter Jäger. Jäger was born on May 27, 1897 in Zeulenroda and completed his submarine training in autumn 1944. From then on until he took over command, he had taken part in three transfer trips with U 1061 as an extra-scheduled commander student and officer on watch .
Flotilla membership and missions
It was three times in the fifth U-Flotilla , Kiel , twice in the 12th U-Flotilla , Bordeaux and led five transport operations until the war ended by where it faces-snoop torpedoes , T-5 Wren torpedoes , transported further weapons, ammunition and supplies between the Scandinavian bases of the Kriegsmarine in Bergen , Kristiansand , Narvik and Trondheim and the flotilla bases in Kiel and Gotenhafen . U 1060 - from the same construction contract - was also entrusted with transport tasks in these waters at that time. At the end of October 1944 U 1061 was attacked by aircraft of the RAF Coastal Command and badly damaged. On the night of October 30th, a Wellington fighter plane U 1061 captured with the Leigh light searchlight. During the subsequent attacks, depth charges from a Liberator bomber damaged the boat considerably, but U 1061 managed to escape. The submarine leadership announced that everything should be tried to repair the boat, as it was particularly valuable. After the destruction of U 1060 on November 4th, U 1061 was the last remaining transport submarine of the German Navy.
Whereabouts
Commander Jäger surrendered to British forces on May 9 at the Bergen base. The boat left Bergen on May 30th and headed for Scapa Flow , the Home Fleet base , where the remaining German submarines were collected and handed over to the British Navy. Here the German flag was officially lowered. On July 4th the boat was taken to Loch Ryan. From here it was towed by the HMS Enchanter to position 56 ° 10 'N - 10 ° 05' W on November 29, 1945 and on December 1 at 9:00 a.m. by artillery fire from the British destroyer HMS Onslaught (G.04 ) and the Polish destroyer ORP Piorun (G.56) sunk.
literature
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 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 .
References and comments
- ↑ In addition to U 1061, there were U 1059 , U 1060 and U 1062 .
- ↑ Bodo Herzog : German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 , p. 198.
- ↑ Commanders' students , so-called “confirmands”, were fully trained officers and should not be confused with the officer candidates, the ensigns .
- ↑ Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 , pp. 701-702.
- ↑ U 1059 was ordered to supply the Monsoon group in the Indian Ocean in the summer of 1944 and was sunk west of the Cape Verde Islands; U 1062 had reached the target area, but was sunk in the mid-Atlantic in September
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 , p. 377.