German submarine U-155 (1941)
U-505, a typical Type IXC boat
| |
History | |
---|---|
Nazi Germany | |
Name | U-155 |
Ordered | 25 September 1939 |
Builder | |
Yard number | 997 |
Laid down | 1 October 1940 |
Launched | 12 May 1941 |
Commissioned | 23 August 1941 |
Fate |
|
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Type IXC submarine |
Displacement | |
Length |
|
Beam |
|
Height | 9.60 m (31 ft 6 in) |
Draught | 4.70 m (15 ft 5 in) |
Installed power |
|
Propulsion |
|
Speed |
|
Range |
|
Test depth | 230 m (750 ft) |
Complement | 4 officers, 44 enlisted48 to 56 |
Armament |
|
Service record | |
Part of: |
|
Identification codes: | M 01 188 |
Commanders: |
|
Operations: |
|
Victories: |
German submarine U-155 was a
Design
The submarine had a maximum surface speed of 18.3 knots (33.9 km/h; 21.1 mph) and a maximum submerged speed of 7.3 knots (13.5 km/h; 8.4 mph).
Service history
Leutnant zur See Ludwig von Friedeburg relieved Rudolph from August to November 1944, when Rudolph resumed command for another month. During these four months, U-155 had the youngest U-boat commander during the war since Von Friedeburg was only 20 years old. In December, Kptlt. Erwin Witte took over, and was relieved in April 1945 by Oblt.z.S. Friedrich Altmeier. Altmeier commanded the boat for one month before the German surrender; she was then scuttled by the Royal Navy. The wreck was located, largely intact, in 2001.
U-155 conducted ten patrols, sinking 25 ships totalling 126,664 gross register tons (GRT), one warship of 13,785 tons and damaging one auxiliary warship of 6,736 GRT. She was a member of one wolfpack. She sank a warship and a troop transport ship, and damaged a cargo ship, with one salvo of four torpedoes on 15 November 1942 during her fourth patrol, and shot down a P-51 Mustang aircraft on her final patrol.
First patrol
U-155 left
She then moved on to the US east coast, sinking the SS Arabutan about 81 nmi (150 km; 93 mi) off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on 7 March. On the tenth, the First Watch Officer (1WO) Oberleutnant zur See Gert Rentrop was washed overboard.
The boat docked at the
Second patrol
Having left Lorient on 24 April 1942, U-155 steamed to the eastern Caribbean Sea and that portion of the Atlantic adjacent to it. She attacked Brabant southwest of Grenada on 14 May. The ship sank in eight minutes.
The U-boat sank another six ships; one of them, Sylvan Arrow, was torpedoed on 20 May, but did not go down until the 28th, following a salvage attempt.
The submarine returned to Lorient on 14 June.
Third patrol
U-155's third and most successful foray was conducted in similar waters to her second effort, beginning in Lorient on 9 July. She sank Barbacena with torpedoes east of Barbados, but others, such as Piave, went to the bottom with the more economic deck gun. Another victim, Cranford, met her end within three minutes. Part of her cargo was 6,600 tons of chrome ore. Two injured survivors were treated on U-155 before water, supplies and directions were handed over to their colleagues.
The submarine's skipper apologized for sinking one ship (Empire Arnold on 4 August), to the Chief Officer, who told him it was a bad business and wished it [the war] was over. Piening replied: "So do I".
Maschinengefreiter Konrad Garneier was lost overboard during an air attack on 19 August.
In all, the boat sank ten ships, a total of 43,514 GRT.
Fourth patrol
Three of a spread of four torpedoes hit targets, one aal (eel: U-boat slang for torpedo), damaged
The boat also sank Serroskerk in mid-Atlantic. There were no survivors.
Fifth patrol
U-155's fifth sortie involved her move to the western Caribbean and southern Florida, USA. She sank Lysefjord west of
On the return journey U-155 was attacked by an unknown aircraft on 27 April northwest of Cape Finisterre, Spain.
Sixth patrol
To try and counter the air threat, U-155 was grouped together with
Seventh and eighth patrols
Patrol number seven was as long as any of the others, to a point northeast of the
The submarine's eighth patrol took her toward the northeast coast of Brazil. While sinking Siranger she took the third mate prisoner (he had been wounded, and was operated-on by the boat's doctor). He was taken back to Lorient and was eventually transferred to the POW camp at Milag Nord near Bremen.
Ninth and tenth patrols
U-155's ninth patrol was, at 105 days, her longest, but like her seventh, found no targets. On 4 May 1944, the boat shot down a North American P-51 Mustang aircraft of No. 126 Squadron RAF and on 23 June 1944, Mosquitos of 248 Squadron attacked, killing Matrosenobergefreiter Karl Lohmeier and Mechanikerobergefreiter Friedrich Feller and wounding seven others. Her patrol terminated at Lorient the same day.
