U 480

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U 480
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Type : VII C
Field Post Number : M 53621
Shipyard: German works , Kiel
Construction contract: April 10, 1941
Build number: 311
Keel laying: December 8, 1942
Launch: August 14, 1943
Commissioning: October 6, 1943
Commanders:

October 6, 1943 - February 20, 1945
Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Joachim Förster

Calls: 3 patrols
Sinkings:

2 ships (12,846 GRT)
2 warships (1775 t)

Whereabouts: Sunk by a sea ​​mine in the English Channel between January 29 and February 20, 1945

U 480 was a German submarine from the Type VII C , which in the Second World War by the Navy was used. It is considered the first stealth submarine in the world to be used in the front .

history

The order for the boat was awarded to Deutsche Werke in Kiel on April 10, 1941 . The keel was laid on December 8, 1942, the launch on August 14, 1943. The commissioning under Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Joachim Förster took place on October 6, 1943.

One of the special technical features of the U 480 was the coating of the outer skin with rubber mats (code name Alberich, after the figure of the same name with a camouflage cap from the song of the Nibelungs ). The coating of glued-on synthetic rubber in plate form made up of 2 layers, each 2–2.5 mm thick, was used to suppress as much as possible of own underwater echoes when sounding by sonar systems of enemy ships. Other technical features were the snorkel , which allowed the boat to run submerged with diesel engines, as well as new acoustic T-5 torpedoes of the wren type .

Calls

Close-up of the camouflage rubber mats

The crew of U 480 carried out training trips with the 5th U-Flotilla from October 6, 1943 to May 31, 1944 .

The first patrol from Arendal from June 7th to July 7th 1944 with the 9th U-Flotilla was unsuccessful.

The second patrol took place from Brest from August 3 to October 4, 1944, also with the 9th Flotilla. On August 21, 1944, U 480 sank the Canadian corvette HMCS Alberni ( Lage ) with 925 ts, one day later the British mine sweeper HMS Loyalty ( Lage ) with 850 ts. One day later the British ship Fort Yale ( Lage ) with 7134 GRT followed from convoy ETC 72. On August 25, 1944, the boat sank the British ship Orminster with 5,712 GRT. Repeated attempts were made to locate the submarine with sonar, but this never succeeded. The commander was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his successes .

The third and last patrol from Trondheim from January 6 to February 20, 1945 with the 11th Flotilla was without further success.

Attacks on the boat

On June 13, 1944 experienced U 480 an attack by an Allied flying boat type Catalina , however, the enemy machine could shoot.

Whereabouts

Until the wreck was found in 1998, research assumed that U 480 was sunk on February 24, 1945 by the British frigates HMS Duckworth and HMS Rowley southwest of Land's End .

Between January 29 and February 20, 1945 U 480 sank in the English Channel , 13 nautical miles southwest of the Isle of Wight , in the secret Brazier D2 minefield . Commander Förster had imagined he was on the same Allied supply route to Cherbourg on which he had been able to sink the four ships of the Royal Navy the year before , and lay in wait with U 480 at a marker buoy . In the meantime, however, the Allies had directed the route via Portsmouth , but left the buoys in place and laid sea ​​mines there . One of these mines tore up the stern of U 480 . The wreck was discovered by accident in 1998.

All 48 men on board were killed. Only the helmsman Horst Rösner survived. He had learned from one of his comrades about a tour of the submarine, in which a Red Cross nurse and a marine assistant had also taken part. Since women on board mean misfortune in seafaring superstition, he decided to stay in Norway for a course, which saved his life. Horst Rösner died on July 7, 2009.

Web links

  • U 480 at uboat.net (engl.)
  • U480 , German submarines 1935–1945
  • Veoh , Video "From Hunter to Hunted - The World's First Stealth Submarine" (51:41) Book: Peter Bardehle, Jeremy Evans. Director: John Ruthven. On behalf of ZDF. 2008.

Individual evidence

  1. German U-Boat Museum: U-480 and the secrets of the “stealth” U-boats of the Kriegsmarine .
  2. ^ VS Tarrant: Course West The German U-Boat Offensives 1914-1945. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart, 1996, ISBN 3-613-01542-0 , p. 191