U 3523

U 3523; ( previous / next - all submarines )
Type :	Type XXI
Field Post Number :	49765
Shipyard:	Schichau , Danzig
Construction contract:	November 6, 1943
Build number:	1668
Keel laying:	October 7, 1944
Launch:	December 14, 1944
Commissioning:	January 23, 1945
Commanders:	Willi Müller
Calls:	no
Sinkings:	no
Whereabouts:	Sunk by air raid on May 6, 1945 in the Skagerrak

U 3523 was a German submarine from the Type XXI , that of the Navy in the Baltic Sea was used. It was sunkby Royal Air Force bombersin the Skagerrak on May 6, 1945, one day after the partial surrender in the north of the German Reich, killing the submarine crew. U 3523 was the last German submarine to be sunk during combat operations during World War II. The wreck was located off the coast of Jutland in April 2018.

history

On September 27, 1944, the Schichau-Werke shipyard in Danzig took on the order to build 53 boats of the type XXI, which had originally been given to the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg , but was canceled there. As part of this order, the U 3523 was one of 30 boats of this type that were completed by the Danzig Schichau shipyard in 1944 and 1945. The boat was launched on 14 December 1944 from the pile and was carried on 23 January of the following year Lieutenant asked Willi Müller in service.

Flotilla, crew and operations

The then 32-year-old Müller had previously commanded the VII C-boat U 1000 and with it had completed an undertaking in Norwegian waters. He had rescued two Norwegian soldiers of the British Royal Air Force , whose Mosquito aircraft had been shot down by U 804 , from distress and therefore canceled his operation. As a result, the U 1000 was only used in the Baltic Sea, between Gotenhafen and Kiel . The boat was finally decommissioned at the end of September after it ran into a mine by Pillau and was permanently damaged. Müller and his crew switched to U 3523 . On January 29, 1945 the boat was assigned to the 5th U-Flotilla , a training flotilla that was stationed in Kiel. U 3523 remained with this flotilla until it was sunk and never received the so-called “front-line maturity”. On April 26th, the still operational German submarines were divided into three so-called “people's lists”. List 1 boats should sail to Norway to strengthen the negotiating basis for the upcoming surrender. List 3 boats should be disarmed while their crews should be used in land combat. U 3523 was assigned to the second list as "conditionally suitable for front use". Commander Müller was given the task of using his boat as an "auxiliary tanker" and bringing diesel fuel from Swinoujscie to Kiel.

Course Norway

On May 2, Commander Müller took over 250 m³ of diesel fuel from submarines that were being prepared in Travemünde for self - sinking in the course of the expected rainbow order and set off with U 3523 in the direction of Kiel. Initially, the diesel was intended to replenish the fuel reserves of the 5th U-Flotilla, but then Commander Müller was instructed to travel to Norway with U 3523 . On May 4th, Müller joined the U 534 with his boat, which is also going to Norway . On the same day the boats reached Elsinore , where other German submarines were already lying. Since it was planned to continue the journey together, Müller handed over 150 m³ of fuel to U 3503 here .

"Group Nollau"

On May 5, 1945 at 8:00 a.m., a partial surrender of all German associations in north-west Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands came into force. On the same day, a group of submarines left Elsinore in a northerly direction. Together with U 3523 and U 534 , U 3017 and U 3503 tried to cross the Kattegat and reach Norway. The leadership took over U 534 , an IX C-boat that had escaped from the besieged Bordeaux in the summer of 1944 and had already completed three operations under the commandant Kapitänleutnant Herbert Nollau. During the escape from Bordeaux it was also possible to shoot down a fighter plane . Since U 534 had the longest-serving commander, the most experienced crew and the most powerful anti-aircraft weapons, the boat took over the air security. Around noon, a British Liberator bomber sighted the German submarines. Half an hour later, four bombers attacked the group. While the crews of U 534 and U 3503 took up the fight with the attacking bombers, the commanders of the other two boats decided to dive, despite the shallow water depth of 50 m. U 3523 was in fourth position at this time and was the first boat to dive when the Liberators attacked the group. From this point on, there are no further reports about the boat, and the further fate can only be inferred from the reports of various aircraft patrolling this sea area.

Sinking

Around 10:00 p.m. on the same day, another Liberator attacked a submarine northwest of Gothenburg , which was probably U 3523 , as the other German submarines that were in the sea area in question at that time did not attack reported. The British bomber managed to damage the boat. On the eve of the following day, another Liberator identified a XXI boat nearby based on the typical sea tube and the snorkel that made the underwater journey possible.

After a successful attack by the bomber, oil and debris floated, which indicated the sinking of the submarine, which in all probability was U 3523 .

The wreck

In April 2018, the Danish Naval War Museum Jutland located the wreck of U 3523 10 nm north of Skagen at a depth of 123 m . It is nine nautical miles west of the position reported by the British bomber pilot in May 1945.

Web links

Submarine from the Second World War in Skagerrak found in FAZ-online on April 13, 2018
Submarine wreck discovered in Die Welt on April 13, 2018
Chronicle of the boat

Individual evidence

^ Clay Blair : The Submarine War 1942-1945. Die Gejagt, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 , p. 695.
↑ R. Busch, H.-J. Röll: The Submarine War 1939–1945. Volume 4. German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945 . ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 , p. 296.
↑ Eckard Wetzel: U 2540. The submarine at the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-556-3 , pp. 170f.
↑ ^a ^b ^c Eckard Wetzel: U 2540. The submarine at the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-556-3 , pp. 185–188.
↑ R. Busch, H.-J. Röll: The Submarine War 1939–1945. Volume 4. German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945 . ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 , pp. 352-354.
↑ April 13 - 2018 Rare German U-boat found in Skagerrak. In: Website of the Maritime War Museum Jutland. Maritime War Museum Jutland, April 13, 2018, archived from the original on April 13, 2018 ; accessed on April 13, 2018 (English).

[1] Clay Blair : The Submarine War 1942-1945. Die Gejagt, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 , p. 695.

[2] R. Busch, H.-J. Röll: The Submarine War 1939–1945. Volume 4. German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945 . ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 , p. 296.

[Wet-3] Eckard Wetzel: U 2540. The submarine at the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-556-3 , pp. 170f.

[Eck-4] Eckard Wetzel: U 2540. The submarine at the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-556-3 , pp. 185–188.

[5] R. Busch, H.-J. Röll: The Submarine War 1939–1945. Volume 4. German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945 . ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 , pp. 352-354.

[6] April 13 - 2018 Rare German U-boat found in Skagerrak. In: Website of the Maritime War Museum Jutland. Maritime War Museum Jutland, April 13, 2018, archived from the original on April 13, 2018 ; accessed on April 13, 2018 (English).