U 379

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U 379
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Type : VII C
Field Post Number : 42 090
Shipyard: Howaldtswerke , Kiel
Construction contract: October 16, 1939
Build number: 010
Keel laying: May 27, 1940
Launch: October 15, 1941
Commissioning: November 29, 1941
Commanders:
Flotilla:
Calls: A company
Sinkings:

a ship with 6,367 GRT sunk
a ship with lasting damage

Whereabouts: sunk by ramming on August 8, 1942 east of the Newfoundland Bank

U 379 was a German submarine from the Type VII C , which in World War II by the German Navy in the North Atlantic was used.

Technical specifications

Up until 1943, the Howaldtswerke shipyard in Kiel was intended for the annual construction of twelve submarines. This requirement could not be met in any year. A type VII C submarine was 67 m long and displaced 865 m³ when underwater. A VII C was propelled over water by two diesel engines up to a speed of 17 knots . Two electric motors enabled a speed of 7 knots when underwater. Until 1944, the armament of the boats of this submarine class consisted of an 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. In November 1941, a total of nine boats of this type were put into service by the Navy. A maling on both sides of the submarine tower of U 379 represented a horseshoe, which in a green version made of sheet metal was also worn by the crew on their caps. The boat was put into service on November 29th under the 29-year-old Kapitänleutnant Paul-Hugo Kettner. For Kettner, who had previously commanded U 142 , it was the second independent command.

commander

Paul-Hugo Kettner was born on June 20, 1912 in Hamburg-Rahlstedt and joined the Reichsmarine in 1933 . He completed his submarine training until October 1940 and was in command of U 142 in the same month . Following the building instruction in November 1941, he took command of U 379 .

Commitment and history

Until June 1942, U 379 was under the control of the 8th U-Flotilla stationed in Danzig as a training boat and undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to train the crew . From July 1942 until its sinking, the boat belonged to the 1st U-Flotilla. Before it could reach their base in Brest , it was sunk.

Against all rules

U 379 left Kiel on June 25, 1942 . The North Atlantic was intended as the operational area. When U 90 tracked down a convoy moving eastwards on July 9, Karl Dönitz forbade Commander Kettner to attack because, in the opinion of the BdU , the boat's crew was still too inexperienced. When the Steinbrinck submarine group attacked the SC 94 convoy at the beginning of August , Commander Kettner decided on a risky frontal attack. During this maneuver, the commander of U 379 violated the essential rules of the pack tactics developed by Karl Dönitz , attacked the convoy submerged and during the day and sank the American steamer Kaimoku (6,367 GRT). In addition, he was able to damage the British ship Anneberg (2,537 GRT) so permanently that it had to be sunk by its own armed forces the following day.

Sinking

U 379 was developed by the British corvette Dianthus tracked during an avoidance maneuver with water bombs hit and forced to surface. When U 379 came to the surface, the corvette took it under fire and overflowed it during a ramming attempt. At the same time, the Dianthus threw several depth charges set at a shallow depth. In view of the lasting damage, Commander Kettner decided to abandon the boat and ordered his crew to disembark and initiate the self-sinking. While the submarine drivers jumped into the water, the Dianthus fired at the boat with grenades and machine guns and made three successful rams. Then the British commander initiated rescue measures and fished five survivors. The Dianthus had sunk U 210 together with a Canadian destroyer two days earlier and had parts of the German crew on board. The survivors of U 210 helped with the rescue measures.

See also

literature

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 und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , pp. 233-234.
  2. ^ Georg Högel: Emblems, coats of arms, Malings German submarines 1939-1945. 5th edition. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7822-1002-7 , pp. 97-98.
  3. ↑ The abbreviation SC stands for "slow convoi" and denotes convoys that usually consisted of a particularly large number of ships and were therefore slow.
  4. ↑ Clay Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 1: The Hunters. 1939-1942. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X , p. 764.
  5. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 , p. 183.