U 569
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U 569 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | M 42 293 |
| Shipyard: | Blohm & Voss , Hamburg |
| Construction contract: | October 24, 1939 |
| Build number: | 545 |
| Keel laying: | May 21, 1940 |
| Launch: | March 20, 1941 |
| Commissioning: | May 8, 1941 |
| Commanders: | |
| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | 9 activities |
| Sinkings: |
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| Whereabouts: | Sunk on May 22, 1943 in the North Atlantic east of Newfoundland itself (21 dead, 25 prisoners of war). |
U 569 was a German submarine of class VII C , which in the Second World War by the Navy was used. The submarine wasonlyable tosink one ship and damage oneon its nine patrols , killing five people altogether, and was therefore considered particularly unsuccessful. On May 22, 1943, the submarine wasbadly damaged by US aircraftin the North Atlantic and thensunkby itself . 21 men died and 25 were taken prisoner by Canada and later by the United States.
history
U 569 was commissioned from Blohm & Voss on October 24, 1939 . The keel was laid under the designation "Neubau 545" on May 21, 1940, the launch took place on March 20, 1941 and the commissioning under Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Peter Hinsch took place on May 8, 1941.
The boat was initially subordinate to the 3rd submarine flotilla stationed in Kiel for training its crew , until it was subordinated to the same flotilla as a front boat in the occupied French La Pallice in August 1941 . The tower emblem of the boat was the word “Let's go” with a compass rose between the words. The crew wore a black umbrella as a hat badge. Since the boat was considered the "oldest" of the 3rd U-Flotilla, U 569 was called "The Old Hand" at the base in La Pallice.
Between August 11, 1941 and May 22, 1943, the boat carried out new operations - seven under Lieutenant Hinsch, two under Lieutenant Johannsen, although only one ship (the British merchant ship Hengist ) with 984 GRT was sunk and three people died and 29 survived, and one ship (the British merchant ship Pontypridd ) of 4458 GRT was damaged, which was sunk shortly after by a torpedo from U 94 , killing two people and 45 rescuing from HMCS Chambly (K 116) while the captain was taken on board of U 569 as a prisoner of war .
Emergency trips
On July 5, 1941 U 569 , U 568 under Kptlt Preuss and U 206 under Oblt Opitz ran from Kiel and moved to Horten , where all boats came to the Agru-Front Süd. First, the three boats laid to Trondheim , where in the 25 U-Flottille the torpedo shooting was practiced. From July 26th to August 11th, U 569 was in the shipyard, where it was finally equipped for its first patrol.
U 569 left for the North Atlantic on August 11th. The areas southwest of Iceland and Ireland were intended as areas of operation . On this 41-day voyage, the boat covered about 6,341 nm , but the venture had to be stopped prematurely due to severe water bomb damage . The boat entered St. Nazaire on September 21, 1941 .
On October 12, 1941, U 569 left Saint-Nazaire for a 30-day long operation in the North Atlantic and especially east of Newfoundland . Again there was no sinking or damage and the boat returns to Saint-Nazaire on November 12th.
The boat set out on a new patrol on December 10, 1941. The areas of operation were the North Atlantic and the area around Gibraltar , where U 569 was supposed to break through the Strait of Gibraltar at night . However, this attempt had to be stopped shortly before Gibraltar because the boat had suffered considerable damage during the attack by a British Swordfish torpedo bomber by depth charges. The boat then went to the shipyard for repair by the end of February 1942.
The fourth venture began on February 26, 1942 and lasted 35 days. The boat was to be patrolling the North Atlantic southwest of Iceland. On March 8, the boat sank the British steam freighter Hengist (984 GRT) by two torpedoes, whereby three British seamen were killed. The Hengist survivors were later rescued by the French fishing steamer Groenland and taken to Loch Ewe .
On May 4, 1942 U 569 left La Pallice for the next operation in the North Atlantic east of the Newfoundland Bank . U 569 arranged to meet U 116 under Corvette Captain Werner von Schmidt on May 27th, who supplied U 569 with 36 m³ of fuel and on May 29 with provisions for 14 days. The boat hit the British freighter Pontypriydd (4,458 GRT) on June 11, but could only damage it.
The boat's sixth operation began on August 4, 1942, and went again to the area east of Newfoundland. The boat met the “Milchkuh” boat U 462 on September 1 , from which it received 57.2 m³ of fuel, 1.3 m³ of motor oil and provisions for 14 days. On October 1st it received another 15 m³ of fuel from U 380 . The only time an enemy ship was found there was a torpedo failure, so that no sinkings were achieved on this voyage either.
The boat left La Pallice on November 25, 1942 for a 32-day mission west of Ireland and south of Iceland , where it operated in the submarine groups "Daredevil" and "impetuous". Again, no success was achieved.
