U 562

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U 562
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Type : Type VII C
Field Post Number : 40 608
Shipyard: Blohm & Voss , Hamburg
Construction contract: October 16, 1939
Build number: 538
Keel laying: June 10, 1940
Launch: January 24, 1941
Commissioning: March 20, 1941
Commanders:
Flotilla:
Calls: 9 patrols
Sinkings:

6 ships

Whereabouts: northeast of the February 19, 1943 Benghazi dropped

U 562 was a German submarine of the type VII C , also called "Atlantic boat ". It was used by the Kriegsmarine during the submarine war in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean .

history

The Strathallan before being used as a troop transport

Under Commander Collmann, U 562 initially completed two patrols in the North Atlantic. On his second patrol in this boat, Commander Hamm made a breakthrough in Gibraltar at the end of November 1941. From this point on, U 562 was sailing in the Mediterranean.

Convoy battle

In mid-December 1942, U 562 attacked the convoy KMF 5 and damaged a British passenger ship after shooting down a torpedo compartment, which sank the following day. There were over 5,000 people on board, most of them from the British and American armed forces. 16 people were killed in this attack

  • 21/22. December 1942 British passenger ship Strathallan with 23,772 GRT sunk ( location )

Sinking

The Hursley sank U 562

A British Vickers Wellington discovered operating in periscope depth on a convoy U 562 on February 19 and attacked the boat unsuccessfully with depth charges . The reports from the bomber brought two destroyers , the Hursley and the Isis . At the point at which the submarine had been sighted, the bomber had dropped two floating smoke bombs, which made the search easier for the destroyers. Although the Isis was the first to arrive in the corresponding area, the Hursley only made sonar contact with the German submarine an hour after reaching the marked point. In the course of the hunt for U 562 , the two destroyers fired a total of 59 Wabos. In addition to repeated sonar contact, there was also visual contact with the German submarine when U 562 briefly appeared. From the destroyers it could be clearly seen that the tower of the submarine was dented. When U 562 went under water again, it plunged directly into a Wabo salvo. From then on there was no longer any contact with the submarine. The British Admiralty attributed the sinking of the German submarine to the two destroyers and the Wellington.

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 .

Footnotes

  1. C. Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. 1998, p. 270.