Unterseeboot 254
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| U-254 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | VIIC
|
||
| Launch Date | September 20, 1941 | ||
| Commission Date | November 8, 1941 | ||
| Construction yard | Bremer Vulkan, Vegesack | ||
| Patrols | |||
| Start Date | End Date | Assigned Unit | |
| No Patrols | 8th Flotilla | ||
| July 14, 1942 | August 19, 1942 | 9th Flotilla | |
| September 21, 1942 | October 22, 1942 | 9th Flotilla | |
| November 21, 1942 | December 8, 1942 | 9th Flotilla | |
| Commanders | |||
| October, 1941 | December, 1942 | Kptlt. Hans Gilardone | |
| Successes | |||
| Type of Ship Sunk | Number of Ships Sunk | Gross Registered Tonnage | |
| Commercial Vessels | 3 | 18,967 | |
| Military Vessels | None | 0 | |
Unterseeboot 254 (usually abbreviated to U-254) was a German Type VIIC U-boat of the Kriegsmarine, built for service in the Second World War and the Second Battle of the Atlantic. She was a mildly successful boat on her three war patrols, but fell victim to a freak accident during an attack on an allied convoy in the mid-Atlantic Ocean on her third patrol and was lost.
Built in 1941 at Vegesack, U-254 was commanded for all her brief career by Kptlt. Hans Gilardino, except for a brief period of illness, when Kptlt. Odo Loewe took command for a month between her first and second patrols. She conducted her warm-up and training period in the Baltic Sea in the first half of 1942, before she was despatched to Kiel from where she participated in her first war operations.
[edit] War Patrols
The first war patrol of U-254 was a simple one, entailing a passage between Kiel and her new home base at Brest in France. During this month-long journey, U-254 was ordered to spend sometime cruising off Reykjavík in iceland, hoping to catch some stragglers from northern convoys or supply ships running to the allied forces stationed on the island. She had one success, sinking a small British freighter on the 2 August before she headed for her new home. The second patrol was even more eventful, when on the 3 October, after twelve days of cruising, she spotted the 11,000 ton American tanker SS Robert H Colley in the central North Atlantic and sank her with one torpedo and 28 lives [1]. This was followed six days later by another success in a similar area, when the 6,000 ton British ship SS Pennington Court was sunk by three torpedoes with all 40 sailors on board [2].
The promising career of U-254 was almost cut short on the same cruise, when the Norwegian naval ship HNoMS Eglantine damaged her with depth charges during an attack on a convoy in the same area as her previous victories. Returning for repairs, U-254 departed again in later November 1942, and returned to her old operating grounds of the North Atlantic routes. In December, the weather in the region is atrocious and visibility practically nil, so as U-254 manouvered to attack Convoy HX-217, which she had been directed to on the 8 December, it is perhaps unsurprising that she failed to see U-221 come steaming out of the gloom and straight into her broadside. The two submarines had become lost in the dark and collided with one another in a freak accident, which claimed 41 of U-254's crew, who were spilled into the ocean as the boat heeled over and sank. Sailors from the U-221 dived into the trurbulent sea tied to ropes, and succeeded in rescuing four bedraggled survivors of the sinking. U-221 was only slightly damaged in the collision, and continued the remainder of her patrol, surviving until September the following year.
[edit] Raiding career
| Date | Ship | Nationality | Tonnage | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 August 1942 | SS Flora II | British | 1,218 | Sunk |
| 9 October 1942 | SS Robert H Colley | American | 11,651 | Sunk |
| 9 October 1942 | SS Pennigton Court | British | 6,098 | Sunk |
[edit] References
- Sharpe, Peter, U-Boat Fact File, Midland Pubishing, Great Britain: 1998. ISBN 185780072.
- U-boat.net webpage for U-254
See Also: List of U-boats
