U 676

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
U 676
( previous / next - all submarines )
Type : VII C
Field Post Number : 54 607
Shipyard: Howaldtswerke Hamburg
Construction contract: June 5, 1941
Build number: 825
Keel laying: July 13, 1942
Launch: July 6, 1943
Commissioning: 4th August 1943
Commanders:

First Lieutenant
Werner Sass

Flotilla:
Calls: 2 companies, u. a. as an escort boat
Sinkings:

no

Whereabouts: missing in the Baltic Sea on February 19, 1945 ; Wreck discovered in 2011

U 676 was a Germantype VII C submarine . This type was also called "Atlantic boat". U 676 was used by the Kriegsmarine for escort duties in the Baltic Seaduring the submarine war .

Technical specifications

Since the beginning of the Second World War , the Hamburg Howaldtswerke exclusively produced submarines on behalf of the Navy. The shipyard was intended for an annual output of 16 submarines, which should increase to 22 boats from mid-1943. However, these requirements could never be met. By the end of the war, Howaldtswerke Hamburg had delivered 33 submarines to the Navy, all of the type VII C. In August 1943, fourteen other type VII C boats were put into service together with U 676 . The boats had a length of 67 m and a displacement of 865 m³ under water. It was propelled over water by two diesel engines, which enabled a speed of 17 knots . Two electric motors produced a speed of 7 knots under water. The armament consisted of four bow torpedo tubes and one stern torpedo tube as standard. Instead of the usual artillery, an 8.8 cm cannon and a 2.0 cm flak on deck, U 676 was provided with a prototype of a new type of superstructure. The tower was surrounded by a trough-like structure on which several flak were mounted. The boat was thus the test version of a flak boat.

Anti-aircraft boat

As early as June 1942, Dönitz had called for the anti-aircraft armament of the submarines to be reinforced in order to counter the increased threat posed by Allied aircraft. At the instructions of the OKM , improvements to the artillery of individual boats were introduced from autumn of the same year, for which extensive modifications of the respective tower , so-called bridge reconstructions. In the summer of 1943, the Rheinmetall company developed an anti -aircraft gun from the 3.7 cm Heeres-Flak 36 used by the army for installation on the seventh version of this bridge conversion, in which a platform on a protrusion near the trough completely surrounded the tower on which four 3 , 7 cm flak were mounted. With this modification, the boat lost its ability for operations in the Atlantic. Therefore, U 676 was only used in the Baltic Sea.

Flotilla membership and stationing

Until the end of August 1944, U 676 was under the control of the 5th U-Flotilla in Kiel as a training boat and undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to train the crew. From September 1, U 676 was the front boat of the 8th U-Flotilla in Danzig , where it had entered from Kiel two days earlier. In the autumn and winter of 1944, the boat took over escort duties for ship traffic between Riga and Gotenhafen . From February 16, 1945 it was under the 4th U-Flotilla in Stettin .

Sinking

On February 12, 1945, Commander Sass reported that the boat had been damaged by ice. That was the last message from the boat. U 676 was operating in the Gulf of Finland at this time . After no further reports from the boat, it was declared missing on February 19. Since no Soviet attacks on a submarine had become known, a mine hit, a diving accident, human or technical failure was assumed to be the cause of the sinking. In 2011 the boat was discovered by fishermen and examined by a Finnish diving team. Since then, it is clear that U 676 approximately at position 59 ° 30 '0 "  N , 23 ° 0' 0"  O coordinates: 59 ° 30 '0 "  N , 23 ° 0' 0"  O has fallen in a minefield.

literature

  • Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 .
  • Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes Verlag, Graefelfing before Munich 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 .

Web link

Informative page of the diving project "Bathtub", u. a. with pictures from the wreck of U 676

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Kemp: German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. 1998, p. 245.
  2. From December 1942 the bridge conversion II was tested on the U 193 ; the modification was built into the U 237 and U 955 for the first time in new buildings .
  3. The serial name of this weapon was 3.7 cm Automat M 42 U.
  4. Eberhard Rössler: History of the German submarine building. Volume 2. 2nd edition. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-86047-153-8 , pp. 319-321.
  5. Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat 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 , p. 315.
  6. [1] Entry about U 676 on uboat.net