U 2501
|
U 2501 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
|
|---|---|
| Type : | Type XXI |
| Field Post Number : | 43 526 |
| Shipyard: | Blohm & Voss , Hamburg |
| Construction contract: | November 6, 1943 |
| Build number: | 2501 |
| Keel laying: | April 3, 1944 |
| Launch: | May 12, 1944 |
| Commissioning: | June 27, 1944 |
| Commanders: |
June 27, 1944 - November 20, 1944 OLt zS Otto Hübschen |
| Flotilla: |
June 27, 1944 - November 20, 1944 |
| Calls: | no ventures |
| Sinkings: |
no depressions |
| Whereabouts: | Submerged itself on May 3, 1945 in front of the Elbe II bunker of the Vulkanwerft , wreck broken off |
U 2501 was the first Germantype XXI submarine . It was used in the Second World War by the German Navy for testing and training purposes.
Construction and commissioning
The construction contracts for 300 Type XXI units were awarded to Blohm & Voss , Deschimag and the Schichau-Werke . The keel for U 2501 was laid on April 3, 1944 at the Blohm & Voss plant in Hamburg . Thanks to the new, efficient method of building sections developed at this shipyard , the boat was launched on May 12, 1944. With this method, the introduction of which went back to a suggestion by Otto Merker , and the increased use of workers in several shifts, the production time was reduced from the expected 18 months to a few weeks. After finishing the rest of the work, the boat was delivered to the Navy on June 17th. Oberleutnant zur See Otto Hübschen put U 2501 into service on June 27 or 28, 1944. At this point in time, according to plans by the Kriegsmarine, 23 Type XXI boats should have been in service. U 2501 was the first ocean-going submarine of this class. After the boat was put into operation, seawater penetrated the lubricating oil circuit of both the gearbox and the electric motors. At the beginning of July, therefore, another ten-day stay in the shipyard was necessary.
Training boat
U 2501 was assigned to the 31st U-Flotilla, a training flotilla stationed in Hamburg, and undertook training trips to bring the boat in and to train the crew. On July 27, U 2501 reached the naval base in Kiel and docked at the Albatros Bridge in Wik , where the crew was inspected by Karl Dönitz . The High Command of the Navy decided to use the first three Type XXI boats from Hamburg , Bremen and Danzig - U 2501 , U 3001 and U 3501 - as test boats , because in order to save time, after the plans have been completed, no prototype will be used had built. The fourth boat, U 3502 , was also used as a test boat after its completion. When U 2501 was in Gdansk, a number of serious defects occurred. The boat was decommissioned on November 20, 1944. Otto Hübschen and most of his crew moved to a new boat and U 2501 , as well as U 2339 and U 2504 in Hamburg, were assigned to the 8th warship construction training department as a training and instruction boat.
commander
Otto Hübschen took over command of the U 2501 on June 27, 1944 following the building instruction . When he left the boat at the end of 1944 to become commander of U 2542 , the Chief Engineer (LI) Lieutenant (Ing.) Hans Noack took over the disciplinary and de facto command. U 2501 was decommissioned and partially dismantled. From then on, the boat served as a school and instruction boat for the dry training of crews of other boats.
Whereabouts
Originally, the U 2501 was to be blown up together with the U 2505 , U 3004 and U 3506 as well as the Type VII-C boats U 684 and U 685 in the Elbe II bunker in Hamburg, but only half of the U 2501 fit in. The boat was picked up on May 3, 1945 at 7:00 a.m. by its crew in front of the entrance of the western box of the submarine bunker according to the rainbow order that had existed for a long time, but was canceled by Grand Admiral Dönitz on the evening of May 4, 1945 self-sunk . Lieutenant Noack had four explosives detonated for this purpose, which broke the boat, which then sank to deck level. The U 2501 as well as the rear sections of the U 3004 and U 2505 were later lifted and scrapped by Hamburg rescue companies . The wrecks of the remaining boats have been buried under sand with the rubble of the concrete ceiling of the bunker that collapsed during the blasting since the Hamburg volcanic port was backfilled in 1995.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ V. E. Tarrant: The last year of the German Navy: May 1944-May 1945 . Podzun-Pallas, Wölfersheim-Berstadt 1996, ISBN 3-7909-0561-5 , p. 25 .
- ↑ a b Eberhard Rössler : Development, construction and properties of German submarines from 1943 to the present day (= history of German submarine building . Volume 2 ). Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-153-8 , p. 386 f . (Licensed edition of the 2nd edition from 1987).
- ^ Bernard Ireland: Battle of the Atlantic . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 2003, ISBN 1-59114-032-3 , pp. 182 (English).
- ↑ Clay Blair : The Hunted: 1942–1945 (= The U-Boat War . Volume 2 ). Heyne Verlag , Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 , p. 671 .
- ^ A b Eckard Wetzel: U 2540: The submarine at the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven: The legendary German submarine type XXI . Karl Müller, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-556-3 , p. 51 + 155 .
- ↑ a b Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: German U-boat losses from September 1939 to May 1945 (= The U-Boat War 1939-1945 . Volume 4 ). E. S. Mittler and Son, Hamburg a . a. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 , pp. 363 .
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The German U-Boot Commanders (= The U-Boat War 1939-1945 . Volume 1 ). E. S. Mittler and Son, Hamburg a . a. 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 , pp. 108 + 287 .