U 847
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U 847 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | Type IX D2 |
| Field Post Number : | 49 998 |
| Shipyard: | Deschimag AG Weser , Bremen |
| Construction contract: | January 20, 1941 |
| Build number: | 1053 |
| Keel laying: | November 23, 1941 |
| Launch: | September 5, 1942 |
| Commissioning: | January 23, 1942 |
| Commanders: |
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| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | 1 company |
| Sinkings: |
no |
| Whereabouts: | In on August 27, 1943 Sargasso Sea dropped |
U 847 was a submarine of the type IX D2 , a so-called “ocean boat”, which was used by the Navy during the Second World War in the submarine war . It was supposed tooperatewith the Monsun group in the East Asian sea area, but was already lost on the way to the operation area.
Technical specifications
AG Weser had been commissioned to build submarines for the Reichsmarine and the Kriegsmarine since 1934, 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. The shipyard was intended for an annual output of 36 type IX D2 boats, but was never able to meet this requirement. In 1942 AG Weser delivered nine submarines of this type. U 847 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 black horse soaring on a white background. In addition, as Maling , the boat carried a cartoon lion on the tower, which was bitten in the tail by a fish.
history
Kapitänleutnant Friedrich Guggenberger put U 847 into service on January 23, 1942 and transferred the boat to the Baltic Sea. Until June of the same year, U 847 was subordinate to the 4th U-Flotilla , a training flotilla that was stationed in Stettin . During this time the boat undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to train the crew and to run in the boat. During the training period of the boat, the commander was changed several times.
Commanders and flotilla affiliations
On February 1, Guggenberger handed over command to Lieutenant Captain Jost Metzler . At the end of June, Metzler handed over command to Lieutenant Captain Herbert Kuppisch . The boat ended the training period under the command of Kapitänleutnant Kuppisch at the end of June and was placed under the 12th U-Flotilla on July 1, 1943 , a front flotilla that was stationed in Bordeaux and mainly called large boats of the XI types and the "dairy cows" Supply boats of the submarine class XIV used. For Kuppisch, this was the first on-board command in two years that he had not been at sea.
Auxiliary supply boat
U 847 left Kiel on July 6, 1943 and collided with an ice floe on Denmark Strait . Two weeks later, the boat arrived in Bergen, Norway, for repairs . From here on July 29th, Commander Kuppisch set out on his first and only venture with this boat. The destination of the trip was Penang in Malaysia , where a temporary submarine base had been set up. U 847 was supposed to take part in the operations of the Monsun group stationed there in the Southeast Asian sea area, but broke off the approach to the area of operations and was instead used as an auxiliary supply boat to support the submarines in use, as many of the U -Boats such as U 117 or U 525 had meanwhile been sunk.
Meeting with other submarines
In mid-August, the U 847 supplied the badly battered U 66 with lubricating oil and fuel as well as a water distillation apparatus. On August 24, the boat U 415 , which had operated under the command of Kurt Neide off the US east coast and now needed fuel for the return journey to France, and U 172 under the command of Carl Emmermann . In a later survey, Emmermann reported on the bad impression that Kuppisch and his crew had made on him, accused the U 847 team of low motivation, poor defensive readiness and insufficient vigilance and described Kuppisch as a representative of a generation of submarine commanders, at the time of which the enemy air surveillance was not yet a factor in the submarine war. He had to urge the commander of U 847 to man the flak while the fuel was being taken over . After two hours the two boats separated again. U 185 next approached U 847 under August Maus , but was attacked by a Wildcat fighter and an Avenger torpedo aircraft on the approach to the rendezvous and so badly damaged that Commander Maus ordered the self-sinking and the majority of his crew into the water saved. The smaller U 84 , which was supposed to meet with U 847 to take over fuel , also failed to reach the meeting point. The cause of the loss of this boat is unclear. A few days later, U 847 supplied a group of submarines that had been pulled together by the submarine command in the Gulf of Guinea to hunt Allied ships in the poorly guarded sea area, and for the return journey to the northern French bases the navy had to be supplied with fuel. U 847 refueled several of these boats towards the end of August: U 654 , U 653 , U 257 , U 508 and U 230 . Emmermann's assessment of Kuppisch's crew was also confirmed by the first officer on watch of the latter boat, Herbert A. Werner, who gave his impression of U 847 as follows: “However, incomprehensibly, the supplier's crew behaved completely carefree. The men were lying on the deck, hanging lazily over the railing or standing on the large bridge like corner sticks. "
Loss of the boat
On August 27, U 847 was discovered by a Wildcat fighter and an Avenger torpedo aircraft belonging to the US escort aircraft carrier Card and attacked with artillery. Kuppisch, whose submarine was at full speed at the time, then had U 847 dive. The Avenger threw a target-seeking Mark 24 torpedo, a so-called FIDO, after the submerged boat. A short time later, two underwater detonations and floating oil indicated the sinking of U 847 .
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: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg a. a. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 .
- Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes-Verlag, Graefelfing before Munich 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 .
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.
- ↑ Friedrich Guggenberger took over command of U 513 a few months later , which was sunk in the summer of 1943. Guggenberger was taken prisoner of war with six survivors of his crew
- ↑ According to his personal file, Jost Metzler was in command of U 847 until September 1943 . There is no information on its use between July and September. R. Busch, HJ. Röll: The German submarine commanders (1996) suspect a hospital stay
- ↑ a b c Clay Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, page 470.
- ↑ Clay Blair: The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, page 469.
- ↑ 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, page 528
- ^ A b Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. 1998, p. 149.
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. 1999, page 135.
- ^ Herbert A. Werner: The iron coffins . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-453-00515-5 , page 210
- ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 4: German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. 1999, p. 145.