U 1206
|
U 1206 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
|
|---|---|
 Graphic of a Type VII C submarine |
|
| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | M - 05 768 |
| Shipyard: | Schichau-Werke , Danzig |
| Construction contract: | April 2, 1942 |
| Build number: | 1576 |
| Keel laying: | June 12, 1943 |
| Launch: | December 30, 1943 |
| Commissioning: | March 16, 1944 |
| Commanders: |
March 16, 1944 - July 1944 |
| Flotilla: |
|
| Calls: | 1 patrol |
| Sinkings: |
no |
| Whereabouts: | sunk on April 14, 1945 in the North Sea near Peterhead (4 dead and 46 prisoners of war) |
U 1206 was one of the Navy in World War II employed submarine of type VIIC . The boat became known because it was damaged on its first patrol off the coast of Scotland in April 1945 due to an operating error by the commander Karl-Adolf Schlitt in the on- board toilet , surfaced, destroyed by British aircraft and then sunk itself , causing three or four crew members perished and the remaining 46 fell into British captivity .
Construction and equipment
U 1206 had a water displacement of 769 t on the surface and 871 t under water. It was a total of 67.1 m long, 6.2 m wide, 9.6 m high with a 50.5 m long pressure hull and had a draft of 4.74 m. The in Gdansk Schichau works built submarine was of two four-stroke diesel engines F46 with 6 cylinders and supercharger of Kiel Germaniawerft with a capacity from 2060 to 2350 kW, for underwater operation with two electric motors GU 460 / 8-27 of AEG with a power of 550 kW. It had two drive shafts with two 1.23 m tall propellers. The boat was suitable for diving to a depth of 230 m.
The submarine reached speeds of up to 17.7 knots on the surface and up to 7.6 knots under water. When surfaced, the submarine could travel up to 8,500 nautical miles at 10 knots, and up to 80 nautical miles submerged at 4 knots. U 1206 had five 53.3 cm torpedo tubes - four at the bow and one at the stern - and fourteen torpedoes , an 8.8 cm SK C / 35 cannon with 220 rounds of ammunition, and a 3.7 cm FlaK M42 18/36/37/43 and two thin 2 cm FlaK C / 30.
team
The crew strength of the submarine was 44 to 60 men. On his last trip there were 50 men.
Toilet
The U 1206 was equipped with a state-of-the-art toilet , which the engineers considered to be state-of-the-art. While the Allies collected the feces in their submarines in special tanks, the conventional German submarines collected feces and urine in containers that were emptied into the sea on the surface of the water. This led to considerable stress during longer underwater journeys, which became increasingly important in view of the Allied air superiority. The high pressure at great depths made it impossible to expel the feces at normal pressures. In the case of the new VIIC submarines, the problem was solved by a high-pressure toilet. The operation of the same was very complicated, which is why there was a seaman on every such submarine who was specially trained in the technology. The wastewater was passed through a series of chambers via valves until it landed in a compressed air lock. From here it was shot out into the sea with highly compressed compressed air, for which, however, the other valves had to be closed.
Stakes and end
After its commissioning, U 1206 served under the command of First Lieutenant Günther Fritze in the 8th U-Flotilla as a training ship. In July 1944, the submarine was assigned to the 11th U-Flotilla and placed under the command of Lieutenant Karl-Adolf Schlitt . During this time, the submarine also received a snorkel that was attached to the site of the on-board gun.
On March 28, 1945, the submarine left Kiel for its first training voyage and entered the naval base on the Karljohansvern peninsula on the northern edge of Horten in Norway on March 30 . It left this on April 2 and drove to the port of Kristiansand on April 3 , from where it set out on its first patrol to Scotland on April 6, 1945 . For a few days the boat drove off the Scottish coast without encountering enemy ships. To protect against enemy attacks, the submarine drove to a depth of 60 m and was last 8 nautical miles from Peterhead . On April 9th there were technical problems with the compressor of the starboard diesel engine. On April 13, the starboard diesel engine failed completely, and the technicians tried to get the machine going again, having to let a merchant ship of around 8,000 GRT pass by.
When the commander, Kapitänleutnant Schlitt, flushed the toilet on April 14, he ignored an order according to which the flush could only be triggered by a specialist on board. Seawater, mixed with Schlitt's excrement and urine, poured into the submarine through the open valves at high pressure. The toilet specialist was no longer able to close the toilet locks. According to one survivor, the boat sagged "like a stone" into the depths. However, Schlitt himself stated in his report that when the water leaked in, he was in the engine room to help repair the failed diesel engine while a mechanic tried to repair the front toilet. The reason for this was an incorrectly or not at all inserted external valve of the pressure toilet.
