U 578

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U 578
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Type : VII C
Field Post Number : M-46 136
Shipyard: Blohm + Voss , Hamburg
Construction contract: January 8, 1940
Build number: 078
Keel laying: August 1, 1940
Launch: May 15, 1941
Commissioning: July 10, 1941
Commanders:
  • July 10, 1941 to August 6, 1942
    KK / FK Ernst-August Rehwinkel
Flotilla:
Calls: 5 patrols
Sinkings:
  • 4 ships (23,635 GRT)
  • 1 warship (1,090 t)
Whereabouts: Missing since August 6, 1942 in the Bay of Biscay west of La Rochelle

U 578 was a German type VII C submarine from Blohm + Voss , Hamburg , which was used in the battle of the Atlantic .

The boat

The bull from Scapa Flow , the flotilla emblem of U 578

U 578 was commissioned from Blohm + Voss in Hamburg on January 8, 1940, and on August 1 the boat with hull number 078 was laid down at the factory of the same number. The launch took place on May 15, 1941 and the commissioning under KK Ernst-August Rehwinkel took place on July 10, 1941. After the commissioning, the boat was the 5th U-Flotilla stationed in Kiel , and later the 7th U-Flotilla in St. Subordinated to Nazaire as a training boat and later as a front boat to the latter. In addition to the Scapa Flow bull as a flotilla symbol, U 578 also had its own emblem on the tower: a submarine that pulled a battleship behind it, with the text Swyatoi-Noss 1941 on a white sign.

Ventures

1. patrol

The boat left the port of Kirkenes in Northern Norway on November 19, 1941 for the first patrol. The areas of operation of the boat were the North Sea and the entrance to the White Sea . No sinkings could be achieved on this eight-day undertaking. The journey had to be broken off early because the boat was rammed by a Soviet guard and badly damaged. It could not dock in Bergen for repairs and had to run back to Kiel.

2. Patrol

After the damage from the first patrol in Kiel had been repaired, U 578 set sail again on February 15, 1942 to transfer to its new home port in St. Nazaire, France , where it arrived at sea after 13 days. The area of ​​operation was the North Atlantic. It operated in the wolf pack Robbe without having achieved any sinking. This would be the boat's last unsuccessful endeavor.

3. Patrol

On March 3, the boat left St. Nazaire with the destination West Atlantic and the east coast of the USA as an operational area. On the 49-day voyage, two ships with a total of 10,540 GRT, the US steam tanker RP Resor with 7451 BRT and the Norwegian steamship Ingerto with 3089 BRT, and a warship, the US Wickes-Tattnall class destroyer USS Jacob, could be carried Sunk Jones (DD-130) with 1090 tons before entering St. Nazaire on March 25th. The original I WO, Oberleutnant zur See and later Kapitänleutnant Raimund Tiesler got out after this venture and was replaced by Oberleutnant Emil Claussen, the former WO of U 576 .

4. Patrol

U 578 left St. Nazaire on May 7, 1942 for their 4th patrol, which was again patrolled off the east coast of the USA. It operated with the wolf packs Pike and Pathfinder and was able to sink two ships with a total of 13,095 GRT, the Dutch motor freighter Polyphemus with 6,269 GRT and the Norwegian motor freighter Berganger with 6,826 GRT, before returning to the base on July 3. The I WO OL Claussen left the boat after the patrol ended.

5. Patrol

FK Rehwinkel and U 578 left for the last time on 6 August for the patrol, from which the boat did not return. No reports have been received from the boat since sailing and despite repeated requests to indicate the position, it no longer responded.

Whereabouts

The submarine has been missing since August 6, 1942. He was asked several times to report and give his position, but it was all in vain. U 578 and its 46-man crew were gone forever. The fact that the boat was sunk on August 10 north of Cape Ortegal , Spain, by depth charges from a Czech aircraft no longer corresponds to today's facts. It was a total loss with 46 dead.

literature

  • 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 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ KL Tiesler later took over the Type VII C boats U 649 and U 976 as well as the Type XXI boat U 2503 and survived the end of the Second World War as the last surviving crew member of U 578.
  3. OL Claussen later presented the Type VII C boat U 469 on October 7, 1942 , which was sunk off Iceland with the entire crew on its first patrol on March 25, 1943 .