U 1224

U 1224 ( previous / next - all submarines )
Type :	IX C / 40
Field Post Number :	M-53 122
Shipyard:	Deutsche Werft AG, Hamburg-Finkenwerder
Construction contract:	August 25, 1941
Build number:	H 387
Keel laying:	November 30, 1942
Launch:	July 7, 1943
Commissioning:	October 20, 1943
Commanders:	As U 1224 Oct. 20, 1943 to Feb. 15, 1944 Kptlt Georg Preuss As RO-501 Feb. 16, 1944 to May 13, 1944 Kptlt Norita Sadatoshi
Flotilla:	31st U-Flotilla Oct. 20, 1943 to Feb. 15, 1944 as a training boat 9th U-Squadron Feb. 15, 1943 to May 13, 1944 as a front boat
Calls:	1 company
Sinkings:	no
Whereabouts:	Sunk by a US destroyer in the mid-Atlantic on May 13, 1944.

U 1224 was a German submarine of the type IX C / 40 , which was givenby Adolf Hitler as a gift from the Imperial Japanese Navy (Nihon Kaigun) during World War II andput into serviceas RO 501 .

history

The boat was commissioned from Deutsche Werft AG in Hamburg on August 25, 1941 . The keel was laid on November 30, 1942 with hull number 387. The launch took place on July 7, 1943. Kapitänleutnant Georg Preuss put U 1224 into service on October 20, 1943. The boat was assigned to the 31st U-Flotilla, a training flotilla that was stationed in Hamburg . During training, U 1224 was handed over to a Japanese crew on February 15, 1944 and renamed RO 501 . The former German crew put the Type IX D2 boat U 875 into service in April . The new commander of RO 501 , Kapitänleutnant Norita Sadatoshi, gave the boat a tower emblem: the German naval war flag , which was behind the Japanese naval war flag , as a sign of the bond between the two countries.

Marco Polo II

U 1224 was the second German submarine that was given to the Japanese emperor as a gift. In September 1943, the Kriegsmarine handed the U 511 over to the Nihon Kaigun under the code name Marco Polo . The boat was then put into service under the designation RO 500 . Accordingly, U 1224 was given the code name Marco Polo II .

loss

On March 30, 1944, RO 501 left Kiel for Japan . By deciphering the Japanese radio communications, the allies were informed of the boat's course. At the height of the Cape Verde Islands was RO 501 American US from a submarine hunting group around the escort carrier USS Bogue expected. The group consisted of the destroyer escorts USS Haverfield (DE-393) , USS Janssen (DE-396) , USS Willis (DE-395) , USS Francis M. Robinson (DE-220) and USS Wilhoite (DE-397) . The Francis M Robinson achieved a sonar location on May 13, 1944, whereupon Commander Johansen ordered a Hedgehog attack . In this attack, RO 501 was sunk with its entire 51-man crew.

Web links

• U 1224 on ubootarchiv.de

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 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume two: U-boat construction in German shipyards. Publishing house ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg, u. a. 1997, p. 131.
2. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume two: U-boat construction in German shipyards. Publishing house ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg, u. a. 1997, p. 188.
3. ^ Georg Högel: Emblems, coats of arms, Malings German submarines 1939-1945. 5th edition. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7822-1002-7 , p. 170.
4. ^ ^{A b} Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume Two: The Hunted 1942–1945. Heyne Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 , p. 632.