U 845
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U 845 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | Type IX C / 40 |
| Field Post Number : | 41 779 |
| Shipyard: | Deschimag AG Weser , Bremen |
| Construction contract: | January 20, 1941 |
| Build number: | 1051 |
| Keel laying: | June 20, 1941 |
| Launch: | January 18, 1943 |
| Commissioning: | May 1, 1943 |
| Commanders: |
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| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | 1 company |
| Sinkings: |
1 ship damaged, no confirmed sinkings |
| Whereabouts: | Sunk off Newfoundland on April 10, 1944 |
U 845 was a type IX C / 40 submarine that was used by the Navy during the Second World War in the submarine warfare .
Technical specifications
As early as 1934, AG Weser was commissioned to build submarines for the Reichsmarine and the Kriegsmarine , circumventing the provisions of the Versailles Treaty . After the start of the war , the shipyard switched its production mainly to submarine construction. Construction contracts for the larger submarine classes, especially the various types of submarine class IX and submarine class XXI , were primarily awarded to the Deschimag shipyard in Bremen. In 1943 AG Weser delivered seventeen type IX C / 40 submarines. U 845 was part of the seventh construction contract that went to the Deschimag shipyard in Bremen after the start of the war. Like most submarines of its time, the boat had a coat of arms on the tower : a giraffe whose body is under water, but which stretches its head over the waves.
history
Corvette captain Udo Behrens put U 845 into service on May 1, 1943 and transferred the boat to the Baltic Sea. Until December of the same year, U 845 was subordinate to the 4th U-Flotilla , a training flotilla that was stationed in Stettin . During this time, Commander Behrens undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to train the crew and to retract the boat.
Training in the Baltic Sea
During a training drive, an accident occurred when a valve to simulate an emergency was intentionally blocked and a diving cell failed. The boat quickly fell off uncontrollably and bored into the sandy seabed of the Baltic Sea. By swiveling the stern back and forth , it was possible to get the boat free again and ultimately let it emerge. The commander was changed several times during the boat's training period.
Behrends suffered from an eye disease and had to give up the command after a few weeks. From July on, Lieutenant Rudolf Hoffmann commanded the boat. In agreement with the Japanese Navy, U 845 was supposed to operate as a so-called monsoon boat in Southeast Asia and took some Japanese officers on board in Kiel . However, this mission was canceled before the start and Hoffmann was relieved of his command. The commandant had expressed himself critical of Karl Dönitz 's instruction to introduce the Hitler salute as a military greeting within the Navy. After just a few months, corvette captain Werner Weber took command of U 845 , who was in command of the boat on his first venture in early 1944.
Use in the North Atlantic
On January 1, 1944 was U 845 from Kiel made from first to his company. The North American east coast, especially the waters off Newfoundland, was intended as the operational area. After a short stay in Bergen , U 845 passed the sea area between the Shetland Islands and the Faroe Islands in mid-January . At the beginning of February the boat reached the Canadian coast, where Commander Weber decided to attack the naval port of St. John's , following the example of Prien's attack on Scapa Flow . When trying to get into port in the wake of an incoming corvette , U 845 ran aground near Cape Spear on February 1 and was severely damaged. In view of the extent of the damage - in addition to two torn open diving tanks, the rudder system had failed and two of the four bow torpedo tubes could no longer be opened - Weber considered abandoning the boat and initiating the self-sinking, but was called upon by Chief Engineer Strunk, who is part of the Prien company Crew of U 47 had been dissuaded.
Loss of the boat
On April 10, 1944, the boat was sunk near Newfoundland by the HMS Forester , the HMCS St. Laurent , the HMCS Owen Sound and the HMCS Swansea by depth charges.
The crew of the Canadian destroyer St. Laurent discovered a submarine around four in the morning that was about five miles ahead on the surface of the water. Together with the corvette Owen Sound , which recorded the submerged submarine with ASDIC , the destroyer began a coordinated depth charge attack on the U 845, which had fled to great depths . This was followed by the Forester , who also tracked the boat with ASDIC tracking. Swansea was added around 6:00 p.m. As a result of the damage incurred in the course of the repeated depth charges, Commander Weber decided to surface a few hours later in the hope of escaping the combat area at greater speed. It was initially possible to detach the slower small warships, but then the St. Laurent recorded the boat again with radar and forced it to change course with artillery fire, which in turn brought U 845 close to Swansea , which in turn opened fire. At that moment Weber decided to take up the battle with the British and Canadian ships and let fire return while he maneuvered his boat between the opposing ships. The submarine came so close to the St. Laurent that the destroyer's crew could attack the submarine drivers with pistols and hand grenades. At around 10:00 p.m., the submarine was finally so badly damaged after almost twenty hours of fighting that the crew disembarked. In the meantime Weber and the first watch officer of the boat had fallen, and other men from the flak crew were missing. As a result of several leaks and additionally open flood valves, U 845 sank very quickly around 10:30 p.m. 45 crew members were saved.
literature
- Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 .
- 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 4: The German submarine losses. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1997, pages 210-216
- ^ 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.
- ↑ a b c Melanie Wiggins: Getting away. Fates of German submariners in World War II , ES Mittler, under license Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8289-0907-6 , pages 73-93
- ^ Udo Behrens was then deployed to the staff of the commanding admiral of the submarines, Hans-Georg von Friedeburg . After the end of the war, he studied theology and became a pastor in Wilhelmshaven (see Högel: Embleme Wappen Malings , Hamburg 2009, page 149)
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , page 528
- ↑ Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 , pages 655-656
- ↑ Axel Niestle: German U-Boat Losses during World War II Details of Destruction . Frontline Books, Barnsley 2014, ISBN 978-1-84832-210-3 , page 131