German submarine U-75 (1940)
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | U-75 |
| Builder: | Bremer Vulkan, Bremen-Vegesack |
| Laid down: | 15 December 1939 |
| Launched: | 18 October 1940 |
| Commissioned: | 9 December 1940 |
| Fate: | Sunk, 28 December 1941 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Type VIIB U-boat |
| Displacement: | Surfaced 753 tons tons submerged 857 tons |
| Length: | Overall 66.6 m pressure hull 48.8 m |
| Beam: | Overall 6.2 m pressure hull 4.7 m |
| Draught: | 4.74 m |
| Propulsion: | Surfaced: two supercharged MAN, 6 cylinder, 4-stroke M6V 40/46 diesels totalling 2,800 - 3,200bhp(2,400 kW). Max rpm: 470-490. |
| Speed: | Surfaced 17.9 knot (33 km/h) submerged 8 knot (15 km/h) |
| Range: | Surfaced: 16,095 km submerged: 175 km |
| Test depth: | 230 m (754 ft). Calculated crush depth: 250-295 m (820-967 ft) |
| Complement: | 44 to 48 officers & ratings |
| Armament: | • 5 × 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedo tubes: 4 bow, 1 stern • 14 × torpedoes or 26 TMA mines • 1 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) deck gun with 220 rounds • 1 × C30 20 mm AA |
| Service record | |
| Part of: | 7th U-boat Flotilla (19 December 1940–1 October 1941) 23rd U-boat Flotilla (1 October–28 December 1941) |
| Commanders: | Kptlt. Helmuth Ringelmann (December 1940–December 1941) |
| Operations: | 1st patrol: 10 April–12 May 1941 2nd patrol: 29 May–3 July 1941 3rd patrol: 29 July–25 August 1941 4th patrol: 27 September–2 November 1941 5th patrol: 22–28 December 1941 |
| Victories: | 6 commercial ships sunk (21,046 GRT) |
German submarine U-75 was a Type VIIB U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. U-75 was moderately successful her early career in the Battle of the Atlantic, but in autumn 1941 she was dispatched to the Mediterranean Sea with poor results leading to the eventual destruction of the boat and its crew.
Contents |
[edit] War patrols
[edit] 1st patrol
Completed in December 1940, U-75 was available for service from April following the completion of her working-up period and sea trials. Her captain, Kplt. Helmuth Ringelmann, was a good sea officer, who made an impact within three weeks of her initial patrol starting, when on 29 April U-75 torpedoed and sank the 10,000 ton liner SS City of Nagpur in the Central North Atlantic Ocean, killing fifteen sailors and one passenger.[1]
[edit] 2nd & 3rd patrol
This success was followed in her second patrol with another victim, this time a Dutch freighter, and her third patrol scored a British cargo ship as well. These operations were conducted from the new submarine base at Saint-Nazaire, which provided type VII boats like U-75 with a greater patrol range and cruising ability, thus conferring an essential advantage.
[edit] 4th patrol
The boat's fourth patrol was more unusual, requiring her to slip unnoticed through the Strait of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean to attack allied shipping operating from Gibraltar, Malta and Egypt. She was accompanied in this task by U-371, U-559, U-97, U-79, and U-331, which together formed the Goeben group, so named for the German battleship of the same name which had operated in the Mediterranean in 1914. For the operations in the Mediterranean, U-75's home base was now Salamis Island in Greece, where she arrived on 2 November. On the journey there, the boat had taken a successful detour along the Libyan coast to see if she could catch any British resupply convoys. On 12 October she had seen just such a convoy and managed to sink two coastal barges with gunfire before she escaped.
[edit] 5th patrol
Her final patrol was in December 1941, and consisted of a similar sweep along the Libyan coast. On 28 December, six days since leaving Salamis, a small coastal convoy was spotted off Mersa Matruh and U-75 launched an attack which sank the small British freighter SS Volo.[2] The convoy's escorts had spotted the boat however, and HMS Kipling (F91) ran the submarine down and dropped depth charges on the boat. The explosions forced U-75 to the surface, where 30 of her crew were rescued and taken prisoner by her erstwhile opponent before the boat heeled over and sank, taking 15 men down with her, including her only captain.
[edit] Raiding career
| Date | Ship | Nationality | Tonnage | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 April 1941 | SS City of Nagpur | British | 10,146 | Sunk |
| 3 June 1941 | SS Eibergen | Dutch | 4,801 | Sunk |
| 5 August 1941 | SS Cape Rodney | British | 4,512 | Sunk |
| 12 October 1941 | barge A-2 | British | Sunk | |
| 12 October 1941 | barge A-7 | British | Sunk | |
| 28 December 1941 | SS Volo | British | 1,587 | Sunk |
[edit] References
- Notes
- ^ "City of Nagpur (Steam passenger ship) - Allied Ships hit by U-boats - uboat.net". www.uboat.net. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/892.html. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
- ^ "Volo (Steam merchant) - Allied Ships hit by U-boats - uboat.net". www.uboat.net. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/1236.html. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
- Bibliography
- Sharpe, Peter, U-Boat Fact File, Midland Publishing, Great Britain: 1998. ISBN 1-85780-072-9.
- U-boat.net webpage for U-75
