U 618

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U 618
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Type : VII C
Field Post Number : M - 46 602
Shipyard: Blohm & Voss , Hamburg
Construction contract: August 15, 1940
Build number: 118
Keel laying: May 29, 1941
Launch: February 20, 1942
Commissioning: April 16, 1942
Commanders:
Calls: 10 activities
Sinkings:

3 ships

Whereabouts: Sunk in the Bay of Biscay on August 14, 1944

U 618 was a German type VII C submarine of the Kriegsmarine in World War II .

history

Construction and commissioning

U 618 was put on Kiel on May 29, 1941 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg , the launch took place on February 20, 1942. On April 16, 1942 it was put into service under the command of First Lieutenant Kurt Baberg.

Flotilla affiliation and commanders

Until August 31, 1942 it was part of the 5th U-Flotilla in Kiel for training purposes . Then, from September 1, 1942, it was assigned to the 7th Flotilla in St. Nazaire as a front boat.

Kurt Baberg

Kurt Baberg was born on February 23, 1917 in the Ruhrort district of Duisburg and joined the Navy in 1936. In 1939 he first served as a platoon officer with the 10th ship master's department in Wesermünde and then joined the Weddingen U-Flotilla in Kiel . From summer 1941 to spring 1942, Baberg undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea with U 30 as commander . On April 16, he took command of U 618 , with which he undertook six patrols. During the last days of the war Baberg was in command of U 827 . He was released from captivity in December 1945. In 1986, Baberg participated together with Karl-Friedrich Merten with the publication of the book We U-Bootfahrer Say No: That was not the way it was in the Buchheim controversy and positioned himself against the author Lothar-Günther Buchheim . Kurt Baberg died in 2003.

Erich Faust

Erich Faust was born on April 22, 1921 in Cuxhaven and joined the Navy in 1939. From summer 1942 to autumn 1944 he was an officer on watch on the U 412 and U 667 . Following a commanders course with the 27th U-Flotilla in Gotenhaven , Faust took command of U 618 , with which he was sunk in the Bay of Biscay a few months later.

Calls

In total, U 618 ran out to ten companies. On his first patrol with this boat, Kurt Baberg sank a British and an American ship. U 618 left Kiel on September 1, 1942. The intended area of ​​operation was the North Atlantic. In mid-October, Commander Baberg had a 4 torpedo fan fired at two freighters. He then heard three detonations. The British freighter Empire Mersey with 5,791 GRT was sunk. A few days later, Baberg sank the American freighter Angelina (4,772 GRT) with a double torpedo compartment. U 618 reached Saint-Nazaire on October 28th . From here the boat set out for four other ventures:

  • November 25, 1942 to January 18, 1943
  • February 21 to May 7, 1943
  • June 8 to September 5, 1943 - on this patrol, Kurt Baberg sank a British ship, the Empire Kohinoor with 5,225 GRT.
  • 11 November 1943 to 4 January 1944 - at the end of this undertaking was U 618 in Lorient a

After an attack on the submarine, the crew was able to rescue 21 men from the recently sunk German destroyer Z 27 from the sea and bring them ashore, despite severe damage .

  • February 2 to April 8, 1944 - this venture ended again in Saint-Nazaire. On April 16, Kurt Baberg handed over command to First Lieutenant Erich Faust.
  • May 25, 1944
  • 26.-30. July 1944
  • 2-4 August 1944

Sinking

On August 11, 1944 , U 618 set sail from Brest for its tenth and last venture .

On August 14, the submarine was caught in the Bay of Biscay by a British Liberator bomber with Leigh Light and attacked. The British frigate HMS Essington , which arrived a little later, captured a large object lying on the ground, which was covered with depth charges. As a result, viscous oil floated for several hours, which indicated the sinking of the submarine. U 618 sank with 51 men.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , pp. 73-74.
  2. ↑ 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. 195.
  3. ^ Dieter Hartwig: Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz. Legend and reality. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2010, ISBN 978-3-506-77027-1 , p. 388.
  4. ↑ 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. 62.
  5. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , p. 511.
  6. ↑ a b c Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 , p. 270.
  7. ↑ 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. 63.
  8. ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes Verlag, Graefelfing vor München 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 , p. 221.