U 206
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U 206 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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 Coat of arms of Reichenberg , the godfather city of U 206 |
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| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | M-41 306 |
| Shipyard: | Germania shipyard , Kiel |
| Construction contract: | October 16, 1939 |
| Build number: | 635 |
| Keel laying: | June 17, 1940 |
| Launch: | April 4, 1941 |
| Commissioning: | May 17, 1941 |
| Commanders: | |
| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | 3 activities |
| Sinkings: |
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| Whereabouts: | Lost in the Bay of Biscay since November 29, 1941 |
U 206 was a Germantype VII C submersible . It was commissioned by the Navy of the Kieler Germaniawerft built and came as part of the U-boat campaign in the Battle of the Atlantic used.
The boat
U 206 was commissioned from F. Krupp Germania shipyard on October 16, 1939 and laid down on June 17, 1940 with hull number 635. It was launched on April 4, 1941 and was put into service on May 17, 1941 by Oberleutnant zur See Herbert Opitz. The first officer on watch was Hubert Nordheimer, for whom U 206 was the first on-board command. The boat sailed for a month in the 3rd U-Flotilla , was stationed in Kiel and later moved to La Pallice in France . During this time, U 206 served as a training boat before it was assigned to the 3rd U-Flotilla as a front boat. U 206 left the port of Trondheim on July 14, 1941 for the first venture, which was later followed by two more. The sponsored city of the boat, which supported its construction, was Reichenberg . Some representatives of the city took part in the commissioning of U 206 and presented the city's coat of arms to Commander Opitz.
The stakes
Relocation trip
On July 14, 1941 at 6:00 p.m., the boats U 206 under OL Opitz, U 568 under Kapitänleutnant Preuss and U 569 under Oberleutnant zur See Hinsch left the port of Horten to move to Trondheim , where all boats were at on July 17th Arrived at 12:15 p.m. without incident.
First venture
The boat set sail from Trondheim on August 5 at 10:30 a.m., was at sea for 36 days and operated in the North Atlantic, southwest of Iceland and west of the North Channel. On this venture, U 206 was assigned to several submarine groups, which searched for Allied convoy trains according to the pack tactics developed by Karl Dönitz . U 206 was assigned to the submarine groups Greenland, Kurfürst and Seewolf . On August 9th, Commander Opitz sank the British fishing steamer Ocean Victor with 202 GRT . The boat entered St. Nazaire , the new base of the 7th U-Flotilla , on September 10 at 11:30 a.m. While waiting for departure, a new crew member got on the boat: the commandant in training, Kapitänleutnant Rolf Borchers. He got out again after the second trip on the boat.
Second venture
U 206 left the base St. Nazaire on September 30, 1941 at 4:00 p.m. and operated again in the North Atlantic and west of the Strait of Gibraltar . In pursuit of the convoy Outbound Gibraltar 75 , Commander Opitz attacked a British warship which he believed to have identified as a "destroyer". In fact, on October 14th, he torpedoed the British frigate HMS Fleur de Lys with 925 tons. The ship sank exceptionally quickly and with the loss of many lives. On October 19, Opitz sank the British freighter Baron Kelvin with 3,081 GRT. U 206 also belonged to the Breslau submarine group . The boat then entered St. Nazaire on October 28, and Rolf Borchers and Hubert Nordheimer disembarked to later take over their own boats.
Third company
On November 29, 1941, U 206 left Saint-Nazaire on its third venture. It was planned to pass the Strait of Gibraltar, which was strongly secured by British naval forces, in a so-called "Gibraltar breakthrough" in order to join a submarine flotilla stationed there in the Mediterranean . Shortly after leaving the port, no more reports were received from U 206 . Commander Opitz and his boat were therefore considered missing from December 7, 1941, as U 206 no longer submitted any reports.
loss
Under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walter Flachsenberg, U 206 and U 71 left St. Nazaire at 4:10 p.m. on November 29, 1941, accompanied by a barrier breaker to penetrate the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar. U 206 still had to attempt a deep dive and dived after the barrier breaker released the boats. But U 206 did not return to the surface. It is believed that U 206 ran into a British sea mine not far from Saint-Nazaire and sank. It is possible that the boat hit a mine in the British Beech mine field while diving , as mines had been laid at this point since August 1940. Initially, the sinking was attributed to an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber from the British side and was dated November 30th. This error was cleared up after the end of the war. The German submarine command, however, immediately suspected a mine hit and ordered increased mine clearing off Saint-Nazaire. U 206 was a total loss with 46 dead. The presumed position of the wreck is: 47 ° 05 'N - 02 ° 40' W.
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 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ First Lieutenant Hubert Nordheimer later commanded U 237 , U 990 and U 2512
- ^ 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. 74.
- ↑ Borchers later commanded the Type II D boat U 149 , the Type VII C boats U 226 and U 276 and the Type XXI boat U 2515
- ↑ Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 1: The Hunters. 1939-1942. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X , page 464
- ↑ Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 1: The Hunters. 1939-1942. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X , page 475