U 333
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U 333 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | 02 500 |
| Shipyard: | North Sea Works Emden |
| Construction contract: | August 23, 1939 |
| Build number: | 205 |
| Keel laying: | March 11, 1940 |
| Launch: | June 14, 1941 |
| Commissioning: | August 25, 1941 |
| Commanders: |
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| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | 11 patrols |
| Sinkings: |
7 ships (32,107 GRT) |
| Whereabouts: | Sunk on July 31, 1944 southwest of the Isles of Scilly (45 dead, no survivors) |
U 333 was a Germantype VII C submarine that was used in World War II .
Like many U-boats of the Kriegsmarine , U 333 also had a distinctive coat of arms on the tower. It showed three small fish and the boat was therefore also called the boat with the three small fish .
Technical specifications
U 333 was a boat from the series commissioned by the North Sea Works in Emden in September 1939 , which comprised a total of four boats. The outer shell of the boat was made of 20.5 mm thick sheet steel. The boat had a length of 66.5 m and displaced 760 tons of water. The 3,000 hp diesel engine enabled a speed of up to 17 knots over water. The maximum range was about 9,500 nautical miles .
history
The Spreewald incident
On December 27, 1941 U 333 ran from Kiel on its first patrol. At the beginning of January 1942 it reached the western Atlantic and operated there in the following days with the submarine group "Leuthen", whereby three ships were sunk: on January 18, 1942 the Caledonian Monarch ( Lage ) with 8,000 GRT , on January 22, 1942 the Greek steamer Vissilios A. Polemis (3,429 GRT) ( Lage ), and on January 24, 1942 the Norwegian freighter Ringstad (4,765 GRT).
On January 31, 1942, a fourth ship was sunk; it was, however, the German steamer Spreewald (5083 GRT) ( location ) on the Hamburg-America line . The Spreewald was in the Pacific when the war began. Disguised as the Dutch freighter Ena , she reached Yokohama at the end of September 1939 . After a long waiting period, the Spreewald finally took over a load of materials essential to the war effort (e.g. rubber ) in the Manchurian port of Dairen . As a blockade breaker , disguised as the Norwegian steamer Elg , she was supposed to try to reach France. The trip was uneventful. At the end of January, the Spreewald was supposed to be picked up by U 575 ( Günther Heydemann ) and escorted to the port when she was mistakenly sunk by U 333 west of the Bay of Biscay . Neither the commandant nor the officer on watch had recognized the steamer as a German ship; It was also neglected to inform U 333 about an expected blockade breaker. Of the 152 men on the Spreewald , 80 (25 men of the crew and 55 of the 86 prisoners on board) were rescued by submarines hurrying up. On February 9, 1942, U 333 - belonging to the 3rd U-Flotilla since January 1, 1942 - entered its new base at La Pallice near La Rochelle .
Kptlt Cremer was charged with "disobedience in unity with negligent homicide" before a court martial . The process ended with an acquittal, as it could be proven that the Spreewald had failed (for fear of enemy ships) to submit her regular location reports.
Company bang
On March 30, 1942 U 333 left La Pallice for the second patrol. As part of the company Paukenschlag , it was supposed to patrol the east coast of the USA. An underwater attack on a large tanker failed. The tanker overran the submarine and severely damaged it. The crew succeeded in makeshift repairs to U 333 and continued the journey. On May 6, 1942 in the were Florida Street two ships (the US tanker Halsey ( Location ) 7,088 GRT and the Dutch steamer Amazone ( location ) with 1,294 GRT) sunk and a third (the US tanker Java Arrow ( location ) with 8,327 GRT) damaged. After a depth charge by the American corvette USS Dallas , U 333 had to march back. On May 10, 1942, it was able to sink another ship, the British steamer Clan Skene ( Lage ) with 5,214 GRT, before it entered La Pallice on May 26, 1942, badly damaged.
Blucher group
After a long lay in the shipyard, U 333 left for the third patrol on August 11th. It was assigned to the "Group Blücher", which also consisted of U 214 (Günther Reeder), U 406 (Horst Dieterichs), U 566 (Gerhard Remus), U 590 (Heinrich Müller-Edzards) and U 653 (Gerhard Feiler). The task of such submarine groups was to ambush Allied convoys on the well-known escort routes. The submarines positioned themselves at a distance of ten nautical miles across the convoy route and met convoy SL 118 on August 17, 1942.
