U 881
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U 881 ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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 The sister boat U 889 |
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| Type : | IX C / 40 |
| Field Post Number : | M-19 715 |
| Shipyard: | AG Weser ( Deschimag ), Bremen |
| Construction contract: | April 2, 1942 |
| Build number: | 1089 |
| Keel laying: | August 7, 1943 |
| Launch: | March 4, 1944 |
| Commissioning: | May 27, 1944 |
| Commanders: | |
| Flotilla: |
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| Calls: | 1 patrol |
| Sinkings: |
no |
| Whereabouts: | Sunk on May 6, 1945 in the North Atlantic southeast of Newfoundland (53 dead, no survivors). |
The U 881 was a Type IXC / 40 - Submarine of the former German Navy in World War II . It was unable to sink or damage any ships on its only patrol off the Atlantic coast of the United States. On May 6, 1945 it was sunk while attempting to attack a convoy , killing all 53 men on board. U 881 and U 853 were the last German submarines to be lost to enemy action.
The submarine
The U 881 was commissioned from the Bremer Deschimag shipyard on April 2, 1942, as the penultimate boat in the U 877 to U 882 series . It was laid down as the new building 1089 on August 7, 1943 and launched on March 4, 1944. On May 27, 1944, the commissioning took place under first lieutenant in the sea, later lieutenant captain of the reserve, Dr. jur. Karl-Heinz Frischke, who was previously a student in command of the Type VII C boat U 970 , which he left after completing his training in the front boat. After the commissioning of his U 881, Frischke then went to the Baltic Sea for several months to prepare the crew for the next front line operation and to familiarize them with how to handle the boat. The boat was first subordinated to the 4th U-Flotilla , a training flotilla stationed in Stettin , as a training boat and later to the 33rd U-Flotilla , a front-line flotilla stationed in Flensburg , as a front boat. In addition, the submarine had no coat of arms.
Use statistics
Relocation to Norway
On March 11, 1945, U 881 cast off from Kiel and anchored a few days later in Schilksee , from where it later moved U 776 with Kapitänleutnant Lothar Martins and Kapitänleutnant Paul Justs U 546 to Horten , where it carried out snorkeling exercises in the Oslo fjord.
1. patrol
On March 19, U 881 ran from Horten to Kristiansand , where some additions were made. One day later, on March 21st, the boat left Kristiansand behind, but had to run to Bergen for urgent snorkel repairs, where it arrived on March 30th. On April 7, 1945, the men of U 881 finally said goodbye to their home waters and the boat left for the first patrol. It was unable to sink or damage any ships during this 39-day patrol.
End of the boat
On May 6, 1945 U 881 attacked a US carrier group consisting of the US escort carrier USS Mission Bay (CVE-59) and the destroyer escorts USS Hill (DE-141) , USS Pride (DE-323) , USS Douglas L Howard (DE-138) , USS JRY Blakely (140) , USS Fessenden (DE-142) , USS Menges (DE-320) , USS Mosley (DE-321) and USS Farquhar (DE-139) . But USS Farquhar located U 881 with ASDIC and attacked them with depth charges . The boat was hit and sank with the entire crew of 53 men.
literature
- 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. 73. 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 and Son, Mittler and Son, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-8132-0512-6 .
- 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, p. 354. ISBN 978-3-8132-0514-5 .
- 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. 798, 800. ISBN 3-453-16059-2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ BArch, MSG 225. History, organization and staffing of the navy from the 17th to the 20th century.- Collection by Hans H. Hildebrand. Federal Archives, accessed on January 24, 2016 .