U 453

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U 453
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Type : VII C
Shipyard: German works , Kiel
Keel laying: 4th July 1940
Commissioning: May 26, 1941
Commanders:
Calls: 18 patrols
Sinkings:

9 ships (23,289 GRT)

Whereabouts: self-sunk on May 21, 1944 north of Cape Spartivento

U 453 was a German type VII C submarine of the Kriegsmarine .

history

Construction and commissioning

The keel-laying of U 453 was on July 4, 1940 at the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel . The launch was on April 30, 1941. The commissioning of the boat took place on May 26, 1941. The submarine was assigned to the 7th U-Flotilla , which was based in Kiel, as a training boat.

U 453 was the godfather of the city of Nuremberg and carried the city's coat of arms on the tower.

Association membership

Calls

The crew of U 453 took part in a total of 18 patrols. On November 12, 1941, the boat left the Kiel base for St. Nazaire. After a short stay in the North Atlantic, the Gibraltar breakthrough took place on December 9, 1941. After further activities in the Mediterranean, the boat entered La Spezia on December 17, 1941 . Until the loss of the boat, the Mediterranean should remain the area of ​​operation.

Attacks on the boat

On December 12, 1942, the boat was attacked with depth charges. Despite considerable damage to the boat, the Spanish motor tanker Badalona with 4,202 GRT was sunk on December 13, 1942 . On December 17, 1942, the boat entered La Spezia .

On April 24, 1943, the boat was attacked by a Lockheed Hudson . This attack was successfully repulsed by shooting down the machine.

On February 4, 1944, U 453 was attacked again from the air. In the meantime the 2 cm flak had been replaced by the more powerful 3.7 cm flak. This time it was a Lockheed P-38 Lightning ; this machine was also shot down.

Whereabouts

U 453 left the port of Salamis on April 30, 1944 . The area of ​​operation for this patrol was the Ionian Sea northeast of Cape Spartivento . Here the boat was operating in the marine grid square CJ 99 on the convoy HA-43. On May 19, 1944, the British steamer Fort Missanabie ( Lage ) was sunk with 7147 GRT.

Sinking

On the morning of May 20, 1944, the ship was tracked down by destroyers of the HA-43 convoy protection. These were the British ships HMS Termagant , HMS Tenacious and HMS Liddesdale . In the quarter-hour interval was U 453 with water bombs attacked. On May 21, 1944 at around 12:30 a.m., the batteries were exhausted, making underwater travel impossible. The boat had to appear. Combat operations on the part of the German submarine were no longer possible because all weapon systems had failed. After surfacing, the boat was immediately shot at by the British destroyers. The commander gave the order to leave the boat. Except for the chief engineer, the central master and the chief machinist, no one stayed on board. After opening the flood valves, they also left the boat. U 453 dropped to the position of 38 ° 13 '  N , 16 ° 36'  O .

After the boat sank, the British destroyers stopped shooting. A corporal corporal was wounded in the bombardment of U 453 . Nothing is known about his whereabouts. He probably drowned.

After the survivors had been picked up by the British ships, they were handed over to the US Army in Oran . Except for two men, all crew members came to the USA.

literature

  • Heinrich Rudolf Lehmann: Home Mediterranean . 1962.

Web links