U 401
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U 401 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | 41 587 |
| Shipyard: | Danzig Werft AG, Danzig |
| Construction contract: | September 23, 1939 |
| Build number: | 102 |
| Keel laying: | April 8, 1940 |
| Launch: | December 16, 1940 |
| Commissioning: | April 19, 1941 |
| Commanders: |
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| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | 1 company |
| Sinkings: |
no |
| Whereabouts: | at 3. August 1941 sunk |
U 401 was a German submarine of the type VII C , which was used in the submarine war of the Second World War by the navy in the North Atlantic .
Technical specifications
The Danziger Werft AG delivered a total of 42 submarines of the type VII C and the modification VII C / 41 to the navy in the course of the Second World War. U 401 was one of eight VII -C boats that were built at this shipyard in 1941. Such a submarine, also known as an Atlantic boat because of its endurance and operational capability, was 67 m long and displaced 865 m³ under water. Two diesel engines enabled a speed of 17 knots when sailing above water . During the underwater journey, two electric motors propelled the boat to a speed of 7 knots. The armament of the VII C-Boats until 1944 consisted of an 8.8 cm cannon and a 2 cm flak on deck, as well as four bow torpedo tubes and a stern torpedo tube. Usually a VII C-boat carried 14 torpedoes with it.
commander
Gero Zimmermann was born in Berlin on June 26, 1910, joined the Reichsmarine in 1929 and was promoted to lieutenant captain in 1939. He served as a radio engineer and naval intelligence officer in Świnoujście until 1940 and completed his submarine and commander training by spring 1941. In addition to a two-month trip as a student commander on the U 124 , U 401 was his first on-board command on a submarine.
Commitment and history
After a relatively short training period of 90 days, U 402 set off from Drontheim on July 9, 1941 for his first venture. The North Atlantic and in particular the sea area west of Ireland were intended as the operational area .
Attack on convoy SL 81
In the convoy system of the Allies , the supply of Great Britain with African and Asian goods was ensured by ships that came together in front of Sierra Leone in order to go from here, past the Canary Islands and Gibraltar and west around Ireland into the so-called Northern Approaches - i.e. through the North Channel to the Irish Sea - to sail and to call at Liverpool . On August 2, Kapitänleutnant Kell, commander of U 204, reported a convoy that was heading north about 900 km west of Brest : SL 81 . His boat was one of a group of 12 boats that patrolled this area of the sea.
One of the first submarines to reach the position reported by U 204 was U 401 . SL 81 was secured by an unusually strong escort, which consisted of twelve warships.
Sinking
The British corvette Hydrangea and the destroyer Wanderer as well as the destroyer St. Albans , a ship of the US Navy sailing under the Norwegian flag, recorded the U 410 with sonar and sank the submarine by means of a coordinated depth charge attack . All 45 crew members were killed.
literature
- 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 .
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine 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 .
- Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 1: The Hunters. 1939-1942. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X .