U 256

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U 256
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Type : VII C
Field Post Number : 47 855
Shipyard: Vegesacker shipyard
Bremen-Vegesack
Construction contract: December 23, 1939
Build number: 21st
Keel laying: February 15, 1941
Launch: October 28, 1941
Commissioning: December 18, 1941
Commanders:
Calls: 3 patrols
Sinkings:

1 warship

Whereabouts: permanently decommissioned on October 23, 1944 in Bergen

U 256 was a German type VII C submarine of the Kriegsmarine that was used during the Second World War.

history

After U 256 was badly damaged by an air raid in the summer of 1942, it was decommissioned and converted into an anti- aircraft trap in Brest . However, the concept of anti-aircraft submarines proved unsuccessful, and so in late 1943 U 256 was converted back into an ordinary submarine and used as such.

On February 20, 1944, Commander Brauel torpedoed the British sloop HMS Woodpecker ( Black Swan class ) ( location ) and damaged it so badly that it capsized and sank six days later during a rescue attempt. During another patrol, U 256 was badly damaged and returned to Brest.

After makeshift repairs and the assembly of a snorkel , it was put back into service under commandant Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock and left Brest on September 4, 1944. This made it the last German submarine that could leave Brest before the Allies took it. After 45 days the boat arrived in Bergen . On the way, the commander maintained absolute radio silence , so that the submarine command had already expected the boat to sink.

On October 23, 1944, U 256 was once again and definitely decommissioned in Bergen.

Commanders

  • Odo Loewe - December 1941 to November 1942.
  • Wilhelm Brauel - August 1943 to June 1944.
  • Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock - September 1944 to October 1944.

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 .
  • Herbert A. Werner: The iron coffins (= Heyne books. No. 5177). Foreword by Hans Hellmut Kirst . Approved, unabridged paperback edition, 10th edition. Heyne, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-453-00515-5 .