U 880 (Navy)
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U 880 (Kriegsmarine) ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Type : | IX C / 40 |
| Field Post Number : | M - 19 687 |
| Shipyard: | AG Weser ( Deschimag ), Bremen |
| Construction contract: | April 2, 1942 |
| Build number: | 1088 |
| Keel laying: | July 17, 1943 |
| Launch: | February 10, 1944 |
| Commissioning: | May 11, 1944 |
| Commanders: |
Lieutenant Gerhard Schötzau |
| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | 1 patrol |
| Sinkings: |
no |
| Whereabouts: | sunk in the North Atlantic on April 16, 1945 ( Lage ) |
U 880 was a submarine of type IX C / 40 , that of the German Navy in the Second World War was used.
Technical specifications
The anti-aircraft armament consisted of two 2 cm twin flak and the then new 3.7 cm twin flak . It was one of the few submarines with the new short signal transmitter with the code name " Kurier " on board, which had been tested during training in the Baltic Sea.
The torpedo equipment consisted of the latest torpedoes such as B. LUTs , FATs , T-5 / Wrens , and others.
commander
The commandant of the boat was from May 11, 1944 to April 16, 1945 Lieutenant Captain Gerhard Schötzau. He was born on April 16, 1917 in Fylitz near Neidenburg and joined the Navy in 1936. In 1940 he served as a weapons officer on the mineship Tannenberg and then as a bulky weapons officer on the artillery training ship Brummer . From the summer of 1942 to the spring of 1943, OLzS Schötzau taught at the barrier school in Kiel and then attended the helmsman's school. On September 1, 1943, he was promoted to lieutenant captain. He had already started his submarine training in June of the same year, which he completed by successfully completing the commanders course in March 1944.
U 880 at the "Gruppe Seewolf"
U 880 was assigned to the last attack submarine group "Seewolf" in the North Atlantic in April 1945 as part of the Paukenschlag company . The crew consisted of 49 men, including a marine doctor and a medical officer. In the first days of January 1945 in Kiel , the U 880 was provided with upper deck rooms for freight or material instead of the usual reserve torpedoes by the DWK for a special order, but this was no longer carried out.
The original task was to lay out two automatic radio weather buoys in the Atlantic. This order could not be carried out because the U 880 had to return to Bergen for repairs within a few days after attempting to coast down in January and then in February 1945 due to equipment damage. The first time the Junkers compressor failed , the second attempt the snorkel was leaking.
Sinking
U 880 was sunk by US warships on April 16, 1945 near the Azores.
Data on U 880
22. 02. 44 Construction supervision U880, I.WO detached to Warship Building Training Department Bremen.
11. 05. 44 Commissioning of U880
22. 08. 44 Remaining work at the Oderwerke in Stettin regarding the conversion of the upper deck narrowing ("quick dive back ")
15. 11. 44 End of work at the Oderwerke.
08.12.44 Order to U880, 2 weather buoys to be deployed in the Atlantic 16.12.44
the meteorologist Reg. Council. Dr. Nagel is posted to U880
January. 45 Work at DW Kiel due to the installation of upper deck
rooms. 01/11/45 Departure from Kiel to Bergen with 1 weather buoy and sick Dr. Nagel
01/25/45 Departure from Bergen / Kristiansand with Dr. Nagel and 1 weather buoy
01/28/45 Return to Bergen due to a defective Junkers (compressed air) compressor 02/07/45 Departure
from Bergen without Dr. Nagel, with weather buoy
02/08/45 U 880 reports defective snorkel, mission is canceled
02/09/45 Return to Bergen; Snorkel spare parts must be obtained from Germany.
02/14/45 Last letter from I.WO on board the barge “Oceana”
03/08/45 The weather buoy is disembarked because the storage period has been exceeded.
03/14/45 Departure
from Bergen
03/30/45 Mutilated passage report from U 880 from the North Atlantic, position unclear.
04/16/45 sinking by USS Stanton and USS Frost. (Location: 47 ° 53 ′ N , 30 ° 26 ′ W ; grid square: BD 5354)
crew
Under the command of Kapitänleutnant Gerhard Schötzau were three officers, the first officer on watch (I. WO); the II. WO and the chief engineer; who all had the rank of first lieutenant in the sea, plus experienced portepee sergeants (sergeant ranks): two chief machinists, two chief helmsmen, a chief radio master and ten mates . If you deduct the marine doctor and medical officer, only 47 men remain for this large type of submarine, which usually required six to ten more men. When it went into service in 1944, U 880 still had 54 men, as can be seen in the photos.
Crew list
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literature
- April 1945 - Report of Antisubmarine Action by Surface Ships and Antisubmarine Action by Surface Ship War Diary USS Stanton, USS Frost. National Archives, Washington DC USA.
- Günther W. Gellermann : Secret imperial matter - Secret command matter. Mysterious cases from the Second World War. ES Mittler & Sohn GmbH, Hamburg et al. 2002, ISBN 3-8132-0784-6 .
- Axel Niestlé: German U-Boat Losses During World War II. Details of Destruction. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 1998, ISBN 1-557-50641-8 .
- Eberhard Rössler : The German submarines and their shipyards. 2 volumes (Vol. 1: U-boat building until the end of World War I, constructions for foreign countries and the years 1935–1945 (part 1). Vol. 2: German submarine construction in the years 1935–1945 (part 2 ) as well as submarine construction in the Federal Republic of Germany. ). Bernard & Graefe, Munich 1979–1980, ISBN 3-7637-5213-7 (vol. 1), ISBN 3-7637-5218-8 (vol. 2).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906–1966. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 , p. 282.
- ^ Submarine sinkings April 15 and 16, 1945 according to the war diaries of destroyers USS Stanton and USS Frost .
- ↑ Further information on U 880 with photos of U 880 and a handwritten letter from Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz and further information on the night of the sinking April 15-16, 1945.
- ↑ Submarine loss data.
- ↑ Information on technical data about submarines.
Map with all coordinates: