U 4707
|
U 4707 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
|
|---|---|
| Type : | Type XXIII |
| Field Post Number : | 50 698 |
| Shipyard: | Germania shipyard , Kiel |
| Construction contract: | July 7, 1944 |
| Build number: | 949 |
| Keel laying: | December 5, 1944 |
| Launch: | January 25, 1945 |
| Commissioning: | February 20, 1945 |
| Commanders: |
Joachim Leder |
| Flotilla: |
20th February to 5th May |
| Calls: | no |
| Sinkings: |
no |
| Whereabouts: | self- sunk on May 5, 1945 in the Geltinger Bay ( rainbow order ) |
U 4707 was a submarine of type XXIII , which on behalf of the German Navy in 1945 at the Germania shipyard in Kiel built. The boat wassunk by its own crewshortly before the end of the war .
construction
The Germania shipyard in Kiel was commissioned by the Reichsmarine with the construction of submarines as early as the early 1930s , which were assembled in secrecy in breach of the agreements of the Versailles Treaty . From the beginning of the war, the Kiel shipyard of Friedrich Krupp AG was commissioned with custom-made products in addition to the construction of the most built Type VII . The first new developments based on the Walter drive , which was developed by Hellmuth Walter at the Germania shipyard, were also manufactured here.
In 1945 the shipyard completed a total of 11 "Walter boats" of the type XXIII . Such a submarine was 34.7 m long, 3 m wide and had a crew of 14 to 18 men. Due to their small size, the Type XXIII boats only carried two torpedoes with them, and they had no artillery armament. Such submarines were intended for temporary use in the immediate vicinity of the coast and were therefore also referred to as "coastal submarines".
Commitment and history
On February 20, 1945, U 4707 was assigned to the 5th U-Flotilla , a training flotilla that was stationed in Kiel . U 4707 had the symbol of the commander's year of naval officers as a coat of arms on the tower : a shark under a gallows. Commander Oberleutnant zur See Joachim Leder undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea until the end of April to test the boat and to train the crew.
End of the boat
U 4707 was self- scuttled by the crew on May 5th in the Geltinger Bay near Flensburg . Commander Leder followed the so-called rainbow order , which ordered the self-sinking and forbade the submarines to be handed over to Allied forces. However, this order had already been withdrawn on May 4th in preparation for the partial surrender of the North German Wehrmacht troops.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: Submarine construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , page 193 - page 209
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 4: The German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1999, ISBN 978-3-8132-0514-5 , page 358