U 844
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U 844 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
|
|---|---|
| Type : | IX C / 40 |
| Field Post Number : | 51 391 |
| Shipyard: | Deschimag AG Weser , Bremen |
| Construction contract: | August 25, 1941 |
| Build number: | 1073 |
| Keel laying: | May 21, 1942 |
| Launch: | December 30, 1942 |
| Commissioning: | April 7, 1943 |
| Commanders: |
Günther Möller |
| Flotilla: |
|
| Calls: | A company |
| Sinkings: |
none (one plane shot down, 2 dead) |
| Whereabouts: | Sunk on October 16, 1943 southwest of Iceland (53 dead, no survivors) |
U 844 was a submarine of type IX C / 40 , which the Navy during the Second World War in the North Atlantic was used.
Technical specifications
As early as 1934, Deschimag AG Weser was involved in building up the German submarine fleet , partly by circumventing the provisions of the Versailles Treaty . During the war, the shipyard specialized in the construction of boats of the larger type IX. By the end of the war, 113 of these boats had been delivered to the Navy. The Type IX C / 40 designed for overseas use was a two-hulled boat that was 76 m long and 6.84 m in diameter. It reached a speed of 18.3 knots when sailing above water and drove a maximum of 7.5 knots under water.
U 844 was put into service on April 7th by Oberleutnant zur See Günther Möller. Like most German submarines of its time, this boat also had a boat-specific mark that was displayed on the tower . It was a stylized leaping big cat on a torpedo
Commitment and history
U 844 was subordinate to the 4th U-Flotilla until September 1943 , a training flotilla that was stationed in Stettin . During this time, Commander Möller undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to bring the boat in and to train the crew.
On September 14, 1943, the boat left Kiel for an enterprise. U 844 reached the German naval base in Bergen five days later . From here the boat set out again on October 6th in order to search the battle with allied convoys together with 13 other submarines, which were combined in the Schlieffen submarine group . On October 15, Commander Möller discovered ships belonging to Allied convoy trains that were en route from Liverpool to North America. The ON 206 and ONS 20 were large, slow-moving convoys made up of a total of over 100 ships, covered by 13 warships and several dozen aircraft. According to the pack tactics developed by Karl Dönitz , U 844 radioed its position, as well as the direction and speed of the convoy ships, in order to bring more U-boats to the convoy. Contrary to earlier tactical requirements, the submarine command had come to the conviction that with the acoustically controlled torpedo "Wren" in connection with an increased artillery armament, massed surface attacks by submarines against such protected convoys would be promising. As a result, six submarines of the Schlieffen group were sunk on October 16 and 17 , which is considered to be one of the greatest defeats of the Navy in World War II.
Loss of the boat
U 844 was discovered on 16 October by a Liberator bomber of the Royal Air Force while traveling southwest of Iceland near the westward convoy . Despite considerable defensive fire, the British pilot decided to attack the German U-boat, but the water bombs of the aircraft did not dissolve out of the chute. In return, the German flak crew managed to destroy two of the Liberator's four on-board engines. Now it was no longer possible for the B-24 to fly attacks and the pilot limited himself to circling the submarine and calling for support. Some time later another Liberator arrived, dropping eight depth charges on U 844 , with an on-board engine also being destroyed in this aircraft in the firefight. Due to the cooperation of the two Liberator bombers of the Royal Air Force, U 844 was finally sunk, with all 53 crew members perishing. One of the B-24s was so badly damaged in battle that it had to go into the water. Two crew members were killed, the remaining four men were taken up by an escort ship.
literature
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 2: Submarine construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1997, pp. 149, 211. ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 .
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 , Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 . Page 199
- ^ 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. 149.
- ↑ Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 . Page 512-513
- ↑ Axel Niestlé: German U-Boat Losses during World War II. Details of Destruction , Frontline Books, London 2014, ISBN 978-1-84832-210-3 , page 131 u. Page 231