U 739
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U 739 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | 50 545 |
| Shipyard: | F. Schichau shipyard , Danzig |
| Construction contract: | April 10, 1941 |
| Build number: | 1536 |
| Keel laying: | April 17, 1942 |
| Launch: | December 23, 1942 |
| Commissioning: | March 6, 1943 |
| Commanders: |
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| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | 8 activities |
| Sinkings: |
1 small warship (625 t) |
| Whereabouts: | capitulated on 13 May 1945 on 14 December as part of Operation Deadlight sunk |
U 739 was a German submarine of the type VII C , which was used by the German navy during the Second World War in the submarine war in the North Atlantic and in the Arctic Ocean against Allied northern convoys .
Technical specifications
The type VII C of the submarine class VII was the most built German submarine and was also known as the "Atlantic boat" because it was designed for independent use in the Atlantic.
A VII C-boat was driven by two 1400 HP strong diesel engines and reached a speed of 17 knots . Under water, a submarine could make a speed of 7.6 kn with the help of two electric motors with 375 HP each. However, the power of the batteries only allowed this top speed for underwater travel for an hour. At a lower speed, the boat could theoretically travel underwater for up to three days.
As a VII C-boat, U 739 also had a water displacement of 769 t on the surface and 871 t under water. It was a total of 67.1 m long, 6.2 m wide, 9.6 m high with a 50.5 m long pressure hull and had a draft of 4.74 m. The submarine, built in the Hamburg shipyard Blohm & Voss , was powered by two four-stroke F46 diesel engines with 6 cylinders each and a charging fan from the Kiel Germania shipyard with an output of 2060 to 2350 kW, with two electric motors GU 460 / 8-27 from AEG for underwater operation driven with an output of 550 kW. It had two drive shafts with two 1.23 m tall propellers. The boat was suitable for diving to a depth of 230 m.
Commitment and history
Until October 1943, U 739 belonged to the 8th U-Flotilla as training boats . During this time, Commander Mangold undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to retract the boat and train the crew. On November 1st, U 739 was assigned to the 9th U-Flotilla and at the beginning of the following year, on January 1, 1944, to the 13th U-Flotilla . On the same day, Leutnant zur See Ernst Mangold left Kiel for the transfer trip to Bergen in German-occupied Norway . From the Norwegian bases of the German Navy, Mangold, from December 1943 first lieutenant at sea , carried out a total of five operations with U 739 in 1944, during which various northern sea convoys were attacked.
Skirmishes
Mangold attacked two British destroyers unsuccessfully during this time and did not score any other sinkings. It was not until September 1944 that U 739, as part of the submarine group Greif , successfully attacked an enemy warship that was in the Allied convoy VD-1 .
- September 24, 1944 Soviet minesweeper TSC-120 (625 t) sunk with torpedo
It was an Admirable-class minesweeper that had been handed over by the US Navy to the Soviet Navy as part of the lend and lease program. The large minesweepers of this class were conceived for the high seas and designed for a crew of over a hundred men. 41 of the crew were killed in the sinking of the TSC-120 minesweeper . 44 other sailors were picked up by a Soviet submarine hunter and brought to Dikson .
Rasmus versus JW 64
On February 3, 1945 the convoy JW 64 left the British naval base at Clyde in Scotland. The convoy consisted of 29 freighters and had Murmansk as its destination. The U-Bootführung put together a submarine group that was named "Rasmus" . The twelve boats, among them U 739 , were supposed to track down and attack the convoy in accordance with the pack tactics developed by Karl Dönitz . For this purpose, the Rasmus submarine group was split. U 739 was one of the eight boats that formed a search strip in the so-called "Bärenenge" between the North Cape and Bear Island , while four other U-boats patrolled the Kola Bay . 48 Ju 88 combat aircraft were also used to support the search, seven of which were lost without the convoy being initially tracked. JW 64 was only discovered on February 9th and attacked south of Bear Island by 32 aircraft from Kampfgeschwader 26 . While the waiting submarines could not approach the convoy due to the considerable escort protection, the air attack was repulsed by JW 64 without significant losses of its own . On February 12, Soviet escort ships reinforced the convoy, which reached Murmansk two days later.
End of the boat
On May 13, 1945, Commander Oberleutnant zur See Ernst Kosnick surrendered to the British armed forces in Emden . The boat was first transferred to Wilhelmshaven , then to Scotland . On July 4, 1945 U 739 arrived in Loch Ryan , from where it was towed into position on December 14 and sunk by torpedo by the British submarine HMS Tantivy .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906-1966 , Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 . Page 196
- ^ Eckard Wetzel: U-Boats in front of Murmansk. Ullstein Verlag, Edition Maritim, 4th edition, Munich 2008, ISBN 978 3 548 26810 1 , page 257
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 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 .
Web links
- U 739 CV of the boat on: uboat.net , a detailed site about German submarines, their commanders and their allied opponents (in English).