German submarine U-873

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat USCGC Argo (WPC-100) and a tug escort the surrendered German Type IXD2 submarine U-873 to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, New Hampshire (USA) on 16 May 1945.
History
Nazi Germany
NameU-873
Ordered25 August 1941[1]
BuilderAG Weser, Bremen[1]
Yard number1081
Laid down17 February 1943[1]
Launched11 November 1943[1]
Commissioned1 March 1944[1]
Fate
  • Surrendered on 16 May 1945[1]
  • Scrapped in March 1948[1]
General characteristics
Class and type
Type IXD2 submarine
Displacement
  • 1,610 t (1,580 long tons) surfaced
  • 1,799 t (1,771 long tons) submerged
Length
  • 87.58 m (287 ft 4 in)
    o/a
  • 68.50 m (224 ft 9 in)
    pressure hull
Beam
  • 7.50 m (24 ft 7 in) o/a
  • 4.40 m (14 ft 5 in) pressure hull
Height10.20 m (33 ft 6 in)
Draught5.35 m (17 ft 7 in)
Installed power
  • 9,000 PS (6,620 kW; 8,880 bhp) (diesels)
  • 1,000 PS (740 kW; 990 shp) (electric)
Propulsion
Speed
  • 20.8 knots (38.5 km/h; 23.9 mph) urfaced
  • 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) submerged
Range
  • 23,700 nmi (43,900 km; 27,300 mi)[2] at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) surfaced
  • 57 nmi (106 km; 66 mi) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) submerged
Test depthCalculated crush depth: 250 m (820 ft)
Boats & landing
craft carried		2 dinghies
Complement55 - 64
Armament
Service record
Part of:
Identification codes: M 50 271
Commanders:
  • Kptlt.
     Friedrich Steinhoff
  • 1 March 1944 – 16 May 1945
Operations:
  • 1 patrol:
  • 30 March – 16 May 1945
Victories: None

German submarine U-873 was a

prisoners of war and the death of commanding officer Kapitänleutnant Friedrich Steinhoff in a Boston jail cell. Six months after Steinhoff's death, his brother was one of the Operation Paperclip rocket scientists from Peenemünde arriving in the United States to work at White Sands Missile Range.[3]

Design

MWM RS34.5S six-cylinder four-stroke diesel engines for cruising, producing a total of 9,000 metric horsepower (6,620 kW; 8,880 shp) for use while surfaced, two Siemens-Schuckert 2 GU 345/34 double-acting electric motors producing a total of 1,000 metric horsepower (740 kW; 990 shp) for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two 1.85 m (6 ft) propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to 200 metres (660 ft).[4]

The submarine had a maximum surface speed of 20.8 knots (38.5 km/h; 23.9 mph) and a maximum submerged speed of 6.9 knots (12.8 km/h; 7.9 mph).

2 cm (0.79 in) C/30 anti-aircraft guns with 8100 rounds. The boat had a complement of fifty-five.[4]

Service history

U-873 was

schnorchel was fitted in December.[1]

Upon completion of training on 31 January 1945 U-873 was assigned to the 33rd U-boat Flotilla at Flensburg for war patrols to the Atlantic Ocean. U-873 departed from Kiel on 17 February 1945 and arrived in Horten Naval Base on 22 February. U-873 sailed from Horten on 21 March 1945 and reached Kristiansand the following day. U-873 sailed from Kristiansand on 30 March 1945[1] and was proceeding to an assigned operations area in the Caribbean Sea when Germany surrendered on 8 May.[6] At 04:30 GMT on 11 May, U-873 surrendered to USS Vance of Escort Division 45 (CortDiv 45) while it was escorting convoy UGS 90 at 35°45′N 42°31′W / 35.750°N 42.517°W / 35.750; -42.517.[7] Vance placed a prize crew aboard U-873 and escorted the U-boat to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on 16 May. U-873 was placed in dry dock for a design study of the Type IXD2 class of U-boats by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard engineers; and was later transferred to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Following completion of trials, the U-boat was scrapped in 1948.[8]

Portsmouth

Portsmouth Naval Prison

Geneva Convention.[9]

Following interrogation at Portsmouth Naval Prison, the handcuffed crew of U-873 was pelted with insults and garbage while marching through the streets of Boston to the Suffolk County Charles Street Jail to await transfer to a prisoner-of-war camp in Mississippi.[8]

Commanding Officer

Friedrich Steinhoff was born in

watch officer aboard U-96 from July through October 1941. He then commanded U-511 during rocket launching experiments of 1942 in cooperation with his brother Ernst Steinhoff, who was Director for Flight Mechanics, Ballistics, Guidance Control, and Instrumentation at the Peenemünde Army Research Center.[10] Command of U-873 was preceded by a year of staff duty with the 7th U-boat Flotilla.[11]

U-873 crewman Georg Seitz reported Steinhoff's face was bleeding and swollen when he returned to his cell after being questioned by a civilian ONI interrogator who ordered a husky United States Marine Corps guard to slap the officer.[5] On 19 May 1945 Steinhoff bled to death in his Boston jail cell from wrist wounds, possibly inflicted with the broken lens of his sunglasses.[8] He was buried in grave 934 at Fort Devens.

Armament

Twin 3.7 cm Flak M42U guns on the DLM 42U mount

FLAK weaponry

U-873 was mounted with the rare Twin

Type VII U-boats. The 3.7 cm Flak M42U was the naval version of the 3.7 cm Flak used by the Kriegsmarine on Type VII and Type IX U-boats.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Helgason, Guðmundur. "The Type IXD2 boat U-870". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  2. ISBN 0-668-04037-8
    .
  3. ^ "Steinhoff, Ernst". Astronautix. Archived from the original on 19 April 2005. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
  4. ^ a b c d Gröner 1991, pp. 74–75.
  5. ^ a b "U-873 surrendered to U.S. forces on May 11, 1945". U-boat Archive. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  6. ^ "Messages Reporting Preliminary Interrogation of U-1228 Crewmembers". U-boat Archive. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  7. ^ "Messages reporting Surrender of U-873". U-boat Archive. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  8. ^ a b c "Suicide: U-Boat 873 Commander Friedrich Steinhoff". Bill Milhomme. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  9. ^ "Report of the Naval Inspector General Regarding Irregularities Connected with the Handling of Surrendered German Submarines". U-boat Archive. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  10. ^ Paterson pp. 55–57
  11. ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Friedrich Steinhoff". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  12. ^ "U-873 Enroute to Portsmouth". Joe Haberkern. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  13. ^ Vorläufige Beschreibung der 3,7 cm Flak M 42, Band I, Technische Beschreibung (für Fachpersonal). Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine. Berlin 1944.

Bibliography

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=German_submarine_U-873&oldid=1217212190"