U 487

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U 487
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Type : XIV
Field Post Number : 49 344
Shipyard: German works , Kiel
Construction contract: July 17, 1941
Build number: 312
Keel laying: December 13, 1941
Launch: October 17, 1942
Commissioning: December 21, 1942
Commanders:

December 21, 1942 - July 13, 1943
Oberleutnant zur See dR Helmut Metz

Calls: 2 activities
Sinkings:

none ( shot down a Wildcat on July 13, 1943)

Whereabouts: sunk in the Central Atlantic on July 13, 1943 (31 dead, 31 prisoners of war)

U 487 was a German submarine from Type XIV , which during the Second World War by the German navy was used. Submarines of this type were used to supply smaller submarines in order to extend their sea time, they were therefore referred to as sub-tankers and called "dairy cows" in naval jargon. In its two operations, U 487 could not sink any ships, but according to its task it could supply several submarines. On July 13, 1943, it was sunk in the mid-Atlantic by depth charges and gunfire from carrier aircraft , with 31 crew members dying and 31 being taken prisoners by the United States , one of them severely disabled. One of the attacking aircraft was also destroyed.

Construction and commissioning

U 487 was the first in a new series of supply boats that comprised a total of fourteen U-tankers. In addition to this boat, nine more were completed, but only three of them were used. The contract for the construction of the type XIV boats was awarded on July 17, 1941 to Deutsche Werke in Kiel , which had had experience with submarine construction since 1935 and had built the first boats of the former Reichsmarine . The keel of U 487 took place on December 13, 1941, the launching on October 17, 1942. The commissioning under Oberleutnant zur See of the reserve Helmut Metz (1906-1943) finally took place on December 21, 1942. Like many German submarines of its time, U 487 also had a boat-specific mark that was applied to the tower and worn by the crew on uniform caps and boats . It was a highly stylized representation of a whale with a blowhole protruding from a shower whose jet of water sprinkled the animal's fluke .

Calls

After commissioning on December 21, 1942, U 487 completed its training in the 4th U-Flotilla in Stettin , before it came to Bordeaux as a supply boat from April 1, 1943 on to the 12th U-Flotilla . It remained with this flotilla until it was sunk on July 13, 1943. The boat was a so-called "milk cow" and was used exclusively as a supply boat. It carried out two utilities.

Failures in the Atlantic

The boat left Kiel on March 27, 1943 for its first venture. It was one of four dairy cows who were supposed to support the great offensive of the navy in the Atlantic planned for this summer. To disrupt the convoy routes, a total of 87 submarines had been ordered into the Atlantic and were intended to open an offensive that was to decisively hinder the flow of goods to Great Britain - but remained almost ineffective. U 487 entered Bordeaux on May 12, 1943. The following boats were supplied on this 46-day supply company in the North Atlantic : U 168 , U 260 , U 270 , U 584 , U 630 , U 662 , U 84 , U 257 , U 404 , U 425 , U 571 and U 618 .

"Monsun" submarine group

The boat left Bordeaux on June 15, 1943. The following boats were supplied on this 74-day supply company in the mid-Atlantic south-west of the Azores : U 195 , U 359 , U 382 , U 406 , U 466 , U 591 , U 598 , U 604 and U 662 . On this venture, U 487 was intended to serve as one of the port of call for the long-distance submarines of the Monsun group , which were ordered to the Indian Ocean . The U 462 was originally intended for this task, but had to break off its voyage due to damage it had suffered as a result of fighting. Before one of the monsoon boats reached U 487 , it was sunk.

Whereabouts

The boat was on July 13, 1943 in the mid-Atlantic in naval grid reference DF 9963 at 27 ° 15 ′  N , 34 ° 18 ′  W by an Avenger (flown by RP Williams) and two Wildcat aircraft (CW Brewer and Earl W. Steiger ) of Squadron VC-13 of the American escort carrier USS Core discovered during a surface voyage.

