U 566

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U 566
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U-bootVIIc0001.jpg
Graphic of a class VII C submarine
Type : VII C
Field Post Number : 542 015
Shipyard: Blohm + Voss in Hamburg
Construction contract: October 24, 1939
Build number: 542
Keel laying: March 30, 1940
Launch: February 20, 1941
Commissioning: April 17, 1941
Commanders:
  • Captain Dietrich Borchert
  • OLt zS Gerhard Remus
  • KptLt Hans Hornkohl
Flotilla:
  • April - August 1941
    1st U-Flotilla , training boat
  • until October 1943
    1st U-Flotilla, front boat
Calls: 12 patrols
Sinkings:
  • 6 ships (38,092 GRT)
  • 1 warship (2,265 t)
Whereabouts: Damaged by an aircraft attack in October 1943, then self-sunk (49 survivors, no dead)

U 566 was a German type VII C submarine . This class of submarines was also called "Atlantic boat". It was used by the Navy during the submarine war in the North Sea and the Atlantic and sank 7 ships, including one warship, during its 12 patrols. After severe damage from an air raid off the Spanish coast near Vigo , the submarine was self -sunk on October 24, 1943 , with all crew members being rescued by a Spanish fishing cutter and later doing their military service on U 1007 .

Technical specifications

The Hamburg shipyard Blohm & Voss was only commissioned to build submarines after the war began. U 566 was part of the third construction contract that this shipyard received in autumn 1939. A Type VII C submarine had a length of 67 m and a displacement of 865 m³ under water. It was propelled over water by two diesel engines that ensured a speed of 17 knots . Two electric motors produced a speed of 7.6 knots under water. The armament 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 . At the front of the tower , U 566 initially had the coat of arms of its godfather town Lindau , which was later removed for reasons of secrecy. A polar bear was painted on each side after U 566 was the first German submarine to be used in the North Sea. Under Commandant Remus, on the orders of Karl Dönitz, a she- wolf suckling the mythical twins Romulus and Remus became the emblem of the boat - like many of the submarine emblems of that time an allusion to the name of the commander.

Commitment and history

U 566 completed its first ventures, which took it to the North Sea and the Kola Peninsula , from Kirkenes and Drontheim . In the winter of 1941 the boat moved first to Lorient , then to Brest . From here U 566 ran out to six other operations, during which eight ships were sunk.

  • 15th February 1942 Greek steamer Meropi with 4181 GRT sunk ( Lage )
  • 1st June 1942 British steamer Westmooreland with 8967 GRT sunk ( Lage )

Blucher

In mid-August 1942, Commander Feller of U 653 reported a convoy that was on its way from Sierra Leone to Great Britain. In accordance with the stipulations of the pack tactics , U 653 followed this convoy - SL 118 - and tried to bring other submarines to the convoy by setting directional signals. U 566 was very close by, and as soon as it caught up with SL 118, Commander Remus, who had decided against the principles of pack tactics to launch an underwater attack because of daylight, torpedoed a Norwegian freighter.

  • 17th August 1942 Norwegian freighter Triton with 6607 GRT sunk ( Lage )

The German submarines of the "Blücher" group followed this convoy for three days until the Royal Air Force's aerial surveillance made further pursuit impossible. On August 25, the U 214 patrolling further south reported another convoy, which the submarine command correctly identified as SL 119. In the meantime , U566 had taken over fuel from U 653 , whose operation had been broken off due to damage and was therefore able to participate in the attack on the newly discovered convoy. Commander Remus launched another underwater attack during the day and sank two ships.

  • 28 August 1942 Dutch steamer Zuiderkerk with 8424 GRT and British steamer City of Cardiff with 5661 GRT sunk ( location )

One of the escort ships from SL 119 rammed U 566 and damaged the boat so badly that Commander Remus had to break off the operation and return to France. Due to the serious damage, U 566 remained in the shipyard until October.

Severely damaged

In the autumn of 1942 the newly overhauled U 566 made its last venture under the command of Gerhard Remus. The boat patrolled Ireland and Gibraltar and sank a ship.

  • November 7, 1942 British steamer Glenlea with 4252 GRT sunk ( Lage )

On November 17, the attack by a Lockheed Hudson tore a leak in one of the oil tanks that could not be sealed, so that U 566 left a trail of oil and Commander Remus had to break off the operation. On January 25, 1943, he handed over command to Oberleutnant zur See Hans Hornkohl and became head of shooting training for the 24th U-Flotilla . Commander Hornkohl set out on his first patrol with this boat on February 6, but was unable to achieve any success. The second operation under the new commander, for which the boat set sail from Brest in April 1942, lasted only a few days, as U 566 was discovered by an airplane in the Bay of Biscay and so badly damaged with depth charges that it was escorted by a few Ju 88 had to be brought back to the base. The boat could not sail again until June. This time the coast of North America was planned as the operational area.

Mines off America

USS Plymouth

In the summer of 1943, U 566 completed a mining operation off the east coast of the USA, in which the waters off Norfolk , Hampton Roads and the access to Chesapeake Bay were mined together with U 230 . At the beginning of August, Commander Hornkohl torpedoed a ship that had an eventful history. It was built in 1931 as a luxury yacht by the Friedrich-Krupp-Germania shipyard for the Vanderbilt family and transferred to the Navy in 1941. The yacht Alva became a gunboat, which in turn fell victim to a German submarine two years later, with 92 men of the 183-strong crew being rescued.

  • 5 August 1943 American torpedo boat USS Plymouth with 2265 t sunk ( location )

Sinking

A Vickers Wellington damaged U 566 on October 24, 1943 southwest of Leixões . Commandant Hans Hornkohl steered his boat into shallow water and let it sink ( location ). He and his entire crew, 49 men with him, were rescued by the Spanish fishing cutter Fina and interned in Vigo for a few days before being sent back to Brest by train on October 31, 1943.

Later missions of the former crew of U 566

The entire crew later took over the newly built U 1007 in Hamburg , with which they went on an unsuccessful patrol under Hornkohl's command from June 1944. Due to an Allied air raid in the last days of the war in which two crew members were killed, U 1007 , now under the command of Ernst von Witzendorff , ran aground on the banks of the Trave on May 2, 1945 and was abandoned by the 47 survivors.

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. 1997, p. 265.
  2. ^ 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. 123.
  3. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 , p. 191.
  4. ↑ Lt. Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. 1998, northwest of Cape Ortegal
  5. ^ Geoffrey Patrick Jones: Autumn of the U-Boats. W. Kimber, 1984, pp. 173, 206.
  6. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 4: The German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2008, pp. 160, 347, 348. ISBN 3-8132-0514-5 .

Literature and Sources

  • Clay Blair : The Submarine War - The Hunters 1939–1942 . Heyne Verlag, Munich 1998. pp. 670, 779f. ISBN 3-4531-2345-8 .
  • Clay Blair: The Submarine War - The Hunted 1942–1945 . Heyne Verlag, Munich 1999. pp. 156, 340, 462, 537. ISBN 3-4531-6059-0 .
  • Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes Verlag, Graefelfing before Munich 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. Preface by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rohwer, Member of the Presidium of the International Commission on Military History. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1996, pp. 34, 107, 191. ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 2: Submarine construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1997, pp. 43, 223. ISBN 3-8132-0512-1 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 3: The German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2008, p. 244f. ISBN 3-8132-0513-8 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 4: The German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2008, p. 160. ISBN 3-8132-0514-5 .
  • 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 .

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