U 751

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U 751
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Type : VIIC
Field Post Number : 30 807
Shipyard: Kriegsmarine shipyard Wilhelmshaven
Construction contract: October 9, 1939
Build number: 134
Keel laying: January 2, 1940
Launch: November 16, 1940
Commissioning: January 31, 1941
Commanders:

January 31, 1941 - July 17, 1942
Kptlt.Gerhard Bigalk

Calls: 7 activities
Sinkings:
  • 5 ships (21,411 GRT )
  • 1 warship (11,000 GRT)
Whereabouts: Sunk on July 17, 1942 in the North Atlantic northwest of Cape Ortegal

U 751 was a Type VII C submarine of the former German Navy during World War II .

history

Lieutenant Gerhard Bigalk, photographed in St. Nazaire, 1942

U 751 was built at the Wilhelmshaven naval shipyard ( hull number 134). The keel was laid on January 2, 1940 and the launch took place on November 16 of the same year. On January 31, 1940, the boat was put into service and served the 7th U-Flotilla as a training boat until June 1, 1941, before two days later, on June 3, under Lieutenant Gerhard Bigalk, the first of a total of seven enemy voyages started. The associated home port was Saint-Nazaire in France and the field post number was M 30 807.

Commander Bigalk (see picture, left) designed the emblem of the boat on both sides of the tower. It showed a yellow sun over blue waves with an upright sword with a yellow handle and applied lucky number 13 in the heraldic coat of arms.

Ventures

First to third patrol

The first patrol lasted four and a half weeks, it was supposed to operate in the North Atlantic . It began on June 3 in Kiel and ended on July 5, 1941 in Saint-Nazaire.

  • On June 14, U 751 sank the first ship, the British freighter St Lindsay (5,370 GRT ) ( Lage ) with 3,000 tons of cargo and 43 sailors.

On the second patrol, from August 2 to September 8, and the third, from October 11 to November 8, 1941, no sinkings were achieved. Here, too, the area of ​​operations was in the North Atlantic.

Fourth patrol

The fourth venture began on December 16, 1941, but the ship returned to St. Nazaire a day later. On December 19, 1941, the patrol began in the North Atlantic operations area and west of Spain ( Gibraltar convoy).

  • On December 21, 1941, U 751 succeeded in sinking the escort aircraft carrier HMS Audacity (11,000 GRT) with six aircraft on board. ( Location ). At that time, the navy mistakenly assumed for several months that the sunk ship was the aircraft carrier HMS Unicorn (48 aircraft).

On his return on December 26, 1941, Commander Bigalk was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class and the Knight's Cross for the sinking .

Fifth and sixth patrol

The two following trips from January 14th to February 23rd and from April 15th to June 15th 1942 were also successful.

  • On February 2, U 751 damaged the Dutch tanker Corilla (8,096 GRT), on February 4 and 7, U 751 sank two British cargo ships, the Silveray ( Lage ) with 4,535 GRT and the Empire Sun ( Lage ) with 6,952 GRT.
  • On May 16 and 19, 1942, two American freighters, the Nicarao (1,445 GRT) ( location ) and the Isabela (3,110 GRT) ( location ), were sunk.

Seventh patrol

On July 14, 1942, the U 751 left for the last time. The boat was supposed to operate again northwest of Cape Ortegal .

Downfall

This photo of the incapable of maneuvering U-751 was taken from a British Whitley on July 17, 1942 shortly before the sinking

Three days after sailing, on July 17, 1942, U 751 was sunk by depth charges at 45 ° 14 ′  N , 12 ° 22 ′  W about 190 nautical miles (355 km) northwest of Cape Ortegal, Spain British Whitley and Lancaster aircraft from Sqdn. 61 / F and 502 / H had been dropped. The entire crew of 48 men was killed.

Honor

The crew of U 751 , like all other dead from the German submarine weapon, is dedicated to a bronze plaque on the submarine memorial in Möltenort near Kiel , on which the 48 names are recorded.

Memorial book

On May 19, 1941, the Westphalian city of Herdecke took over a sponsorship for the submarine after it was known that the Herdeck soldier Rudolf Demtröder was transferred to the U 751 as chief engineer on July 30, 1941 . The sponsorship took the form of a resolution by the then mayor Elsemann. In the city budget in 1941, 2,500 RM were estimated for the sponsorship.

On the occasion of the sinking of U 751 and his team in July 1942, Elsemann decided to publish a memorial book, which, however, did not take place for reasons that were not yet clear. The material for the book was discovered in 1987 in the Herdeckes city archive by the archivist at the time, Olaf Rose . Rose made the book " U-751 triumph and tragedy of a German submarine. A memorial book ", which was published in 2002 by Vowinckel-Verlag, which belongs to the extreme right-wing publishing company Berg .

See also

literature

  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 5: The knight's cross bearers of the submarine weapon from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-8132-0515-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , p. 39.
  2. ^ 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. 143.
  3. ↑ a b c d Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. 2001, p. 293.
  4. ↑ a b Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 5: The knight's cross bearers of the submarine weapon from September 1939 to May 1945. 2003, p. 176.
  5. ↑ The end for Dr. Rose ( Memento from January 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 42 kB)
  6. ↑ in Braunes Merchandising by Albrecht Kolthoff (published on September 30, 2004 in Telepolis of the online magazine heise-online)
  7. ^ Glossary of right-wing extremism under Federal Agency for Civic Education

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