U 387

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U 387
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Type : VII C
Field Post Number : 51 018
Shipyard: Howaldtswerke , Kiel
Construction contract: November 21, 1941
Build number: 018
Keel laying: September 5, 1941
Launch: October 1, 1942
Commissioning: November 24, 1942
Commanders:
  • Rudolf Büchler
Flotilla:
  • 5th U-Flotilla training boat
    November 1942 - June 1943
  • 7th U-Flotilla Front Boat
    July - October 1943
  • 13th U-Flotilla Front Boat
    November 1943 - December 1944
Calls: 10 activities, several relocation trips
Sinkings:

no

Whereabouts: Sunk by depth charges in the Barents Sea on December 9, 1944

U 387 was a German submarine of the type VII C , a so-called "Atlantic boat ". It was used by the German Navy during the U-Boat War in World War II in the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean .

Construction and commissioning

The Deutsche Werke in Kiel had been entrusted with the construction of submarines by the German Reichsmarine since 1935 , some of which were also exported. After the start of the war, the shipyard received major construction contracts from the Navy. As a result, Deutsche Werke was scheduled to produce twelve Type VII C boats a year. Such a boat was 67  m long and had a displacement of 865 m³ under water. It was propelled by two diesel engines, which enabled a speed of 17 kn (31.6 km / h) over water . Two electric motors enabled the boat to travel underwater at a speed of 7 kn (12.6 km / h). The armament of the VII C-Boats consisted until 1944 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. Usually a VII C-boat carried 14 torpedoes with it. On November 24, 1942, the boat was put into service under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Rudolf Büchler.

commander

Rudolf Büchler was born in Breslau on October 14, 1915 and joined the Navy in 1936 . In 1942 he served as the first watch officer on U 161 . Under the command of Albrecht Achilles , Büchler took part in an enterprise in the Caribbean . In October and November 1942 he completed the U-boat commanders course with the 24th U-Flotilla in Memel and, following the construction instruction, took over the command of U 387 in autumn 1942 .

Commitment and history

Until June 1943, U 387 was under the 5th U-Flotilla , a training flotilla that was stationed in Kiel . During this time, Commander Büchler undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to train the crew and to retract the boat. On July 1, the boat was assigned to the 7th submarine flotilla in Saint-Nazaire as the front boat . During its service life, the boat never operated from this northern French port, but from the naval bases in Norway.

In September 1943 the boat led the weather observation ship Kehdingen , which brought a weather observation team to Alexandraland , which set up and operated a weather station there under the code name "Schatzgräber" . In the following years the boat was used for supply trips to maintain this station. From Narvik , Bergen , Tromsø , Hammerfest and other Norwegian submarine bases, commander Büchler also undertook a total of three operations with U 387 , until the boat was finally assigned to the 13th submarine flotilla stationed in Trondheim on November 1st . The boat remained with this flotilla until it was sunk.

Loss of the boat

On December 9th, U 387 was sunk by the British Castle-class corvette HMS Bamborough Castle in the Barents Sea near Murmansk during the attack on the Northern Sea convoy RA 62 . There were no survivors.

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 1: the German submarine commanders. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1996, ISBN 3 8132 0490 1 . Page 41

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