U 131
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U 131 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | IX C |
| Field Post Number : | M-46 834 |
| Shipyard: | AG Weser , Bremen |
| Construction contract: | August 7, 1939 |
| Build number: | 994 |
| Keel laying: | September 1, 1940 |
| Launch: | April 1, 1941 |
| Commissioning: | July 1, 1941 |
| Commanders: |
July 1, 1941 - December 17, 1941 |
| Calls: | 1 company |
| Sinkings: |
1 ship (4,016 GRT, 43 dead); 1 plane shot down (1 dead) |
| Whereabouts: | heavily damaged and self-sunk in the Atlantic on December 17, 1941 (55 prisoners of war, no dead) |
U 131 was a German submarine from the Type IX C , which in World War II by the German navy was used in the Atlantic. On its only venture, it sank a ship with 4016 GRT, killing 43 people. As the first German submarine of the Second World War, it shot down an attacking aircraft shortly before its sinking, and its pilot (one-man crew) died. On December 17, 1941 near Madeira , it was badly damaged by several British warships and a carrier aircraft and then sunk by itself . All 55 men of the crew were taken on board by the destroyers as prisoners of war .
history
The order for the boat was awarded to AG Weser in Bremen on August 7, 1939 . The keel was laid on September 1, 1940, the launch on April 1, 1941, the commissioning under Corvette Captain Arend Baumann finally took place on July 1, 1941.
After its commissioning on July 1, 1941 to November 1941, the boat belonged to the 4th U-Flotilla in Stettin as a training boat . After training, U 131 belonged to the 2nd U-Flotilla in Lorient as a front boat from November 1941 until its sinking on December 17, 1941 .
U 131 took a while serving patrol , on which there is a ship with 4016 GRT could sink.
Convoy battle in front of Gibraltar
The boat left Kiel on November 27, 1941 at 6:00 a.m. for its first venture. On this 21-day venture into the Atlantic , west of Gibraltar , a ship with 4,016 GRT was sunk and an airplane was shot down.
- December 6, 1941: sinking of the British steamer Scottish Trader with 4,016 GRT. The steamer was sunk by a torpedo . He had loaded general cargo and was on his way from Philadelphia via Sydney to Liverpool . The ship was a straggler of convoy SC-56 with 42 ships. It was a total loss with 43 dead.
U 131 belonged to the submarine group "Seeräuber", which was put together in mid-December to attack convoy HG 76 going from Gibraltar to Great Britain.
- December 17, 1941: A Squadron 802 Martlet launched by the British escort carrier HMS Audacity was shot down. The pilot sighted the surfaced submarine and attacked U 131 with depth charges . The aircraft was shot down during the attack on U 131 shortly before the submarine sank.
This was the first aircraft to be shot down by a submarine during World War II.
Whereabouts
The boat was forced to surface on December 17, 1941 in the Atlantic northeast of Madeira Island by the British destroyers HMS Stanley , HMS Exmoor and HMS Blankney , the corvette HMS Pentstemon and an aircraft of the type Martlet of the British escort carrier HMS Audacity with depth charges, then by sunk by the crew themselves. The position was 34 ° 12 ′ N , 13 ° 35 ′ W in marine grid reference DH 3349. There were no loss of life; the 55 surviving submarines were taken on board by the British destroyers as prisoners of war .
See also
literature
- 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 / Bonn 1996, p. 24. ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 2: Submarine construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1997, pp. 49, 211. ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 .
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 3: The German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2008, p. 113. ISBN 978-3-8132-0513-8 .
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 4: The German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2008, p. 36f. ISBN 978-3-8132-0514-5 .
- 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 .
- Clay Blair : The Submarine War - The Hunters 1939–1942 . Heyne Verlag, 1998. pp. 451, 485, 487f., 492f. ISBN 3-453-12345-X .
- Janusz Piekalkiewicz : Sea War. 1939-1945. License issue. Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-8289-0304-5 .
Web links
- German U-Boats 1935–1945, U 131, Ubootarchiv.de
- U-131, Uboat.net
- U-131, Uboatarchive.net: Interrogation of Crew of "U 131", a 740-Ton U-Boat, Sunk at About 1330 on 17th December, 1941, in Approximately 34 ° 30 'N. and 13 ° 45' W. (Royal Navy)
Remarks
- ^ Formerly a German merchant ship Hanover , captured and converted into an escort carrier (Peter Padfield: Der U-Boot-Krieg. 1939–1945. Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1999, ISBN 3-8289-0313-4 , p. 256)
- ^ Janusz Piekalkiewicz: Sea War. 1939-1945. 1998, p. 179.
Map with all coordinates: