German submarine U-1226
| Career (Nazi Germany) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | U-1226 |
| Ordered: | 25 August 1941 |
| Builder: | Deutsche Werft AG, Hamburg |
| Yard number: | 389 |
| Laid down: | 11 January 1943 |
| Launched: | 21 August 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 24 November 1943 |
| Fate: | Lost on, or shortly after, 23 October 1944 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | Type IXC/40 submarine |
| Displacement: |
1,144 t (1,126 long tons), surfaced[1] 1,257 t (1,237 long tons), submerged |
| Length: | 237 ft 2.15 in (72.2922 m)[1] |
| Beam: | 22 ft 8.25 in (6.9152 m)[1] |
| Draft: | 15 ft 4 in (4.67 m) |
| Speed: |
18.3 knots (33.9 km/h), surfaced[1] 7.3 knots (13.5 km/h), submerged |
| Endurance: |
16,800 nautical miles @ 10 knots, surfaced (31,100 km @ 19 km/h)[1] 63 nautical miles @ 4 knots, submerged (117 km @ 7.4 km/h)[1] |
| Test depth: | 330 feet (100 m)[1] |
| Complement: | 48 (standard)[1] |
| Armament: |
6 × 21 in (53.3 cm) torpedo tubes (4 bow, 2 stern) 19 torpedoes, std. (22 max.)[1] 1 × 4.1 in (10 cm) deck gun (180 rounds) 1 x 37 mm (1.5 in) flak gun (2,625 rounds) 2 x 20 mm (0.79 in) twin flak gun (8,500 rounds) |
| Notes: | 35-second diving time[1] |
| Service record[2][3] | |
|---|---|
| Part of: |
31st U-boat Flotilla (24 November 1943–31 July 1944) 2nd U-boat Flotilla (1 August–30 September 1944) 33rd U-boat Flotilla (1–28 October 1944) |
| Commanders: |
Oblt.z.S. August-Wilhelm Claussen (24 November 1943–28 October 1944) |
| Operations: |
1 war patrol (30 September–28 October 1944) |
| Victories: | None |
German submarine U-1226) was a Type IXC/40 U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.
The U-boat, built for service in the Battle of the Atlantic, was completed in Hamburg in November 1943, and placed under the command of Oberleutnant zur See August-Wilhem Claussen, whose brother Emil had been killed on board U-469 the previous year. She underwent working up cruises in the Baltic Sea before embarking on her only operational patrol from Horten in Norway during September 1944.
Service history
This patrol was uneventful for the first three weeks during the Atlantic crossing as she deliberately avoided the highly-effective allied countermeasures. The last contact with the boat was on 23 October 1944 reporting trouble with its Schnorchel underwater-breathing apparatus after which nothing more was heard from her. It is possible she was sunk in an unrecorded encounter with an Allied ship or aircraft, or more likely she suffered some unknown catastrophic accident which claimed the boat and all its crew.[4]
Whatever the cause, she was given up for lost in mid-November. Her remains were claimed to have been found east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1993 however, this identification is unlikely. The vessels last radio contact instructed the submarine to maintain its faulty Schnorkel in the upright position and return to base, giving U-1226's position as 605 km (327 nmi) south of Iceland at 56°00′N 20°00′W / 56.000°N 20.000°W.[5]
References
- Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Tarrant, p. 176.
- ↑ "The Type IXC/40 boat U-1226 - German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net". uboat.net. Retrieved 5 March 2010.
- ↑ "War Patrols by German U-boat U-1226 - Boats - uboat.net". uboat.net. Retrieved 5 March 2010.
- ↑ A large number of German U-boats had been lost to Schnorkel defects, and its possible this was the cause of the loss of U-1226
- ↑ U-Boat Didn't Sink in Waters Off Cape Cod New York Times July 21, 1993
- Bibliography
- U-1226 at uboat.net
- U-1226 at ubootwaffe.net
- Sharpe, Peter, U-Boat Fact File, Midland Publishing, Great Britain: 1998. ISBN 1-85780-072-9.
See also
- List of German U-boats
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