U 418

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U 418
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Type : VII C
Field Post Number : 50 558
Shipyard: Danzig Werft AG in Danzig
Construction contract: January 20, 1941
Build number: 120
Keel laying: October 11, 1941
Launch: July 11, 1942
Commissioning: October 21, 1942
Commanders:

First Lieutenant
Gerhard Lange

Flotilla:
Calls: 1 company
Sinkings:

no

Whereabouts: Sunk on June 1, 1943 in the North Atlantic, all crew members were killed

U 418 was a German type VII C submarine . This class of submarines was also called "Atlantic boat". It was used by the Kriegsmarine during the submarine war in the North Atlantic .

Technical specifications

The Danziger Werft AG was commissioned by the Navy to build a dozen VII C-boats per year. The Danzig shipyard produced a total of 42 submarines of this type until the city was taken by the Red Army . U 418 was part of the fifth construction contract for this shipyard, which included a total of four Type VII C boats. Such a boat had a length of 67 m and a displacement of 865 m³ under water. It was powered by two diesel engines, which ensured a speed of 17  kn (31.6 km / h). Two electric motors achieved a speed of 7 kn (12.6 km / h) under water. Until 1944, the armament consisted of an 8.8 cm cannon and a 2.0 cm flak on deck as well as four bow torpedo tubes and a stern torpedo tube. U 418 wielded a sword on the tower as a coat of arms , which is crowned by a ring bearing the mark of crew 37b , the year in which the commander was recruited.

commander

Gerhard Lange was born in Danzig on May 22, 1920 and joined the Navy in 1937. In September 1941 he became the first watch officer on U 436 . Lange completed four patrols on this boat and was promoted to first lieutenant in April 1942. After a month of commanders training with the 24th U-Flotilla , he took command of U 418 on October 21, 1942 . At this point in time, Gerhard Lange was the second youngest German submarine commander at the age of 22.

Commitment and history

U 418 was initially assigned to the 8th U-Flotilla as a training boat and undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to train the crew. On May 1, 1943, it was assigned to the 1st U-Flotilla as a front boat.

Unsuccessful offensive

U 418 ran out of its first and only venture on April 24, 1943. The submarine command - also with the deduction of boats from the North Sea - ordered a considerable number of 87 submarines into the Atlantic. Karl Dönitz hoped that this force would significantly disrupt convoy traffic in the North and Central Atlantic, and in particular the logistics of Operation Torch . However, this offensive failed and the German submarines could not meet the expectations placed in them. In May 1943, 33 submarines with 1,600 men were lost - more than twice as many as in the month with the most losses so far. Ten of the boats used were already sunk on the approach to the routes of the convoy. U 418 was assigned to two of the submarine groups, which, according to pack tactics, sought combat with the Allied convoy trains. From May 11th, the boat belonged to the Isar submarine group , which was put together southeast of Cape Farvel . When this submarine group was disbanded four days later, the submarine command U 418 assigned to the newly formed submarine group Danube 1 , which was used against the convoy ONS 7 , SC 130 and HX 233 . Commander Lange did not score any sinkings during these missions. On May 24, Karl Dönitz broke off the offensive in the North Atlantic and ordered most of the boats used to retreat to areas where less efficient enemy air surveillance was expected.

Sinking

The German submarines were divided into two groups for this purpose. Boats that still had sufficient fuel were ordered to more southerly sea areas to attack the convoys on the route between the USA and Gibraltar . U 418 belonged to the second group, which was loosely distributed across the North Atlantic in order to simulate the continued existence of operating submarine groups via lively radio traffic. On June 1, the pilot of a Bristol Beaufighter of the 236th Squadron of the Royal Air Force, northwest of Cape Ortegal, discovered a surfaced submarine and attacked it with two missiles. The boat disappeared into the greenish discoloration of the water, but the pilot could not determine any clear sinking. The sinking could only be verified several months later, after which the pilot of the Beaufighter, MC Bateman, received the Distinguished Flying Cross .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The construction contract of January 20, 1941 also included U 417 (commissioning August 1942), U 419 (commissioning November 1942) and U 420 (commissioning December 1942).
  2. ↑ 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. 247-249.
  3. ↑ 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. 265.
  4. ^ 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. 103.
  5. ↑ The motto of crew 37b, “ First win, then marry” commented on the meaning of the crew symbol.
  6. ↑ 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 , p. 138.
  7. ↑ C. Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. 1998, p. 337.
  8. ↑ Eberhard Dahlhaus (Crew 38), commander of U 634 , was two months younger than Lange.
  9. ↑ The U 304 , U 227 , U 645 , U 952 and U418 also belonged to this submarine group .
  10. ^ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. (on-line). s. Entry May 11-23, 1943 . Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  11. ^ Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. (on-line). s. Entry May 25, 1943 . Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  12. ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes Verlag, Graefelfing vor München 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 , p. 126.