U 455
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U 455 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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.svg) City arms of Forst, godfather city of the boat |
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| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | 03 850 |
| Shipyard: | German works , Kiel |
| Construction contract: | January 16, 1940 |
| Build number: | 286 |
| Keel laying: | September 3, 1940 |
| Launch: | June 21, 1941 |
| Commissioning: | August 21, 1941 |
| Commanders: |
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| Calls: | 10 activities |
| Sinkings: |
2 ships sunk by torpedo and 1 ship with mines, in total. 14,285 GRT |
| Whereabouts: | Lost in early April 1944 on the way back to the La Spezia base, rediscovered in the Ligurian Sea in 2008 |
U 455 was a German submarine from the Type VII C . Because of its usefulness, this class of submarines was also called "Atlantic boat". U 455 was used by the Kriegsmarine in the submarine warfare of World War II in the North and Central Atlantic, on the North American east coast and in the Mediterranean .
Technical specifications
The Deutsche Werke in Kiel was the first German shipyard to manufacture submarines for the Imperial Navy again after the First World War . The first talks took place in 1932, and two years later, by circumventing the relevant provisions of the Versailles Treaty, an order was placed to build small submarines, which from 1935 onwards were manufactured under secrecy in camouflaged assembly halls. Otherwise, however, the shipyard's capacities were full with the construction of capital ships. Immediately after the start of the war, the shipyard was finally included again in the U-boat building program of the Kriegsmarine and was intended for the annual output of twelve Type VII C boats.
A boat of this type was 67.1 m long and 6.2 m wide. The maximum speed for diesel-powered overwater travel was 17 kn . Two electric motors, each with 375 hp, enabled a ride of 7.6 knots under water. As long as it belonged to the 7th U-Flotilla , U 455 ran its flotilla symbol, the “Bull of Scapa Flow” (see left) at the tower . The city's coat of arms of Forst in der Lausitz , the godfather town of the boat, was worn by the crew as a hat badge.
Commitment and history
U 455 patrolled nine operations in the Atlantic until spring 1944. Among other things, the boat completed two mining operations and picked up part of the crew of U 167 , which had been sunk off Gran Canaria , from the Spanish coast. On January 22, 1944, the boat passed the Strait of Gibraltar, which was well guarded by British naval forces, in a so-called 'Gibraltar breakthrough' .
Summer 42 in the West Atlantic
On April 16, 1942, U 455 set sail for its third venture, which, measured by the number of sinkings, was the most successful of the boat. The western Atlantic, in particular the east coast of the USA, was intended as the operational area. Captain Hans-Heinrich Gießler attacked a British tanker on the morning of May 3, which sank after one hit and two missed shots at 7.42 a.m. after a catch shot.
- 3rd May 1942 British tanker British Workman ( Lage ) with 6,994 GRT sunk by torpedo
Two weeks later, on the night of May 18, Commander Gießler shot several torpedoes ejected at the same time, a so-called "fan of four", on a large unidentified ship of over 12,000 GRT, which he believed to have recognized as a passenger steamer. A detonation was detected around 4:00 a.m., but no further information was gained. At the beginning of April U 455 torpedoed another ship.
- 11 June 1942 British tanker Geo H. Jones ( Lage ) with 6,914 GRT sunk by torpedo.
On June 16, 1942 U 455 ran back into Saint-Nazaire , the naval base of the 7th U-Flotilla.
Attack while refueling
On October 4, 1943, U 455 was attacked north of the Azores by the supply boat U 460 , a so-called "dairy cow", by aircraft of the escort USS Card , but was able to escape.
Sinking
On February 22nd, 1944, U 455 left the southern French naval port of Toulon for its last operation. On April 2nd, Commandant Scheibe reported to the flotilla base his intention to end the operation and to call at La Spezia. This was the last message from U 455 . Technical defects or human error were assumed to be the reason for the loss. A more recent assumption is that U 455 ran into a German minefield when it entered La Spezia and sank on April 6 when it was hit by mines. The wreck was found in the Gulf of Genoa in 2008, and the Franco-German television channel arte broadcast a documentary about the submarine in 2015.
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 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The German-British naval agreement relaxed the limits in 1935, and in that year 75 submarines were officially commissioned.
- ^ 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. 109.
- ↑ In this incident, U 422 and the supply boat U 460 were sunk.
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 , p. 214.
- ^ Georg Högel: Emblems, coats of arms, Maling's German U-Boats 1939-1945. 5th edition. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7822-1002-7 , p. 109.
- ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes Verlag, Graefelfing vor München 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 , p. 189.
- ↑ Stéphane Bégoin (director): U455 - on the trail of a submarine. (No longer available online.) Arte, archived from the original on August 28, 2015 ; accessed on August 28, 2015 .
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