On February 7, 1943, U 569 left La Pallice on its eighth venture. It operated for 33 days north of the Azores and then south-west of Ireland, but was again unable to achieve any sinking, although three steamers were torpedoed. The boat met on February 28 with the “Milchkuh” boat U 461 , from which it received 18 m³ of fuel and a Metox device .
U 569 cast off for the last time from La Pallice on April 19, 1943 at 9:15 p.m. and ran out on its last patrol. It operated in the central North Atlantic and met on May 16 and 17 with U 459 , from whom it received 70 m³ of fuel, 4,000 liters of engine oil and 1,900 kg of provisions. On this journey, too, no enemy units could be sunk or damaged.
Sinking
On May 22, 1943, U 569 was discovered on the water surface by the Avenger bombers T 6 and T 7 of the US escort carrier USS Bogue and attacked with eight depth charges. The boat first submerged, but the damage caused water ingress and it had to surface again. Hans Johannsen had a handkerchief hoisted as a white flag, but it was too small. The planes attacked from both sides, causing the men on deck to jump into the water, and many were lost to the high waves. It wasn't until a sheet was hoisted that the planes stopped firing. The now heavily damaged submarine was at the approach of Canadian destroyer St. Laurent from the own crew scuttled . 21 men from U 569 died, but 25 survived, including the commander Hans Johannsen. They were taken on board by the St. Laurent as prisoners of war . A Canadian officer jumped into the water, secured with a line, and saved two submariners who were drowning and could no longer climb up themselves. The prisoners were first brought ashore in St. John's ( Newfoundland ). One man was so badly wounded that he was treated in a Canadian hospital while the remaining 24 were taken to the United States for questioning.
In February 1944, the commander Hans Johannsen of U 569 and four other former submarine commanders took part in an escape from the Camp Papago Park prison camp near Phoenix ( Arizona ) and escaped with two comrades initially across the Mexican border, but was caught by the Mexicans but delivered back to the US Army and brought back to Papago Park.
The wreck is located at 50 ° 40 'N, 35 ° 21' W in the former naval grid square BD 1341.
U-boat groups with which U 569 operated before it was sunk
| Surname | time |
|---|---|
| Greenland | August 14, 1941 to August 27, 1941 |
| Margrave | August 27, 1941 to September 16, 1941 |
| Dead | October 20, 1941 to November 1, 1941 |
| Robber barons | November 1, 1941 to November 8, 1941 |
| Siegfried Line | March 2, 1942 to March 12, 1942 |
| York | March 12, 1942 to March 26, 1942 |
| pike | May 8, 1942 to June 18, 1942 |
| Lohs | August 11, 1942 to September 21, 1942 |
| Daredevil | December 1, 1942 to December 11, 1942 |
| Impetuously | December 11, 1942 to December 22, 1942 |
| seal | February 16, 1943 to February 26, 1943 |
| Blackbird 3 | May 3, 1943 to May 6, 1943 |
| Rhine | May 7, 1943 to May 10, 1943 |
| Elbe 1 | May 10, 1943 to May 14, 1943 |
| Moselle | May 19, 1943 to May 22, 1943 |
literature
- 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. 103, 115. 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. 44, 223. ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 .
- 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. 246f. ISBN 978-3-8132-0513-8 .
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 4: The German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2008, p. 63f. ISBN 978-3-8132-0514-5 .
- 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 .
- Clay Blair : The Submarine War - The Hunters 1939–1942 . Heyne Verlag, 1998. pp. 432, 448, 513, 696f., 699. ISBN 3-4531-2345-X .
- Clay Blair: The Submarine War - The Hunted 1942–1945 . Heyne Verlag, 1999. pp. 66, 249, 252, 406. ISBN 3-4531-6059-2 .
- Michael L. Hadley: Submarines versus Canada . ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1990. p. 44. ISBN 3-8132-0333-6 .
Web links
- German U-Boats 1935–1945, U 569 on Ubootarchiv.de
- The Type VIIC boat U-569, Uboat.net
- U-569, Uboatarchive.net: Navy Department Office of the Chief of Naval Operations Washington, Op-16-Z, ONI 250 - G / Serial 12, Report on the Interrogation of Survivors From U-569 Sunk on May 22, 1943, Lt. Kuhn
Individual evidence
- ^ Georg Högel: Emblems, coats of arms, Malings German submarines 1939-1945. 5th edition. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7822-1002-7 , p. 124.
- ↑ This included 2000 cigarettes, 250 cigars, 1 carton of tobacco and 20 bottles of rum
- ↑ According to Herbert Ritschels KTB U 561 - U 599, page 125, the boat damaged the Panamanian steam freighter Cocle with 5,630 GRT on May 12th .