U 575
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U 575 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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 Sinking of U 575 |
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| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | M 44 068 |
| Shipyard: | Blohm & Voss , Hamburg |
| Construction contract: | January 8, 1940 |
| Build number: | 057 |
| Keel laying: | August 1, 1940 |
| Launch: | April 30, 1941 |
| Commissioning: | June 19, 1941 |
| Commanders: |
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| Calls: | 10 activities |
| Sinkings: |
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| Whereabouts: | sunk in the Atlantic on March 13, 1944 |
U 575 was a German submarine from the Type VII C , which in World War II by the German navy was used.
During its patrols, the boat sank nine ships (including one warship) and damaged three more with a total of 66,802 GRT. In March 1944 it was hit by several depth charges and sunk, killing 17 crew members and saving 37 men.
badge
From the summer of 1943 , the U 575 wore a Lilliputian as a badge on the tower, based on the “Liliput” bar on Hamburg's Reeperbahn . The crew also wore this as a cap badge made of plastic. The coat of arms of the city of Dornbirn , the godfather city of the boat, was also painted on the tower. As a further sign of the bond with the sponsored city, the team wore red scarves with the city arms of Dornbirn. In addition, U 575 wore the “Bull of Scapa Flow ” as the badge of the 7th submarine flotilla on both sides of the tower.
history
Construction and commissioning
The building contract took place on January 8, 1940 (construction number 75), the keel was laid on August 1, 1940 and the launch on April 30, 1941. The boat was built by the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg. The commissioning under the commandant Kapitänleutnant Günther Heydemann took place on June 19, 1941. a. the mayors and city treasurers of the cities of Hamburg and Dornbirn, the Austrian godfather city of U 575 .
Time as a training boat
From June 19, 1941 to August 31, 1941, the boat was part of the 7th U-Flotilla as a training boat, and from September 1, 1941 to March 13, 1944 as a front boat . The boat was equipped with a snorkel while it was in the shipyard from December 1943 to February 1944 .
Calls
The boat ran out under the commanders Heydemann and - from September 1943 - Wolfgang Boehmer for a total of ten ventures. The area of operation was the North, Central and West Atlantic, the sea area around Cuba and the Greater Antilles, as well as Ireland and Gibraltar.
1. Company
In the North Atlantic September 8 to October 9, 1941. sinking the Dutch freighter Tuva (4652 BRT) on October 2, 1941. The neutral US - destroyer Winslow was out of the escort of convoys fired ON.20 to the crew of Tuva to to recover. Winslow found the badly damaged ship, on a submarine contact she turned and immediately launched a depth charge attack while the Tuva sank. The survivors of the Tuva were picked up by the destroyer HMCS St. Croix after more than an hour . U 575 suffered no damage whatsoever as a result of the depth charge.
Entered the port of Saint-Nazaire on October 9, 1941 .
statistics
Days at Sea: 32
Somewhat above sea level 4,776.70 nm (94.4%)
Etmal u. W. 282.8 nm (5.6%)
largest Etmal above sea level: 292 nm on October 8, 1941
largest Etmal uW: 36.3 nm on September 12, 1941
Submerged: 7,029 minutes; 117.15 hours: 4.88 days (15.3%)
2. Company
From November 9th to December 17th 1941: First approach to Newfoundland , then change of command: Gibraltar in support of Rommel's Africa Corps . On December 1, 1941, U 575 encountered the neutral American tanker Astral at 35 ° 40´N / 24 ° 00´W . He came from Aruba / Venezuela and was on his way to Lisbon with a cargo of 78,200 barrels of gasoline and kerosene. The Astral was followed for a few hours to get into a favorable firing position. But when Heydemann recognized the American nationality mark, he let the Astral continue unmolested.
The boat returned to Saint-Nazaire due to damage. On the way, supplies were replenished in Vigo , Spain.
statistics
Days at Sea: 39
A total of 5,814.0 nm
Somewhat above sea level 5,508.80 nm (94.8%)
Etmal u. W. 305.2 nm (5.2%)
largest Etmal above sea level: 354 nm on November 30, 1941
largest Etmal uW: 37 nm on December 10, 1941
Submerged: 6,841 minutes; 114.02 hours; 4.75 days (12.2%)
3. Company
This patrol in the Atlantic from January 14, 1942 to February 26, 1942 was unsuccessful. First U 575 was ordered to pick up the blockade breaker Spreewald , which was disguised as the Norwegian steamer Elg , and escort it to St. Nazaire . While U 575 was waiting at the agreed meeting point, the message came on January 30, 1942 that the Spreewald had accidentally been sunk by U 333 .
