U 178
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U 178 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | IX D2 |
| Field Post Number : | 36 887 |
| Shipyard: | Deschimag AG Weser , Bremen |
| Construction contract: | May 28, 1940 |
| Build number: | 1018 |
| Keel laying: | December 24, 1940 |
| Launch: | October 25, 1941 |
| Commissioning: | February 14, 1942 |
| Commanders: |
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| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | 3 activities |
| Sinkings: |
13 ships with 87,030 GRT sunk |
| Whereabouts: | Decommissioned and blown up in Bordeaux on August 25, 1944 , canceled in 1947 |
U 178 was a German submarine of the type IX D2 , which was used in the Second World War during the submarine war by the German Navy in the South Atlantic and in operations of the Monsun group in the Indian Ocean .
Construction and technical data
The Deschimag shipyard in Bremen was first commissioned by the Reichsmarine to build submarines in 1934 . During this time, the submarine was built by circumventing the provisions of the Versailles Treaty . From the beginning of the war, the capacities of Deschimag AG Weser were mainly used for the construction of submarines on behalf of the Navy. Mainly the boats of the submarine class IX C were produced here. The thirteenth construction contract that the German navy placed on this shipyard comprised four type IX D2 boats.
Deschimag AG Weser delivered 28 type IX D2 boats by the end of the war. Such boats of the two-hull type were designed for overseas use. They displaced 1,616 t above water and 1,804 t submerged. An IX D2 boat was 87.58 meters long and 7.5 meters wide. It reached a top speed of 19.2 knots when traveling over water , which corresponds to 35.6 km / h . At 12 knots, the range of these boats was 23,700 nautical miles (sm) .
IX C boats were armed with 24 torpedoes, which could be ejected from 4 bow and 2 stern torpedo tubes . In addition, these boats were armed with artillery. This consisted of a 10.5 cm cannon, as well as a 3.7 cm and a 2.0 cm flak .
The German submarines of this time had coats of arms or emblems that were mostly chosen by the crew themselves. U 178 received his boat mark when Commander Ibbeken observed a swan swimming over the flooded forecastle while attempting to trim in the Bremen harbor basin. The sheet metal workshop of Deschimag AG Weser produced two removable emblems for the two sides of the submarine tower .
In response to a vermin plague on board, U 178 later briefly wore a maling , which depicted a cockroach and was labeled with the number 74215.
Commitment and history
U 178 belonged to the 4th U-Flotilla until August 31, 1942 and was stationed in Stettin . During this time, commander Hans Ibbeken undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to retract the boat and train the crew. From September 1 to October 30, 1942, U 178 was subordinated to the 10th U-Flotilla as a front boat and stationed in Lorient in northern France . On November 1, the boat came to the 12th U-Flotilla in Bordeaux , where it remained until it was blown up in autumn 1944.
The remote submarine group
On September 8, 1942, Commander Ibbeken set out from Kiel on his first patrol with U 178 . The boat belonged to a group of long-distance submarines that left Europe at the same time on the same course, in addition to U 178 , the U 179 , U 177 and U 181 . This was not a classic submarine group, like the polar bear group, which set out at around the same time and was supposed to seek combat with allied convoys according to the pack tactics developed by Karl Dönitz . The plan was to march separately, but to reach the designated area of operations at the same time: the West African waters and the Indian Ocean, where the Allied convoy system was not yet established at that time. U 178 passed Scotland on September 14th and headed south at Rockallbank . At the end of the month the boat passed the Cape Verde Islands and reached the South Atlantic on October 7th . On October 10th, Commander Ibbeken reported the sinking of a British steamer, which was with troops on board en route from Cape Town to Great Britain , when it was torpedoed by U 178 between Freetown and Ascension Island .
- October 10, 1942 British freighter Duchess of Atholl (20,119 GRT, location ) sunk: Commander Ibbeken shot two double torpedo compartments and finally a catch shot at the Duchess of Atholl , which only sank slowly three quarters of an hour later, after a total of three hits. Although the British ship - formerly a passenger steamer - had many people on board as a troop transport, nobody was killed in the sinking.
At the beginning of November 1942, U 178 circled the Cape of Good Hope . In the sea area between the South African coast and Madagascar, Commander Ibbeken sank another troop transport, which he believed to have correctly identified as the British passenger steamer Laurentic .
- 1st November 1942 British steamer Mendoza (8,233 GRT, location ) sunk: 150 people died when the Mendoza , which was not even half the size of the Laurentic assumed by Ibbeken, was sunk . The Mendoza was the sixth troop transport that was sunk in the South African sea area in autumn 1942.
