U 374

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U 374
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Type : VII C
Field Post Number : 45 441
Shipyard: Howaldtswerke , Kiel
Construction contract: September 23, 1939
Build number: 005
Keel laying: December 18, 1939
Launch: May 10, 1941
Commissioning: June 21, 1941
Commanders:
Flotilla:
Calls: 3 activities
Sinkings:

1 ship (3,349 GRT)
2 warships (992 t) sunk

Whereabouts: sunk in the Mediterranean on January 12, 1942

U 374 was a German submarine from the Type VII C , which in World War II by the German Navy in the North Atlantic and in the Mediterranean was used.

Construction and technical data

At the beginning of the war, the Howaldtswerke shipyard in Kiel switched production entirely to submarine construction. Until the number of orders increased in 1943, this shipyard was intended for the annual completion of twelve submarines. This number could not be reached in any year. A type VII C submarine was 67 m long and displaced 865 m³ under water. It was propelled by two diesel engines, which enabled a speed of 17 knots (kn) over water . During the underwater journey, two electric motors propelled the boat to a speed of 7 knots. The armament consisted of a 8.8 cm cannon and a 2 cm Flak C / 30 on deck as well as four bow torpedo tubes and a stern torpedo tube. A VII C-boat usually carried 14 torpedoes with it.

commander

Unno von Fischel was born in Kiel on November 5, 1915 and joined the Reichsmarine in 1934 . He received his on-board training on the cadet training ship Schleswig-Holstein . Oberleutnant von Fischel completed his submarine training in the summer of 1940 and then went on to the U 97 as the first officer on watch . After completing his U-boat commander course, he took command of U 374 on June 21 . Unno von Fischel was the son of Admiral Hermann von Fischel , who had also been a submarine commander in World War I.

Commitment and history

Uboot VIIC - silhouette

Until the end of August 1941, U 374 belonged as a training boat to the 5th U-Flotilla and undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to train the crew. From September it was assigned to the 1st U-Flotilla stationed in Brest as a front boat. From here the boat only ran out for one operation, then it was ordered to the Mediterranean. In December 1941 the boat came to the 29th U-Flotilla and was stationed in La Spezia .

Murder burner

During his first company owned U 374 to U-boat group incendiaries after provisos of the Wolf Packs searched the battle with Allied convoys in the North Atlantic. On October 31, Commander von Fischel torpedoed a steamer and sank it. The chroniclers of the submarine war assumed for a long time that U 374 sank the freighter King Malcolm on this occasion . However, as it has since turned out, it actually went to the account of U 106 .

  • 31 October 1941 British steamer Rose Schaffino with 3,349 GRT sunk

In the Mediterranean Sea

HMS Lady Shirley, sunk by U 374 .

Towards the end of 1941, U 374 passed the heavily secured Strait of Gibraltar in a so-called "Gibraltar breakthrough" on December 11th . On the night of the breakthrough, the commander of the submarines in Kernevel received a radio message, according to which the commander von Fischel stated that he had been discovered and was now being followed by "four destroyers". On this occasion he asked for air support - which, given the balance of power in Gibraltar, would have been an unpromising undertaking for the Air Force. Commander von Fischel decided to attack the pursuers on his part and was then able to escape with U 374 .

  • 11 December 1941 British submarine hunter Lady Shirley sunk with 477 t

The Lady Shirley had sunk U 111 a month earlier after a courageous artillery battle at a short range.

  • 11 December 1941 British patrol boat Rosabelle sunk with 515 tons

U 374 patrolled the Mediterranean until the boat was sunk .

Sinking

HMS Unbeaten at the pier in Malta

The British submarine HMS Unbeaten was on its 14th patrol when a German submarine was sighted south of Sicily at around 10:00 a.m. on January 12, 1942 . The British commander decided to attack immediately and attacked the enemy with a torpedo fan made of four Mark VIII torpedoes , two of which hit. Although the British boat was only four miles from the enemy coast of Italy, the British commander, Lieutenant Commander EA Woodward, decided to show up in search of survivors. Only one crew member of U 374 - the seaman Hans Ploch, assigned to the bridge watch at the time of the attack - had survived the sinking and could be recovered.
The time between identifying the target and diving again after the capture of the German sailor was half an hour - Commander Woodward with HMS Unbeaten only needed four minutes for the rescue operation in enemy waters .

See also

literature

  • Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 1: The Hunters. 1939-1942. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 .

Remarks

  1. Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , pp. 233-234.
  2. The Reichsmarine was renamed in 1935 after reclassifications to “Kriegsmarine”.
  3. Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll, Der U-Boot-Krieg, Volume 1 The German U-Boat Commanders , ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg, 1996, page 65
  4. a b C. Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 1: The Hunters. 1939-1942. 1998, p. 447.
  5. C. Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 1: The Hunters. 1939-1942. 1998, p. 477.
  6. Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , p. 479.
  7. Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. 1999, p. 41.