German submarine U-754
History | |
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Nazi Germany | |
Name | U-754 |
Ordered | 9 October 1939 |
Builder | Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven |
Yard number | 137 |
Laid down | 8 January 1940 |
Launched | 5 July 1941 |
Commissioned | 28 August 1941 |
Fate | Sunk on 31 July 1942 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Type VIIC submarine |
Displacement | |
Length |
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Beam |
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Height | 9.60 m (31 ft 6 in) |
Draught | 4.74 m (15 ft 7 in) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed |
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Range | |
Test depth |
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Complement | 4 officers, 40–56 enlisted |
Armament |
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Service record | |
Part of: |
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Identification codes: | M 46 656 |
Commanders: |
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Operations: |
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Victories: |
German submarine U-754 was a
U-754 was built in the
Design
The submarine had a maximum surface speed of 17.7 knots (32.8 km/h; 20.4 mph) and a maximum submerged speed of 7.6 knots (14.1 km/h; 8.7 mph).
Service history
First patrol
U-754 departed
Second patrol
The second patrol left from Brest on 9 March 1942, and after a brief sweep in her previous area of operations, she swung south to take advantage of the
Third patrol
Her final patrol was her least successful, in terms of ships sunk, although the tonnage was higher, as she sunk the 12,435 GRT Waiwera in the mid-Atlantic on 29 June, ten days after leaving Brest.
Attack on Ebb
It was nearly a month later, on 28 July, that U-754 scored her final victim, when she controversially shelled the fishing vessel Ebb near
Ebb was a motor fishing trawler operating out of Boston for the General Sea Foods Company. The crew of the small 260 GRT vessel felt it was unlikely that they would be troubled by the war, as she was far too small for an effective torpedo shot, and too insignificant to justify the risk of a surface attack by gunfire. On 28 July 1942, however, while fishing off Cape Sable her crew were shocked to see U-754 emerge from the water.
The submarine immediately opened fire without warning on Ebb with her anti-aircraft guns. The ship stopped and made signals that they had surrendered, but the gunfire continued, one gun sweeping through the crowd of crew members attempting to launch the ship's life raft. Five of the seventeen crew were killed and seven more seriously wounded, before Ebb sank after taking over fifty hits. The survivors were discovered and rescued by the W-class destroyer HMS Witherington fourteen hours later.[3]
Had U-754's crew survived the war, it is possible that they would have been charged with
RCAF attack and sinking
Radio transmissions from U-754 betrayed a pattern to
On 31 July, a
A trail of large air bubbles was followed by a massive underwater explosion as U-754 went to the bottom with all 43 hands. It marked the first submarine kill of the RCAF's Eastern Air Command.[6]
Wolfpacks
U-754 took part in one wolfpack, namely:
- Zieten (6 – 22 January 1942)
Summary of raiding history
Date | Ship Name | Nationality | Tonnage (GRT) |
Fate[7] |
---|---|---|---|---|
21 January 1942 | Belize | Norway | 2,153 | Sunk |
21 January 1942 | William Hansen | Norway | 1,344 | Sunk |
25 January 1942 | Mount Kitheron | Greece | 3,876 | Sunk |
26 January 1942 | Icarion | Greece | 4,013 | Sunk |
23 March 1942 | British Prudence | United Kingdom | 8,620 | Sunk |
31 March 1942 | Menominee | United States | 441 | Sunk |
31 March 1942 | Ontario | United States | 490 | Damaged |
31 March 1942 | Barnegat | United States | 914 | Sunk |
31 March 1942 | Alleghany | United States | 914 | Sunk |
1 April 1942 | Tiger | United States | 5,992 | Sunk |
3 April 1942 | Otho | United States | 4,839 | Sunk |
6 April 1942 | Kollskeg | Norway | 9,858 | Sunk |
29 June 1942 | Waiwera | United Kingdom | 12,435 | Sunk |
28 July 1942 | Ebb | United States | 260 | Sunk |
References
- ^ a b c d Gröner 1991, pp. 43–46.
- ^ The Creation of a National Air Force W.A.B. Douglas, (University of Toronto Press, 1986) p. 480.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ebb". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
- ^ Bridgland
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 August 2004. Retrieved 12 August 2007.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link). - ^ The Creation of a National Air Force W.A.B. Douglas, (University of Toronto Press, 1986) p. 520 and http://www.rcaf.com/squadrons/1-100series/113squadron.php
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit by U-754". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
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). Der U-Boot-Krieg, 1939-1945: Deutsche U-Boot-Verluste von September 1939 bis Mai 1945 [German U-boat losses from September 1939 to May 1945] (in German). Vol. IV. Hamburg, Berlin, Bonn: Mittler. ISBN 3-8132-0514-2.
- Gröner, Eric; Jung, Dieter; Maass, Martin (1991). German Warships 1815-1945: U-boats and Mine Warfare Vessels. Vol. 2. Translated by Thomas, Keith; Magowan, Rachel. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-593-4.
- Sharpe, Peter (1998). U-Boat Fact File. Great Britain: Midland Publishing. ISBN 1-85780-072-9.
- Bridgland, Tony, Waves of Hate, Leo Cooper, Great Britain: 2002. ISBN 0-85052-822-4.
External links
- Helgason, Guðmundur. "The Type VIIC boat U-754". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 29 December 2014.