U 242

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U 242
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Husum city arms.png
City coat of arms Husum, coat of arms of the boat
Type : VII C
Field Post Number : M 52 339
Shipyard: F. Krupp Germaniawerft AG, Kiel - Gaarden
Construction contract: April 10, 1941
Build number: 676
Keel laying: September 30, 1942
Launch: July 20, 1943
Commissioning: August 14, 1943
Commanders:
  • August 14, 1943 - February 1945
    Karl-Wilhelm Pancke
  • February 1945 - April 5, 1945
    Heinz Riedel
Calls: 24 companies
Sinkings:
  • 3 ships (~ 2,000 GRT)
Whereabouts: Sunk in the QZX mine barrier on April 5, 1945

U 242 was a submarine that was used by the German Navy in the submarine war of the Second World War, mainly in the Baltic Sea , but also in the North Sea and the Atlantic, among other things as a mine layer. In January 1945 U 242 droppedan agent on the Finnish coast.

Construction and technical data

The Germania shipyard in Kiel had been commissioned to build submarines since 1934 - at that time still under confidentiality and circumventing the provisions of the Versailles Treaty . These were also made for export. After the almost complete cessation of the construction of capital ships, the shipyard concentrated on submarine construction and was commissioned with an annual output of 42 boats - this requirement could never be met. The Kiel Germania shipyard built many of the large submarine types, but mainly submarine class VII C boats were produced. A submarine of this class displaced 769 m³ above and 871 m³ under water. A VII C-boat was propelled by two diesel engines at a speed of 17 knots , which corresponds to 31.5 km / h . When diving, the boat drove up to 7.6 knots, that is 14 km / h. Such a boat was 66.5 meters long, 6.2 meters wide and had a draft of 4.7 meters. U 242 was ordered on April 10, 1941 and July 30, 1942 in Kiel set. The submarine was launched on July 20, 1943 and was put into service on August 14, 1943 by Oberleutnant zur See of the Reserve Heinz Riedel. The submarine carried the city coat of arms of Husum as the boat coat of arms, since the first commandant, Karl-Wilhelm Pancke, came from this city.

Commanders

Karl-Wilhelm Pancke was born on October 4, 1915 in Husum and joined the Navy in 1938. Following his submarine training in the summer of 1942, he completed three patrols as an officer on watch on U 402 by June 1943 . Two months later he took over command of U 242 , which he held until February 1945 and then handed it over to his successor, Heinz Riedel.

Heinz Riedel was born on December 30, 1921 and joined the Navy in 1939. He served as a watch officer on the U 612 and U 230 from March 1942 to June 1944 . On December 1, 1943, Heinz Riedel was promoted to lieutenant at sea . From July 1944 he completed courses with the 3rd U-Lehrdivision and the 27th U-Flotilla , then he took over command of U 242 .

Mission history

From August 14, 1943 to May 31, 1944, U 242 was subordinate to the 5th U-Flotilla , a training flotilla that was stationed in Kiel . During this time, Commander Pancke undertook training trips to retract the boat and to train the crew, as well as a reconnaissance trip to the North Sea

  • On May 21, 1944, U 242 left the port of Kiel for the North Sea and returned four days later without scoring.

In June 1944 the boat was subordinated to the 3rd U-Flotilla as a front boat, came back in July as a training boat for the 5th U-Flotilla and was then assigned to the 8th U-Flotilla as a front boat on August 1st . In June 1944 U 242 was one of the 21 boats of the submarine group "Mitte", which, in anticipation of an invasion of Norway as a result of Operation Overlord , took up a defensive position off the Norwegian coast, and there in fierce battles with the bombers and fighters of the RAF Coastal Command . The “Mitte” submarine group was disbanded after six of the boats were sunk and five others were damaged.

