U 632

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U 632
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Type : VII C
Field Post Number : 22 623
Shipyard: Blohm & Voss , Hamburg
Construction contract: August 15, 1940
Build number: 132
Keel laying: September 4, 1941
Launch: May 27, 1942
Commissioning: July 23, 1942
Commanders:

July 23, 1942 - April 5, 1943
OLtzS Hans Karpf

Calls: 2 activities
Sinkings:

2 ships (16,255 GRT)

Whereabouts: Sunk by air raid on April 6, 1943 in the North Atlantic , south of Iceland

U 632 was a German type VII C submarine of the former Navy in World War II . It was used in convoy battles in the North and Central Atlantic.

Technical specifications

U 632 was part of the seventh construction contract that was placed with the Blohm and Voss shipyards in Hamburg by the Navy. This construction contract comprised 24 submarines - U 611 to U 634 - all of the type VII C. Such a boat was 67 m long and displaced 865 m³ under water. It had two diesel engines that allowed a speed of 17 kn (= 31.5 km / h) over water . When underwater, two electric motors propelled the boat to a speed of 7.6 knots (= 14.1 km / h). 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. U 632 was laid down at Blohm and Voss on September 4, 1941 and launched on May 27, 1942. The emblem of the boat represented a sawfish or swordfish attacking a ship.

Commitment and history

From commissioning until December 31, 1942, U 632 belonged to the 5th submarine flotilla in Kiel and undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to train the crew. From January 1, 1943, the boat was subordinated to the 1st U-Flotilla , which was stationed in Brest . This flotilla belonged to U 632 until its sinking. In the course of its service life , the boat was assigned to several submarine groups that hunted Allied convoys according to the pack tactics developed by Karl Dönitz .

Falcon and Landsknecht

On December 29, 1942, Commander Karpf left the naval base of Marvika near Kristiansand on his first patrol with U 632 . The boat was assigned to the Falke submarine group , which was looking for Allied convoys south of Greenland. On January 9th, Karpf spotted a convoy and used bearing signals to bring more German submarines to the area before attacking the next day. On January 10th, Commander Karpf reported the sinking of a ship with an estimated 15,000 GRT, but this could not be confirmed. U 632 was already on its way to the new Brest base on the northern French Atlantic coast when another opportunity for an attack arose. On January 22nd, the submarine group Falke was disbanded. A part of the group, which consisted of boats that still had enough fuel for further operations, formed the Haudegen submarine group . U 632 , on the other hand, was now assigned to the Landsknecht group, which had been formed from former Falke boats whose fuel would no longer last long, and which were therefore soon forced to return to their bases. Max Teichert, commander of U 456 , one of these Landsknecht boats, had tracked down a large convoy in the mid-Atlantic that was on its way from North America to Great Britain with 58 ships. Commander Karpf sank a straggler from this convoy.

  • 3rd February 1943 British tanker Cordelia with 8,190 GRT sunk by torpedo

U 632 reached the new base in Brest on February 14, 1943.

Monkfish and lion heart

In mid-March 1943, the B-Dienst discovered information about a convoy that was to pass south of Iceland from North America in the last third of the month. The submarine command put together a submarine group called Seeteufel , which began patrolling this area on March 21. This submarine group was also assigned to U 632 , which left Brest on March 15 for its second venture. Although this sea area was passed by several convoys in the next few days, only one of the 34 German submarines deployed here managed to sink. On March 28, the storm that raged in this area of ​​the sea turned into a hurricane. During the submarine tour, only fragmentary reports from the boats used were received, some of which also had little informative value. U 632 , for example, reported a "tanker with air security". At the end of March, the submarine command broke off the operation. U 632 was combined with twelve other boats to form the Löwenherz submarine group and stationed southeast of Greenland. When U 530 reported a convoy on April 4, a convoy battle lasting several days developed in this sea area. HX 231 left North America on March 25 and was en route to Great Britain with 61 ships. The escort consisted of a destroyer, a frigate and four corvettes. On the night of April 5, three German submarines managed to penetrate the escort system and sink one ship each. The next day, the escort was reinforced by air traffic control, and only one submarine was sunk again. U 632 had positioned itself behind the convoy during the battle. On the night of April 6th, Commander Karpf succeeded in sinking a straggler.

  • April 6, 1943 Dutch freighter Blitar with 7,065 GRT sunk

Sinking

On the afternoon of April 6th, Commander Karpf reported that he had hit a torpedo on a destroyer. He aimed at the corvette HMS Alisma , but missed it. The U 632 , which surfaced , was then discovered and attacked by a Liberator bomber . The British plane made two attacks on the descending boat and dropped a total of five depth charges . Shortly afterwards, a large oil slick floated up at the point where U 632 was submerged.

References and comments

  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 , p. 83.
  2. ^ 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. 133.
  3. ↑ 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, p. 375.
  4. ↑ a b c 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, p. 513.
  5. ↑ For a long time, Karpf was credited with sinking the 6,773-GRT tanker CI Barkdull . However, according to recent research, this sank further south without any external influence.
  6. ^ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak Verlagsges., Herrsching 1981, ISBN 3-88199-0097 , p. 323.
  7. ↑ U 610 sank a straggler with 7,176 GRT.
  8. ↑ Clay Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. 1999, p. 333.
  9. ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. 1998, p. 113.

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 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 .
  • Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes Verlag, Graefelfing before Munich 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 .