The attack by the Blücher group on the convoy SL 118 (SL for Sierra Leone, the port in front of which the convoy was formed) lasted three days, but U 333 was not shot during the convoy battle. After a depth charge it had to march back to La Pallice, where it arrived on August 24, 1942. No ships were sunk or damaged on this voyage.
Battle with the corvette HMS Crocus
On September 1, 1942, U 333 began its fourth patrol. This time it was supposed to operate off the coast of West Africa. In the early morning of October 6, 1942, the boat was surprised by the British corvette HMS Crocus ( Lage ) off Freetown ( Sierra Leone ) and shot at immediately. The entire bridge watch was killed. Captain Cremer and the commanding student Pohl were seriously wounded. The corvette was able to ram the submarine twice. Despite severe damage, U 333 was able to dive and escape. On October 9, 1942, the boat received help from U 459 . In the Bay of Biscay , U 333 was able to successfully avoid a torpedo compartment of the British submarine HMS Graph (formerly U 570 ). U 333 reached La Pallice on October 23, 1942 .
Further missions
It was not until the winter of 1942 that the boat was able to leave for another patrol in the North Atlantic. As Kapitänleutnant Cremer had not yet recovered, Oberleutnant Werner Schwaff led the boat. He commanded the boat on a total of two patrols and achieved the following successes:
- March 4, 1943: A Vickers Wellington shot down
- March 19, 1943: Greek steamer Carras ( Lage ) with 5,234 GRT sunk
In April 1943, Schwaff handed the U 333 back to Cremer.
The next (seventh) patrol of the boat (June 2, 1943 - August 31, 1943) was unsuccessful.
U 333 ran out again on October 21, 1943 . On October 31, 1943, it attacked a destroyer with a Wren torpedo . A few minutes later a detonation was heard; then the destroyer was gone. In November 1943 the boat was rammed by the British frigate HMS Exe during an escort attack. Again it was possible to escape badly damaged. On December 1, 1943, U 333 entered La Pallice.
Two more missions followed. No ships were sunk or damaged in the process. In contrast, U 333 was able to shoot down an attacking flying boat of the Short Sunderland type on June 12, 1944 .
Sinking
In July 1944 Cremer was replaced by Lieutenant Hans Fiedler. A few days later, U 333 left for its eleventh and last patrol. On July 31, 1944, the boat was attacked 70 nm (130 km) west of Land's End near the Isles of Scilly by the British frigate HMS Loch Killin with Squid type depth charges. The Loch Killin and the sloop HMS Starling occupied the area in which U 333 was suspected, for half an hour with depth charges. After debris and large amounts of oil appeared on the water surface at position 49 ° 39 ' N , 7 ° 28' W , the British Admiralty was notified of the 538th sinking of a German submarine. All 45 crew members of U 333 died.
literature
- Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 .
- Fritz Brustat-Naval: Ali Cremer: U 333 (= Ullstein. No. 33074, contemporary history). Unabridged edition. Ullstein, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-548-33074-6 .
- 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 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 .
- Luc Bauer: Combat: Mer, Tome 4: U-Boats: Peter Cremer, commandant du U-333: le survivant , Zéphyr Editions, 2013, ISBN 2-3611-8105-3
- Walter Lohmann: Submarine "U 333" - The Sea Wolf Ali Cremer , Volume 59 of SOS - Fate of German Ships , Moewig, 1955
- Fritz Brustat-Naval, Ali Cremer: Ali Cremer: U 333 , Ullstein Verlag, Berlin, August 1986, ISBN 978-3-548-33074-7
- Peter Cremer: U333 The Story of a U-boat Ace , The Bodley Head Ltd, 1984, ISBN 978-0-3703-0545-5
- Peter Cremer: U-Boat Commander: A Periscope View of the Battle of the Atlantic , US Naval Institute Press, 1984, ISBN 978-0-8702-1969-6
Web links
- www.uboat.net Information about U 333 (English)
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