U 394

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U 394
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Olympic rings with white rims.svg
The Olympic rings, symbols of the boat
Type : VII C
Field Post Number : 53 379
Shipyard: Howaldtswerke in Kiel
Construction contract: January 21, 1941
Build number: 026
Keel laying: March 31, 1942
Launch: June 16, 1943
Commissioning: August 7, 1943
Commanders:
  • August 1943
    Oberleutnant zur See Ernst Günther Unterhorst (i. V.)
  • August 1943 - September 1944
    KL Wolfgang Borger
Flotilla:
Calls: 3 activities
Sinkings:

no

Whereabouts: Sunk on September 2, 1944 in the North Sea by British naval forces

U 394 was a German submarine of the type VII C , a so-called "Atlantic boat ". It was used by the Kriegsmarine during the submarine war in World War II in the Arctic Ocean.

Technical specifications

The Deutsche Werke in Kiel had been commissioned to build submarines since 1932 - initially under secrecy. Immediately after the start of the war, the Kriegsmarine awarded major construction contracts to the shipyard, which was intended for the annual output of twelve Type VII C boats. A VII C-boat had a length of 67 m and 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 propelled the boat underwater at a speed of 7 kn (12.6 km / h). The armament 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 until 1944 . Usually a VII-C-boat carried 14 torpedoes with it. On the tower, U 394 wore the Olympic rings, the crew badge of the recruiting year of the commander Wolfgang Borger.

Commanders

Ernst-Günther Unterhorst was born on April 5, 1919 in Hadersleben and joined the Navy in 1937 . After being assigned to the Air Force , he returned to the Navy in the spring of 1942 and began his submarine training. Until the summer of 1943 he was the first watch officer on the U 403 . In the summer of the same year he completed the commanders course and initially received a building instruction for U 395 , which was not put into service due to damage. After a few days as a commander on behalf of U 394 , Oberleutnant zur See Unterhorst was given command of U 396 . Wolfgang Borger was born on April 4, 1913 in Mainz , joined the Navy in 1936 and completed his submarine training in the summer of 1940. Until 1943 he served as an officer on watch on the U 94 , U 34 and the submarine escort ship Isar . Wolfgang Borger was promoted to lieutenant captain on August 1, 1943 and took command of U 394 on August 19 .

Commitment and history

Until March 1944, the boat belonged to the 5th U-Flotilla , a training flotilla , was stationed in Kiel and undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to train the crew. In April the boat was placed under the 1st submarine flotilla, which was stationed in Brest on the Atlantic coast of northern France. At the end of this month U 394 left Kiel and drove via Arendal and Bergen, first to Narvik and then to Hammerfest , where the boat came in on June 8th, following a patrol in the North Sea.

Loss of the boat

U 394 set off from Hammerfest on July 27 for another venture. The intended area of ​​operation was the sea area east of the island of Jan Mayen . The boat belonged to a group of northern sea submarines that were supposed to hunt the allied northern sea convoys according to the stipulations of the pack tactics . On September 2, U 394 was discovered by a Swordfish biplane while chasing the convoy RA 59A, which was returning from Russia to North America , and was then sunk by a task force consisting of several warships.

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 , p. 273.
  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 , p. 100.
  3. ^ Bomb raid by the 8th US Air Force (199 bombers against Kiel and Travemünde) on July 29th.
  4. ↑ a b Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. 1997, p. 482.
  5. ↑ The destroyers Keppel and Whitehall and the sloops Mermaid and Peacock were involved .

literature

  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 .
  • Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 .
  • Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak Verlagsges., Herrsching 1981, ISBN 3-88199-0097 .