U 235
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U 235 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | M-49 124 |
| Shipyard: | Germania shipyard , Kiel |
| Construction contract: | January 20, 1941 |
| Build number: | 665 |
| Keel laying: | February 25, 1942 |
| Launch: | November 4, 1942 |
| Commissioning: | December 19, 1942 |
| Commanders: | |
| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | no ventures |
| Sinkings: |
no |
| Whereabouts: | On April 14, 1945 in the Skagerrak north of Skagens Horn, accidentally sunk by the German torpedo boat T-17 |
U 235 was a German class VII C submarine, whichwas mainly used as a school boat in the Baltic Seaby the Navy during World War II .
history
With the award of the building contract on January 20, 1941, the Friedrich Krupp Germania shipyard in Kiel was commissioned to build the U 235 . On February 25, 1942, the keel of the boat with hull number 665 was laid. It was launched on November 4, 1942 and, after the rest of the equipment, was put into service under Lieutenant Goske von Möllendorf. However, KL von Möllendorf was only in command from December 19, 1942 to January 19, 1943, before handing over command to KL Klaus-Helmuth Becker. The boat had a tower emblem, which was chosen by the chief engineer Helsing of the Germania shipyard : a black shield with three fish from the stickleback family , the dowels, as well as a sword that pierced the shield from above. Chief Engineer Helsing wrote: “Dowels, you, as small as you measure, are always ready to fight and prickly. Therefore, it seems to me, the boy fits perfectly with the heraldic animal of the submarine, especially as you can read in point B, his whole being extremely chivalrous. "
The air raid on Kiel on May 14, 1943 and the first sinking of U 235
When the 8th Air Force launched a major air offensive on Kiel on Friday, May 14, 1943 , many houses were destroyed under the bombardment and the premises of the Germania shipyard were damaged. U 235 was hit by a few aerial bombs and sank to the bottom at the equipment quay, and two members of the crew lost their lives in the air attack. Floating dock 5 with the sister boats of U 235, U 236 and U 237 also went down. On May 31, U 235, U 236 and U 237 were lifted again and put back into service after repairs had been completed, but they were demoted to school boats. U 235 received a new commander because KL Becker took over a new boat: the 21-year-old OL Hans-Erich Kummetz, the son of General Admiral Oskar Kummetz , who had received his first and last submarine command with this boat. The boat was used as a school boat from October 29, 1943 to April 1, 1945, when the training bases in East Prussia were evacuated, until on April 2, 1945, it was assigned to the 31st U-Flotilla , a training flotilla , as a front boat.
Failed relocation to Norway and the ultimate loss of the boat
On April 10, 1945 U 235 received the order to relocate to Norway and left Kiel immediately. On April 14th, a German convoy, consisting of the destroyer Friedrich Ihn , the steam ferry Prussia and the torpedo boat T-17 , met in the Skagerrak at periscope depth . Since the boat caused a vortex through its snorkel and was mistaken for a torpedo, the Prussians gave the U-boat alarm . The destroyer Friedrich Ihn thereupon gave the order to attack the torpedo boat T-17 , and it threw several depth charges at the boat, one of which scored a direct hit and destroyed U 235 . Cheers broke out aboard T-17 as it was believed that an enemy boat had been sunk until the body of an officer floated to the surface and the cheering ceased. All 47 men on board the boat were killed. It was later determined that neither Lieutenant Friedrich Huisgen nor the commanders of the convoy knew anything about each other. The wreck is at 58 ° 09 'N, 10 ° 48' E
Crew of U 235 when it was lost
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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
- ^ 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. 79.