U 636
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U 636 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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|---|---|
| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | 51 601 |
| Shipyard: | Blohm & Voss , Hamburg |
| Construction contract: | January 20, 1941 |
| Build number: | 136 |
| Keel laying: | September 18, 1941 |
| Launch: | June 25, 1942 |
| Commissioning: | August 20, 1942 |
| Commanders: |
Hans Hildebrandt |
| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | 14 activities |
| Sinkings: |
1 cargo ship (7169 GRT) and probably 1 warship (558 t) sunk by mines |
| Whereabouts: | Sunk by depth charges on April 1, 1944 |
U 636 was a German type VII C submarine, a so-called "Atlantic boat ". It was used by the German Navy during the submarine war in the North Sea for mine-laying and weather operations and in the fight against Allied convoys of the North Sea .
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 until 1944 , after which the artillery armament was reinforced in all boats of this type. The main weapon of the VII-C boats, however, were the four bow torpedo tubes and one stern torpedo tube. Usually a VII C-boat carried 14 torpedoes with it.
Mission history
Between August 1942 and March 1943, U 636 belonged to the 5th U-Flotilla, a training flotilla that was stationed in Kiel . During this time, Commander Hildebrandt undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to retract the boat and train the crew. On April 1, 1943, the boat was subordinated to the 11th U-Flotilla, which was set up and stationed in Bergen the previous year . U 636 left Kiel on April 17th and entered its new base four days later. From here and other Norwegian bases of the Kriegsmarine, Commander Hildebrandt completed four more operations and one relocation trip with U 636 . In the spring of 1944, Eberhard Schendel took command of U 636 , who commanded the boat for eight further trips until it was sunk.
Mining operations
On July 31, Commander Hildebrandt set out with U 636 from Hammerfest to a mining operation, from which the boat returned on August 7. On August 14, the boat set out on another mining operation. On the evening of August 23, 1943, U 636 launched 24 mines in the sea area off Dikson between 7:25 p.m. and 9:25 p.m. The mine barrier that was created was codenamed Manatee 1 . On September 6, 1943, the steamer Tbilisi ran into a mine of the Manatee 1 mine barrier in the Kara Sea . The Soviet ship sank aground at a depth of 12 m. Two sailors were killed, the rest of the crew was saved and was picked up by the steamer Svilaga and the mine sweeper TSC-42 .
In the area of the same mine barrier, the SKR-14 mine- layer was lost on October 17, 1943 . However , it is unclear whether there is a connection with the manatee 1 mine barrier . Soviet sources state that the mine-layer ran into a sandbank in rough seas and was stranded. U 636 had already entered the naval base in Narvik on August 30th . From here the boat first moved to Bergen , then to Tromsø and returned to Hammerfest on November 3rd. From here, Commander Hildebrandt left for another mining operation on November 6th, during which mines were relocated in the southern Pechora Sea.
Weather operations
Towards the end of 1944, U 636 was included in the construction and supply of the Wehrmacht's weather stations in the Arctic as part of the Arctic weather observation . In early December ran the boat from Narvik to Spitsbergen from to supply the manned weather station "Landvik", which was located at the southern tip of the main island. The boat reached Stormbukta in the south of Spitsbergen on the afternoon of December 9th , but Commander Schendel decided to postpone the landing of the loaded spare parts to the following day due to poor visibility and unrecognizable reefs.
In spite of the wind that had come up in the meantime and thus increasing surf, it was possible the next morning to take a trip with the motorized rubber dinghy from U 636 . In the afternoon the boat left the Stormbukta. The weather station could be made operational with the help of the delivered spare parts.
The "Landvik" station was operated by the Air Force on behalf of the Abwehr . For this purpose, two Norwegian collaborators were subordinate to Pilot 3 in Norway, who were stationed in the weather hut with the code name "Landvik" on the Stormbukta. From now on they sent data to the German radio station in Bardufoss every day at 02:00, 05:00, 08:00, 14:00 and 19:00 . The temperature, wind direction and strength, air pressure and humidity were recorded and transmitted. Once a week, this data was supplemented by an ice report.
After supplying the station, Commander Schendel tried to take part in the attack on a Northern Sea convoy , but U 636 was badly damaged by a Fairey Swordfish , which was launched from a escort aircraft carrier, and had to return to the base.
End of the boat
U 636 was on April 1, 1945 to the northwest of Ireland by depth charges of HMS Bazely , HMS Drury and HMS Bentinck sunk.
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 .
Notes and individual references
- ↑ 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 . Page 276
- ↑ Uwe Schnall (Ed.): Writings of the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum Volume 53 Franz Selinger: "From 'Nanok' to 'Eismitte'. Meteorological ventures in the Arctic 1940-1945 " Convent Verlag GmbH, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-934613-12- 8 , page 298
- ↑ Axel Niestlé: German U-Boat Losses during World War II - Details of Destruction , Frontline Books, London 2014, ISBN 978-1-84832-210-3 , page 77
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