German submarine U-365

Career (Nazi Germany)
Name: U-365
Ordered: 20 January 1941
Builder: Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft, Flensburg
Laid down: 21 April 1942
Launched: 9 March 1943
Commissioned: 8 June 1943
Fate: Sunk, 13 December 1944
General characteristics
Type: Type VIIC submarine
Displacement: 769 tonnes (757 long tons) surfaced
871 t (857 long tons) submerged
Length: 67.1 m (220 ft 2 in) o/a
50.5 m (165 ft 8 in) pressure hull
Beam: 6.2 m (20 ft 4 in) o/a
4.7 m (15 ft 5 in) pressure hull
Draft: 4.74 m (15 ft 7 in)
Propulsion: 2 × supercharged Germaniawerft 6-cylinder 4-stroke M6V 40/46 diesel engines, totalling 2,800–3,200 bhp (2,100–2,400 kW). Max rpm: 470-490
2 × electric motors, totalling 750 shp (560 kW) and max rpm: 296
Speed: 17.7 knots (20.4 mph; 32.8 km/h) surfaced
7.6 knots (8.7 mph; 14.1 km/h) submerged
Range: 15,170 km (8,190 nmi) at 10 kn (19 km/h) surfaced
150 km (81 nmi) at 4 kn (7.4 km/h) submerged
Test depth: 230 m (750 ft)
Crush depth: 250–295 m (820–968 ft)
Complement: 44–52 officers & ratings
Armament: • 5 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (4 bow, 1 stern)
• 14 × torpedoes or 26 TMA mines
• 1 × C35 88mm gun/L45 deck gun (220 rounds)
• Various AA guns
Service record
Part of: Kriegsmarine:
5th U-boat Flotilla
9th U-boat Flotilla
13th U-boat Flotilla
Commanders: Kptlt. Heimar Wedemeyer (Jun 1943–Nov 1944)
Kptlt. Diether Todenhagen (Nov–Dec 1944)
Operations: 8 patrols
9th Flotilla
• 26 Mar–5 Apr 1944
• 8–24 Apr 1944
• 1–21 May 1944
13th Flotilla
• 23 Jun–22 Jul 1944
• 5–25 Aug 1944
• 28 Sep–3 Oct 1944
• 12 Oct–11 Nov 1944
• 22 Nov–13 Dec 1944
Victories: 1 commercial vessel sunk of 5,685 gross register tons (GRT)
3 military vessels sunk for a total of 2,300 GRT

German submarine U-365 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for the German Kriegsmarine for service during World War II. She served exclusively against the Arctic Convoys from Britain to Murmansk and Archangelsk, principally targeting the Soviet forces which greeted the convoys in the Barents Sea.

The boat was built in Flensburg in 1942 and 1943, U-365 was a Type VIIC U-boat, with five torpedo tubes and a deck gun for smaller targets. She was captained by Kptlt. Heimar Wedemeyer, an efficient if slightly cautious officer, who worked his boat and crew up before being dispatched to the 9th Flotilla based at Bergen, Norway, from which she conducted her first three patrols.

Contents

War patrols

U-365's early operations were in support of clandestine operations in the North Sea and Arctic Ocean, in the course of which she saw no action against Allied shipping or positions. Not until her fifth patrol, following a shift in patrol zones to the frozen seas around Novaya Zemlya and transfer to the 13th U-boat Flotilla, that U-365 experienced success. In this region, on the 12 August, the boat spotted a small Soviet convoy and in rapid order sank a 5,000-ton freighter and the two 600-ton minesweepers intended to protect it.

However, due to the remoteness of the U-365's patrol zones, the cautiousness of her commander and the efficiency of Allied submarine defences by the autumn of 1944, Wedemeyer was unable to score another victory for his boat in the next two patrols, and was eventually replaced by Kptlt. Diether Todenhagen, who had previously served on the enormously successful U-48, and had a reputation as an aggressive submariner. This seemed deserved as on his first patrol, on the 6 December, he sank the tiny Soviet patrol ship BO-2 in the Barents Sea. This was followed five days later with a determined attack on an Allied convoy in which the British destroyer HMS Cassandra was seriously damaged. However in orchestrating the attack the U-boat's position was revealed, and just two days later two Fairey Swordfish aircraft from 813 Squadron flying from the escort carrier HMS Campania spotted the submarine and sank her near the Lofoten Islands with bombs. All 50 of the U-boat's crew perished in the wreck.

Raiding career

Date Ship Nationality Tonnage Fate
12 August 1944 SS Marina Raskova Soviet 5,685 Sunk
T-118 Soviet minesweeper 625 Sunk
T-114 Soviet minesweeper 625 Sunk
6 December 1944 BO-2 Soviet patrol boat 240 Sunk
1 April 1944 HMS Cassandra British 1,710 Damaged

References

See also