  • June 8, 1944. Leaving Stavanger in occupied Norway. Return after 18 days on June 26, 1944. No sinkings.
  • U 242 left Bergen on June 27, 1944 . Return on the same day without scoring.
  • It left Stavanger on June 28, 1944. Return the same day to no avail.
  • June 29th. Leaving Kristiansand . Arrival in Kiel two days later without scoring.

Ventures

In July 1944, U 242 was assigned the sea area of ​​the eastern Baltic Sea as an operational area. Until the spring of 1945, the boat patrolled, mostly from a Finnish base, off Koivisto and in the Gulf of Finland .

  • U 242 left Kiel on July 11, 1944 . After three days without success in scuttling, she entered Tallinn (Reval).
  • On 17 July 1944 the submarine Reval left and ran in the new base on the same day Grand Hotel a
  • U 242 left Grand Hotel on July 18, 1944 and returned unsuccessfully after two days.
  • On July 21, 1944, the submarine left Grand Hotel again and returned two days later without scoring.
  • July 24, 1944. Grand Hotel runs out again , duration until July 26, without sinking.
  • On July 26, 1944, U 242 ran again from Grand Hotel and returned four days later without success.
  • On July 31, 1944, the submarine drove from Grand Hotel to Helsinki. The trip was unsuccessful.
  • U 242 ran out of Helsinki on August 23, 1944 and sank the Soviet survey ship KKO-2 ( Lage ) and the Prahm VRD-96 Del'fin ( Lage ) lying alongside on August 25, 1944. On August 26, the submarine returned back.
  • On August 29, U 242 left Grand Hotel for four days .
  • September 3, 1944 Journey from the Grand Hotel to Reval.
  • September 12, 1944. Departure from Reval for a one-day undertaking without scoring.

From the middle of September to the beginning of October, Commander Pancke undertook a few trips in the sea area of ​​the eastern Baltic Sea. On September 21, the boat put a mine barrier consisting of 15 sea ​​mines in Baltic waters. The Finnish freighter Rigel ( Lage ) (1,495 GRT) ran into this lock on October 28 and sank.

  • September 30th to October 2nd. Drive from Windau to Pillau.
  • October 5th to October 9th. Patrol from Pillau . On this voyage, the boat laid a mine lock in front of the Porkkala peninsula .
  • U 242 left Pillau on October 10 and entered Gdansk one day later .

U 242 left Danzig on January 12th with an agent on board. This was dropped on January 23rd on the Finnish coast behind the Soviet lines. The boat arrived in Kiel at the end of January. Here Pancke handed over the command to his successor Heinz Riedel. Under his command, the boat left Kiel on February 23 - after brief training for its crew - and drove via Horten and Kristiansand to the intended area of ​​operation: the waters around Great Britain.

Loss of the boat

There is no agreement in the available literature about the sinking of U 242 . It is widely believed that the boat was sunk by two British warships. According to this view, the destroyers Hesperus and Havelock sank the boat on April 30, 1945 in the Irish Sea by a depth charge. The submarine researcher Axel Niestlé, however, saw a mine hit on April 5, 1945 in the St. Georgs Canal ( Lage ) as the cause as early as 1991 . This was the conclusion reached in 1999 by Rainer Busch and Hans-Joachim Röll when evaluating the documents from the submarine archive in Cuxhaven . According to this view, the depth charge of the British naval forces was aimed at the wreck of U 246 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 , p. 196.
  2. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. 1997, p. 123.
  3. ^ 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. 80.
  4. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. 1997, p. 351.
  5. ↑ Grand Hotel is also called Kalasika in literature. It's in Finland, near Helsinki. Sometimes Kalasika / Grand Hotel is also referred to as the “Helsinki District”. The boats that operated in the Narva Estuary usually ran from here.
  6. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 , p. 157 and p. 158.
  7. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 , p. 270.
  8. ↑ This detonation, observed by the British auxiliary warship HMS Willow , was in turn interpreted as the cause of U 1169 sinking .
  9. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 , p. 332.

literature

  • 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 .