U 182

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U 182
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Type : IX D2
Field Post Number : 05593
Shipyard: Deutsche Schiffs- und Maschinenbau Aktiengesellschaft
(DeSchiMAG AG Weser ), Bremen
Construction contract: August 15, 1940
Build number: 1022
Keel laying: April 7, 1941
Launch: March 3, 1942
Commissioning: June 30, 1942
Commanders:

Corvette Captain Nikolai Asmus Clausen

Calls: 1 company
Sinkings:

5 ships (30,071 GRT)

Whereabouts: Sunk on May 15 or 16, 1943

U 182 was a German submarine of type IX D2 , which in the Second World War was used.

construction

The boat was built by Deschimag AG Weser , Bremen. The shipyard of Deschimag AG Weser was already involved in the submarine construction program of the Reich and Kriegsmarine before the beginning of the Second World War . During the war, this shipyard primarily manufactured boats of the "large" types. The construction contract took place on August 15, 1940. The keel was laid on April 7, 1941, the launch on March 3, 1942 and the commissioning on June 30, 1942. It was a two-hull boat designed for overseas use was. An IX D2 boat was 87.58 meters long and 7.50 meters in diameter. A boat of this type could reach a speed of 19.2 knots when driving above water and drove a maximum of 6.9 knots under water. Like most German submarines of its time, the U 182 also had a boat-specific logo on the tower . It was the writing "Westward ho" .

commitment

Commander Clausen

The commander of U 182 was Lieutenant Captain Nikolai Asmus Clausen , Chief Engineer Lieutenant Engineer Bernhard Klaunig (born November 22, 1913).

U 182 was one of the following flotillas :

The final port of departure for U 182 after it was relocated from Kiel via Kristiansand was Norwegian Horten . The expiry date checked in the war diary of the Naval War Command was finally December 9, 1942 to the South Atlantic area of ​​operations, Freetown, southeast of Cape Town , Madagascar , Indian Ocean. Why U 182 stayed in Norway for another week can no longer be clarified. It is believed that PK man Robert Maibohm still had to get on.

Seal and Dolphin

U 182 was assigned to the submarine group "Seehund" at the time of the approach to the intended area of ​​operations, to which five other long-distance submarines of the type IX C belonged. Already on the approach to the operation area, the boat was involved in combat. In early January 1943, the seal group was ordered to participate in the attack on a convoy en route from Trinidad to the Mediterranean. It was an oil convoy that U 514 had discovered on January 5th. Its commander, Hans-Jürgen Auffermann, had followed the convoy following the pack tactics developed by Karl Dönitz and continuously reported its direction and speed. However, when Commander Clausen also reported a convoy, the submarine command decided to target the boats of the Seal group and the boats of the Delphin submarine group , to which U 514 belonged. Clausen had tracked down the CIS 3 convoy on its way from Casablanca to North America. Some escort ships managed to track down U 182 before Clausen could launch an attack on one of the convoy's 24 merchant ships. His boat was pushed away from the convoy in a ten-hour depth charge pursuit.

Use in the Indian Ocean

U 182 passed the Cape of Good Hope in mid-February. After that, Commander Clausen patrolled west of Madagascar relatively unsuccessfully and set out on the march back to Bordeaux in April. The sinking successes on this patrol fell short of expectations. Commander Clausen sank five ships with U 182 on his only venture:

date ship tonnage nationality Remarks location
January 15, 1943 Ocean courage 7.173 British The ship, loaded with iron, was sunk about 300 km south of Cape Verde . 45 people died, 7 were saved. ( Location )
February 17, 1943 Llanashe 4,836 British The ship, laden with tin and aluminum, was sunk en route to New York . 28 crew members died and 13 were rescued. ( Location )
March 10, 1943 Richard D. Spaight 7.177 United States The ship was sunk with two torpedoes northeast of Durban in the Mozambique Strait . One of the crew drowned one sailor, 65 were able to save themselves. ( Location )
April 5, 1943 aloe 5,047 British The crew of the aloe was able to escape in lifeboats. Captain Angus MacLennan has been captured. ( Location )
May 1, 1943 Adelfotis 5,838 Greek The ship was hit by two torpedoes several hundred kilometers south-east of the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Rocks . With the exception of a drowned crew member, the crew was able to save themselves in two lifeboats. The castaways in the lifeboats were filmed and the captain captured. After several days, 37 men reached land in the boats. ( Location )

Sinking

U 182 was on its way back and had passed the Cape of Good Hope . According to the literature, the U 182 came across the convoy UGS-8 northwest of Madeira. In the records of the Allies fighting is an unknown sonic object with depth charges by the destroyer USS MacKenzie (a destroyer of the Benson-class destroyer under Commander DB "Dan" Miller) and USS leaves under Commander JF Gallaher on May 16, 1943 in Madeira ( position ) specified. From the German files it was concluded that it must have been U 182 .

A combat report about the attack of an aircraft of the US Air Force type Consolidated B-24-D (Consolidated Liberator) on a submarine on May 15, suggests another cause for the loss of U 182 at. The commander of the 2nd Anti-Submarine Squadron of the 2037th Anti-Submarine Squadron of the American Air Force, launched in French Morocco , was Lieutenant USAA Earle A. Powers. Photos taken with Fairchild K-20 and F-24 cameras are attached to the combat report.

The 61 crew members of U 182 did not survive the sinking. In addition, two captains prisoners of war and a chief engineer from the two most recently sunk freighters Aloe and Adelfotis were on board. So 64 people lost their lives in the sinking of U 182 .

literature

  • Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 .
  • Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes-Verlag, Graefelfing before Munich 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 .
  2. ↑ a b Information about U 182 on u-boot-archiv.de
  3. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906-1966 , Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 . Page 199
  4. ^ Georg Högel: Emblems, coats of arms, Malings German submarines 1939-1945. 4th edition. Koehler, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0826-9 . Page 70
  5. ↑ Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 , pages 192-193
  6. ↑ Clay Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. 1998, p. 289.
  7. ↑ Information about the Ocean Courage on wrecksite.eu
  8. ↑ Information about the Ocean Courage on naval-history.net
  9. ↑ Information about the Llanashe on wrecksite.eu
  10. ↑ Information about the Richard D. Spaight on wrecksite.eu
  11. ↑ Information about U 182 on collectinghistory.net
  12. ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. 1998.
  13. ↑ 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. 98.
  14. ↑ Attack on May 15, 1943 by B-24D of the 2037 A / S Wing. Pilot 1st. Lt. Earle A. Powers. Holdings Sign. 80 G 3204-1 to 3 and 80 G 3204-43-2 to 9 , National Archives Record Administration, College Park MD 20740-6001, Atlanta.