U 558

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U 558
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Type : VII C
Field Post Number : 36 167
Shipyard: Blohm & Voss , Hamburg
Construction contract: September 25, 1939
Build number: 534
Keel laying: January 6, 1940
Launch: December 23, 1940
Commissioning: February 20, 1941
Commanders:

Lieutenant Günther Krech

Flotilla:
  • February - May 1941
    1st U-Flotilla training boat
  • May 1941 - July 1943
    1st U-Flotilla front boat
Calls: 10 patrols
Sinkings:

18 ships

Whereabouts: self- sunk on July 20, 1943 near Cape Ortegal

U 558 was a German type VII C submarine that was used during the Second World War as part of the submarine war .

Technical specifications

Construction contracts were only given to the Hamburg shipyard Blohm & Voss after the war began. The first order to this shipyard comprised a total of eight boats in addition to the U 558 , all of the type VII C. A submarine of this type was 67 m long and had a displacement of 865 m³ under water. It was propelled over water by two diesel engines that reached a speed of 17 knots . Two electric motors ensured a speed of 7 knots under water. The armament of this submarine class - also called "Atlantic boat" - consisted of an 8.8 cm cannon and a 2 cm flak on deck, as well as four bow torpedo tubes and a stern torpedo tube until 1944 .

commander

The first and only commanding officer was Günther Krech from February 20, 1941 to July 20, 1943 .

Commitment and history

Commander Krech put U 558 into service on February 20, 1941 and initially undertook a few training trips in the Baltic Sea from Kiel . In May of the same year the boat was ready for the front and drove out of Kiel for the first patrol. After a patrol in the North Atlantic, U 558 finally entered Brest , the base of the 1st U-Flotilla . Commander Krech sank a total of 18 ships with U 558 on the following nine patrols, most of them in convoy battles.

Convoy battles 1941

At the end of August 1941, Commander Paulshen, who was looking for escapes between Rockall and the North Canal with U 557 , discovered convoy OS 4, which was on its way to Sierra Leone . In response to Paulshen's report, eight submarines were ordered to attack this convoy in this sea area, including U 558 , which was on its third patrol in the central Atlantic at the time. The submarines started their attack on the morning of August 27 in unfavorable - because stormy - weather conditions. U 558 and U 557 sank in the course of the day.

  • on August 28, 1941 British freighter Otaio with 10,289 GRT sunk ( location )

On October 11, U 558 ran out of Brest on its fourth patrol. Four days later, Commander Krech discovered the Canadian freighter Vancouver Island , a formerly German ship, and sank it.

  • on September 15, 1941 Canadian freighter Vancouver Island with 9500 GRT sunk ( location )

In mid-October, U 553 tracked down a convoy that was covered by a destroyer and seven corvettes. Commander Thurmann released direction finding signals that brought other boats - including U 558 - that attacked the SC 48 on October 16. Commander Krech reported the sinking of three ships and the damage of another, but this was not confirmed.

  • on October 17, 1941 British tanker WC Teagle with 9552 GRT sunk ( Lage )
  • on October 17, 1941 Norwegian tanker Enriken with 6595 GRT sunk ( Lage )
  • on October 17, 1941, the Norwegian steamer Rym with 1369 GRT sunk

At the end of October U 558 returned to Brest. The commander of the submarines, Karl Dönitz, attested the company a "great success" .

Attempted Gibraltar Breakthrough

HMS Stork
HMS Samphire

Operation Crusader began in November in the North African theater of war . A massed German submarine operation in the Mediterranean was subsequently intended to attack the supplies of the British troops. To this end, several German submarines were ordered to pass through the Strait of Gibraltar in November 1941, which was well protected by British ships and aircraft. U 558 left Brest on November 24th and reached the Strait of Gibraltar on December 2nd. The boat was spotted and attacked by radar from British planes. This attack was supported by two warships summoned, the HMS Stork (right) and the HMS Sampshire (left), whose depth charges damaged the U 558 so badly that Commander Krech decided to abandon the attempt to break through.

Novel defense measures

In mid-February 1942, Commander Piening discovered the convoy ONS 67 with U 155 , a total of 35 merchant ships that were protected by a Canadian corvette and four American destroyers. The British tanker Empire Celt drove in this convoy, which was equipped for testing purposes with a new type of protection against torpedo attacks: a defense network that reduced the ship's speed to nine knots, but had already proven its effectiveness in tests. The voyage of the Empire Celt was the first use of these torpedo nets. According to the principles of pack tactics , the sentient U 155 would have had to wait for more U-boats to arrive. Commander Piening, however, decided to attack after he had been discovered by the Toward, which was on board as a “rescue ship”, using HF / DF bearings . U 558 reached the convoy on February 24 and Commander Krech decided to attack immediately.

