U 191

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
U 191
( previous / next - all submarines )
Type : IX C / 40
Field Post Number : M-49 103
Shipyard: Deschimag ( AG Weser ), Bremen
Construction contract: November 4th 1940
Build number: 1037
Keel laying: November 2, 1941
Launch: July 3, 1942
Commissioning: October 20, 1942
Commanders:
  • November 20, 1942 to April 23, 1943
    Kptlt Helmut Fiehn
Flotilla:
Calls: 1 company
Sinkings:

1 ship (3,025 GRT)

Whereabouts: Sunk on April 23, 1943 in the North Atlantic south of Cape Farvel .

U 191 was a German submarine of the IX C / 40 class of the Kriegsmarine in World War II .

History of the boat

The submarine was commissioned from the Deschimag shipyard in Bremen on November 4, 1940, together with 11 other boats . The keel laying as the new building 1037 began on November 2, 1941, the launch took place on July 3, 1942 and the commissioning under the command of Lieutenant Helmut Fiehn took place on October 20, 1942. The boat and crew are said to have wielded a crown with the text "Prince Wittgenstein" above it as the boat's coat of arms. From October 21, 1942 to March 10, 1943, the boat carried out various exercises in the Baltic Sea to train the crew with the 4th U-Flotilla before the OKM U 191 transferred the 2nd U-Flotilla in Lorient as a front boat.

commitment

U 191 left the port of Kiel on March 11, 1943 at 8:00 a.m. for the first enterprise, and initially relocated to Kristiansand , where fuel was added again, before Lieutenant Fiehn Bergen called where the stern tubes were repackaged. The submarine then operated on the 41-day voyage in the North Atlantic, south of Iceland , southeast of Greenland and east of Newfoundland with the submarine groups anglerfish, lionheart, lark and titmouse. Before the loss of the boat, Kapitänleutnant Fiehn sank the Norwegian motor freighter Scebeli with 3,025 GRT on April 21 at 6:30 p.m. The freighter dragged 2 members of its crew into the depths, while the other 39 members survived and were rescued.

Downfall

On April 23, 1943, U 191 was operating against the convoy ONS-4 when it was located, attacked with hedgehogs and destroyed by the British destroyer HMS Hesperus (H57) and the British frigate HMS Clemantis (K.36) . The sinking of U 191 was the first successful use of the Hedgehog against an enemy submarine in World War II . It was a total loss with 55 dead.

Web links

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. ^ Andreas Angerer: U 191. In: U-Boot-Archiv. Retrieved November 19, 2017 .
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ↑ It is controversial whether the crown was used as a boat sign, although a drawing was found in the guest book of the 4th U-Flotilla.