U 311

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U 311
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Type : VII C
Field Post Number : 50 908
Shipyard: Flender-Werke , Lübeck
Construction contract: June 5, 1941
Build number: 311
Keel laying: January 21, 1942
Launch: January 20, 1943
Commissioning: March 23, 1943
Commanders:
  • March 23, 1943 - April 22, 1944
    KL Joachim Zander
Calls: 2 activities
Sinkings:

1 ship with 10,342 GRT sunk

Whereabouts: Sunk by air raid south of Ireland on April 24, 1944 , no survivors

U 311 was a German U-boat from the Type VII C , which in submarine warfare during the Second World War by the Navy in the North Atlantic was used.

Technical specifications

Even before the start of the war, Lübeck's Flender Werke AG was commissioned by the Navy to build submarines as part of the Z-Plan . The shipyard planned this for the annual output of 10 type VII C boats in the submarine building program from the beginning of the war. This margin was first met in 1942. In the following year the shipyard also delivered - in addition to 4 boats of the further developed type VII C / 41 - ten boats of the type VII C to the navy - one of them was U 311 . The boat was 67.1 m long and displaced 761 t of water. The 2,800 hp diesel engine enabled a speed of up to 17 knots (31.6 km / h) over water. The maximum range was about 6,500 nautical miles . The crew chose a portrayal of a pikeperch as the boat coat of arms, alluding to the name of the commander .

commander

Joachim Zander was born on April 20, 1917 in the Berlin district of Berlin-Charlottenburg , joined the Navy in 1936 and initially served as an officer on watch with the 6th and 7th minesweeping flotilla. Following his submarine training, he was the first officer on watch (1 week) on U 201 in 1941 and 1942 . From March to September 1942 he then commanded the school boat U 3 , after which he became a teacher in the 1st U-teaching division in Pillau . At the end of March 1943, Zander took command of U 311 , and on April 1 he was promoted to lieutenant captain.

Commitment and history

Oberleutnant zur See Joachim Zander put U 311 into service on March 23, 1943. Until November he undertook training trips with the boat in the Baltic Sea to train the crew. During this time U 311 was subordinate to the 8th U-Flotilla and stationed in Danzig . On November 25th, Commander Zander set out with U 311 from Kiel on his first patrol with this boat. The North Atlantic, specifically the sea area west of Ireland, was intended as the area of ​​operation. After an uneventful undertaking, the boat reached Brest on January 26 of the following year , the base of the 1st U-Flotilla to which U 311 had belonged since December 1, 1944.

Submarine group Prussia

HMCS Swansea sunk U 311

Impressed by Hitler's proclamation that the submarines would have to form the front line against an invasion, Karl Dönitz planned new submarine operations in the sea area near the British Isles in March 1944, despite the considerable submarine losses. The submarine group operating in the North Atlantic at this time, which hunted Allied convoys according to the pack tactics developed by Dönitz himself , was called Prussia . At the beginning of March, a number of German submarines left the naval bases on the northern French Atlantic coast to reinforce the Prussian submarine group - one of them was U 311 , which left Brest on March 7th. On March 16, Commander Zander discovered convoy CU 17 , which consisted of a considerable number of tankers and was en route from the Caribbean via New York to the British Isles. Zander decided to attack, but was initially unsuccessful and reported that he had been discovered by escort ships and then repulsed the attacks of a destroyer for several hours. At around 1 a.m. on March 19, Zander hit a tanker over 10,000 GRT. The American Seakay then went up in flames and later had to be sunk by its own escort ships.

Sinking

On April 22nd, U 311 was sunk southwest of Ireland by the two Canadian frigates Swansea and Matane . The sinking of the German submarine was originally attributed to a Canadian flying boat pilot. In 1986 it emerged that this attack by the Canadian Short Sunderland had instead targeted U 672 , which was able to escape badly damaged.

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ a b c Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. 1997, p. 472.
  2. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 , p. 271.
  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. 90.
  4. ↑ While the 1st ULD remained in Neustadt (Holst.), The submarine school was relocated to Pillau.
  5. ↑ Clay Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. 1998, p. 591.
  6. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. 2001, p. 169.
  7. ↑ Clay Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. 1998, p. 597.
  8. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. 1999, page 223

literature

  • Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
  • 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 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine 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 .

See also