U 740
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U 740 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
|
|---|---|
| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | 51 233 |
| Shipyard: | F. Schichau shipyard , Danzig |
| Construction contract: | April 10, 1941 |
| Build number: | 1537 |
| Keel laying: | April 26, 1942 |
| Launch: | December 23, 1942 |
| Commissioning: | April 27, 1943 |
| Commanders: |
Lieutenant Captain Günther Stark |
| Flotilla: |
|
| Calls: | 3 patrols |
| Sinkings: |
no |
| Whereabouts: | Missing in the Bay of Biscay from June 6, 1944 , declared a total loss on June 9 |
U 740 was a German submarine of the class (or type) VII C , which was used by the Navy during the Second World War in the submarine warfare from 1943 to 1944 in the Atlantic.
Technical specifications
The Type VII C of the submarine class VII was the most built submarine of all during the Second World War . It was designed for independent use in the Atlantic. The boat had a displacement of 761 m³ above and 865 m³ under water, was 67.1 m long and 6.2 m wide and had a draft of 4.8 m. The two 1,400 hp diesel engines achieved an overwater speed of 17 knots . Under water, a VII-C boat was powered by two electric motors (375 hp each), which enabled a speed of 7.6 knots.
commander
- March 27, 1943 - June 9, 1944
Günther Stark was born on February 1, 1917 in the Prussian Holland district and joined the Navy in 1936 as an officer candidate . He was thus a member of Crew 36 . After completing his training, he first went as a watch officer on the U-escort ship Saar and completed his submarine training in December 1941. Until the spring of 1943, Stark served as a watch officer with the 1st U-Flotilla and took over after the U-commander course (February 1943) and the subsequent building instruction (March 1943) took command of the U 740. In October of the same year, Günther Stark was promoted to lieutenant captain and commanded the U 740 until it sank on June 9, 1944.
Calls
Until March 1944, U 740 was used as a training boat in the 8th U-Flotilla. Most of the time it operated in the Baltic Sea. U 740 left Kiel on March 11, 1944 and reached the base of the 11th U-Flotilla in Bergen three days later. In the same month, the boat set out from Bergen to the area of operations in the North Atlantic (west of Ireland) and finally reached the base of the 1st U-Flotilla in Brest on April 21 . On April 1, 1944, U 740 was subordinated to the 1st U-Flotilla and was used as a front boat until its loss. The U 740 did not report any sinking during its entire period of use .
Sinking
To ward off the invasion , the submarine group Farmer was put together from 36 boats on the instructions of the leader of the U-Boats West, Hans-Rudolf Rösing , which set out on June 6, 1944. U 740 was part of this group. Since the boat did not send any more reports after sailing, it is considered lost and was declared a total loss three days later. Initially, the sinking of a Liberator of the 120th Squadron was attributed, which on June 9th reported an attack on a submarine in the area of the Isles of Scilly .
Current research now assumes that this attack was not aimed at a submarine. Other attacks that could have sunk U 740 would be attacks by a Liberator of the 53rd Squadron or one of the 224th Squadron on June 7th.
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 .
- Herbert A. Werner: The iron coffins (= Heyne books. No. 5177). Foreword by Hans Hellmut Kirst . Approved, unabridged paperback edition, 10th edition. Heyne, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-453-00515-5 .