German submarine ''U-852'' was a
Type IXD2 U-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...
built for
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
's ''
Kriegsmarine
The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...
'' during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The submarine, which was a special long-range version of the Type IX, had four bow and two stern
torpedo tubes
A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes.
There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...
and a
Focke-Achgelis Fa 330
The Focke-Achgelis Fa 330 ''Bachstelze'' ( en, Wagtail) was a type of rotary-wing kite, known as a rotor kite. They were towed behind German U-boats during World War II to allow a lookout to see further.
Development
Because of their low profi ...
''Bachstelze'' cable-towed lookout
gyroglider
A rotor kite or gyrokite is an unpowered, rotary-wing aircraft. Like an autogyro or helicopter, it relies on lift created by one or more sets of rotors in order to fly. Unlike a helicopter, gyrokites and rotor kites do not have an engine poweri ...
. It was
laid down
Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship.
Keel laying is one o ...
in
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
and completed in June 1943. She was commanded by ''
Kapitänleutnant
''Kapitänleutnant'', short: KptLt/in lists: KL, ( en, captain lieutenant) is an officer grade of the captains' military hierarchy group () of the German Bundeswehr. The rank is rated OF-2 in NATO, and equivalent to Hauptmann in the Heer and ...
''
Heinz-Wilhelm Eck, who led her through her sea trials and onto her first war patrol on 18 January 1944.
Eck and his officers were the only ''Kriegsmarine'' submariners to be tried for
war crimes at the
end of World War II in Europe
The final battle of the European Theatre of World War II continued after the definitive overall surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies, signed by Field marshal Wilhelm Keitel on 8 May 1945 in Karlshorst, Berlin. After German dictator Adolf H ...
. They were convicted at a British military tribunal in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
, (held concurrently during the
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.
Between 1939 and 1945 ...
) for killing the survivors of the torpedoed Greek steamer in 1944.
Design
German Type IXD2 submarines were considerably larger than the original
Type IX
The Type IX U-boat was designed by Nazi Germany's '' Kriegsmarine'' in 1935 and 1936 as a large ocean-going submarine for sustained operations far from the home support facilities. Type IX boats were briefly used for patrols off the eastern Un ...
s. ''U-852'' had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. The U-boat had a total length of , a
pressure hull
A submarine hull has two major components, the ''light hull'' and the ''pressure hull''. The light hull (''casing'' in British usage) of a submarine is the outer non-watertight hull which provides a hydrodynamically efficient shape. The pressure ...
length of , a
beam
Beam may refer to:
Streams of particles or energy
*Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy
**Laser beam
*Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles
**Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
of , a height of , and a
draught of . The submarine was powered by two
MAN M 9 V 40/46
supercharged
In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement.
The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...
four-stroke, nine-cylinder
diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...
s plus two
MWM RS34.5S six-cylinder four-stroke diesel engines for cruising, producing a total of for use while surfaced, and two
Siemens-Schuckert 2 GU 345/34
double-acting electric motors producing a total of for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two
propeller
A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
s. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to .
The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of . When submerged, the boat could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at . ''U-852'' was fitted with six
torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes.
There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...
s (four fitted at the bow and two at the stern), 24
torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...
es, one
SK C/32 naval gun, 150 rounds, and a
SK C/30 with 2575 rounds as well as two
C/30 anti-aircraft guns with 8100 rounds. The boat had a
complement of fifty-five.
Asian mission
''Peleus''
In early 1944, the Kriegsmarine dispatched ''U-852'' on a top-secret mission to disrupt the
Allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
' Far East war effort by attacking sea lanes in the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...
. However, to do this successfully the submarine would have to maintain a high-level of secrecy throughout her journey from Europe. On 13 March while crossing the
latitude
In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...
of
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...
in the Atlantic Ocean, the U-boat spotted the lone Greek steamer . Eck, despite his mission, decided to attack the ship. After stalking her until nightfall, the steamer was sunk with two torpedoes.
However, the sinking of the ''Peleus'' had created a large debris field containing survivors in rafts and clinging to wreckage. Eck decided that this would indicate to any Allied shipping patrol aircraft there was a U-boat in the area, so he ordered his junior officers to destroy the wreckage by firing into it using
hand grenades
A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade ge ...
and
automatic weapons. They did this while the rest of the crew remained below decks. There were only three survivors from the 35-man ''Peleus''.
''Dahomian''
Two weeks later the ''U-852'' sank the British cargo ship ''Dahomian'' off
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
on 1 April. This time the ''U-852'' left rather than attack the survivors.
Capture
On 30 April 1944, ''U-852'' was spotted in the Indian Ocean by a
Vickers Wellington
The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its g ...
bomber flying from
Aden
Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...
. After being left unable to dive due to damage from aerial
depth charges, she headed for the coast of
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
. However, before reaching land the U-boat came under attack from six
RAF bombers from
621 Squadron. Eck was forced to run aground on a coral reef () about from shore. Seven crewmen were lost in the engagement; the remainder fled ashore. Fifty-eight were captured by the
Somaliland Camel Corps and local militia.
A British boarding party examined the wrecked U-boat and retrieved Eck's ''Kriegstagebuch'' ("War Diary"), which proved crucial in constructing the Allied case against him and his men.
The British also discovered the
Fa 330 ''Bachstelze'' rotor kite, a towed one-man aerial observation platform.
War crimes trial
In November 1945, Eck and the ''U-852s four junior officers were tried by the British at a special military tribunal in Hamburg for killing the crew from the ''Peleus''. The German commander said he carried out the attack because there might have been communications equipment on the survivors’ rafts and the
Laconia Order
The ''Laconia'' Order (german: Laconia-Befehl) was issued by Karl Dönitz during World War II as a result of the ''Laconia'' incident, forbidding the rescue of Allied survivors.
Prior to this incident, vessels of the customarily picked up su ...
forbade him from helping the crews of sunk enemy ships. However, the British tribunal rejected his plea of “operational necessity” and sentenced him to death. Despite claiming they were "only following orders", the boat's second-in-command, August Hoffmann, and Walter Weisspfennig, the ship's doctor (who was condemned for using a weapon in contravention of the
Geneva Convention
upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864
The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conven ...
) were also given the death penalty.
Hans Lenz, the engineering officer, who had opposed Eck's order but eventually carried it out was given a life sentence (but was released seven years later, in 1952). Wolfgang Schwender, an enlisted engineer, who said he only shot at debris not survivors - until being replaced by the reluctant Lenz - received 15 years (but was paroled six years later, in 1951). On 30 November 1945, Eck, Hoffmann and Weisspfennig were executed by naval firing squad.
[Sharpe (1998), p.148]
Summary of raiding history
See also
*
German submarine ''U-247'', and for other boats alleged to be involved in war crimes.
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
Further reading
* Bridgland, Tony, ''Waves of Hate'', Leo Cooper, Great Britain: 2002. .
*
*
External links
Submarine atrocitiesArchived
2009-10-25)
{{DEFAULTSORT:U0852
World War II submarines of Germany
German Type IX submarines
World War II shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean
Massacres committed by Nazi Germany
Nazi war crimes
U-boats commissioned in 1943
Indian Ocean U-Boats
1943 ships
Ships built in Bremen (state)
U-boats scuttled in 1944
Maritime incidents in May 1944
Military history of British Somaliland during World War II
World War II crimes