U 33 (Navy)

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U 33 (Kriegsmarine)
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U BOAT 33.jpg
Type : VII A
Field Post Number : M 28 962
Shipyard: Germania shipyard , Kiel
Construction contract: March 25, 1935
Build number: 556
Keel laying: September 1, 1935
Launch: June 11, 1936
Commissioning: July 25, 1936
Commanders:
  • July 25, 1936 - November 21, 1936
    Lieutenant Commander . Ottoheinrich Junker
  • November 22, 1936 - December 20, 1936
    Kptlt. Kurt Freiwald
  • December 21, 1936 - June 2, 1937
    Kptlt. Ottoheinrich Junker
  • June 3, 1937 - July 25, 1937
    Kptlt. Kurt Freiwald
  • July 26, 1937 - October 28, 1938
    Kptlt.Ottoheinrich Junker
  • October 29, 1938 - February 12, 1940
    Kptlt. Hans-Wilhelm von Dresky
Calls: 3 patrols
Sinkings:

10 ships (19,621 GRT)

Whereabouts: Sunk in the Firth of Clyde on February 12, 1940 (25 dead, 17 prisoners of war)

U 33 was a German submarine of type VII A , which in the Second World War by the Navy was used. It moved off the British coast sea mines and sank on its three patrols ten ships 19,621 BRT, where 61 people died. When it was sunk on February 12, 1940 in the Firth of Clyde , 25 men of his crew died, while 17 survived and fell into British captivity .

history

The order for the boat was awarded to the Germania shipyard in Kiel on March 25, 1935 . The keel was laid on September 1, 1935, the launch on June 11, 1936, the commissioning under Lieutenant Otto-Heinrich Junker on July 25, 1936. During the operation in the waters around the Iberian Peninsula at the time of the Spanish Civil War, Lieutenant Kurt Freiwald had the command.

From its commissioning until December 31, 1939, the boat belonged to the U-Flotilla "Saltzwedel" in Wilhelmshaven as an operational or front boat .

U 33 had four missions during the Spanish Civil War off Spain and Portugal:

  • From February 1937 to May 1937 for maritime surveillance in the Mediterranean off Alicante .
  • From December 1937 to February 1938 in Spanish and Portuguese waters (base: El Ferrol and Lisbon ).
  • From July 1938 to August 1938 for diving and escorting exercises off the coast of Spain in the Bay of Biscay .
  • From September 1938 to October 1939 in Spanish and Portuguese waters.

When the U-Flotilla was reorganized, U 33 remained on January 1, 1940 as a front boat in the "Saltzwedel" flotilla in Wilhelmshaven, which was renamed the 2nd U-Flotilla . U 33 undertook three enemy voyages during the Second World War , during which it sank ten ships with a total tonnage of 19,621 GRT . One ship (3,670 GRT) was classified as a total loss.

Use statistics

First patrol

The boat left Wilhelmshaven on August 19, 1939 at 9 a.m. and returned there on September 28, 1939 at 9 a.m. On this 40-day expedition in the North Atlantic , southwest of Ireland and the Bay of Biscay , three ships with 5,905 GRT were sunk.

  • September 16, 1939: Sinking of the British steamer Arkleside (1,567 GRT) ( location ) by a torpedo. He had loaded 5,105 tons of coal and was on the way from Blyth to Bergen . There were no deaths, 26 survivors.

Second patrol

Grave of two sailors from the "William Humphries" on Skye

The boat left Wilhelmshaven on October 29, 1939 at 2 p.m. and returned there on November 26, 1939. During this 28-day operation in the North Atlantic, twelve mines were laid in the Swansea Bay and eight ships with 16,971 GRT were sunk.

  • November 20, 1939: Sunk by artillery of the British fishing liner Thomas Hankins (276 GRT). He came from Fleetwood and was on his way to catch a fish. There were no dead.
  • November 20, 1939: Sinking of the British fishing liner Delphine (250 GRT) by artillery. He came from Fleetwood and was on his way to catch a fish. There were no dead.
  • November 20, 1939: sinking of the British fishing liner Sea Sweeper (329 GRT) by artillery. He came from Fleetwood and was on his way to catch a fish. There were no dead.
  • November 21, 1939: sinking of the British fishing liner Sulby (287 GRT) by artillery. He came from Fleetwood and was on his way to fish. There were five dead.
  • November 21, 1939: sinking of the British fishing liner William Humphries (276 GRT) by artillery. He came from Fleetwood and was on his way to catch a fish. It was a total loss with 15 dead.
  • November 23, 1939: Fatal damage to the German steamer Borkum (3,670 GRT), which was seized by the British, by torpedoes and artillery. The ship had been picked up on November 18, 1939 by the Royal Navy and was a prize ship on the way to Kirkwall . The wreck propelled on September 25, 1939 and was towed to Rosyth for dismantling on August 18, 1940 .
  • December 25, 1939: The British steamer Stanholme (2,473 GRT) ( Lage ) is sunk by a mine hit. He had loaded 4,500 tons of coal and was on his way from Cardiff to London . There were twelve dead and twelve survivors.
  • January 16, 1940: Sinking of the British tanker Inverdargle (9,456 GRT) ( Lage ) by a mine hit. He had loaded 12,554 tons of aviation fuel and was on the way from Trinidad via Halifax to Avonmouth. It was a total loss with 49 dead.