When the seawater reached the batteries under the toilet, toxic chlorine gas was formed . In this hopeless situation, Schlitt ordered the submarine to appear immediately and as quickly as possible. For this purpose, all torpedoes, none of which had been fired, had to be ejected. On the surface, however, the boat was immediately noticed by airmen of the Royal Air Force and immediately under fire. A crew member was fatally wounded. Schlitt ordered the self-sinking of the hopeless submarine and let all men disembark. The submarine drivers drove towards the rugged cliff in lifeboats. According to a report by Schlitt (who was not an eyewitness), three men (Hans Berkhauer, Karl Koren and Emil Kupper) were killed when they tried to climb the steep slope from their rubber dinghy in a stormy sea, but their boat was thrown against the cliff. According to other information, however, in addition to ten people still alive, there was also one dead on board this inflatable boat. While two seamen drowned (which adds up to three deaths), the remaining (eight) seamen were able to save themselves to the Scottish mainland. Here they were captured by the British Army shortly afterwards . The British Navy trawler HMT Nodzu took 23 men on board from two lifeboats and took them to Aberdeen as prisoners of war . Another 14 men from another large lifeboat and two with this tied up small boats - among them the commander Schlitt - were brought ashore in the fishing boat Reaper by Alec John Stephen and his assistant John Smith. Stephen initially thought the castaways were survivors of a sinking Norwegian ship and only found out their identity on land. They were detained at Peterhead Police Station and taken to London by rail the next day . The remaining crew members were taken on board by the British sloop Nonsuch . A total of 46 seamen were taken captive by the U 1206. Schlitt remained in British captivity until 1948.
Whereabouts of the wreck
According to Schlitt, the submarine sank to 57 ° 24'N, 1 ° 37'W , but it was not found for decades.
During exploration work by British Petroleum for the Forties Field oil pipeline to Cruden Bay ( Aberdeenshire ) in the mid-1970s, the wreck of U 1206 was found at 57 ° 21'N, 1 ° 39'W at a depth of around 70 m. An investigation by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) revealed at the time that a collision of U-1206 with a wreck previously lying there could have led to the disaster.
In 2012 divers came across the wreck of U 1206, which lies twelve nautical miles from Cruden Bay at the bottom of the North Sea.
See also
literature
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine 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 .
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. Preface by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rohwer, Member of the Presidium of the International Commission on Military History. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Boon 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
- Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maas: The German warships 1815-1945. Volume 3: Submarines, auxiliary cruisers, mine ships, net layers. Bernhard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-7637-4802-4 .
Web links
- Florian Stark: Operating errors in the toilet capsized the submarine. Die Welt , September 23, 2015.
- Elliot Carter: Fatal Toilet Flush: The Nazi Submarine That Sank In Its Own Stool. Vice.com, September 18, 2015.
- Translation by: Elliot Carter: The High-Tech Toilet That Destroyed a Submarine. War is Boring, September 17, 2015.
- U 1206 , Buchan Shipwrecks
- U-1206 on U-Boote.fr
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heikendorf (Möltenort), district of Plön, Schleswig-Holstein: U-Boot-Ehrenmal Möltenort, U-1206, Type VIIC, 11th U-Flotilla Bergen, front boat, snorkeling equipment. Online project Fallen Memorials
- ^ German submarines 1935-1945, U 1206
- ^ U-1206, Uboat.net
- ↑ Jochen Brennecke: hunters and the hunted - German submarines 1939-1945 . Koehler Verlag, Herford 1982. ISBN 3-7822-0262-7
- ↑ a b Report by Commandant Karl-Adolf Schlitt , 1945. Buchan Shipwrecks
- ↑ Norman Adams: The Reaper's Strangest Catch. The Scots Magazine, April 1990, pp. 41-44. Digitized on Buchan Shipwrecks, U 1206: pp. 41, 42, 43, 44,
- ↑ Jak P. Mallman Showell: The U-Boat Century: German Submarine Warfare 1906-2006. Chatham Publishing, 2006. p. 81 ISBN 978-1-86176-241-2
- ^ U-1206: North Sea. RCAHMS
