U 629
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U 629 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | 07 337 |
| Shipyard: | Blohm & Voss , Hamburg |
| Construction contract: | August 15, 1940 |
| Build number: | 129 |
| Keel laying: | August 23, 1941 |
| Launch: | May 12, 1942 |
| Commissioning: | July 2, 1942 |
| Commanders: |
First Lieutenant at Sea Hans Helmuth Bugs |
| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | 11 patrols |
| Sinkings: |
no |
| Whereabouts: | sunk in the English Channel on June 7, 1944 |
U 629 was a German type VII C submarine , a so-called "Atlantic boat ". It was used by the Navy during the U-Boat War - among other things to set up a weather station - and sunk in the course of Operation Overlord .
Technical specifications
A VII C-boat had a length of 67 m and a displacement of 865 m³ under water. It had two diesel engines that enabled a speed of 17 knots over water . During the underwater journey, two electric motors propelled the boat to a speed of 7 knots. The armament consisted of an 8.8 cm cannon and a 2.0 cm flak on deck as well as four bow torpedo tubes and a stern torpedo tube until 1944 . Usually a VII C-boat carried 14 torpedoes with it.
commander
From the time it was put into service on July 2, 1942, until it was sunk on June 7, 1944, the command of the boat was Oberleutnant zur See, Hans Helmuth Bugs. He was born on March 11, 1917 in Angermünde and joined the Navy in 1937. After his promotion to lieutenant at sea, he served first as a watch officer on the artillery training ship Brummer and then as a platoon officer in the reserve naval department and until the summer of 1940 in the naval flak department. He then completed his submarine training and became a company officer in the 1st U-Training Division in Pillau . From August 1941 to May 1942, Oberleutnant zur See Bugs was the first officer on watch on U 435 and, following his commanding course with the 24th U-Flotilla , took command of U 629 .
Mission history
Bugs performed operations on a dozen trips between Hammerfest and Spitsbergen , Narvik and Jan Mayen . Among other things, it was mining operations:
- July 1943 - Mining of the eastern Pećora Bay
- August 1943 - Mining off the Timan Coast in the southern Barents Sea
- September 1943 - Mining of the roadstead at Anderma on the Kara Sea
Weather radio "Robert"
In August 1943 U 629 ran from Hammerfest in the direction of Spitzbergen. There was an unusual load on board: some sledges, a rubber dinghy with a powerful outboard motor and a technical product from Siemens-Schuckertwerke called "WFL 24". It was an independently working device for weather observation, which was dismantled into its individual parts and distributed over the entire submarine. The team supported the meteorologists in setting up the weather radio, which was named "Robert", recorded its first automatic radio messages and returned to Hammerfest on July 16.
Rescue operation
In December 1943, U 629 was operating in the North Atlantic when it received a call for help from U 284 . This boat was in distress on December 16: it had suffered severe water ingress, probably as a result of an operator error during routine bilgeing. U 629 picked up the entire crew of U 284 and set out for Brest with over 100 men on board .
Sinkings
On the way to Brest, U 629 torpedoed a destroyer, which it reported as sunk. This could not be confirmed after the war based on allied documents.
By chance from the North Sea boat to the Biscayapatrouilleur
Shortly before the end of this voyage, U 629 was attacked in the Bay of Biscay by a Vickers Wellington of the RAF Coastal Command with depth charges and machine gun fire and was badly damaged. U 629 nevertheless reached Brest, the base of the 1st U-Flotilla on January 5, 1944. The boat was subordinated to the 1st U-Flotilla and from then on operated only in the Biscay until it was sunk.
Sinking
U 629 was one of 28 submarines that set out in the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel in early June 1944 to repel the invasion fleet. The boat was attacked and sunk by a Liberator on June 7 west of Brest ( Lage ). All 51 crew members were killed.
literature
- Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 .
- 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 .
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine 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 .
- Franz Selinger: From “Nanok” to “Eismitte”. Meteorological undertakings in the Arctic 1940-1945 (= writings of the German Maritime Museum. Vol. 53). Convent-Verlag, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-934613-12-8 .
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