U 703
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U 703 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | VII C |
| Shipyard: | HC Stülcken Sohn , Hamburg |
| Construction contract: | October 9, 1939 |
| Build number: | 762 |
| Keel laying: | August 9, 1940 |
| Launch: | July 16, 1941 |
| Commissioning: | October 16, 1941 |
| Commanders: |
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| Calls: | 13 activities |
| Sinkings: |
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| Whereabouts: | from September 25, 1944 missing in arctic waters |
U 703 was a German type VII C submarine of the Kriegsmarine , which was mainly used against the Allied convoys in the Arctic Ocean during the Second World War .
history
U 703 was built at the Stülcken shipyard in Hamburg . It entered service in October 1941. From October 16, it was part of the 6th U-Flotilla as a training boat and undertook training trips and diving tests in the Baltic Sea under the command of Kptlt. Heinz Bielfeld . In April 1942 the boat was dispatched to Narvik , Norway for its first war mission .
Calls
On its voyage to Norway, U 703 docked in Heligoland and Stavanger until it finally arrived in Bergen on April 13th. From here, Commander Bielfeld started his first patrol during which the boat operated on the Northern Sea Convoy QP 11 as part of the submarine group " Strauchritter " .
Countersinks through U 703 :
- On May 26, 1942, the US merchant ship Syros from convoy PQ 16 ( Lage ).
- On July 5, 1942, the British merchant ship Empire Byron from the disbanded convoy PQ 17 ( Lage ).
- On July 5, 1942, the British merchant ship River Afton from the disbanded convoy PQ 17 ( Lage ).
- On September 20, 1942, the British destroyer HMS Somali from convoy QP 14 was seriously damaged ; it sank four days later ( Lage ).
- On July 30, 1943, the Soviet naval trawler T-911 ( Lage ).
- On October 1, 1943, the Soviet merchant ship Sergej Kirov ( Lage ).
- On March 5, 1944, the British merchant ship Empire Tourist from convoy RA 57 ( Lage ).
Downfall
In the spring of 1944, U 703 was given the new task of deploying weather balloons in the arctic waters. During one of these missions, the boat suddenly disappeared around September 25, 1944. It had left Narvik on September 14 for its 13th mission to launch two weather buoys, WFS 133 "Ernst" and WFS 134 "August". Due to the bad weather and the heavy swell during this technically demanding mission, it was assumed that U 703 fell victim to the adverse conditions. A mine hit was also assumed to be the cause of the loss of U 703 . No trace was found of the boat and its 54-strong crew. The cause of the sinking remains unexplained.
literature
- Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 1: The Hunters. 1939-1942. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X .
- 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 .
- Peter Sharpe: U-Boat Fact File. 1935-1945. Midland Publishing, Leicester 1998, ISBN 1-85780-072-9 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. 1997, p. 58.
- ↑ Ships sunk by U 703 on uboat.net , as of October 16, 2008.
- ↑ The merchant steamer Syros on uboat.net
- ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes Verlag, Graefelfing vor München 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 , p. 231.
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 , p. 109.
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