Aircraft launched by the USS Core sank U 487

On July 12, Metz had received the order to advance far southeast into the mid-Atlantic in order to supply U 648 , which was on its way to the American coast, as well as to meet with U 527 , which was returning from this sea area. When the boat was attacked, some of the crew were spending their free time on the upper deck. The two aircraft attacked U 487 at around 6:00 p.m. with depth charges and gunfire. The submarine crew manned the artillery and tried to repel the attackers, Earl Steiger was shot down with his Wildcat and died. Shortly thereafter, six more aircraft arrived, which had taken off from the escort carrier USS Core and intervened in the action. As a result of several successful attacks with on-board weapons and depth charges, the submarine finally sank bow first. Like most of the crew, Commandant Helmut Metz was also killed as a result of the bombardment - he had previously given the order to leave the boat. Three lifeboats were launched, but one of them was sunk by bomb fragments. The survivors swam in the water on and around the inflatable boats for about four hours until a US warship arrived and rescued the survivors

The US Clemson-class destroyer USS Barker initially took 33 men from U 487 on board, but two of them died a few minutes later from their injuries. A total of 31 men - including three officers - of the crew were killed, and 31 men - including four officers - were taken prisoner by the United States . The prisoners were transferred to the USS Tarazed to be taken to the United States. Seventeen of the German prisoners were so badly wounded by machine gun fire, burns and internal injuries from the depth charges that they had to be operated on or otherwise received medical attention on board the USS Tarazed . One of the survivors had an arm amputated on board this ship. After arriving in the United States, the 17 seriously wounded prisoners were taken to hospital and the rest were interrogated in port. Five were taken to an interrogation center.

One of the main reasons for the discovery of the boat is the successful American deciphering of the "Triton" key network used by the submarines , which was used to encrypt radio communications with the BdU . From April 1943 onwards, more than 120 specially developed Desch bombes were manufactured in the US Naval Computing Machine Laboratory , which were directed against the Enigma-M4 used by the Navy .

See also

literature

  • Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Heyne, Munich 1998.
  1. The hunters. 1939-1942. 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X .
  2. The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, pp. 313, 337, 347, 349, 385, 426, 433, 440, 456, 468, 472, 475-477, 479. ISBN 3-453-16059-2 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1996/2003
  1. The German submarine commanders. 1996, p. 160. ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
  2. The construction of submarines in German shipyards. 1997, pp. 97, 190. ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 .
  3. German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 .
  4. German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. 1999, pp. 115f., 119. ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 .
  5. The knight's cross bearers of the submarine weapon from September 1939 to May 1945. 2003, ISBN 3-8132-0515-0 .
  • Erich Gröner : Die Handelsflotten der Welt 1942 and supplement 1944. JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-469-00552-4 (reprint of the 1942–1943 edition).
  • Erich Gröner: Search list for ship names (= The merchant fleets of the world. Supplementary volume). JF Lehmanns Verlag Munich 1976, ISBN 3-469-00553-2 (reprint of the 1943 edition).
  • Barrett Tillman: Wildcat Aces of World War 2. Osprey Publishing, London 1995, ISBN 978-1-85532-486-2 .
  • John F. White: Submarine Tanker. 1941-1945. Underwater supplier for the wolf pack in the Atlantic. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-7822-0790-4 .
  • Erich Gröner, Dieter Jung, Martin Maas: The German warships 1815-1945. Volume 3: Submarines, auxiliary cruisers, mine ships, net layers. Bernhard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-7637-4802-4 .

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Heikendorf (Möltenort), district of Plön, Schleswig-Holstein: U-Boot-Ehrenmal Möltenort, U-487, Type XIV, 12th flotilla, front boat. Online project Fallen Memorials.
  2. ↑ a b List in: Navy Department Office of the Chief of Naval Operations Washington, ONI 250 - G / Serial 20, Report on the Interrogation of Survivors From U-487 Sunk on July 13, 1943. U-487, Uboatarchive.net.
  3. ↑ U 488, U 489, U 490 .
  4. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. 1997, p. 97.
  5. ^ 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. 113.
  6. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. 1997, p. 367.
  7. ↑ Ten boats did not arrive there.
  8. ↑ Clay Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. 1998, p. 337.
  9. ↑ a b c Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 . Page 475–478
  10. ↑ Jennifer Wilcox : Solving the Enigma - History of the Cryptanalytic Bombe . Center for Cryptologic History, NSA, Fort Meade (USA) 2001, p. 52. PDF; 0.6 MB ( memento from January 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ John AN Lee, Colin Burke, Deborah Anderson: The US Bombes, NCR, Joseph Desch, and 600 WAVES - The first Reunion of the US Naval Computing Machine Laboratory . IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 2000. p. 35. PDF; 0.5 MB , accessed May 22, 2018.

See also