U 604

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U 604
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U-604 30-6-43.jpg
U-604 under fire from a US Lockheed Ventura on July 30, 1943.
Type : VII C
Field Post Number : M - 27 582
Shipyard: Blohm & Voss , Hamburg
Construction contract: May 22, 1940
Build number: 104
Keel laying: February 27, 1941
Launch: November 16, 1941
Commissioning: January 8, 1942
Commanders:

January 8, 1942 to August 11, 1943
Lieutenant Captain Horst Höltring

Flotilla:
Calls: 6 patrols
Sinkings:

6 ships (39,891 GRT)

Whereabouts: Sunk in the South Atlantic on August 11, 1943 (16 dead, 9 prisoners of war, 22 rescued by U 172 )

U 604 was one of the Navy in World War II employed submarine of type VIIC . In its six patrols it sank six merchant ships and troop carriers with 39 891 BRT, with a total of 532 people were killed. On 30 July 1943, the U-boat in the South Atlantic by an American was Lockheed Ventura damaged and on August 11, 1943 scuttled . The crew was rescued by two submarines, but U 185 was sunk and only U 172 was able to bring 22 men to Lorient . Of the 47 crew members, 16 died and 9 were taken prisoner by the United States .

Construction and equipment

U 604 had a water displacement of 769 t on the surface and 871 t under water. She was a total of 67.1 m long, 6.2 m wide, 9.6 m high with a 50.5 m long pressure hull and had a draft of 4.74 m. The submarine, built in the Hamburg shipyard Blohm & Voss , was powered by two four-stroke F46 diesel engines with 6 cylinders each and a charging fan from the Kiel Germania shipyard with an output of 2060 to 2350 kW, with two electric motors GU 460 / 8-27 from AEG for underwater operation driven with an output of 550 kW. It had two drive shafts with two 1.23 m tall propellers. The boat was suitable for diving to a depth of 230 m.

The submarine reached speeds of up to 17.7 knots on the surface and up to 7.6 knots under water. When surfaced, the ship could travel up to 8,500 nautical miles at 10 knots, and up to 80 nautical miles submerged at 4 knots. U 604 had five 533 mm torpedo tubes - four at the bow and one at the stern - and fourteen torpedoes , an 8.8 cm SK C / 35 cannon with 220 rounds of ammunition, a 3.7 cm M42 18 anti-aircraft gun / 36/37/43 and two 2 cm FlaK C / 30 .

team

The crew strength of the submarine was 44 to 60 men. On his last trip there were 47 men.

Calls

After its commissioning, U 604 was tested under the command of Lieutenant Horst Höltring (1913–1943) from January 9, 1942, initially in Hamburg , from January 14 in Kiel and other Baltic ports and served until August 3, 1942 with the 5th U -Flotilla in Kiel as a training boat .

On August 4, 1942, U 604 left the port of Kiel for its first patrol, but stayed in Kristiansand on August 6 and 7, 1942 , and then as part of the “Forward” submarine group in the North Atlantic and off Iceland to operate. On August 25, 1942 it sank the Dutch merchant ship Abbekerk with 7906 GRT with a torpedo , of whose crew 2 men were killed and 62 were rescued. On September 8, U 604 reached the port of Brest (Finistère) .

On October 14, 1942, U 604 ran out of the port of Brest in order to now operate as part of the submarine group "Streitaxt" in the Central Atlantic. On October 27, 1942, U 604 sank the British motor tanker Anglo Maersk with 7705 GRT with several torpedo shots, whose 31 seamen were rescued and brought to Hierro (Canary Islands). On October 30, 1942, the submarine sank two ships of the convoy SL-125 : the British troop transport Président Doumer with 11,898 GRT, whereby 260 of 345 men died on the ship, and the British merchant ship Baron Vernon with 3642 GRT, its 49 occupants - the captain, 42 other crew members and 6 artillerymen - all rescued and brought to Madeira . U 604 returned to Brest on November 5, 1942 .

On November 26, U 604 left Brest again and operated in the North Atlantic southwest of Ireland, this time as part of the submarine groups "Daredevil" and "Impetuous". On December 2, the submarine with a torpedo sank the US turbine passenger ship Coamo with 7057 GRT, on which there were 186 people - 133 crew members, 37 artillerymen and 16 other soldiers, none of whom survived. On December 31, 1942, U 604 entered the port of Brest again.

On February 8, 1943 U 604 ran again from Brest and operated as part of the submarine group "Knappen" in the North Atlantic. On February 23, 1943, it sank the British convoy rescue ship Stockport with 1683 GRT, whose 64 crew members all died. On March 9, 1942, she returned to the port of Brest.

