U 229
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U 229 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | VII C |
| Shipyard: | Germania shipyard , Kiel |
| Construction contract: | December 7, 1940 |
| Build number: | 659 |
| Keel laying: | November 3, 1941 |
| Launch: | August 20, 1942 |
| Commissioning: | October 3, 1942 |
| Commanders: |
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| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | 3 activities |
| Sinkings: |
two ships sunk, one ship damaged |
| Whereabouts: | Sunk by HMS Keppel on September 22, 1943 near Cape Farvel in Greenland by means of depth charges , gunfire and ramming . |
U 229 was a German submarine from the Type VII C , which in World War II by the German navy was used.
Technical specifications
The order for the boat was awarded to the Germania shipyard in Kiel on December 7, 1940 . The keel was laid on November 3, 1941, the launching on August 20, 1942. The commissioning under Oberleutnant zur See Robert Schetelig finally took place on October 3, 1942.
history
After its commissioning on October 3, 1942, the submarine belonged to the 5th U-Flotilla until February 28, 1943 and to the 6th U-Flotilla from March 1 to September 22, 1943 .
Patrols
First patrol
Following the test drives in the Baltic Sea, U 229 undertook its first patrol and ran out of Kiel, the base of the 5th U-Flotilla, on February 20, 1943. The boat passed the GIUK gap between Iceland and the Faroe Islands and was then assigned to the Neuland submarine group on March 4 . On March 6, the boat was transferred to the Ostmark submarine group . With this group U 229 attacked the Allied convoy SC 121 on March 10 and sank the British freighter Nailsea Court southeast of Cape Farvel and damaged the British freighter Coulmore . The Coulmore was later recovered and could continue to be used. On March 11, U 229 was assigned to the submarine group Stürmer . This group searched with other submarines for the allied convoys SC 122 and HX 229, which had been cleared up by the German B-Dienst . However, since U 229 had already fired all but three of its torpedoes during the previous operations, the German command decided to send the boat to the south-east coast of Greenland for weather observation.
On April 5, U 229 was able to sink the Swedish steamer Vaalaren there ; there were no survivors when it was sunk. The boat was then recalled and entered St. Nazaire on April 17th .
Second patrol
The second patrol began on May 11, 1943 from St. Nazaire. On May 17th, the boat was found west of the Bay of Biscay by a Catalina flying boat of No. 190th Squadron of the RAF attacked and damaged. The boat was then ordered back to Bordeaux and entered there on June 7th.
Third patrol
U 229 was relocated to La Pallice at the beginning of August 1943 and set out on its third patrol on August 31. From September 15, it was assigned to the Leuthen submarine group , which operated on the convoys ONS 18 and ON 202 traveling together .
Whereabouts
During this mission, U 229 was sunk again on September 22, 1943 at Cape Farvel in Greenland using depth charges , gunfire and ramming by the British destroyer HMS Keppel . All 50 crew members were killed in the sinking.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Martin Middlebrook: Convoy - German submarines chase allied convoys. Moewig Taschenbuchverlag. Rastatt. ISBN 3-8118-4342-7 . Page 125.
- ↑ 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 .
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 .
Web links
- U 229 on u-bootarchiv.de , a detailed site about German submarines (German)