During this patrol, an incident occurred in which the first officer on watch, Hans Heidtmann , did not obey the command of the commandant Hans-Wilhelm von Dresky to stop fire on a British ship until the latter threatened him with a pistol.

Third patrol

The boat ran on February 5, 1940 at 8:00 a.m. from Wilhelmshaven to a mine-laying company in the Clyde Estuary and was sunk in the Firth of Clyde on February 12, 1940 . No ships were sunk on this eight day voyage.

Sinking

On February 12, 1940, while the mine was being laid in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland , U 33 was severely damaged by depth charges from the British mine clearance boat HMS Gleaner at position 55 ° 25 ′  N , 5 ° 7 ′  W in marine grid square AM 6516 and then sunk by itself . The commandant Hans-Wilhelm von Dresky had the rotors of the Enigma distributed among the officers, who should sink them far away from the wreck of the submarine, as the water was so shallow that the British could dive to the wreck.

According to official information, 25 crew members, including the commandant von Dresky, were killed in the sinking, 17 men (including 4 officers) were rescued and were taken prisoner by the British . However, there are different counts with up to 27 dead, up to 19 survivors and up to 45 crew members in total. According to reports from survivors, all crew members had left the boat when it sank, but according to a report by the youngest crew member, Max Schiller, Commandant of Dresky, was the only one on board the boat when it sank because he had returned and went down with him . The chief engineer Friedrich-Ernst Schilling, who was commissioned with the self -sinking, was injured by the explosive charges he detonated, but survived. Rescue measures were made considerably more difficult by the stormy sea, so that most of the crew members froze or drowned in the icy water despite their life jackets. Gleaner lifeboats accommodated one officer and eight crew ranks. The fish trawler Floradora took one officer on board, the fish trawler Bohemian Girl two officers and eight crew ranks, two of whom died of hypothermia on board. The two trawlers transferred the survivors to the Gleaner , who brought them to Greenock . The destroyer HMS Kingston could only get two men out of the water alive, while it also recovered 20 bodies, and also hit Greenock. Four dead (Dresky, Braun, Johne and Winterhoff) were not recovered. The prisoners were taken from Glasgow to London for interrogation and then to prison camps. The 21 dead who were brought ashore were buried in Greenock, but later transferred to the German war cemetery at Cannock Chase .

The British managed to capture three " Enigma " rotors, including reels VI and VII - both of great importance to the cryptologists in Bletchley Park , as they are two of three special reels that the Polish cryptologists have not reconstructed had been. According to an official report by the Royal Navy , the roles are said to have been in the clothes of the captured upper engineer's mate Friedrich Kumpf. Years later, however, the chief engineer Friedrich-Ernst Schilling stated that he too had parts of the Enigma in his pockets and that he managed to throw them out of the British lifeboat into the sea without the British seeing it.

U 33 had no human losses to complain about until its demise.

reception

In 2011 Nigel Graddon published his book The Mystery of U-33: Hitler's Secret Envoy , which he dedicates to Max Schiller, the youngest survivor of the U-33 crew who was only 18 years old when it was sunk. In addition to other reports from survivors, he relies heavily on the statements of Schiller, who fell in love with a Scottish woman while in captivity, stayed with her in Scotland after the war and started a family with her at Annan's (Dumfries and Galloway) . The book has only been published in English so far.

literature

  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. Preface by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rohwer, Member of the Presidium of the International Commission on Military History. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1996, pp. 53, 71, 116. ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 2: Submarine construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1997, pp. 17, 18, 25, 194. ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 3: The German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2008, p. 34f. ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 4: The German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2008, p. 15f. ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 .
  • Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maas: The German warships 1815-1945. Volume 3: Submarines, auxiliary cruisers, mine ships, net layers. Bernhard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-7637-4802-4 .
  • Clay Blair : The Submarine War - The Hunters 1939–1942 . Heyne Verlag, 1998. pp. 124, 128f., 160, 183f. ISBN 3-4531-2345-X .
  • Nigel Graddon: The Mystery of U-33: Hitler's Secret Envoy . Adventures Unlimited Press, 2011. 978-1-9354-8719-7.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bodo Herzog: Pirates in front of Malaga. In: The time . No. 49, 1991.
  2. ^ Hugh Sebag-Montefiore: Enigma - The Battle for the Code . Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2000, p. 62.
  3. ^ Nigel Graddon: The Mystery of U-33: Hitler's Secret Envoy . Adventures Unlimited Press, 2011, p. 42.
  4. ^ Nigel Graddon: The Mystery of U-33: Hitler's Secret Envoy . Adventures Unlimited Press, 2011, p. 187.
  5. ^ Nigel Graddon: The Mystery of U-33: Hitler's Secret Envoy . Adventures Unlimited Press, 2011, p. 75.
  6. ^ Nigel Graddon: The Mystery of U-33: Hitler's Secret Envoy . Adventures Unlimited Press, 2011, p. 153.