German submarine U-344
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | U-344 |
| Ordered: | 20 January 1941 |
| Builder: | Nordseewerke, Emden |
| Yard number: | 216 |
| Laid down: | 7 May 1941 |
| Launched: | 29 January 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 26 March 1943 |
| Fate: | Sunk by a British aircraft, August 1944[1] |
| 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 F46 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 (32.8 km/h; 20.4 mph) surfaced 7.6 knots (14.1 km/h; 8.7 mph) submerged |
| Range: |
15,170 km (8,190 nmi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) surfaced 150 km (81 nmi) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) submerged |
| Test depth: |
230 m (750 ft) Crush depth: 250–295 m (820–968 ft) |
| Complement: | 44–52 officers and ratings |
| Armament: |
5 × 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedo tubes (four bow, one stern) 14 × G7e torpedoes or 26 TMA mines 1 × 8.8 cm (3.46 in) deck gun (220 rounds) Various AA guns |
| Service record[2][3] | |
|---|---|
| Part of: |
8th U-boat Flotilla (26 March 1943–31 March 1944) 3rd U-boat Flotilla (1–17 March 1944) 11th U-boat Flotilla (1 June–22 August 1944) |
| Commanders: |
Kptlt. Ulrich Pietsch (26 March 1943–22 August 1944) |
| Operations: |
20 May–27 May 1944 31 May–8 July 1944 3 August–22 August 1944 |
| Victories: | One warship sunk, 1,350 tons |
German submarine U-344 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.
She was a member of two wolfpacks.
She was on her third patrol when she was sunk by a British aircraft in August 1944.
She sank one warship.
Service history
The submarine was laid down on 7 May 1941 at the Nordseewerke yard at Emden as 'werk' 216, launched on 29 January 1943 and commissioned on 26 March under the command of Kapitänleutnant Ulrich Pietsch.
U-342 served with the 8th U-boat Flotilla, for training and the 3rd flotilla for operations from 1 April 1944. She was reassigned to the 11th flotilla on 1 June 1944.
1st patrol
U-344 had sailed from Kiel in Germany to Flekkefjord (west of Kristiansand) and then Bergen in Norway in April and May 1944, but her first patrol began when she departed Bergen on 20 May and followed the Norwegian coastline. She arrived at Narvik on the 27th.
2nd patrol
Her second foray involved criss-crossing the Norwegian Sea. At one point she passed east of Jan Mayen Island. She arrived at Bogenbucht (west of Narvik) on 8 July 1944.
3rd patrol and loss
Having departed Bogenbucht on 3 August 1944, she sank the British sloop HMS Kite in the Barents Sea on the 21st. Of 226 crew, nine men survived the icy water. The next day, a British Fairey Swordfish of 825 Naval Air Squadron from HMS Vindex, dropped a pattern of depth charges on the U-boat.
Fifty men died in the sinking; there were no survivors.[4]
Previously recorded fate
U-344 was thought to have been sunk on 24 August 1944 in the Barents Sea off the North Cape by British warships: i.e. the sloops HMS Mermaid and Peacock, the frigate HMS Loch Dunvegan and the destroyer Keppel. U-354 was the victim.
Summary of Raiding Career
| Date | Ship | Tons | Nationality | Fate[5] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 August 1944 | HMS Kite | 1,350 |  Royal Navy |
Sunk |
References
- Notes
- ↑ Kemp, Paul: U-Boats Destroyed - German Submarine Losses in the World Wars, 1999, Arms & Armour, ISBN 1-85409-515-3, pp. 214-215.
- ↑ "The Type VIIC boat U-344 - German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net". www.uboat.net. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
- ↑ "War Patrols by German U-boat U-344 - Boats - uboat.net". www.uboat.net. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
- ↑ http://www.u-boot-archiv.de/dieboote/u0344html U-344 at u-boot-archiv.de
- ↑ "Ships hit by U-344". uboat.net. Retrieved 23 January 2014.
- Bibliography
External links
- U-344 at u-boot-archiv.de (German)
See also
- List of German U-boats
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