U 859
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U 859 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | IX D2 |
| Field Post Number : | 53 706 |
| Shipyard: | AG Weser , Bremen |
| Construction contract: | 06/05/1941 |
| Build number: | 1065 |
| Keel laying: | May 15, 1942 |
| Launch: | March 2, 1943 |
| Commissioning: | July 8, 1943 |
| Commanders: |
July 8, 1943 - September 23, 1944 |
| Calls: | 1 patrol |
| Sinkings: |
3 merchant ships (20,853 GRT ) |
| Whereabouts: | Sunk on September 23, 1944 in the Strait of Malacca (47 dead, 20 survivors) |
U 859 was a German submarine of the type IX D2 , which was used by the navy in World War II and sank 3 merchant ships with 20,853 GRT, whereby a total of 9 seamen died. It was one of the first boats to be equipped with a snorkel . On September 23, 1944, it was sunk about 23 nautical miles from Penang , killing 47 of its crew and 20 surviving.
history
U 859 was put into service on July 8, 1943 by Lieutenant Johann Jebsen . It belonged to the 4th U-Flotilla ( Stettin ) until March 31, 1944 for the purpose of training. Then it was subordinated to the 12th U-Flotilla ( Bordeaux ) as a front boat. This association included all boats that were intended for use in the Indian Ocean .
commitment
On April 4, 1944, U 859 ran from Kiel on its only patrol. A total of 67 men were on board. The destination was the Penang base in Malaysia . Mostly submerged, the boat ran through the Kattegat , Skagerrak and the northern North Sea . It reached the North Atlantic without any problems . On April 26, 1944, it sank the Panamanian motor ship Colin ( Lage ) with 6255 GRT, which had loaded sulfur, which was now burning well. It was a straggler of the convoy SC 157. One man from the Colin drowned while the remaining 108 were able to drive away in lifeboats before the next torpedo hit and were rescued.
U 859 ran south and passed the Cape of Good Hope on July 1, 1944 . Four days later, it was suddenly attacked from the air by a Catalina . A sailor fell. The other three bridge guards were wounded. The boat cruised the Indian Ocean over the next few weeks. On August 28, 1944, the American steamer John Barry ( Lage ) with 7176 GRT was sunk in the Arabian Sea . Two of the 81 crew drowned while the rest were rescued. On September 1, 1944, U 859 sank the British steamer Troilus ( Lage ) with 7,422 GRT, whereby six sailors perished and 95 were rescued.
After further operations were unsuccessful, U 859 headed east towards Penang. On September 21, 1944, it announced its arrival.
Downfall
Two days later, U 859 was at the pick-up point. Neither the escort vehicles nor the also announced U 861 were there. Since the arrival of U 861 was delayed, U 859 should not wait because of the danger posed by Allied submarine attacks, but should arrive alone. On the way to the port of Penang, from which it was less than 23 km away, it was torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine HMS Trenchant on September 23, 1944 ( Lage ). The torpedo hit the officers' mess directly during a meeting, so that with the exception of the first officer on watch, Horst Klatt, who was in the toilet, all officers including the commander Johann Jebsen were killed immediately. More men died from escaping chlorine gas . The submarine sank to a depth of about 50 m. Eight crew members including Klatt managed to escape through the bow hatch, while eleven men escaped from the stern compartment to the surface of the water. Most of them had rescuers , but some made it without one. HMS Trenchant appeared within a few minutes and took 11 German submarine drivers on board as prisoners of war , but was then attacked by Japanese warships and submerged again with its prisoners. Nine men from U 859 , who had to float in the water for a whole day, were rescued by the Japanese and brought to Penang on September 24, 1944, where they were interned in Asia after the surrender of the Wehrmacht until the end of the war. A total of 20 crew members survived while 47 died.
literature
- Jochen Brennecke : Sharks in Paradise. The German submarine war in Asia's waters 1943–1945. Dramatic original reports by survivors and previously unpublished secret documents. 10th edition. W. Heyne, Munich 1983, here pp. 321–328. ISBN 3-453-00094-3 .
- Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes Verlag, Graefelfing before Munich 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 .
- 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. 113. ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
- 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. 118, 211. ISBN 3-8132-0512-1 .
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 3: The German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2008, p. 302. ISBN 3-8132-0513-8 .
- Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 4: The German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2008, pp. 292–295. ISBN 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. pp. 642f. ISBN 3-4531-6059-0 .
Web links
- U-859 . On Uboat.net.
- German U-Boats 1935–1945, U 859. On Ubootarchiv.de.
- The “steel coffins”: rescue from a sunk submarine.
- Ken Wright: U-859 - From Germany to Penang. Naval Historical Review, 2007. Naval Historical Society of Australia ( p. 1 , p. 2 , p. 3 )
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