  • British tanker Inverarder with 5578 GRT sunk ( location )
  • Norwegian tanker Eidanger with 9432 GRT sunk ( location )

Commander Krech had observed the use of the anti-torpedo nets in the course of this convoy battle and, after U 558 had returned to Brest on March 11th, reported to BdU Karl Dönitz about this new type of defense measure.

Use at company bang

In April 1942 the BdU put together a group of submarines that were intended for use in US waters ( company Paukenschlag ). It comprised a total of 13 Type IX and 16 Type VII boats, including U 558 . The XIV boat , a so-called "dairy cow", was provided for the supply and had already reached its position in the North Atlantic in March. U 558 left Brest on April 12th and reached its operational area around mid-May, where Commander Krech sank several ships.

  • 12 May British auxiliary submarine hunters Bedfordshire sunk with 913 t ( location )
  • May 18th Dutch steamer Fauna with 1254 GRT sunk ( Lage )
  • May 25 American steamer Beatrice with 3450 GRT sunk ( location )
  • May 27 American Army transport ship Jack with 2622 GRT sunk ( location )
  • June 2nd Dutch steamer Triton with 2078 GRT sunk ( Lage )

Convoy hunt in the Caribbean

In July 1942, U 558 was ordered to the Caribbean , where Commander Krech was supposed to ambush convoys in the sea area near the Windward Passage . On the day on which the U 558 had reached its place of operation, Commander Krech sank a British tanker, which belonged to a convoy that ran from Trinidad to Key West, but had hurried ahead of it.

  • August 25th British steamer Amakura with 1967 GRT sunk ( location ).

Recent successes

The convoy UC 1, which was en route to Curacao with 32 ships from Great Britain, was discovered by U 522 at the end of February 1943 . Commander Schneider reported to the submarine command and finally decided to attack in the early morning hours of February 23, without waiting for more boats to arrive. Among other things, U 558 arrived at the scene around noon . Commander Krech sank an already damaged British ship that was only moving with ballast and also reported that he had attacked three destroyers without success.

  • February 24th British tanker Empire Norseman with 9811 GRT sunk ( Lage )

Although the German propaganda finally reported eight tankers and one destroyer as sunk, only three tankers were actually sunk. On the Allied side, the battle for convoy UC 1 was rated as a success, especially since the four destroyers of the US escort had proven themselves according to British estimates.

Sinking of U 558

During the return journey to the base in Brest, U 558 was attacked several times by aircraft, but was able to repel the attacks with flak fire. Eventually a submarine hunt group consisting of three destroyers, supported by aerial reconnaissance, discovered the boat in the Bay of Biscay. On July 20, an unidentified aircraft attacked the U 558 . Although Commander Krech had decided to counter this attack with flak, the diving process was initiated when a member of the tower guard called out. The depth charges of the opposing aircraft damaged the boat, so that chlorine gas escaped from the batteries of the electric machine as a result of water ingress. The commander ordered U 558 to be vacated, the crew got out and the chief engineer initiated the self-sinking ( situation ). After another depth charge and as a result of machine gun fire, part of the crew was lost, other crew members died in the following days, until finally the remaining survivors - in addition to the commander, four men in a rubber inflatable boat - were able to attract attention by firing an improvised signal pistol . They were picked up by a Canadian destroyer and became a prisoner of war.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. 2001, p. 237.
  2. ↑ The construction contract was issued on September 25, 1939 and included U 551 to U 558 .
  3. ↑ The Vancouver Island was a former German ship called the Weser , which was intended as a supply ship for the German auxiliary cruiser Orion , but was then picked up in September 1940 by the HCMS Prince Robert .
  4. ↑ The abbreviation SC stands for "slow convoi".
  5. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 5: The knight's cross bearers of the submarine weapon from September 1939 to May 1945. 2003, p. 262.
  6. ↑ The abbreviation ON stands for "Outbound North", a convoy that drove westward from Great Britain, the appendix "S" stands for "slow".
  7. ↑ The Empire Celt was sunk on February 24th by U 158 whose torpedo had torn apart the "Admiralty Net Defense".
  8. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 5: The knight's cross bearers of the submarine weapon from September 1939 to May 1945. 2003, p. 262.
  9. ↑ The Empire Norseman had previously been damaged by U 202 .
  10. ↑ Clay Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. 1998, p. 252.
  11. ↑ July 15th and 17th.
  12. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. 1999, p. 118.
  13. ^ A report by the commanding officer takes after Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: Der U-Boot-Krieg 1939–1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1999, chlorine gas poisoning as the cause.

literature

  • Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
  • 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 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine 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 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 5: The knight's cross bearers of the submarine weapon from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg et al. 2003, ISBN 3-8132-0515-0 .