U 654
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U 654 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | 46 564 |
| Shipyard: | Howaldtswerke Hamburg |
| Construction contract: | October 9, 1939 |
| Build number: | 803 |
| Keel laying: | June 1, 1940 |
| Launch: | May 3, 1941 |
| Commissioning: | July 5, 1941 |
| Commanders: | |
| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | four trips, one transfer trip |
| Sinkings: |
one ship with 5,408 GRT damaged, three ships with 17,755 GRT and a warship with 900 t sunk |
| Whereabouts: | Sunk by US Army aviators in the Caribbean on August 22, 1942 |
U 654 was a class VII C submarine, a so-called "Atlantic boat ", which was used by the navy in the North Atlantic , off the American east coast and in the Caribbean during the submarine war of World War II .
Technical specifications
After the start of the war, the Howaldtswerke's production was switched to submarine construction, which from this point on used the capacities of the shipyards in Kiel and Hamburg. While the planning of the Kriegsmarine for the Kiel shipyard provided for an annual output of 12 type VII C submarines, the most built submarine class in the Navy, the Hamburg branch of the Howaldtswerke was in the submarine building program until 1942 with the completion of 16 boats per year planned. The Howaldtswerke did not succeed in meeting these requirements in any year. A total of 12 Type VII C submarines were delivered to the Navy by all German shipyards in July 1941. A submarine of this class was 67.1 m long and 6.2 m wide. With an average overwater speed of 12 knots , it had a range of 6500 nautical miles . A VII C-boat carried 14 torpedoes, which could be ejected through four bow torpedo tubes and one stern torpedo tube. On the tower, U 654 had a white elephant head as a boat coat of arms.
Commitment and history
From November 16 to 19, Commander Hesse transferred the boat from Kiel to Stavanger . There he handed over the command to First Lieutenant Forster. From here, U 654 went first to Bergen , then to Brest, the base of the 1st U-Flotilla, which the boat reached on December 25th.
Trouble with the torpedoes
On February 3rd, U 654 ran from Brest for the second operation under the command of Lieutenant Forster. The North Atlantic and the waters of the Newfoundland Bank were intended as the operational area . Commandant Forster reported a total of nine torpedo failures and missed shots on this patrol - seven of them at a stopped target. During the attack on the convoy ON 60 , east of Newfoundland, he succeeded in sinking an Allied corvette of the Free French naval forces. Commander Forster attacked the FFL Alysse with three torpedo shots and was then able to make out an explosive cloud and a pillar of fire on the French ship. The subsequent explosions of the depth charges set up on the upper deck tore the Alysse two minutes after the first torpedo hit.
- on February 9, 1942 French corvette Alysse with 900 tons sunk by torpedo
The British steamer Empire Fusilier , seen from U 654 behind the corvette, was also hit and damaged. However, Commander Forster did not succeed in firing a successful catch. On February 19, 1941, U 654 returned to Brest.
Off the east coast of the USA
On March 21, U 654 broke out of Brest for the western Atlantic. Commander Forster was supposed to patrol with other submarines at some distance from the US east coast. Already on the approach to the target area he sank a British freighter.
- sunk by torpedo on April 10, 1942, British steamer Empirie Prairie , 7,010 GRT
Commander Forster torpedoed two more freighters 550 kilometers east of Cape Hatteras
- on April 20, 1942 American steamer Steelmaker , 6,176 GRT sunk by torpedo
- on April 20, 1942 Swedish freighter Agra , 4,569 GRT sunk by torpedo
U 654 returned to Brest on May 19.
Convoy OS 34
On July 17, U 202 discovered the Allied convoy OS 34. The convoy's escort was able to keep the boat at a distance, but the radio signals from U 202 led other German submarines to OS 34 in accordance with the pack tactics , including U 564 under the command of Reinhard Suhren and U 654 , which was launched on 11 July left Lorient for his fourth venture. The rapid merging of several submarines in the course of the convoy suggests that Karl Dönitz was informed about OS 34 in advance . On the evening of July 18, the second day of the pursuit, a corvette from the escort of OS 34 discovered the surfaced U 202 and covered the boat with artillery fire. Shortly afterwards, the ship's formation made a sharp change of course. However, Commander Linder managed to keep in touch with the convoy. Finally, after some time , U 202 was forced to break off the pursuit of the convoy because the boat was at the end of its undertaking. Instead of him, Commander Suhren took control of OS 34 with U 564 and only attacked the convoy - following the specifications of the pack tactics - as soon as U 654 also had contact with the convoy. The nightly attacks by U 564 and U 108 that followed led to two sinkings, but the convoy escaped the pursuers the next morning and could no longer be found. U 654 continued its journey in association with U 564 in the direction of the Caribbean.
Sinking
On August 12, U 654 arrived in the target area off Panama . Commander Forster patrolled the sea area for over a week without result - only two ships were sighted - and then received instructions to relocate his area of operations to the Windward Passage south of Guantánamo Bay . On the way to its new operational area, U 654 was sunk with depth charges by a Douglas bomber of the US Army on August 22nd . When U 94 under the commandant Otto Ites was also lost in the Caribbean a week later , Dönitz decided to stop fighting in this area and not to send any more submarines to fight the Caribbean convoys.
literature
- Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 1: The Hunters. 1939-1942. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X .
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 .
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 .
Notes and individual references
- ^ 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. 135.
- ↑ Other boats that were chasing OS 34 were U 162 , which however did not manage to catch up with the convoy, and U 108 .
- ↑ C. Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 1: The Hunters. 1939-1942. 1998, p. 782.
- ↑ The so-called zigzag.
- ↑ U 202 set out from Brest at the end of May and landed German agents on the US east coast, see Operation Pastorius .
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