statistics
Days at Sea: 44
Etmal a total of 5,986.0 nm
Somewhat above sea level 5750.00 nm (96.1%)
Etmal u. W. 236.0 nm (3.9%)
largest Etmal above sea level: 210 nm on January 27, 1942
largest Etmal uW: 24 nm on January 16, 1942
Submerged: 3369 minutes; 56.15 hours; 2.34 days (5.3%)
4. Company
On the east coast of the United States from March 24 to May 14, 1942: sinking of the Robin Hood on April 16, 1942 (6,887 GRT). The sinking of the Robin Hood was the result of a double shot, whereby one of the torpedoes came to the surface and had no consequences. The detonation of the other was too deep, according to Commander Heydemann. Ten of the torpedoes used by U 575 on this venture failed. Heydemann assessed the result in his KTB as "... not very satisfactory" .
statistics
Days at Sea: 53
Etmal a total of 7,129.5 nm
Somewhat above sea level 6,912.00 nm (97.0%)
Etmal u. W. 217.5 nm (3.0%)
largest Etmal above sea level: 268 nm on March 28, 1942
largest Etmal uW: 37.5 nm on March 26, 1942
Submerged: 5,622 minutes; 93.7 hours; 3.90 days (7.4%)
5. Company
In the Caribbean from June 10 to August 7, 1942. On June 16, 1942 at 1:58 am, attack on a steamer from convoy HG.84 in grid square BE8311. U 575 heard an impact with a four torpedo fan after 2 minutes and 16 seconds without detonation, probably a pistol failure (pistol is the ignition mechanism of a torpedo ).
Sinking of the American steamer Norlandia (2,689 GRT) on July 3rd and sinking of the British steamer Empire Explorer (5,345 GRT) on July 9th. On July 18, the British tanker San Gaspar (12,910 GRT) was damaged with a program- controlled torpedo (LUT) and the schooners Glacier (130 GRT) and Comrade (110 GRT) were sunk by fire with the on-board cannon.
statistics
Days at Sea: 59
A total of 10,173.0 nm
Somewhat above sea level 9,732.30 nm (95.7%)
Etmal u. W. 440.7 nm (4.3%)
largest Etmal above sea level: 286.1 nm on June 14, 1942
largest Etmal uW: 57 nm on August 6, 1942
Submerged: 9,866 minutes; 164.4 hours; 6.85 days (11.6%)
6. Enterprise
In the North Atlantic from September 19 to November 8, 1942: Sinking of the troop transport Abosso (11,330 GRT) on October 29, 1942, approx. 700 nm north of the Azores. At 10:13 p.m., a fan of four torpedoes was shot at the single-moving steamer. At 10:29 p.m. there was a catch because the Abosso was still swimming. At 23.05 the Abosso begins to sink vertically over the stem.
The Abosso came from Cape Town and was on its way to Liverpool. The Dutch submarine captain Lt. Cdr. HCJ Coumou refused initially, the Abosso to have to travel the long, dangerous journey as a single driver because the Abosso with 14.5 knots was too slow for this. But he had to bow to the pressure of the English authorities and the Abosso finally started the voyage under Captain RW Tate. On board were 162 crew members, 20 artillerymen to defend the ship and 210 passengers (including 149 soldiers, 44 internees and 17 civilians, including ten women with children), a total of 392 people. 362 people perished in the sinking of the Abosso , including the writer Ulrich A. Boschwitz .
The passengers included 44 newly trained Australian pilots of the “23. Service Flight Training School “from Heany, Southern Rhodesia . In addition, the planned crew for the Dutch submarine Haai (ex English P 66 / later Varne , then Ula ) was on board . The submarines came from the Dutch submarines K IX and K XII , of the 34 submarines only four survived. The commander of the submarine drivers was the aforementioned Lt. Cdr. Coumou. The submarine intended for them became one of the most successful Allied submarines under the name Ula and with a Norwegian crew and sank U 974, among others .
The cargo included 3,000 tons of wool and mail bags.
