U 354

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U 354
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Type : VII C
Field Post Number : 46 036
Shipyard: Flensburg shipbuilding company , Flensburg
Construction contract: September 23, 1939
Build number: 473
Keel laying: March 30, 1940
Launch: January 10, 1942
Commissioning: April 22, 1942
Commanders:
  • Captain Karl-Heinz Herbschleb
  • Hans-Jürgen Sthamer
Flotilla:
Calls: 11 activities
Sinkings:

a ship with 7,176 GRT sunk
two unconfirmed sinkings
four ships damaged

Whereabouts: Sunk by British naval forces in the Barents Sea on September 25, 1944

U 354 was a German submarine from the Type VII C , which in World War II by the German Navy in the North Sea at a weather company of the armed forces and the fight against the Arctic convoys of World War II was used.

Construction and technical data

11th submarine flotilla

The Flensburger Schiffbaugesellschaft was less involved in the U-boat building program of the Kriegsmarine. In Flensburg, in addition to necessary repairs and overhauls, six new type VII C boats were to be produced every year. However, several air strikes on the city eventually led to the cessation of submarine production there.

The said VII boats were also called "Atlantic boats". The 66.5 m long submarines displaced 871 m³ of water when submerged and were driven underwater by two electric motors with a total of 750 hp to a top speed of 7.6 knots (kn) . When sailing above water, this was between 17.0 and 17.7 kn and was made possible by two diesel engines with between 2800 and 3200 hp.

In March 1942 a total of twelve Type VII C boats were put into service by the Navy. On the tower , U 354 - next to the sign of the 11th U-Flotilla - carried a coat of arms with one hand that aims with a trident into the water below an icicle-covered sky .

Commitment and history

On April 22nd, Kapitänleutnant Herbschleb put U 354 into service. Until the end of September, the boat belonged to the 5th U-Flotilla and undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea from the base in Kiel to train the crew. In October the boat briefly belonged to the 1st U-Flotilla as a front boat, but was not used. Then U 354 moved to Narvik following an undertaking in the North Sea . Until May 1943 it was assigned to the 11th U-Flotilla stationed in Bergen as a front boat. In June, the newly established 13th U-Flotilla came to Trontheim , where it remained until it was sunk. On February 22, 1944, Lieutenant Sthamer took command of U 354 , which he held until the boat was sunk.

Weather troop

All eleven operations of U 354 took the boat into the North Sea. In the winter of 1943, the boat dropped the Svartiesen weather group on Hopen . In June of the following year, U 354 took on the researchers again.

Convoys

U 354 took part in several convoy battles against the supply convoys that delivered goods and materials to Arkhangelsk or Murmansk . The boat belonged to submarine groups that were used against the convoys RA 57 , JW 58 , RA 58 , JW 55B , RA 59 and JW 59 .

Sinking

Commander Sthamer discovered convoy JW 59 on the morning of August 24, 1944 and was located by the British sloop HMS Mermaid while trying to pursue the convoy . Supported by the warships Peacock, Loch Dunvegan and Keppel attacked the Mermaid the located submarine several times with depth charges and remained until the evening in the marine environment to a auftreibender oil slick that eventually reached an area of ten kilometers, indicating the sinking of the boat. U 354 sank at position 72 ° 49 ′ 0 ″  N , 30 ° 41 ′ 0 ″  E , in the Barents Sea northeast of the North Cape .

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , p. 255.
  2. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 , p. 196.
  3. ^ Georg Högel: Emblems, coats of arms, Malings German submarines 1939-1945. 5th edition. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7822-1002-7 , p. 94.
  4. ↑ a b c Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , p. 476
  5. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , pp. 358-359.
  6. ↑ The Mermaid was later handed over to the German Navy and put into service as Scharnhorst (F 213) .

See also

literature

  • Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine 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 .