U 2524

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U 2524
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Type : Type XXI
Field Post Number : 49 299
Shipyard: Blohm & Voss , Hamburg
Construction contract: November 6, 1943
Build number: 2524
Keel laying: September 6, 1944
Launch: October 30, 1944
Commissioning: January 16, 1945
Commanders:
  • Ernst von Witzendorff
    January 16 - May 3, 1945
Calls: no
Sinkings:

no

Whereabouts: Self-sunk on May 3, 1945 east of Fehmarn , 1 dead

U 2524 was a German submarine of submarine class XXI , which wasintendedby the German navy for the Atlantic battle during World War II . It was sunk by its own crewshortly before the end of the war .

construction

The Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg was included in the navy's submarine building program at the beginning of the war . Mainly boats of the common types VII C and VII C / 41 were manufactured here, but from 1943 the shipyard was also commissioned with the construction of the larger boats of the type XXI . These so-called "electric boats" were a new development, the construction of which was commissioned for the first time in autumn 1943. U 2524 was part of the first construction contract that was placed for this submarine class.

Such a boat was 71.5 m long and 6.6 m wide. Two 2,000 hp strong diesel engines provided with surface running at a speed of 15, 6 knots , which is 29 km / h. Under water, two electric motors with 2500 HP each propelled the boat at a speed of up to 17.2 knots, which corresponds to 32 km / h. A XXI boat had 6 torpedo tubes and carried 23 torpedoes. By the end of the war, the Blohm & Voss shipyard delivered a total of 47 of these boats to the Navy.

Captain Ernst von Witzendorff put the boat into service on January 16, 1945. He had previously commanded U 650 and a large part of his team switched to U 2524 with him . As a boat-specific symbol, the crew selected a fish that the boat carried on the submarine tower .

Commitment and history

On January 16, U 2524 was assigned to the 31st U-Flotilla , a training flotilla stationed in Hamburg . The boat remained with this flotilla as a training boat until the end of the war.

Loss of the boat

U 2524 was sunk by its own crew on May 3, 1945 off Fehmarn . The chief engineer was killed.

Commandant von Witzendorff gave the instruction to scuttling on the basis of his interpretation of the so-called rainbow order . The crew switched to the torpedo boat Löwe lying next to the boat , which had previously fended off several air attacks and already had numerous dead and injured on board. Initially, one man of the crew, the chief engineer Oberleutnant zur See Braun and the commander stayed on board U 2361 to initiate the scuttling. While the secret documents, the key machine and some food were being recovered, Braun flooded the boat and asked the other two men to leave the U 2524 , which was already sinking rapidly . Then he opened the vent valves by hand and shot himself in the center of the boat. The torpedo boat brought the crew of U 2524 to Flensburg.

From there the soldiers went to the special area Mürwik , where Kapitänleutnant von Witzendorff was appointed commander of the so-called "Guard Battalion Dönitz".

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 . Page 228
  2. ↑ a b Eckard Wetzel: U 2540 Das U-Boot at the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven , Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3 86070 556 3 , page 240 to page 244
  3. ^ A b Georg Högel: Emblems, coats of arms, Malings German submarines 1939–1945. 5th edition. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7822-1002-7 , page 183.
  4. ↑ Axel Niestlé: "German U-Boat Losses of World War II. Details of Destruction ", Frontline Books, London 2014, ISBN 978-1-84832-210-3 , page 159
  5. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 , page 258.