March back to Lorient .
statistics
Days at Sea: 54
Etmal a total of 7,363.4 nm
Somewhat above sea level 6,903.10 nm (93.8%)
Etmal u. W. 460.3 nm (6.2%)
largest Etmal above sea level: 300 nm on October 4, 1942
largest Etmal uW: 53 nm on September 23, 1942
Submerged: 7,587 minutes, 126.5 hours, 5.27 days (9.8%)
7. Company
Patrol area in the Atlantic from December 16, 1942 to February 18, 1943: Damage to the tankers Norvik (10,034 GRT) and Minister Wedel (6,830 GRT) on January 9, 1943. Both ships were abandoned by the crew and later sunk by U 522 . Sinking of the freighter City of Flint (4963 GRT) by artillery fire after a torpedo hit on January 25, 1943. Parts of the cargo of the City of Flint had come loose, which is why the ship was behind the convoy UGS 4 , to which it belonged. The torpedo from U 575 hit the tank of the freighter shortly after sunset and the gasoline immediately went up in flames. U 575 then sank the freighter with its gun. Some of the survivors misinterpreted the shots as an attack and moved away from the site of the sinking. While most of the City of Flint's shipwrecked crew members were rescued three days later, the last survivors of the sinking were not found until 49 days later. March back to St. Nazaire.
statistics
Days at Sea: 67
A total of 10,132.3 nm
Somewhat above sea level 9,692.70 nm (95.7%)
Etmal u. W. 439.6 nm (4.3%)
largest Etmal above sea level: 294.8 nm on January 9, 1943
largest Etmal uW: 40.7 nm on December 20, 1942
Submerged: 10,449 minutes; 174.2 hours; 7.26 days (10.8%)
8. Enterprise
In the Atlantic from April 22 to June 11, 1943 without success.
statistics
Days at Sea: 51
A total of 8,028.7 nm
Somewhat above sea level 7,164.90 nm (89.2%)
Etmal u. W. 863.8 nm (10.8%)
largest Etmal above sea level: 307 nm on May 14, 1943
largest Etmal uW: 53.3 nm on April 26, 1943
Submerged: 17,217 minutes; 287.0 hours; 11.96 days (23.4%)
9. Enterprise
Again in the Atlantic from October 6 to November 28, 1943 without success.
statistics
Days at Sea: 70
Once in. 6,776.2 nm
Somewhat above sea level 5,432.80 nm (80.2%)
Etmal u. W. 1,343.4 nm (19.8%)
Largest Etmal above sea level: 263.1 nm November 16, 1943
largest Etmal uW: 54 nm October 9, 1943
Submerged: 36,392 minutes; 606.5 hours; 25.27 days (36.1%)
10. Company
In the Atlantic from February 29 to March 13, 1944: Sinking of the British corvette HMS Asphodel (940 t ) with a torpedo of the Wren type .
Loss of the boat
Findings from the B-Dienst indicated in the spring of 1944 that a large part of the radio traffic between the submarines and the submarine command was successfully bugged. As a result, the German submarine commanders increasingly refrained from reporting by radio, which in turn led to confusion on the part of the submarine command regarding the position and fate of many boats. On his last venture, U 575 was used for weather observation, so Commander Boehmer was obliged to report regularly by radio. The additional instruction given to start radio traffic in order to report to the BdU about the experiences with the newly installed snorkel via radio was ultimately fatal for U 575 . Commander Boehmer made the ordered report on March 9, 1944 - the transmission lasted 25 minutes. On the same evening, U 575 was tracked down by a submarine hunting group and attacked with depth charges. After 18 hours of continued depth charge tracking, Commander Boehmer managed to escape with U 575 .
Air strikes
On March 13th, shortly after midnight, the boat was sighted by a Wellington equipped with a Leigh light . The Wellington and a B-17 bomber called in for support attacked the boat with depth charges . The crew of U 575 succeeded in repelling the aircraft with the on-board gun until the boat was able to escape by submerging. In the morning the boat was tracked down and attacked again by a carrier aircraft belonging to "Task Group 21.11" of the escort carrier USS Bogue . Then a destroyer took up the depth charge (WaBo) pursuit. On March 13, the boat appeared at sunrise and was attacked a short time later by a Consolidated B-24 "Liberator" . After the overflight, U 575 dived at 40 m. Another attack from the air took place around 2 p.m. At this point in time, the crew did not know that U 575 was now trailing an oil trail as a result of the previous battles.
