U 863

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U 863
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Type : IX D2
Field Post Number : M-53 881
Shipyard: Deschimag AG Weser , Bremen
Construction contract: June 5, 1941
Build number: 1069
Keel laying: September 15, 1942
Launch: June 29, 1943
Commissioning: November 3, 1943
Commanders:
  • November 3, 1943 to September 29, 1944
    KL Dietrich von der Esch
Flotilla:
Calls: an enterprise
Sinkings:

No

Whereabouts: Sunk in the South Atlantic on September 29, 1944

U 863 was a German long -range submarine of the type IX D2 , which was intended by the Navy for use in the Indian Ocean during World War II , but sank before it could reach its operational area.

history

On June 5, 1941, the Navy placed a construction contract with Deschimag AG Weser in Bremen, which included a total of twelve type IX D2 boats, one of which was U 863 . The boat was laid down on September 15, 1942. The launch took place on June 29, 1943. On November 3, 1943, Kapitänleutnant Dietrich von der Esch, previously in command of the Type VII C boats U 586 and U 606, put the boat into service. Before his first submarine command, von der Esch was a sea pilot of the 2nd Squadron of Coastal Aviation Group 406 stationed on Sylt . Their coat of arms, the Iron Hand of Götz von Berlichingen , became the tower emblem of U 586 . When the commander and most of the crew switched to U 863 , he took the boat's coat of arms with him. The team wore a small version of the coat of arms as a hat badge.

Commitment and history

From November 3, 1943 to June 30, 1944, U 863 was assigned to the 4th U-Flotilla as a training boat. This was a training flotilla for submarines in transit and was stationed in Stettin . During this time, Commander von der Esch undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to train the crew and to retract the boat. On July 1, 1944, the boat was assigned to the 12th U-Flotilla , a front flotilla that was stationed in Bordeaux and comprised 15 submarines, including five long-range type IX submarines and two formerly Italian submarines, so-called Aquila boats , which were intended for transport trips in the Indian Ocean.

First and only venture

On July 3, 1944, U 863 ran from Kiel in the direction of Horten , Norway, to carry out snorkeling exercises for two days in the Oslofjord . The boat then moved to Bergen for additions and residual equipment, until it left for the first trip on the Indian Ocean on July 20th . U 863 was supposed to bring equipment and material to the Indian Ocean on this voyage. Shortly after leaving port, U 863 was discovered and attacked by the pilot of a mosquito . The pilot Rolf Leithe from the Norwegian Squadron 333 initially fired at the German submarine with his 5.7 cm on-board cannon. Then Leithe damaged U 863 with two depth charges . Therefore, Commander von der Esch ran into Trondheim with his damaged boat , where U 863 came in the next day. A week later the boat ran out again and set course for the Indian Ocean for the second time. On this 67-day voyage, the boat operated in the Central Atlantic, South Atlantic and southeast of Pernambuco . U 863 belonged to the Monsun group , the long-range submarines of the Kriegsmarine, which were intended for use in Southeast Asian waters. The German submarines operated there from small, provisional bases. The boat belonged to the second wave of the Monsun group , which comprised a total of eighteen boats, most of which were sunk on the approach to the operational area.

Whereabouts

On September 29, 1944, two B-24 Liberator bombers of the US Navy Squadron VB-107 sighted an surfaced German submarine east of Recife and attacked it with depth charges. The boat was U 863 , which was hit and sunk. None of the 69 crew members survived the sinking.

The crew of U 863 during its sinking

This list is ordered by the first letter of the crew members' last names.

  • Hans-Otto Bartels
  • Heinz Barth
  • Herbert Blaas
  • Otto Borner
  • Gerd Breisemeister
  • Bruno Brillert
  • Dr. Hans Bungartz
  • Martin Ehrhardt
  • Dietrich von der Esch
  • Hans-Joachim Flatow
  • Karl Franz
  • Rolf Gantze
  • Walter Gerhards
  • Fritz Gilbert
  • Johann Güth
  • Hans-Albert Harnack
  • Alfred Hauer
  • Heinrich Hene
  • Johann Jatzek
  • Gerhard Jost
  • Hans-Werner Keim
  • Helmuth Kirchhof
  • Heinz Klafka
  • Emil Klem
  • Helmut Kleffmann
  • Günther Koch
  • Wilhelm Kreffter
  • Josef Krumbach
  • Rudolf Kulich
  • Heinz Küster
  • Erich Löffler
  • Gerhard Loeffler
  • Adolf Lohbeck
  • Heinrich Lohmann
  • Heinz-Werner Lory
  • Helmut Meiring
  • Helmut-Herrmann Meyer
  • Karl Meyer
  • Gerhard-Kurt Michaelis
  • Horst Mier
  • Kurt Möhl
  • Richard Opitz
  • Ludwig Oppermann
  • Johann Otto
  • Paul Otto
  • Joachim Pade
  • Alfred Pahl
  • Wilhelm Peckhaus
  • Anton Pöpperl
  • Franz Reitsamer
  • Wilhelm Richter
  • Horst Rose
  • Hans-Günther Rossaint
  • Rudolf Scheidinger
  • Willi Scheliga
  • Heinz Schirmer
  • Karl Schlegel
  • Herbert Schmidt
  • Arnold Schneppenheim
  • Peter Schoenen
  • Rüdiger Schürk
  • Otto Serediuk
  • Gerhard Siebke
  • Heinrich Sievers
  • Ernst Spicker
  • Leopold quarrel
  • Walter Uttich
  • Rudolf Weber
  • Arno Zschornack

literature

  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 .
  • Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The submarine war 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , p. 211.
  2. ^ 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. 151.
  3. Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 2: U-boat construction in German shipyards. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 , p. 316.
  4. Called "Tsetse".
  5. Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 , p. 699.