U 879

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U 879
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Type : IX C / 40
Field Post Number : 00 832
Shipyard: Deschimag AG Weser , Bremen
Construction contract: April 2, 1942
Build number: 1087
Keel laying: June 26, 1943
Launch: January 11, 1944
Commissioning: April 19, 1944
Commanders:

Erwin Manchen

Flotilla:
Calls: A company
Sinkings:

Probably 2 ships sunk, 2 more damaged

Whereabouts: Sunk with depth charges on April 30, 1945 northwest of Cape Hatteras

U 879 was a submarine of type IX C / 40 , which the Navy during the Second World War in the North Atlantic was used.

Construction and commissioning

Deschimag AG Weser has been involved in building up the German submarine fleet since 1934. Originally, the shipyard was intended for the construction of boats of the large type IA, which is little appreciated by Dönitz . In addition to two boats of this class, six boats of the smaller type VII were built here by 1937 . From the beginning of the war, the Deschimag shipyard specialized in the manufacture of Type IX boats, of which they had delivered 113 units to the Navy by the end of the war. The Type IX C / 40 designed for overseas use was a two-hulled boat that 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. The boat was put into service on April 19, 1944 by Kapitänleutnant Erwin Manchen. Some had entered the Navy in 1936 and served at the Mürwik Naval School . He completed his submarine training in 1943 and U 879 was his first submarine command.

Commitment and history

U 879 was subordinate to the 4th U-Flotilla until January 1945 . During this time, Commander Manchen undertook training trips in the Baltic Sea to retract the boat and train the crew.

On January 27, 1945, the boat left Kiel for its first venture. Four days later, U 879 reached the German naval base in Horten , where Commander Manchen had test drives carried out to try out the snorkel . On February 12, the boat left Norway for the US and Canadian Atlantic coasts. At the same time, two other IX / C boats left with the same mission: U 866 and U 857 . Such coordinated attacks by German submarines on North American waters are summarized under the term " Operation Paukenschlag ", even if the actual name-giving enterprise was completed in the summer of 1942. The three bang-bang boats were instructed to deliver daily weather reports, which made it possible for the Allied radio reconnaissance to trace their way across the Atlantic.

Until the end of April, some operated his boat on the US east coast and off Cape Hatteras, among other places . In the same sea area, U 857 was also patrolling according to the same tactical guidelines. It has not yet been clarified whether this boat or U 879 was responsible for the damage to the Atlantic States (8,537 GRT) and the Katy (6,825) as well as the sinking of the Belgian Airman (6,959 GRT) and the Swiftscout (8,300 GRT ) during this period ) responsible for.

Sinking

U 879 was sunk with depth charges on April 30, 1945 by the US warships USS Natchez , USS Coffman , USS Bostwick and USS Thomas . The original assumption that the boat was sunk on April 19 by a coordinated attack by the destroyers USS Buckley and USS Reuben James has now been refuted. All 52 crew members perished when U 879 was sunk .

literature

  • 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. 149, 211. ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 .

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966 , Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 . Page 199
  2. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 1: The German submarine commanders. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg 1997. ISBN 3-8132-0490-1 . Page 153
  3. ↑ Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Volume 2: The Hunted, 1942–1945. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-16059-2 . Page 795
  4. ↑ Rainer Busch, Hans-Joachim Röll: The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Volume 3: The German Submarine Successes. ES Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2001. ISBN 3-8132-0513-4 . Page 304
  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. ↑ Axel Niestlé: German U-Boat Losses during World War II. Details of Destruction , Frontline Books, London 2014, ISBN 978-1-84832-210-3 , page 232