Sinking
Several destroyers tracked U 575 again and attacked with around 250 depth charges until 7 p.m. The attacks led to the failure of the electrical systems and ultimately resulted in massive water ingress. After these failures, Commander Boehmer ordered the crew to leave the boat. Commandant Boehmer sent a last radio message and ordered the self-sinking of the boat to be initiated. The heating station remained on board, as the aft spherical bulkhead, behind which the sections with the electric and diesel engines were, could no longer be opened due to unexplained circumstances. In addition, the chief engineer voluntarily stayed in the boat with a demolition squad. Seven minutes after surfacing, the boat sank over the stern ( position ). There were further losses due to the direct fire at the men floating on the water by the entire shipboard artillery of the destroyers and additional rocket fire from the circling Avenger . When U 575 was sunk , 17 crew members were killed, 37 men were rescued and taken prisoner of war. Commander Boehmer sent a last radio message and ordered the scuttling of the boat to begin. At the sinking of the boat were the US destroyers escort USS Hobson , USS Haverfield , USS Swenning , USS Willis and USS Janssen together with the Canadian frigate HMCS Prince Rupert , which belonged to the escort group C.3 of convoy ON.227, and a Grumman TBF Avenger involved in Squadron VC-95 from the escort aircraft carrier USS Bogue .
Interrogate
During the interrogations that followed, the crew members of U 575 reported in detail about the conditions on board a “snorkel boat”. They explained that the snorkel closes when it is cut underwater by a simple flap valve. This led to the diesel engine sucking the required air out of the pressure hull, creating a kind of short-term vacuum that was very physically stressful for the crew. Another negative aspect mentioned was that a submerged boat would have to rely on the listening system to search for convoys, but that the listening system would be greatly impaired by the running diesel, while it was made easier for listening submarine hunters to find the submerged boat.
Total usage statistics
Days at Sea: 463
In nine companies (without evaluating the period from February 14th to 26th, 1942):
Days at Sea: 459
of which immersed: 1739.53 hours (72.5 days; 15%)
greatest depth: 230 m
Total distance covered: 66,462.6 nm
largest Etmal over water: 354 nm on November 30, 1941
largest Etmal under water: 57 nm on August 6, 1942
largest distance covered: 10,173 nm on the 5th patrol
longest dive time: 1230 min. (20.5 h) on October 12, 1943
Enemy sightings: 117
of which without contact: 92
of which with contact: 18
of which fliers: 30
of which submarines: 1 (US-R I)
Wabos / aerial bombs : 188
Locations by the enemy: 30
Own submarines sighted: 20
Sightings steamer or Convoys: 40
of which neutral steamers: 11 (no neutral ship attacked)
Torpedo shots: 45 (without the 10th patrol)
19 hits
26 misses
(including 10 failures)
four trips without torpedo shots
six trips with torpedo shots
two trips without attack with depth charges
successes
| date | Surname | nationality | Tonnage (GRT) |
successes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2, 1941 | Tuva |
 Netherlands
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4,652 | sunk ( location ) |
| April 16, 1942 | Robin Hood |
 United States
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6,887 | sunk ( location ) |
| 4th July 1942 | Norlandia |
 United Kingdom
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2,689 | sunk ( location ) |
| July 9, 1942 | Empire Explorer |
United Kingdom
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5,345 | sunk ( location ) |
| July 18, 1942 | Comrade |
United Kingdom
|
69 | sunk ( location ) |
| July 18, 1942 | Glacier |
United Kingdom
|
75 | sunk ( location ) |
| July 18, 1942 | San Gaspar |
United Kingdom
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12,910 | damaged |
| October 29, 1942 | Abosso |
United Kingdom
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11,330 | sunk ( location ) |
| January 9, 1943 | Minister Wedel |
 Norway
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6,833 | damaged |
| January 9, 1943 | Norvik |
Norway
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10,034 | damaged |
| January 25, 1943 | City of Flint |
United Kingdom
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4,963 | sunk ( location ) |
| March 10, 1944 | HMS Asphodel |
United Kingdom
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1,015 | sunk ( location ) |
See also
Sources, comments and individual references
- ^ 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. 125.
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , p. 48.
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , p. 372.
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , p. 504.
- ^ Jochen Brennecke : The turning point in the submarine war. Causes and consequences 1939–1943 (= Heyne-Bücher. 1, no. 7966). Edition supplemented and revised by the author. Heyne, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-453-03667-0 , p. 285.
- ↑ Convoy UGS 4 was on its way to Gibraltar
- ↑ Andrew Williams: Submarine War in the Atlantic. Heel Verlag GmbH, Königswinter 2002, ISBN 3-89880-137-3 , pages 227-232
- ↑ a b c Bernard Ireland: "Battle of the Atlantic" , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis Maryland 2003, ISBN 1 59114 032 3 , pages 190–191
- ↑ a b c Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 , p. 206.
- ^ Diary U 575.
Map with all coordinates: 