U 967

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U 967
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Type : VII C
Field Post Number : 51 480
Shipyard: Blohm & Voss , Hamburg
Construction contract: June 5, 1941
Build number: 167
Keel laying: May 15, 1942
Launch: February 4, 1943
Commissioning: March 11, 1943
Commanders:
Calls: three ventures
Sinkings:

a warship (1,300 t)

Whereabouts: self-sunk on August 9, 1944

U 967 was a German submarine of the type VII C , a so-called "Atlanticboat", which was used by the German navy during the submarine war in World War II in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean .

Technical specifications

A VII C-boat was driven by two 1400 HP strong diesel engines and reached a speed of 17 knots . Under water, a submarine could make a speed of 7.6 kn with the help of two electric motors with 375 HP each. However, the power of the batteries only allowed this top speed for underwater travel for an hour. At a lower speed, the boat could theoretically travel underwater for up to three days.

As a VII C-boat, U 967 also had a water displacement of 769 t on the surface and 871 t under water. It was a total of 67.1 m long, 6.2 m wide, 9.6 m high with a 50.5 m long pressure hull and had a draft of 4.74 m. The submarine, built in the Hamburg shipyard Blohm & Voss , was powered by two four-stroke F46 diesel engines with 6 cylinders each and a charging fan from the Kiel Germania shipyard with an output of 2060 to 2350 kW, with two electric motors GU 460 / 8-27 from AEG for underwater operation driven with an output of 550 kW. It had two drive shafts with two 1.23 m tall propellers. The boat was suitable for diving to a depth of 230 m.

U 967 had five 53.3 cm torpedo tubes - four at the bow and one at the stern - and fourteen torpedoes , an 8.8 cm SK C / 35 cannon with 220 rounds of ammunition, and a 3.7 cm anti -aircraft gun M42 18/36/37/43 and two 2 cm FlaK C / 30.

Commitment and history

From March 11 to September 30, 1943, U 967 served as a training boat for the 5th U-Flotilla and was stationed in Kiel . From October 1, 1943, the boat came to the 6th U-Flotilla as a front boat .

On October 11, U 967 ran out of Bergen for its first patrol. The commander, Oberleutnant zur See Loeder, patrolled the North Atlantic and northwest of Spain . During this time his boat was assigned to the submarine groups Siegfried , Siegfried 1 , Körner , Tirpitz 2 , Eisenhart 4 and Schill 3 . During this mission, U 967 was hit by an aircraft on November 21, probably a Consolidated B-24 “Liberator” of 53 Sqn. of the Royal Air Force accompanying convoy SL 139 . The crew was able to fend off the aircraft with anti-aircraft fire. On November 30, 1943, the boat was attacked again by an airplane in the Bay of Biscay without consequences. The mission ended on December 1, 1943 in Saint-Nazaire .

On the second patrol voyage, U 967 passed the Strait of Gibraltar on February 14th and entered Toulon on February 23rd, 1944 . On March 1, 1944, U 967 was assigned to the 29th U-Flotilla stationed in the Mediterranean , where it remained until the end of its mission.

Under the command of Lieutenant Albrecht Brandi , the boat operated off the Algerian coast during its third patrol in April and May 1944 . Brandi took part in the attack on the allied convoy GUS 38 at the beginning of May and sank the US destroyer escort USS Fechteler (DE 157) on May 5 ( location ). Under the next commandant, Oberleutnant zur See Heinz-Eugen Eberbach, who replaced Brandi, who had been sick due to illness, U 967 did not leave for any other company. The boat was cannibalized by the crew when the Allied troops approached and sunk by blowing up on August 9 near Toulon .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bodo Herzog: German U-Boats 1906-1966 , Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-86070-036-7 . Page 196
  2. ^ Paul Kemp: The German and Austrian submarine losses in both world wars. Urbes Verlag, Graefelfing vor München 1998, ISBN 3-924896-43-7 , page 222

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 .

Web links

  • U 967 CV of the boat on: uboat.net , a detailed site about German submarines, their commanders and their allied opponents (in English).