Unterseeboot 735

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U-735
Type VIIC


Launch Date October 10, 1942
Commission Date December 28, 1942
Construction yard Schichau, Danzig
Patrols
Start Date End Date Assigned Unit
No Patrols 8th Flotilla
No Patrols 11th Flotilla
Commanders
December, 1942 December, 1944 Kptlt. Hans-Joachim Börner
Successes
Type of Ship Sunk Number of Ships Sunk Gross Registered Tonnage
Commercial Vessels None 0
Military Vessels None 0

Unterseeboot 735 (usually abbreviated to U-735) was a German submarine built during World War II for service as a training boat preparing U-boat crew for service in the Atlantic Ocean. Her home base was Horten in Norway, from which she operated on short coastal patrols, practising in fijords and channels for submarine warfare. A type VIIC U-boat, U-735 was very useful for preparing sailors and officers for service in modern boats, as opposed to the new models usually used in training.

Commissioned at Christmas 1942 in Danzig after an exceptionally long building period, U-735 was given to Kptlt Hans-Joachim Börner, who remained in command of the boat right up to her destruction exactly two years later, when he was killed on board his ship. Despatched to Norway, Börner soon became an expert on the Norwegian seaways, and was able to train a large number of sailors on his practise missions from Horten.

On the 28 December 1944, Royal Air Force Bomber Command sought to eradicate the menace of submarines sailing from Norwegian bases, and launched a major raid on Horten. U-735 was not fully secured in a bomb proof shelter as the attack began, and thus caught the full force of a bomb, sinking just outside the harbour with 27 men killed and eleven missing, including her captain. She was the only boat to be lost in the attack. The wreck was rediscovered by a Royal Norwegian Navy minesweeper in 1999.

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See Also: List of U-boats