U 340
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U 340 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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 Graphic of a class VII C submarine |
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| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | 49 695 |
| Shipyard: | North Sea Works , Emden |
| Construction contract: | 17th December 1940 |
| Build number: | 212 |
| Keel laying: | October 1, 1941 |
| Launch: | August 20, 1942 |
| Commissioning: | October 16, 1942 |
| Commanders: |
Hans-Joachim Klaus |
| Flotilla: |
8. U-Flotilla training boat |
| Calls: | 3 activities |
| Sinkings: |
no |
| Whereabouts: | on November 2, 1943, damaged near the Strait of Gibraltar , then self- sunk (1 dead, 48 prisoners of war) |
U 340 was a German submarine from the Type VII C , which in submarine warfare during World War II by the Navy in the North was used and Mid-Atlantic. It was severely damaged by British naval forces patrolling there immediately after entering the Mediterranean Sea - the so-called "Gibraltar breakthrough" - and then self-sunk . One man drowned while 48 were captured by the British.
history
From October 16, 1942 to May 1, 1943, U 340 was subordinate to the 8th U-Flotilla and stationed in Danzig . During this time, Commander Klaus undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to retract the boat and train the crew. At the beginning of May 1943, U 340 came to the 6th U-Flotilla as a front boat, a front flotilla originally also stationed in Danzig, whose base had been Saint-Nazaire on the French Atlantic coast since February 1942 .
On April 29, 1943, Commander Klaus set out with U 340 on his first patrol with this boat. U 340 patrolled this venture in the North Atlantic and southeast of Cape Farvel and entered Bordeaux on May 31 . From here, U 340 left for its second venture on July 6, 1943. The boat belonged to a group of four submarines that were supposed to seek combat with Allied ships off Freetown . Commandant Klaus sank no ships on this venture. On the return trip to northern France, U 340 rescued five German planes from the water off the Portuguese coast. The boat entered Saint-Nazaire on September 2nd. From here U 340 left for its third and last venture on October 17, 1943. At the beginning of November Klaus tried to cross the Strait of Gibraltar with his boat , which was heavily secured by British naval forces. On November 1, the boat was discovered by a Vickers Wellington and recorded with a Leigh light .
Sinking
During the battle with the Allies , the submarine U 340 was badly damaged on November 2, 1943 by the British destroyers HMS Active and HMS Witherington and the sloop HMS Fleetwood . This was done with the support of Vickers Wellington "R" and "W" of the 179th Squadron of the RAF. U 340 suffered considerable damage from the attacks and made strong water. Nevertheless, Commander Klaus managed to withdraw from the battle with his boat and to lay U 340 at a depth of 180 m. After consulting with his officers, Klaus decided to abandon the boat, let the 49-man crew disembark near the Spanish coast and sink the U 340 himself using high explosive shells and opening the valves , which is carried out by the commander himself and his chief engineer has been. The men left the submarine with all their life jackets and lifeboats, last of all the two responsible for the sinking. The abandoned submarine sank at the position 35 ° 49 '0 " N , 5 ° 14' 0" W .
Aftermath
After floating in the water for about four hours, the men were taken aboard by several Spanish fishing boats at dawn - but there were only 48 men. Corporal Gerhard Hinz, who was one of the first to leave the boat, perished for unknown reasons. The survivors celebrated their rescue full of joy - too early, because shortly afterwards the HMS Fleetwood appeared and forced the Spanish fishermen with warning shots of their machine guns to hand over the Germans to them. So they ended up in captivity by the British, from which some were not expected to return until the end of 1947.
The Spanish government protested against the forced extradition of the prisoners. The British countered, however, that the Fleetwood operation was carried out under humanitarian circumstances, as the crew of U 340 were in a sickly condition. Four officers , four NCOs and 40 men of the crew survived . The submarine U 340 was not recovered.
See also
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 . Page 474.
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 . Pages 162–164.
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, p. 124. 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, p. 91, 250. ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 .
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 4: The German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2008, pp. 164–166. ISBN 978-3-8132-0514-5 .
- 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 Hunted 1942–1945 . Heyne Verlag, 1999. pp. 474, 638. ISBN 3-4531-6059-2 .
- Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars . Translated from the English by Alfred P. Zeller, Urbes-Verlag, Graefelfing vor München 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 , p. 161.
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