On April 22, 1943, U 604 started its fifth patrol from Brest, but the commander, Kapitänleutnant Horst Höltring, fell ill. The mission was canceled and on April 26, 1943 the submarine returned to Brest.

When Commander Höltring had recovered, U 604 left the port of Brest on June 24, 1943 to operate in the Central Atlantic southwest of the Azores and in the South Atlantic. The submarine was unsuccessful this time. On July 10, 1943, U 604 was supplied with fuel and provisions by U 487 .

Destruction and immersion

On July 30, 1943, U 604 was attacked off the Brazilian coast by a Lockheed Ventura of the US Navy Squadron VB-129, flown by Thomas D. Davies , with on-board weapons and four depth charges and was so badly damaged that it was unable to maneuver. U 185 under the command of August Maus and U 172 under the command of Carl Emmermann were the last remaining German submarines in Brazilian waters at this point in time, which is why the commander of the submarines Karl Dönitz instructed them to meet with U 604 to accommodate the crew and supplies of fuel and provisions. On August 11, 1943, the three submarines met. Since U 172 arrived a few hours late, U 185 received all supplies, but U 172 took over 22 men from the 47-strong crew of U 604 , which was then scuttled . During the rescue maneuver, an American Consolidated B-24 bomber attacked U 172 , killing a crew member of U 172 . While Emmermann let U 172 submerge after the loss of his husband , Maus ordered the artillery from U 185 to open fire, which destroyed the B-24 and its entire ten-man crew died. On August 24, 1943, U 185 from a Grumman F4F Wildcat -Jäger and a Grumman TBF Avenger - torpedo bombers of the aircraft carrier USS Core attacked the Second Watch Officer by strafing the Wildcat killed and the submarine by depth charges the Avenger was severely damaged and Chlorine gas escaped. The commander of U 604 , Horst Höltring, shot two of his men at their request and then shot himself in the bow torpedo room of U 185 . The commander of U 185 , August Maus, was given the damage the order to scuttle , applying the escape gear and "all hands on board." When a large part of the crew was on deck, the Avenger aircraft attacked again, causing "a bloodbath", according to Maus. A little later, 36 submariners were brought on board by the destroyer Barker , which was part of the security of the Core , but four of them died of their wounds within a short time. Nine crew members of U 604 were among the rescued 32 submarine drivers . These were transferred to the USS Core and later brought to the USA as prisoners of war . As a result of the two sinkings, a total of 16 crew members of U 604 died , while 9 were taken prisoner by the US. U 172 , however, arrived in Lorient on September 7, 1943 with its crew and the 22 men rescued by U 604 .

The whereabouts of the men rescued after Lorient

Twelve of the survivors of U 604 , including the chief engineer Oberleutnant Helmut Jürgens, chief helmsman Albert Finister, boat mate Peter Binnefeld and radio mate Georg Seitz, formed the basis of the crew of the U 873 submarine under the command of lieutenant captain Friedrich Steinhoff . April 1944 was put into service in Bremen and surrendered to the US Navy on May 17, 1945 - after the surrender of the Wehrmacht . These men experienced a period of captivity after the war - for example Peter Binnefeld in Cornwall ( England ).

reception

A 192-page volume by Christian Prag in English entitled No Ordinary War - The Eventful Career of U-604 is dedicated to the eventful history of the submarine and its crew, which for some continues with the U 873 .

In 2017 Gudrun Strüber born Wagenführ, the daughter of the 23-year-old central mate of U 604 , machine mate Friedrich (Fritz) Wagenführ, recounts her father's memories in conversations between father and daughter, including correspondence with his future wife (and Gudrun's mother ) Elsbeth Sommer and supplemented by further documents and reports.

See also

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, p. 104. ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 2: Submarine construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1997, pp. 66, 223. ISBN 978-3-8132-0512-1 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 3: The German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2008, pp. 262–263. 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, pp. 78, 136-138, 144. 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 Hunted 1942–1945 . Heyne Verlag, 1999. pp. 107f., 172, 238f., 241f., 340, 444, 470. ISBN 3-4531-6059-2 .
  • Gudrun Strüber [daughter of machine mate Friedrich Wagenführ]: Blue boys! Green boys? A submarine driver remembers. Fabuloso Verlag, Bilshausen 2017.
  • Christian Prague: No Ordinary War - The Eventful Career of U-604. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 2009.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ U-873, Uboatarchive.net: U-873, surrendered to US forces on May 11, 1945. Retrieved September 5, 2019.
  2. ↑ Boatswain's Mate Peter Binnefeld's Photos of U-604th Retrieved September 14, 2019.