German Submarine U-155 (1941)

German submarine ''U-155'' was a Type IXC U-boat of Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' built for service during World War II. Her keel was laid down on 1 October 1940 by DeSchiMAG AG Weser in Bremen as yard number 997. She was launched on 12 May 1941 and commissioned on 23 August with ''Kapitänleutnant'' Adolf Piening in command. Piening was relieved in February 1944 (after being promoted to ''Korvettenkapitän''), by ''Oberleutnant zur See'' Johannes Rudolph.

Design

German Type IXC submarines were slightly larger than the original Type IXBs. ''U-155'' had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. The U-boat had a total length of , a pressure hull length of , a beam of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two MAN M 9 V 40/46 supercharged four-stroke, nine-cylinder diesel engines producing a total of for use while surfaced, 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 propellers. 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-155'' was fitted with six torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and two at the stern), 22 torpedoes, one SK C/32 naval gun, 180 rounds, and a SK C/30 as well as a C/30 anti-aircraft gun. The boat had a complement of forty-eight.

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 , one warship of 13,785 tons and damaging one auxiliary warship of . 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 Kiel on her first patrol on 7 February 1942. Her route took her 'up' the North Sea, through the gap between the Faroe and Shetland Islands and into the Atlantic. South of Cape Farewell in Greenland, she sank and ''Adellen'' on the 22nd.

She then moved on to the US east coast, sinking the about 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 Lorient U-boat base on the Atlantic coast of German-occupied France on March 27.

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 he warwas 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 , a US Navy-requisitioned cargo transport; two others sank escort carrier and the British troop transport ''Ettrick'' on 15 November 1942 northwest of Gibraltar. Of 526 men on ''Avenger'', there were 12 survivors. ''Ettrick''s master was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

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 Havana on 2 April 1943, and on 3 April sank the oil tanker '' Gulfstate'' about east northeast of Marathon Key, Florida (in 2013 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Remediation of Underwater Legacy Environmental Threats (RULET) project found the sunken ''Gulfstate'' to be a potential source of oil pollution.)

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 , , and in the Bay of Biscay. The formation was attacked by four de Havilland Mosquito aircraft on 14 June — three from No. 307 Polish Night Fighter Squadron and one from No. 410 Squadron RCAF. One Mosquito, hit in the port engine, was forced to break off its attack and return to base where it made a belly landing. Five men in the boat's crew were wounded; they were treated by ''U-68''s doctor on their return to Lorient on 16 June.

Seventh and eighth patrols

Patrol number seven was as long as any of the others, to a point northeast of the Cape Verde Islands; but the boat did not find any targets.

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 .

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

See also

* List of Operation Deadlight U-boats

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:U0155
German Type IX submarines
U-boats commissioned in 1941
Operation Deadlight
World War II submarines of Germany
1941 ships
Ships built in Bremen (state)
U-boats scuttled in 1945
Maritime incidents in December 1945