U 502

U 502 ( previous / next - all submarines )
Type :	IX C
Field Post Number :	M 40307
Shipyard:	German shipyard , Hamburg
Construction contract:	September 25, 1939
Build number:	292
Keel laying:	April 2, 1940
Launch:	February 18, 1941
Commissioning:	May 31, 1941
Commanders:	May 31, 1941 - July 5, 1942 Lieutenant Jürgen von Rosenstiel
Calls:	4 activities
Sinkings:	14 ships (78,843 GRT)
Whereabouts:	sunk in the Atlantic on July 5, 1942

U 502 was a German type IX C submarinethat was used by the Navy during World War II .

history

Construction and commissioning

The construction contract was given to the Deutsche Werft in Hamburg on September 25, 1939 . At the beginning of the Second World War, this shipyard had received the order to manufacture replicas of Type IX boats - originally manufactured by Deschimag AG Weser - in large series. By the end of the war, the Deutsche Werft produced 24 Type IX C submarines for the Navy. The keel with hull number 292 was laid on April 2, 1940, the launch on February 18, 1941 and commissioning on May 31, 1941.

Time as a training boat

The boat was assigned to the 2nd U-Flotilla and undertook training trips until September 1, 1941. It was then used as a front boat in the same flotilla until it was sunk . During the entire service life of the boat, Lieutenant Captain Jürgen von Rosenstiel was in command.

commander

Jürgen von Rosenstiel was born in Kiel on November 23, 1912 and joined the Reichsmarine in 1933 . After completing his training in submarines, he served as an officer on watch under the command of Heinrich Liebe on U 38 from summer 1940 to spring 1941 . In March 1941 he was in command of the school boat U 143 for ten days . In April Jürgen von Rosenstiel was promoted to lieutenant captain. On May 31 of the same year he put U 502 into service as commander .

Calls

On four operations, commander Jürgen von Rosenstiel sank 14 ships with 78,843 GRT with U 502 and damaged two more.

First venture

U 502 left Kiel on September 29, 1941 with the target area of ​​the central North Atlantic. The boat was assigned to the newly formed submarine group Mordbrenner . On October 7 at 4:17 p.m., the British ship Svend Foyn was damaged south of Iceland , but was able to escape with the help of the corvette HMS Sunflower . The Svend Foyn was a straggler of Convoy HX 152 , which was en route from New York to Liverpool . Without further enemy contact, U 502 entered Lorient on November 9, 1941 .

Second venture

U 502 ran out of Lorient together with U 125 as part of the Paukenschlag company on December 18, 1941, but had to break off the journey early due to an oil leak and returned to Lorient on December 22.

Third company

On January 19, 1942, U 502 left Lorient again with the target area West Atlantic, Caribbean and Maracaibo , where Commander von Rosenstiel, together with the boats of the Neuland submarine group, was supposed to attack primarily the petroleum traffic. On the morning of February 16 in the Gulf of Venezuela , the boat torpedoed and destroyed a Venezuelan and two British tankers , the Monagas , the San Nicholas and the Tia Juana . On the night of February 22, U 502 sank the American tanker JN Pew near Aruba and the Panamanian tanker Thalia on February 23 . In addition, the American tanker Sun was badly damaged on the afternoon of February 23 . The crew of the American ship first got into the boats, but later returned on board and managed to bring the tanker to Aruba. U 502 returned to Lorient on March 16 after 57 days at sea.

