U 304

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U 304
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Type : VII C
Field Post Number : 14 775
Shipyard: Flender-Werke , Lübeck
Construction contract: December 7, 1940
Build number: 304
Keel laying: June 26, 1941
Launch: June 13, 1942
Commissioning: August 5, 1942
Commanders:

First Lieutenant for the Sea Heinz Koch

Calls: 1 company
Sinkings:

no depressions

Whereabouts: Sunk on May 28, 1943

U 304 was a German submarine of type VII C . It was used by the Kriegsmarine in the North Atlantic during the Submarine War in World War II .

Technical specifications

The shipyard of Flender Werke AG in Lübeck was commissioned by the Navy to build submarines as part of the so-called Z-Plan before the start of the war. Starting in 1939, ten Type VII C boats were to be released annually. In addition, the Flender-Werke shipyard was entrusted with submarine repairs. The fourth order for the construction of VII C-boats was issued in December 1940 and included a total of two boats, U 303 and U 304 . The boats of this class were also called "Atlantic boats" because of their usefulness. Such a boat was 769 m³, 66.5 m long and had a draft of 4.74 m. The two 1,400 hp diesel engines each achieved an overwater speed of 17 knots , which corresponds to 31.5 km / h. Under water, a VII C boat was powered by two electric motors with a total of 750 hp and reached an underwater speed of 7.6 knots, that is 14 km / h.

commander

Heinz Koch was born on July 13, 1914 in Erfde in Schleswig-Holstein and joined the Navy in 1939 . After his basic and on-board training, he was deployed in the 2nd port protection flotilla. In November 1940, Heinz Koch began his submarine training, which he completed in April 1941. Until June 1942 he was an officer on watch on U 331 . Under the command of Hans-Diedrich Freiherr von Thiesenhausen , Heinz Koch made seven patrols on this boat up to June 1942 , then he was ordered to attend a one-month commanding course with the 24th U-Flotilla. On August 5th of the same year, Heinz Koch put U 304 into service, which he commanded until the boat sank. He was promoted to first lieutenant at sea on March 1, 1943 .

Commitment and history

By 31 March 1943 U 304 of 8. U flotilla assumed in Gdansk was stationed. During this time, Commander Koch undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to train the crew and to retract the boat. On April 1, 1943, the boat was assigned to the 1st U-Flotilla , a front-line flotilla that was stationed in Brest in northern France . Two weeks later U 304 left Kiel for the first venture. The boat was assigned to the submarine group Danube I , which was to seek combat with Allied convoy trains south of Greenland according to the stipulations of the pack tactics developed by Karl Dönitz .

Submarine group Danube I

In April 1943, the German B-Dienst , which was tasked with deciphering Allied radio communications, managed to obtain information about planned convoy trains that were to cross the Atlantic from North America. Accordingly, the German submarine command put together a search strip south of Greenland to ambush the convoy HX 238 and SC 130 . On the night of May 18, Commander Koch discovered the latter convoy, which consisted of 37 ships, and reported their position and speed. Based on the signals from U 304 , it was possible to bring further submarines to SC 130 . The eight warships, which provided the escort of SC 130 , partially sighted the submarines with Huff-Duff and drove away the attackers without one of the German commanders being able to launch a successful attack. The next day the escort was reinforced by several B-24 bombers, which managed to track down and attack some submarines. In addition, another security group of four Royal Navy ships arrived, increasing the number of escort ships to 12. Neither this nor the next day did a German submarine successfully attack one of the Allied ships. The escort of SC 130 damaged two submarines and sank three more: U 258 , U 381 and U 954 . The slow convoy SC 130 arrived in England on May 25, 1943, and suffered no losses. His air security had sighted 28 submarines, attacked ten and, in turn, did not allow any attack on the cargo ships. Karl Dönitz saw the failure of his own submarines as being due to the efficiency of the Allied air security.

Sinking

In May 1943 a total of 31 submarines were lost in the North Atlantic by the 23rd of the month. Therefore, Karl Dönitz decided to withdraw the German submarines from this sea area and ordered the boats deployed there to return to the northern French bases on May 24th. In order to disguise the withdrawal of the armed forces from the Allies, however, some boats were left in the North Atlantic, which were supposed to simulate the presence of many submarines by extravagant sparks. One of the boats that continued to patrol the North Atlantic for this purpose was U 304 . On May 28, the boat was hit by a No. B-24 bomber stationed in Iceland . 120 Squadron of the Royal Air Force Coastal Command discovered and sunk southeast of Cape Farvel .

literature

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 1: The German submarine commanders. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 , p. 126.
  3. ↑ 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 , p. 471.
  4. ↑ The abbreviation HX stands for Halifax and denotes convoys that were put together in front of this Canadian city, SC stands for "slow convoi" and denotes large convoys that consisted of many ships and that progressed very slowly because the speed is always the slowest Ship oriented.
  5. ↑ On U 954 , which was under the command of Odo Loewes, drove Peter Dönitz, son of the BdU .
  6. ^ Paul Kennedy : The Casablanca Strategy. How the Allies won World War II. January 1943 to June 1944. CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63985-2 , pp. 61-62.