Author Topic: U-869 (Read 552 times)

Montezuma · « **on:** June 18, 2003, 01:44:55 PM »

Anyone catch this on Nova last night? PBS sometimes has the best shows on TV.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostsub/

gofaster · « **Reply #1 on:** June 18, 2003, 02:52:54 PM »

I own the VHS of that show, its that good.

RightF00T · « **Reply #2 on:** June 18, 2003, 03:05:56 PM »

Interesting show, went to bed when they find out it was a Type 9.

RightF00T · « **Reply #3 on:** June 18, 2003, 08:06:04 PM »

Ok, but they weren't for sure. Finding the placard showing that this particular sub was built in Bremen helped narrow it down to Type 9.

Habu · « **Reply #4 on:** June 18, 2003, 08:50:05 PM »

U-869
Type IXC/40
Laid down 5 Apr, 1943 AG Weser, Bremen
Commissioned 26 Jan, 1944 Kptlt. Hellmut Neuerburg
Commanders 26 Jan, 1944 - 28 Feb, 1945 Kptlt. Hellmut Neuerburg

Career 1 patrol 26 Jan, 1944 - 30 Nov, 1944 4. Flottille (training)
1 Dec, 1944 - 1 Feb, 1945 33. Flottille (front boat)

Successes No successes
Fate The boat was sunk due to unknown causes in Feb, 1945. The most probable cause is that one of its own homing torpedoes locked in on the boat itself after being fired on some unknown target. 56 dead (all hands lost).

U-869 is confirmed as the mysterious "U-Who"
A German U-boat was found off the coast of New Jersey, USA on 2 Sept, 1991 by several divers. On 31 August, 1997 these same divers reported evidence that the boat they found is the U-869 (knife inscribed with a U-869 crew member's name, UZO torpedo aiming device, machinery-numbers from the engine room). This location is at 39.33N, 73.20W in about 230 feet (around 73m) of water. She is thus a very advanced dive site.

This location is extremely far from the Gibraltar area which the U-869 is claimed to have been sunk. The explanation is that the boat never received the orders from BdU to change its operational area to Gibraltar and thus stayed in its North American area after passing through the Straits of Denmark. According to this the boat was lost sometime in Feb of 1945.

What happened to the boat?
Most probably she was hit by a circular torpedo run it seems, if so she was at least the 3rd U-boat to suffer that fate (U-377 in 1944 and U-972 in late 1943), there were of course no survivors.

Previously recorded fate
Sunk 28 Feb, 1945 in the mid-Atlantic near Rabat, in position 34.30N, 08.13W, by depth charges from the US destroyer escort USS Fowler and the French submarine chaser L' Indiscret.

This attack was probably not against a submarine.

Unlike many other U-boats, which during their service lost men due to accidents and various other causes, U-869 did not suffer any casualties (we know of) until the time of her loss.

Pongo · « **Reply #5 on:** June 18, 2003, 11:19:16 PM »

didnt they used to have all kinds of hairbrained ideas as to the id of this sub/ Like hitlers personal escape sub and stuff like that.

RightF00T · « **Reply #6 on:** June 19, 2003, 04:06:57 AM »

It was a Type IX.

Pongo · « **Reply #7 on:** June 19, 2003, 10:35:31 AM »

But they used milk cows to operate type VIIs in us waters I believe.

fd ski · « **Reply #8 on:** June 19, 2003, 12:48:47 PM »

any more info on homing torps they were using ?

Habu · « **Reply #9 on:** June 19, 2003, 04:41:03 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by fd ski
any more info on homing torps they were using ?

T4 Electric
Range 7500m Speed 20kts
Falke, the first homing torpedo, was fitted with a passive acoustic homing device. It was introduced in March, 1943 and used by U-603 (Oblt. Bertelsmann), U-758 (Kptlt. Manseck) and U-221 (Kptlt. Trojer) against convoys HX-229 and SC-122. Few were used as it was replace by the T5 which was faster, had a greater range and could be used with either magnetic or contact detonators.

G7s T5 Electric
Range 5700m Speed 24kts
The Zaunköning (Gnat) came into service during the autumn of 1943. Intended to be an escort-killer, it achieved some early minor success only to be countered by the allied Foxer noise-making decoy. It was scoring hits against escort and merchants to the end of the war though.
The weapon was designed to lock onto the loudest noise after a run of 400m from its launch. This often proved to be the U-boat itself and standard issue-orders were to dive immediately to depth of 60m after launch froma bow tube while a stern shot was to be followed by a complete silence in the boat. Two U-boats were almost certainly lost when hit by one of their own T5 torpedoes, U-972 in Dec 1943 and U-377 in Jan 1944.

T11 Electric
Range 5700m Speed 24kts
A modified T5, less affected by Foxer. Never used in battle conditions although late test results were promising.

Variants
All the German U-boat torpedoes were 53.3cm (21 inch) in diameter and had a warhead of 280kg (The T5 had 274kg). There were also two important pattern-running devices which could be applied to various torpedo types. These were FAT and LUT.

The FAT (Federapparat Torpedo) ran a wandering course with regular 180-degree turns, was useful against convoys, and was fitted to both G7a and G7e T3s. From the end of 1942 onwards it was manufactured at the rate of roughly 100 per month.

LUT was a more sophisticated version of the FAT, with more variable patterns, but was only used operationally towards the end of the war.