Fourth venture

U 502 left Lorient on April 22, 1942 with the Caribbean as its destination. On May 11th, the unaccompanied British freighter Cape of Good Hope was sunk by torpedoes and artillery fire. In the early afternoon of May 24, the unaccompanied Brazilian freighter Gonçalves Dias was hit by two torpedoes from U 502 and sank 100 miles from Santo Domingo ; Rosenstiel attacked the ship because of the conspicuous 120 mm gun and was only able to identify it as a Brazilian and therefore neutral freighter afterwards. On the night of May 28, the unaccompanied and unarmed American ship Alcoa Pilgrim was sunk 150 miles south of the Mona Passage . The unaccompanied American tanker MF Elliott , 6,900 GRT, was sunk in the evening hours of June 3rd. On June 9, U 502 attacked convoy TO-5 ; the Belgian freighter Bruxelles was sunk. The first of the torpedoes fired on the American tanker Franklin K. Lane on the same day missed its target, but after changing the position of the ship in the convoy, a second torpedo fired by U 502 hit the starboard side of the tanker. This damaged the ship so badly that it had to be sunk with 20 shells 15 hours after the attack by the British destroyer HMS Churchill .

At 01:00 on June 15, U 502 sank the unaccompanied American freighter Scottsburg with two torpedoes. At 4:10 a.m., 100 miles northwest of Trinidad , the Panamanian unaccompanied freighter Cold Harbor was sunk by two torpedoes. The Cold Harbor had tanks, planes and ammunition loaded. The first torpedo hit the starboard side and detonated some of the ammunition. After about 30 minutes the ship was hit by a second torpedo on the port side and sank within 15 minutes. Finally, at 8:15 p.m., 30 miles west of Grenada , U 502 met the unaccompanied ship Western Hardaway . Of three torpedoes shot down, one hit the starboard side of the American steamer. The Western Hardaway returned fire with its 4-inch cannon, four 20-mm cannons, and two .30-caliber machine guns, but was then hit by a fourth torpedo and sank an hour later.

Whereabouts

The boat was located on the morning of July 5, 1942 at around 04:45 a.m. by a Wellington H of the British RAF Squadron 172 with radar . When the aircraft approached to about one and a half kilometers, an emerged German submarine was spotted in the headlights. U 502 dived immediately, but was attacked with four depth charges. In addition, the aircraft's rear gunner opened fire on the boat. The flight crew later reported that the water was foaming, presumably from a detonation. The aircraft remained on site for another 30 minutes, but the submarine was no longer seen. It sank in the Bay of Biscay in marine grid square BF 5742 ( location ). The entire 52-man crew was killed.

The attack on U 502 is considered to be the first successful attack by an aircraft equipped with Leigh light searchlights. The pilot Wiley .B. Howell, an American officer who served in the RAF, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for sinking U 502 .

statistics

date	Surname	nationality	Tonnage (GRT)	success
October 7, 1941	Svend Foyn	United Kingdom	14,795	damaged
February 16, 1942	Monagas	Venezuela	2,650	sunk
February 16, 1942	San Nicholas	United Kingdom	2,391	sunk
February 16, 1942	Tia Juana	United Kingdom	2,395	sunk
February 22, 1942	JNPew	United States	9,033	sunk ( location )
February 23, 1942	Sun	United States	9.002	damaged
February 23, 1942	Thalia	Panama	8,329	sunk ( location )
May 11, 1942	Cape of Good Hope	United Kingdom	4,963	sunk ( location )
May 24, 1942	Gonçalves slides	Brazil	4,996	sunk ( location )
May 28, 1942	Alcoa Pilgrim	United States	6,759	sunk ( location )
June 3, 1942	MF Elliot	United States	6,940	sunk ( location )
June 9, 1942	Bruxelles	Belgium	5,085	sunk ( location )
June 9, 1942	Franklin K. Lane	United States	6,589	sunk ( location )
June 15, 1942	Scottsberg	United States	8,010	sunk ( location )
June 15, 1942	Cold Harbor	Panama	5.010	sunk ( location )
June 15, 1942	West Hardaway	United States	5,702	sunk ( location )

literature

• Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 1: The Hunters. 1939-1942. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X .
• Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 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 and Son, Hamburg a. a. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. 1997, pp. 229-232.
2. ^ ^{A b c d e} Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939–1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. 1997, p. 494.
3. ↑ Clay Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 1: The Hunters. 1939-1942. 1998, pp. 437-438.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine warfare 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. 2001, p. 212.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Clay Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 1: The Hunters. 1939-1942. 1998, p. 681.

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