U 214
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U 214 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | VII D |
| Field Post Number : | 31 973 |
| Shipyard: | Friedrich Krupp Germania shipyard , Kiel |
| Construction contract: | February 16, 1940 |
| Build number: | 646 |
| Keel laying: | October 5, 1940 |
| Launch: | September 18, 1941 |
| Commissioning: | November 1, 1941 |
| Commanders: |
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| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | 11 activities |
| Sinkings: |
3 (possibly 4) ships sunk, 2 ships damaged |
| Whereabouts: | Sunk off the south coast of England on July 26, 1944. |
U 214 was a German type VII D submarine , which was used in the Second World War by the Navy in the North , Central and West Atlantic, as well as in the Biscay and the English Channel, among other things for mining operations.
history
The construction contract for the U 214 dates from February 16, 1940. This construction contract comprised a total of six type VII D boats. Of these, the Kiel Germania shipyard delivered four in 1941 and another two in 1942. A VII D-boat was 76.9 m long and displaced 1080 m³ under water. Two diesel engines with 1,400 hp each ensured a top speed of 16 knots when sailing above water . These boats were armed with four bow and one stern torpedo tube and usually carried 14 torpedoes with them. The VII D boats were designed for mining operations and therefore had a section with mine shafts behind the tower . The keel of U 214 took place on October 5, 1940, the launch took place on September 18, 1941. On November 1, 1941 U 214 was put into service by Lieutenant Günther Reeder.
Commanders
U 214 has had three commanders since it went into service in November 1941. The first was Günther Reeder, who was seriously wounded on May 7th during his fifth patrol in this boat. The boat had been commissioned to mine the sea area off Dakar and had left Brest the day before when it was discovered and attacked by a British Whitley bomber . The depth charges of Whitley taught at U 214 no significant damage, but Commander Reeder was so much injured by machine gun fire that he command his first watch officer handed (1 WO) OblzS Rupprecht floor, back the boat as commander in local representative Brest , where U 214 returned on May 10th. After this abandoned enterprise, Rupprecht Stock was appointed as the new commanding officer. He carried out four patrols with the boat, during which a ship with 1,525 GRT was sunk. Rupprecht Stock left U 214 in July 1944 and took command of U 218 . The last commander of U 214 was Gerhard Conrad, one of the youngest submarine commanders of the Second World War. He carried out a patrol with the boat, during which the U 214 sank with the entire crew.
Sinkings
Commandant Reeder sank three ships with a total of 18,266 GRT during his patrols with U 214 . On August 18, 1942, he hit three ships with a torpedo fan at the same time: a Dutch and a British steamer, as well as a British auxiliary cruiser . The latter was able to escape damaged while the two steamers sank. In the last days of December he sank the Polish steamer Paderewski by artillery fire. Reeder's successor only achieved confirmed damage to an American freighter. A sinking cannot be clearly assigned. This is the American submarine Dorado , which sank on or after October 15, probably after a mine hit. The cause could have been a mine that was laid on October 13 by U 214 . This sinking cannot be clearly attributed to Commander Stock.
Tower coat of arms
The emblem of the boat was the same among all three commanders. It was only changed once. U 214 carried the Berlin bear on the tower and after the change it carried the Berlin bear which was in a horseshoe. Under the coat of arms was written Uns kann keener! written.
Whereabouts
U 214 ran out on July 23, 1944 under the new commander Gerhard Conrad for its last operation. The boat operated off the Start Point headland , the southernmost stretch of the Devonian coast , to lay mines there. On July 26, 1944, the British frigate HMS Cooke was able to identify the submarine and sink it with depth charges. The boat sank with the entire crew of 48 men southeast of the Eddystone lighthouse .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , p. 208.
- ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 , pp. 197-198.
- ↑ Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 , p. 388.
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 , p. 150.
- ^ Georg Högel: Emblems, coats of arms, Maling's German U-Boats 1939-1945. 5th edition. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7822-1002-7 , p. 75
- ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes-Verlag, Graefelfing vor München 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 , p. 215.
- ↑ 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 a. a. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 , p. 269.
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