German submarine ''U-881'' was a Type IXC/40

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 ro ...

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'' 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 opposing ...

. The ship was ordered on 2 April 1942,

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 ...

on 7 August 1943, and launched on 4 March 1944. She was commissioned into the ''Kriegsmarine'' under the command of ''

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 an ...

'' Dr. Karl-Heinz Frischke (Crew 36) on 27 May 1944. Initially assigned to the

4th U-boat Flotilla Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

, she was transferred to the

33rd U-boat Flotilla ''33rd U-boat Flotilla'' ("33. Unterseebootsflottille") was a front-line unit of Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' during World War II. The flotilla was founded at Flensburg in September 1944 under the command of ''Korvettenkapitän'' Georg Schewe, ...

on 1 March 1945.

Design

German Type IXC/40 submarines were slightly larger than the original Type IXCs. ''U-881'' 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 of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two

MAN A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...

M 9 V 40/46 supercharged 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-ca ...

s producing a total of for use while surfaced, two

Siemens-Schuckert Siemens-Schuckert (or Siemens-Schuckertwerke) was a German electrical engineering company headquartered in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg that was incorporated into the Siemens AG in 1966. Siemens Schuckert was founded in 1903 when Siemens & H ...

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-881'' 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), 22

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, s ...

es, one SK C/32 naval gun, 180 rounds, and a Flak M42 as well as two twin C/30 anti-aircraft guns. The boat had a

complement A complement is something that completes something else. Complement may refer specifically to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-clas ...

of forty-eight.

Service history

For her first patrol, ''U-881'' was assigned to operate in US coastal waters with

wolfpack Seewolf ''Seewolf'' was the name of three separate wolfpacks of German U-boats that operated during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. 1941 The first U-boat group code-named ''Seewolf'' operated in the North Atlantic, to intercept Allied convo ...

.Blair p 687 During this operation ''U-881'' was depth charged and sunk by the American destroyer escort on 6 May 1945 in one of the last actions in American waters of the Atlantic campaign. She sank at position with the loss of all 54 men on board.

References

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:U0881 German Type IX submarines U-boats commissioned in 1944 World War II submarines of Germany U-boats sunk in 1945 Submarines lost with all hands U-boats sunk by depth charges U-boats sunk by US warships World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean 1944 ships Ships built in Bremen (state) Maritime incidents in May 1945