U 841

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U 841
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Type : IX C / 40
Field Post Number : M- 49 972
Shipyard: Deschimag AG Weser , Bremen
Construction contract: January 20, 1941
Build number: 1047
Keel laying: October 21, 1942
Launch: October 21, 1942
Commissioning: February 6, 1943
Commanders:

February 6, 1943 to October 17, 1943
Lieutenant Captain Werner Bender

Flotilla:
Calls: 2 patrols
Sinkings:

no

Whereabouts: Sunk in the North Atlantic on October 17, 1943 (27 dead, 27 prisoners of war)

U 841 was one of the Navy in World War II employed submarine of type IX C / 40 . The submarine failed to sink or damage ships and was sunk in the North Atlantic by the British frigate HMS Byard on October 17, 1943 . 27 crew members died, including commander Werner Bender, while the remaining 27 men were taken on board by the Byard as prisoners of war .

Construction and equipment

U 841 had a water displacement of 1144 t on the surface and 1257 t under water. It was a total of 87.6 m long, 7.5 m wide, 10.2 m high with a 68.5 m long and 4.4 m wide pressure hull and had a draft of 5.35 m. The submarine, built by Deschimag AG Weser in Bremen , was powered by two MAN four-stroke diesel engines M9V40 / 46 with 9 cylinders each and an output of 3240 kW, with two electric motors from Siemens-Schuckertwerke with an output of 370 kW for underwater operation . It had two drive shafts with two 1.92 m propellers. The boat was suitable for diving to a depth of 150 m as a regular diving depth, up to a maximum of 200 m.

The submarine reached speeds of up to 13.2 knots on the surface and up to 7.3 knots under water. When surfaced, the boat could travel up to 13,850 nautical miles at 10 knots and up to 63 nautical miles submerged at 4 knots. U 841 had six 533 mm torpedo tubes - four at the bow and two at the stern - and 22 torpedoes , a 10.5 cm SK C / 32 rapid-loading cannon with 180 rounds of ammunition, a 3.7 cm SK C flak / 30 and a 2 cm FlaK C / 30.

team

The crew strength of the submarine was 48 to 60 men. On his last trip there were 54 men.

Calls

After its commissioning, U 841 served under the command of Lieutenant Werner Bender (1916-1943) from February 6, 1943 to August 25, 1943 as a training boat and was tested. From August 17 to 25, 1943, it was equipped for the first patrol in Kiel . U 841 left the port of Kiel on August 26, 1943 and operated after brief stops in Kristiansand (August 28) and Haugesund (night of August 29) in the North Atlantic, but did not achieve any success in scuttling. The return journey took place via Haugesund to the destination port of Bergen (Norway) , which was reached on September 1, 1943 after just six days. U 841 left Bergen on September 9, 1943 and reached Trondheim on September 10, 1943 .

U 841 left the port of Trondheim on October 4, 1943 to operate as part of the “Schlieffen” submarine group in the North Atlantic. The submarine attacked the combined convoys ON-206 and ONS-20, but could not sink any ships again. On 17 October 1943, U 841 from the British frigate HMS Byard (K.315) , to the east, which accompanied these convoys of Cape Farewell sunk: First, there was water bombs heavily damaged. After surfacing, the boat was put under heavy artillery and machine gun fire , so that many of the submarine drivers climbing on deck were shot and the flak could not be manned. Commander Bender ordered “all hands off board” and fired his pistol at the enemy frigate in vain before falling into the sea without a life jacket. A total of 27 crew members died - including Kapitänleutnant Werner Bender and most of the officers - while the remaining 27 men - including an officer (Lieutenant zur See Hermann Knaup) and five NCOs - were taken on board by the British frigate as prisoners of war . The prisoners were first brought ashore in St. John's ( Newfoundland ), but with the exception of two wounded who were hospitalized, they were transferred to Boston with the HMCS Georgetown .

See also

literature

  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. Preface by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rohwer, Member of the Presidium of the International Commission on Military History. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1996, p. 26. ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 2: Submarine construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1997, pp. 102, 211. ISBN 978-3-8132-0512-1 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 4: The German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2008, p. 157. ISBN 978-3-8132-0514-5 .
  • Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maas: The German warships 1815-1945. Volume 3: Submarines, auxiliary cruisers, mine ships, net layers. Bernhard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-7637-4802-4 .
  • Clay Blair : The Submarine War - The Hunted 1942–1945 . Heyne Verlag, 1999. p. 515. ISBN 3-4531-6059-2 .

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