U 183

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U 183
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Type : IX C / 40
Field Post Number : 44 100
Shipyard: Deschimag AG Weser, Bremen
Construction contract: August 15, 1940
Build number: 1023
Keel laying: May 28, 1941
Launch: January 9, 1942
Commissioning: April 1, 1942
Commanders:
  • April 1942 to November 1943 Heinrich Schäfer
  • until April 1945 Fritz Schneewind
Flotilla:
  • April 1942 - September 1942 4th U-Flotilla training boat
  • October 1942 - September 1944 11th U-Flotilla front boat
  • October 1944 - April 1945 33rd U-Flotilla front boat
Calls: 6 activities
Sinkings:

5 ships with 19,260 GRT

Whereabouts: sunk on April 23, 1945 in the Java Sea by torpedo hit (60 dead, 1 prisoner of war)

U 183 was a German submarine of the type IX C / 40 , which was used in the Second World War by the Navy in the North and West Atlantic, in the Caribbean and in operations of the Monsoon group in the Indian Ocean .

U 183 was one of the few German submarines that was sunk by an opposing submarine. On April 23, 1945, 60 crew members died in the Java Sea, and only one man survived as a prisoner of war .

Construction and technical data

The Bremen shipyard of Deschimag Weser AG had been building submarines since 1934 - initially in secrecy and at the same time circumventing the provisions of the Versailles Treaty - and after the start of the war switched its production mainly to submarine construction. The shipyard mainly built the large boats of the submarine class IX C. U 183 was part of the fifteenth construction contract, comprising eight boats, that was placed with this shipyard. Such a boat displaced 1,144 t over water and 1,247 t when submerged. It was 76.76  m long, 6.86 m wide and had a surface draft of 4.67 m. The two 2,200 hp diesel engines achieved a top speed of 18.3  knots (33.9  km / h ) when sailing above water . When underwater, two electric motors with a total of 1,000 hp enabled a top speed of 7.3 knots. At an average cruising speed of 4 knots underwater, an IX C-boat had a range of 63 nm. IX C boats were armed with 22 torpedoes that could be ejected from four bow and two stern torpedo tubes . In addition, the boats were armed with artillery .

Commitment and history

From April 1, 1942 to September 30, 1942, U 183 belonged to the 4th U-Flotilla in Stettin during its run-in and training period . On October 1, the boat was assigned to the 2nd submarine flotilla and stationed in Lorient (western France). After the dissolution of the German bases on the French Atlantic coast in the course of the liberation of France by the Allies , U 183 , like most of the large submarines, was assigned to the newly founded 33rd U-Flotilla . Under Heinrich Schäfer, the boat completed two patrols in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean by mid-May 1943 , during which it sank two ships by torpedoes: on December 3, 1942, the British cargo ship Empire Dabchick ( Lage ), and on March 11, 1943, the Dutch Steamer Olancho .

Monsoon boat

On July 3, 1943, U 183 ran from Lorient with a small group of other submarines to the Indian Ocean . The so-called Monsun group operated from Japanese- occupied bases off the East African coast, in the Arabian Sea , off Australia , in the Pacific and in the Indian Ocean. U 183 reached the base in Penang, Malaysia on October 20, 1943. From here it moved to Singapore in November . Fritz Schneewind took command there. With U 183 he undertook two patrols from Penang and sank or damaged three ships in the Indian Ocean:

  • On February 29, 1944, the British motor ship Palma was sunk with a torpedo. ( Location )
  • On March 9, 1944, the British steamer British Loyalty was badly damaged. The British Loyalty was anchored in Addu Atoll when she was torpedoed by U 183 . The ship was later salvaged and used as a Hulk .
  • On June 5, 1944, the British steamer Helen Moller was sunk by torpedo. ( Location )

In November 1944 the boat moved first to Kobe and then in March 1945 to Batavia on Java . U 183 ran from there on April 21, 1945 for its last venture.

Sinking

USS Besugo sunk U 183

U 183 was sunk in the Java Sea on April 23 by the US submarine USS Besugo under the command of Commander HE Miller . The American submarine had carried out deep diving tests that day and discovered a vehicle while surfacing after a long dive, during the panoramic view with the periscope. At first it was thought to be a sailboat, but when the vehicle approached and screw noises were heard at the same time, the supposed sailor could be identified as a submarine tower. It was U 183 . To protect against accidental attacks by Japanese forces, the flag of the Japanese Navy was hoisted on its tower . Commander Miller shot a 6 fan at the German boat, from which a torpedo hit amidships and sank the boat, which sank within a few seconds. When the Besugo submarine reached the sinking point, a man was swimming in a spreading oil stain, chief helmsman Karl Wisniewski (1915–1990), the only survivor of U 183 . 60 men of the crew died. Wisniewski, who had broken bones in his thigh, collarbone and ribs and lost three teeth, was taken on board by Besugo as a prisoner of war and returned to Germany in January 1946.

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ There was also a Deschimag shipyard in Wesermünde .
  2. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. 1997, pp. 210-211.
  3. ^ The order included the boats U 181 to U 188 .
  4. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. 1996, p. 199.
  5. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. 2001, gives the name of the ship as Empire Dabchink .
  6. ↑ The other boats that were also intended for use in the Indian Ocean were U 168 , U 509 , U 532 and U 533 .
  7. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. 2001, p. 137.
  8. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. 1997, p. 456.
  9. ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes Verlag, Graefelfing vor München, 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 , p. 265.
  10. ^ 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. 70.
  11. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg et al., 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 , pp. 343 and 344.
  12. ↑ Horst H. Geerken: Hitler's Reach for Asia 2: The Beginning of the End of the Colonial Era , Volume 2. Bukit Cinta Book, Bonn 2015. P. 213. ISBN 978-3-7347-4293-4 .
  13. ↑ James E. Wise, Jr .: Sole Survivors of the Sea. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 2008, Chapter Warrant Officer Karl Wisniewski .

literature

  • 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 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 .
  • Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 .