UA (Kriegsmarine)
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UA (Kriegsmarine) ( previous / next - all submarines ) |
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| Shipyard: | Germania shipyard , Kiel |
| Keel laying: | February 10, 1937 |
| Commissioning: | September 20, 1939 |
| Commanders: |
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| Calls: | 9 patrols |
| Sinkings: |
7 ships sunk (40,706 tons) |
| Whereabouts: | Decommissioned in May 1944, self-scuttled in Kiel on May 3, 1945 |
UA was the most successful submarine originally built for foreign accounts that was used by the Navy during World War II .
Building history
UA was built at the Krupp Germania shipyard in Kiel as the submarine cruiser Batiray for the Turkish Navy , confiscated by the German Empire at the outbreak of World War II and put into service by the Navy as a UA . What was unusual for a boat of this size was that it had only one motor and one propeller.
The Batiray was the second of four boats ordered. The first boat was delivered as Saldiray in June 1939 . The other two boats were built in Turkey under German construction supervision. Altiray came into service in 1940 and was lost with the entire crew on July 14, 1942 when a mine hit. The last boat, the Yildiray , was not completed until after the end of the war in January 1946.
Technical specifications
- Dimensions: 86 m × 6.80 m × 4.10 m
- Displacement: surfaced 1044 ts, submerged 1357 ts
- Drive: 1 Burmeister & Wain diesel engine with 4600 HP, 1 electric motor with 1300 HP
- Top speed: 18 knots surfaced, 8.4 kn submerged
- Range: 13,000 nm at 10 kn, submerged 150 nm at 2 kn
- Armament:
6 torpedo tubes (4 front, 2 rear),
1 10.5 cm gun disguised in front of the turret
Calls
The seized Batiray was put into service as a UA by the Navy in September 1939 .
First order
The first order for the boat was the transfer of aviation fuel to Drontheim , for which the shipyard modified the tanks. UA left Kiel on April 27, 1940 and reached Drontheim on May 2. The return trip was made from May 5th to 10th.
First patrol
From June 6 to August 30, 1940, the boat carried out the first South Atlantic operation by a German submarine. Under Lieutenant Cohausz, the boat first operated against the Northern Patrol between the Faroe Islands and Iceland and sank the British auxiliary cruiser HMS Andania (13,950 GRT) there on June 16, 1940 after a false attack. On the march south and in the next operational area between the Canary Islands and the Cape Verde followed by two more sinkings. From July 17 to 28, 1940, it was the first German submarine on the high seas to be re-equipped by the German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin and towed closer to the area of operation off Freetown . UA could only sink one ship off Freetown . On the march back, three more ships were sunk, so that a total of seven ships with 40,706 GRT were sunk on this voyage.
- June 16, 1940: sinking of the British auxiliary cruiser Andania (13,950 GRT, built in 1922). The turbine ship sank after two torpedo hits. The first attack with three torpedoes had failed and went unnoticed. The ship, whose crew was rescued by an Icelandic fish steamer, also missed three more torpedoes to ensure the ship's sinking.
- June 26, 1940: sinking of the Norwegian motor ship Crux (3,828 GRT, 1923, 10.5 knots). The ship on the way to South America sank after a torpedo hit west of Portugal. The crew escaped into the boats.
- July 14, 1940: sinking of the Norwegian tanker Sarita (5,824 GRT, 1914, 10.5 kn). The tanker in ballast on the way to Trinidad and Tobago sank west of the Canary Islands after a torpedo hit. The crew escaped into the boats.
- August 3, 1940: sinking of the Yugoslav freighter Rad (4,201 GRT, 1910). The steamer with chemicals on the way to Durban was stopped with a warning shot south of Cape Verde and sunk with a torpedo after the investigation. The crew saved themselves in the boats and were brought to Freetown by a British ship.
- August 15, 1940: Sinking of the Greek freighter Aspasia (4,211 GRT, 1914). UA shot two torpedoes at the steamer, no survivors, 19 dead.
- August 19, 1940: sinking of the Hungarian freighter Kelet (4,295 GRT, 1913). UA stopped the ballasted freighter that had survivors of a British freighter on board. After the occupants of the steamer went into the boats, the boat tried to sink the Kelet with a torpedo. Since the ship did not sink, it was sunk with the on-board gun. Six dead.
- August 20, 1940: sinking of the freighter Tuira (4,397 GRT, 1912). The freighter flying the Panamanian flag received a torpedo hit southwest of Rockall and sank with its coal load. Two dead.
Second patrol
On the voyage from February 25 to March 18, 1941, the boat was used with six other German boats and an Italian against the convoy OB.292 . During the attack on the following convoy OB.293 , the boat under Korvettenkapitän Eckermann had a torpedo failure and was badly damaged by the convoy's security units, probably the HMS Wolverine .
- March 8, 1941: sinking of the freighter Dunaff Head (5,258 GRT, 1918). The British freighter was sunk south of Iceland by a torpedo. Five dead.
Third patrol
On the voyage from Lorient from April 14 to April 26, 1941 , the boat was unsuccessful.
Fourth patrol
On the journey from Lorient from May 3 to July 30, 1941, the boat of the 2nd wave off Freetown was assigned with six other German boats and two Italians, but without achieving any success. On May 28, the boat was supplied by the Egerland in the mid-Atlantic . In mid-July, the attempt to attack the convoy SL 76 failed .
The attempt at another patrol on October 7th was canceled after two days.
Fifth patrol
On the voyage from Lorient from October 21 to December 25, 1941, UA operated with three other boats off South Africa. The British heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire surprised the German ships when it was supplied by the submarine supplier Python on December 1, 1941 in the South Atlantic . The U A which had just been supplied unsuccessfully shot five torpedoes at the cruiser, and an attack by U 68 remained unsuccessful. In order to avoid capture, the python sank itself. The crew of the auxiliary cruiser Atlantis , which was also provided by a heavy cruiser, had been brought onto it by submarines a few days earlier . Both crews, a total of 414 men, were able to carry out a large-scale rescue operation through the German submarines U A and U 68 , the later arriving U 124 and U 129 and the Italian submarines Enrico Tazzoli , Giuseppe Finzi , Pietro, who were sent to support Calvi and Luigi Torelli are brought to France.
Sixth patrol
On the voyage from Lorient from March 14 to April 24, 1942, UA , now again under the command of Cohausz, carried out its first attempts as a submarine supply and supported the boats U 203 and U 84 marching to the US coast and the returning U 202 . After the mission, UA did not run to France, but back to Kiel.
Final fate
The U A , used as an operational submarine from September 1939, was stationed in France from April 1941 and was used in the Baltic Sea from August 1942 as a school boat, briefly also as a test boat.
literature
- Clay Blair : The Submarine War. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X .
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak VerlagsGmbH, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-0097 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rohwer, p. 53
- ↑ sinking of Adania (Engl.)
- ↑ sinking of Crux (Engl.)
- ↑ sinking of Sarita (Engl.)
- ↑ sinking of the wheel (Engl.)
- ↑ sinking of Aspasia (Engl.)
- ↑ sinking of Kelet (Engl.)
- ↑ sinking of Tuira (Engl.)
- ^ Rohwer, p. 108
- ↑ sinking of Dunaff Head (Engl.)
- ^ Rohwer, p. 120
- ^ Rohwer, p. 140
- ^ Rohwer, p. 190
- ^ Rohwer, p. 196
- ^ Rohwer, p. 230