U 868

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U 868
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Type : IX C / 40
Field Post Number : 16 800
Shipyard: Deschimag AG Weser , Bremen
Construction contract: August 25, 1941
Build number: 1075
Keel laying: March 11, 1943
Launch: August 18, 1943
Commissioning: December 23, 1943
Commanders:

Dietrich Rauch
Eduard Turre

Flotilla:

4th U-Flotilla training boat
December 1943 - July 1944
2nd U-Flotilla front boat
August - September 1944
33rd U-Flotilla front boat
October 1944 - May 1945

Calls: two ventures
Sinkings:

a warship with 672 t sunk

Whereabouts: Surrendered in Bergen on May 9, 1945 , later sunk in Operation Deadlight

U 868 was a German submarine from the IX C / 40 that was used by the German navy during the submarine war in World War II in the North Atlantic .

Construction and commissioning

U 868 was built as one of 11 class IX C boats at the Deschimag shipyard in Bremen . The construction contract included the boats U 865 to U 876 . A boat of this type 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 868 was put into service on December 23, 1943 by Lieutenant Dietrich Rauch. As was common with many boats of its time, the crew of U 868 also decided on a boat-specific symbol. It was planned to mount the Bremen Roland - as a reminiscence of the boat's "birthplace" - on the tower . However, this project could not be realized until the surrender of the boat.

Commitment and history

After the commissioning, U 868 was assigned to the 4th submarine flotilla, a training flotilla that was stationed in Stettin . Until the summer of 1944, Commander Rauch undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea from here to test the boat and to train the crew. On July 21, he handed over command to First Lieutenant for the Sea Eduard Turre. The 24-year-old Turre had previously served as first watch officer on the U 530 . He continued the training of the crew in the Baltic Sea until January 1945, and a snorkel system was installed.

In the spring the boat made a transport trip from Norway to Saint-Nazaire . It returned from there in April. On this venture Turre attacked the British minesweeper Guysborough , which he sank on March 17th with an acoustically controlled torpedo .

Until the end of the war, U 868 remained at the naval base in Bergen , where Turre surrendered to British forces on May 9th.

Sinking

U 868 was initially brought to the British naval base Scapa Flow . From there, the boat was brought to Loch Ryan on the Scottish west coast in June , where many German submarines were interned to be sunk as part of Operation Deadlight . From here, U 868 was supposed to be towed into position by the British tug HMS Saucy for sinking on November 30, 1945 , but sank before the target area was reached.

Individual evidence

  1. Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 , Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 . Page 199
  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 , page 152.
  3. Rauch became company commander of the 2nd submarine training division. He held this post until the end of the war.
  4. Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 3: German submarine successes from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 . Page 303
  5. Axel Niestlé: German U-Boat Losses during World War II. Details of Destruction , Frontline Books, London 2014, ISBN 978-1-84832-210-3 , page 132
  6. Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. German submarine losses from September 1939 to May 1945. ES Mittler und Sohn, Hamburg et al. 1999, ISBN 3-8132-0514-2 .

literature

  • 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 .