U 334
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U 334 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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|---|---|
| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | M-33 704 |
| Shipyard: | North Sea Works , Emden |
| Construction contract: | September 23, 1939 |
| Build number: | 206 |
| Keel laying: | March 16, 1940 |
| Launch: | August 15, 1941 |
| Commissioning: | October 9, 1941 |
| Commanders: | |
| Flotilla: |
|
| Calls: | 4 activities |
| Sinkings: |
2 ships (14,372 GRT) |
| Whereabouts: | Sunk on June 14, 1943 in the North Atlantic southwest of Iceland . |
U 334 was an "Atlantic" submarine of the former German Navy during World War II .
Construction and history
The boat was commissioned on September 23, 1939 together with the sister boats U 331 , U 332 and U 333 from the Emden Nordseewerke . The keel was laid under the designation "New Building 206" on March 16, 1941, the launch took place on August 15, 1941 and the commissioning under Lieutenant Hilmar Siemon took place on October 9, 1941.
During the run-in and training period, the boat was under the control of the 8th U-Flotilla and then the 3rd U-Flotilla and the 11th U-Flotilla as a front boat. The tower emblem was the Eiffel Tower on a black and white checkered shield, through which the key to the city of Bremen stood out . A later version featured the same emblem, with the shield being held by two polar bears .
commitment
1. Company
The boat left Kiel under the command of Kapitänleutnant Siemon on March 18, 1942 and ran via Helgoland into the Arctic Ocean between Norway , Iceland and Greenland . It entered the Trondheim underground base after 26 days without sinking or damaging a ship .
2. Company
U 334 left Trondheim on June 7, 1942 and was at sea for 23 days. The area of operation was again the Arctic Ocean and the area east of the island of Jan Mayen . On July 4th and 5th, Siemon scored its first and last sinkings: on July 4th, 1942 the US steam freighter William Hooper (7,177 GRT) and the following day the British steam freighter Earlston (7,195 GRT). On the evening of July 5th, U 334 was attacked by a German Ju 88 bomber northeast of the North Cape with depth charges and badly damaged (inability to dive, rudder damage) and had to be escorted by U 456 to the Neidenfjord , where the damage was repaired.
Since the damage in the Neidenfjord could not be completely repaired, U 334 moved via Tromsø , Narvik and Rørvik to the Trondheim naval shipyard.
3. Company
At the end of October 1942 the repair of the rudder was completed and U 334 ran out again. During 29 days in the North Sea and northwest of Iceland no successes could be achieved. The boat returned to Harstad on November 30 , continued to Narvik on December 1 and to Trondheim on December 2, where major repairs were carried out from December 4, 1942 to January 31, 1943.
After the repair, the boat moved from Trondheim to Bergen on February 12, 1942 , where it was used as a sea shooting boat from February 21, 1943 to April 30, 1943. On April 1, Lieutenant Siemon was replaced as commandant by Lieutenant Heinz Ehrich.
4. Enterprise and end
U 334 left the Bergen base on June 5, 1943. No ships could be sunk or damaged during this operation in the North Atlantic. On June 14, 1943, the boat was located southwest of Iceland by the ASDIC of the British frigate HMS Jed (K.235) and the British sloop HMS Pelican (U.86) and then sunk by depth charges . It was a total loss with 47 dead. The position of the wreck is 58 ° 16 'N - 28 ° 20' W, in the former naval grid square AK 3599.
U-boat groups with which U 334 operated during its service
| Submarine group | Period |
|---|---|
| Wise man | March 31, 1942 to April 10, 1942 |
| Bang | April 10, 1942 to April 12, 1942 |
| Ice devil | June 21, 1942 to July 5, 1942 |
literature
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war, the submarine building on German shipyards. ES Mittler & Sohn , Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0509-6 .
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0509-6 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Georg Högel: Emblems, coat of arms of Maling's German U-Boats 1939–1945. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg, 2009, 5th edition, p. 93