U 2336
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U 2336 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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.jpg) Post-war photo of U 2367 (then NATO designation S 171 ), a structurally identical sister submarine of U 2336 |
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| Type : | XXIII |
| Shipyard: | German shipyard , Hamburg |
| Construction contract: | September 20, 1943 |
| Build number: | 490 |
| Keel laying: | July 27, 1944 |
| Launch: | September 10, 1944 |
| Commissioning: | September 30, 1944 |
| Commanders: |
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| Calls: | 1 patrol |
| Sinkings: |
2 merchant ships (4669 GRT) |
| Whereabouts: | sunk on January 3, 1946 northwest of Ireland ( Operation Deadlight ) |
U 2336 was a German submarine from the Type XXIII , that in World War II by the German navy was used. Under its commandant Kapitänleutnant Emil Klusmeier (1912–1982) it torpedoed the two freighters Avondale Park and Sneland I in the Firth of Forth on May 7, 1945 . These were the last sinkings that a German submarine carried out during World War II.
history
Submarines of this then ultra-modern Type XXIII were comparatively small electric submarines of almost 35 m in length, which apart from the commander and the chief engineer (LI) only had a crew of twelve. In addition to the first watch officer (I. WO), the chief helmsman, the chief machinist, the central mate and the radio mate, there was another mate and six sailors. Officers, NCOs and men had to share the bow space directly behind the two more than 7 m long torpedo tubes as the only living room and bedroom. The armament consisted - apart from a submachine gun and a few other small arms - only two torpedoes . The main advantage of these boats was that they could operate for a long time without surfacing and thereby reached a higher speed (12.5 kn ) under water than over water (10 kn).
The keel of the boat was laid on July 27, 1944 at the Deutsche Werft in Finkenwärder ( spelling at that time ) and the launch in the same year on September 10. On September 30, 1944 it was under Lieutenant z. S. Jürgen Vockel put into service. He kept command of U 2336 until March 31, 1945. The boat was assigned to the 32nd U-Flotilla , a training flotilla that was stationed in Königsberg . Here remained U 2336 until February 15, 1945. Then it was the 4th U-Flotilla in Szczecin assumed. Two days after receiving readiness for the front line, the boat collided with U 2344 , also a XXIII boat from the same construction contract, which sank as a result of the damage. Its commander, Oberleutnant zur See Hermann Ellerlage, and six other crew members of U 2344 were rescued. The cause of the collision is unknown.
On the night of March 31, 1945, the city of Hamburg, and in particular the shipyard, was attacked by British Royal Air Force (RAF) bombers. In the harbor while the German submarines were lying U 348 , U 350 , U 1131 , U 1167 and U 2340 by bombs sunk. During the bombing , the commander of U 2336 , Oblt.zS Jürgen Vockel, was fatally injured by splinters, while his boat remained undamaged. The next day, April 1, 1945, the commander of U 2340 , Oblt.zS Emil Klusmeier, whose boat (also of the XXIII type) had been destroyed, was promoted to lieutenant captain (Kptlt.) And took over on the same day in succession to Vockel took command of U 2336 .
Under the command of Kapitänleutnant Emil Klusmeier, U 2336 carried out its first and only patrol from April 18 to May 14, 1945 . After it left Kiel on April 18, it first set course for Kristiansand . It reached the Norwegian port city on April 23rd and left it again on May 1st with the operational destination Scottish east coast. On the evening of May 7, 1945, Klusmeier sighted the freighters Avondale Park (2878 GRT ) ( location ) and Sneland I (1791 GRT) ( location ) and belonging to the British convoy EN 491 off the Firth of Forth near the Isle of May (map) sank them shortly before 11 p.m. with one torpedo each . These were the last sinks ever made by a German submarine in World War II.
Despite intense pursuit by British destroyers and several attacks with depth charges , which U 2336 survived almost unscathed, Klusmeier managed to escape the Firth of Forth the next morning after protecting the boat from the depth charges near a rock, and crew and Guide boat home safely. U 2336 entered Kiel, which was already occupied by British soldiers, late in the evening on May 14, 1945.
In the non-fiction book “ U-Boottyp XXIII ” there is a comment by the commander on the qualities of the boat shortly after his return from the patrol: “ This type is an extremely powerful boat, which is in the hands of a courageous and proven commander and if deployed in good time would certainly have achieved some success. An ideal boat for short-term ventures near the coast, fast, agile, easy depth control, little detection and attack surface! The opponent suspected more that a boat was there than that he received clear evidence and the position. "
During the Second World War, the British reconnaissance succeeded in deciphering the radio communications of the German navy that had been encrypted with the Enigma key machine . But although the Royal Navy thus had precise information about plans and operational areas of all boats of the German U-Bootwaffe, it was not able to achieve a single success in sinking a submarine of the XXIII type.
Shortly after the arrival, Emil Klusmeier was accused by the British of having deliberately disregarded the general order that Dönitz had already issued at the time of the two torpedo hits, namely to not carry out any more attacks. Klusmeier has always asserted that he did not receive this order in time. In view of the fact that his modern electric submarine could operate underwater for up to three days without surfacing, and that the submarines were only able to receive radio messages to a limited extent when submerged, his statement can be assessed as credible.
The British, who on the morning of May 15, allowed Klusmeier to formally decommission his boat by speaking to his crew and then lowering the war flag , believed him. Although he was arrested and had to undergo a number of interrogations and would undoubtedly have been sentenced to death if a war crime had been proven , he was released in July 1945 after two months of British captivity .
After the British took over the boat, U 2336 was transferred to the Northern Irish port of Derry (near Lisahally ) on June 21, 1945 and on January 3, 1946 by gunfire from the British destroyer Offa as part of Operation Deadlight about 200 km northwest of Ireland sunk in the open sea. U 2336 was the most successful type XXIII submarine.
See also
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 , pp. 162-163.
- ↑ 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. 397.
- ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars, Urbes Verlag, Gäfeling before Munich 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 , page 245
- ↑ a b c Emil Klusmeier: Log of the U 2336 . Ed .: family owned.
- ↑ Eberhard Rössler: U-boat type XXIII. 2nd, expanded edition. 2002, p. 112.
literature
- Eberhard Rössler : submarine type XXIII. 2nd, expanded edition. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 2002, ISBN 3-7637-6236-1 , pp. 109-112.
- Eberhard Rössler: From the original to the model. Submarine type XXIII. A picture and plan documentation. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1993, pp. 37-38, ISBN 3-7637-6007-5 .
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