A few days later, Ibbeken sank two more ships off the coast of Mozambique :
- November 4th Norwegian steamer Hai Ning (2,561 GRT, location ) and British steamer Trekieve (5,244 GRT, location ) sunk
In mid-November Ibbeken decided to patrol further south with U 178 and torpedoed two more ships in the middle of the month:
- November 13th 1942 British steamer Louise Moller (3,764 GRT, location ) sunk
- 15th November British steamer adviser (6,348 GRT) damaged
The adviser's crew left the ship after the steamer received a torpedo hit. Since water bomb detonations away from U 178 could be heard on board U 178 , Commander Ibbeken decided to leave the area without waiting for the advisers to sink . The British steamer was later towed to Durban and could be repaired. At the end of the month, U 178 attacked another ship:
- November 27, 1942 American steamer Jeremiah Wedsworth (7,176 GRT) sunk
After sunk the American Liberty freighter 500 km south of Cape Agulhas , Commander Ibbeken decided to return to Europe. U 178 reached Bordeaux on January 10, 1943 .
The first monsoon boat
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Under the command of Corvette Captain Wilhelm Dommes, U 178 set off from Bordeaux on March 28, 1943 for its second venture. The waters around South Africa, in particular the sea area between Mozambique and Madagascar, were again planned as the operational area. During the attack on the CD 20 convoy , Commander Dommes damaged a cargo ship with two torpedo hits.
- June 1, 1943 Dutch freighter Salabangka (6,586 GRT, location ) sunk with torpedo
The Salabangka was badly damaged and had to be towed. In early July, U 178 attacked a Norwegian ship belonging to the convoy DN 50 .
- 4th July 1943 Norwegian steamer Breiviken (2,669 GRT, location ) sunk with torpedo
The Breiviken sank within a few minutes and Commander Dommes had U 178 stopped to pick up castaways and equip them with life rafts. The Breiviken survivors reached the African coast three days later. On the same day, U 178 torpedoed another ship:
- 4th July 1943 Greek steamer Michael Livanos (4,774 GRT, location ) sunk with torpedo
A few days later the boat attacked the sister ship of the Michael Livanos , which was on its way to Port Sudan with coal:
- 11 July 1943 Greek steamer Mary Livanos (4,771 GRT, location ) sunk with torpedo
A few days later, Commander Dommes sank two more ships, an American Liberty ship and a British steamer:
- July 14, 1943 American cargo ship Robert Bacon (7,192 GRT) sunk with torpedo
- 17th July 1943 British freighter City of Canton (6,692 GRT, location ) sunk with torpedo
At the end of July U 178 left the South West African sea area and crossed the Indian Ocean. On August 27, the boat arrived in Penang , a Malaysian port that was occupied by Japanese troops. After U 511 , U 178 was the second German submarine to reach Southeast Asian waters. It was the first of the Monsun group's boats to operate in this area of the sea. Corvette Captain Dommes took over command of the Penang base, from where most of the monsoon boat operations - more of which arrived in the course of autumn - started. The command of U 178 was given to Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Spahr, formerly the first watch officer of the boat. On November 25, 1943, he set out from Penang on his first and only patrol as commander of this boat. Commander Spahr only sank one ship on this voyage: an American freighter off the coast of Kochi .
- December 27, 1943 American steamer José Navarro (7,244 GRT, ) sunk with torpedo
The hygienist Joachim Wüstenberg was on board . U 178 returned to Bordeaux on May 25, 1944.
Whereabouts
The boat was decommissioned on August 20, 1944 and blown up five days later by a demolition squad in the submarine bunker of the 12th U-Flotilla . Three years later, U 178 was lifted by the French Navy and then demolished.
literature
- Bodo Herzog : German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 .
- 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 .
- Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 .
Notes and individual references
- ↑ There was also a Deschimag shipyard in Wesermünde .
- ↑ In addition to U 178 , these were U 177 , U 179 and U 180 .
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. 1997, pp. 210-211.
- ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906-1966 . Karl Müller Verlag (1996), page 199
- ^ 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. 71.
- ↑ ibid.
- ↑ C. Blair: The U-Boat War , Vol. 2: The Hunted, 1942-1945. Munich 1998, p. 93
- ^ A b c d e f g h i j Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945 , Vol. 3: German U-Boat Successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son , Hamburg et al. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 . Pp. 134-135
- ↑ C. Blair: The U-Boat War , Vol. 2: The Hunted, 1942-1945. Munich 1998. p. 113
- ↑ C. Blair: The U-Boat War , Vol. 2: The Hunted, 1942-1945. Munich 1998. p. 116
- ↑ The abbreviation CD denoted allied convoys that ran from Cape Town to Durban.
- ↑ Convoys heading north from Durban were given the abbreviation DN.
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 , p. 230.
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