Her tenth and final patrol left Lorient on 9 September 1944, the last by a U-boat from the base. The patrol was uneventful; she returned to Germany by a circuitous route, and docked at Flensburg on 21 October.
Fate
On 22 June 1945, after the German surrender, she was transferred from Wilhelmshaven to Loch Ryan, Scotland for Royal Navy Operation Deadlight, the scuttling of surrendered German U-boats, and sunk on 21 December the same year.
Post war
U-155 was located and identified in 2001 by a team of divers led by nautical archaeologist Innes McCartney, revealing the wreck was lying upright on the sea bed, largely intact, at a depth of 73 metres (240 ft; 40 fathoms).[3]
Her crew held their 25th reunion in 1995 with former Oberleutnant zur See Johannes Rudolph and one of the Mosquito pilots who attacked the boat in June 1944 'on board'.
Summary of raiding history
Date | Ship Name | Nationality | Tonnage[Note 1] | Fate[4] |
---|---|---|---|---|
22 February 1942 | Adellen | United Kingdom | 7,984 | Sunk |
22 February 1942 | Sama | Norway | 1,799 | Sunk |
7 March 1942 | Arabutan | Brazil | 7,874 | Sunk |
14 May 1942 | Brabant | Belgium | 2,483 | Sunk |
17 May 1942 | Challenger |
United States | 7,667 | Sunk |
17 May 1942 | San Victorio | United Kingdom | 8,136 | Sunk |
20 May 1942 | Sylvan Arrow | Panama | 7,797 | Sunk |
23 May 1942 | Watsonville | Panama | 2,220 | Sunk |
28 May 1942 | Poseidon | Netherlands | 1,928 | Sunk |
30 May 1942 | Baghdad[5] | Norway | 2,161 | Sunk |
28 July 1942 | Barbacena | Brazil | 4,772 | Sunk |
28 July 1942 | Piave | Brazil | 2,347 | Sunk |
28 July 1942 | Bill | Norway | 2,445 | Sunk |
30 July 1942 | Cranford | United States | 6,096 | Sunk |
1 August 1942 | Clan Macnaughton | United Kingdom | 6,088 | Sunk |
1 August 1942 | Kentaur | Netherlands | 5,878 | Sunk |
4 August 1942 | Empire Arnold | United Kingdom | 7,045 | Sunk |
5 August 1942 | Draco | Netherlands | 389 | Sunk |
9 August 1942 | San Emiliano | United Kingdom | 8,071 | Sunk |
10 August 1942 | Strabo | Netherlands | 383 | Sunk |
15 November 1942 | Ettrick | United Kingdom | 11,279 | Sunk |
15 November 1942 | HMS Avenger | Royal Navy | 13,785 | Sunk |
15 November 1942 | USS Almaack |
United States Navy | 6,736 | Damaged |
6 December 1942 | Serooskerk | Netherlands | 8,456 | Sunk |
2 April 1943 | Lysefjord | Norway | 1,091 | Sunk |
3 April 1943 | Gulfstate | United States | 6,882 | Sunk |
24 October 1943 | Siranger | Norway | 5,393 | Sunk |
See also
References
Notes
- gross register tons. Military vessels are listed by tons displacement.
Citations
- ^ a b c d Gröner 1991, p. 68.
- ^ Julia Whitty (21 May 2013). "How Hitler's U-Boats Are Still Attacking Us". Blue Marble. Mother Jones. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
The vessel ranked worst on the NOAA's risk assessment scale is the WWII tanker Gulfstate, torpedoed and sunk off the Florida Keys in 1943.
- ^ "The Discovery of U155". Facebook.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit by U-155". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
- ^ MS Baghdad at skiphistorie.net
Bibliography
- Busch, Rainer; Röll, Hans-Joachim (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II : a biographical dictionary. Translated by Brooks, Geoffrey. London, Annapolis, Md: Greenhill Books, Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-186-6.
- Busch, Rainer; Röll, Hans-Joachim (1999). Deutsche U-Boot-Verluste von September 1939 bis Mai 1945 [German U-boat losses from September 1939 to May 1945]. Der U-Boot-Krieg (in German). Vol. IV. Hamburg, Berlin, Bonn: Mittler. ISBN 3-8132-0514-2.
- Gröner, Erich; Jung, Dieter; Maass, Martin (1991). U-boats and Mine Warfare Vessels. German Warships 1815–1945. Vol. 2. Translated by Thomas, Keith; Magowan, Rachel. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-593-4.
External links
- Helgason, Guðmundur. "The Type IX boat U-155". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
- Hofmann, Markus. "U 155". Deutsche U-Boote 1935-1945 - u-boot-archiv.de (in German). Retrieved 7 December 2014.
55°34′59″N 7°39′00″W / 55.583°N 7.650°W