U 776
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U 776 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | VII C |
| Field Post Number : | M-15 421 |
| Shipyard: | Kriegsmarine shipyard Wilhelmshaven |
| Construction contract: | November 21, 1940 |
| Build number: | 159 |
| Keel laying: | March 4, 1943 |
| Launch: | March 4, 1944 |
| Commissioning: | April 13, 1944 |
| Commanders: | |
| Flotilla: | |
| Calls: | 1 patrol |
| Sinkings: |
no |
| Whereabouts: | Surrenders on May 16, 1945 in Portland , England . Used as a British submarine HMS N 65 for exhibitions and sunk on December 3, 1945 during Operation Deadlight . |
U 776 was a German class VII C submarinethat was used in World War II . It was the third German submarine that entered an English port after the surrender.
Construction and technical data
U 776 was commissioned from the Wilhelmshaven Navy Shipyard on November 21, 1940 . The keel was laid under construction number 159 on March 4, 1943 and launched on March 4, 1944. The commissioning under First Lieutenant zur See , later Lieutenant Commander , Lothar Martin took place on April 13, 1944. The tower emblem of the boat was very similar to that of Kapitän zur See Hermann Lessings U 1231 : A seahorse, the symbol of the on-board flight squadron 1/196, was carried by both boats for reasons of tradition, as both commanders had served there for a time. U 776 received the type IV tower with a 3.7 cm single flak, two 2 cm twin flaks and a folding snorkel with a cylindrical ring float head valve.
Mission history
U 776 left Kiel on March 11, 1945 and first moved to Kalundborg and from there to Horten , where it carried out snorkeling exercises in the Oslofjord. From Horten it then moved to Kristiansand , from where it left for the first patrol on March 23, 1945. U 776 operated on this 54-day expedition in the North Atlantic west of the Scilly Isles without sinking a ship. After the surrender order had reached the boat, Lieutenant Martin decided to call at the British port of Portland , as this was nearby.
End of the boat
The boat moved, still under Lieutenant Lothar Martin, on May 21 from Portland to London , where it was taken over by the Royal Navy as the exhibition boat HMS N 65 . The sightseeing tours began on June 8, 1945 in London and ended on December 3, 1945 in Loch Ryan during Operation Deadlight . The boat was demonstrated in Southampton , Dover , Blyth , Sunderland , Rosyth , Newcastle and Dundee , among others .
Upon arrival at Loch Ryan, it stayed there from August 22nd to December 3rd when it was selected for scuttling. But on the way to the sinking position, the boat sagged in the tow of the naval tug HMS Enforcer (W.178) and capsized. The wreck lies in the grid square AM 6463 to the position of 55 ° 8 ' N , 5 ° 30' W .
literature
- 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 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The first submarine was the Kieler Germaniawerft Type VII C Boat U 249 under Oberleutnant zur See Uwe Kock and the second was the Hamburg Type VII C / 41 Boat U 1023 under Kapitänleutnant Heinrich-Andreas Schroeteler, which on May 10th in Portland came in.
- ^ 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. 171.