Unterseeboot 193

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U-193
Type		IXC/40
Launch Date		August 24, 1942
Commission Date		December 10, 1942
Construction yard		AG Weser, Bremen
Patrols
Start Date	End Date	Assigned Unit
May 11, 1943	July 23, 1943	1st Flotilla
October 12, 1943	February 9, 1944	1st Flotilla
February 19, 1944	February 25, 1944	1st Flotilla ^[1]
April 23, 1944	April 28, 1944	10th Flotilla
Commanders
December, 1942	April, 1944	Kptlt. Hans Pauckstadt
April, 1944	April, 1944	Kptlt. Dr Ulrich Abel
Successes
Type of Ship Sunk	Number of Ships Sunk	Gross Registered Tonnage
Commercial Vessels	1	10,172
Military Vessels	None	0

Unterseeboot 193 (usually abbreviated to U-193) was a German submarine built during World War II for service in the Atlantic Ocean. She performed four war patrols in which she sank one ship, before being lost herself in the Bay of Biscay. Completed in 1942 at Bremen, U-193 was a IXC/40 Type U-boat, with a very long cruising ability and six torpedo tubes supplied by 22 torpedoes.

1 War Patrols
2 Raiding career
3 References
- 3.1 Inline citations

[edit] War Patrols

Her first patrol, in May 1943, took her from Kiel in Germany where she had completed her working up program through to the Azores and well into the central Atlantic Ocean. She did not encounter any allied shipping, and failed to find her first victory before returning to Bordeaux in August. Just three days from home, in the Bay of Biscay, she was hit by bombs from an allied aircraft, wounding two sailors and requiring three months repairs. A second operation begun in October was more successful, penetrating the Gulf of Mexico and sinking the independently-sailing 10,000 ton American oil tanker TS Touchet ^[2] with ten of its crew. The remainder of the patrol was a failure however, as a combination of dud torpedoes, well-organised convoys and effective counter measures combined to prevent U-193 gaining a single hit.

As the second patrol neared an end in February 1944 after five frustrating months at sea, U-193 caused an international incident following an attack by allied aircraft and convoy escorts off the Spanish coast. In her desperate attempts to escape, she dived straight into the seabed, causing serious damage to the boat. Knowing a journey to a German-held port was now impossible, her captain Kplt Hans Pauckstadt decided to intern his boat in Ferrol on the Spanish coast. Under international law, if U-193 remained in the neutral harbour for more than 24 hours, then Spanish authorities should detain the boat for the remainder of hostilities.

This did not occur however, as U-193 stayed in Ferrol for ten days whilst Spanish workmen performed superficial repairs to the boat. U-193 then left the port despite allied protests and returned to Lorient in France, where more extensive repairs were completed and the captain replaced with Kplt Dr Ulrich Abel. This six day passage is often listed as U-193's "third" patrol, although their was no intention of operating against allied shipping. Following repairs, U-193 departed on her fourth and final patrol, which lasted just five days, before, on the 28 April 1944, she was seen and attacked by a British Royal Air Force Vickers Wellington bomber of Squadron 612, whose bombs sank the boat with all 59 hands not far from Nantes.