German submarine U-402

Career (Germany)
Name:	U-402
Ordered:	23 September 1939
Builder:	Danziger Werft, Danzig
Yard number:	Werk 103
Laid down:	22 April 1940
Launched:	28 December 1940[1]
Commissioned:	21 May 1941[2]
Fate:	Sunk on 13 October 1943 by Mark 24 FIDO Torpedo from TBF Avenger aircraft of USS Card (CVE-11)[3]
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

German submarine U-402 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during World War II.

She was laid down at the Danziger Werft in the city of the same name on 22 April 1940 as 'werk' 103, launched on 28 December 1940 and was commissioned on 21 May 1941, with Kapitänleutnant Freiherr Siegfried von Forstner in command.

The boat commenced her career with the 3rd U-boat Flotilla on 21 May 1941 carrying-out training before moving on to operations on 1 October 1941. U-402 carried out eight combat patrols, sinking 14 merchantmen and one warship for a total of over 70,000 GRT during the Second World War. She also damaged three other ships. The submarine was a member of 12 wolfpacks.

For his numerous successes, von Forstner received the Knight's Cross.

Operational history

1st and 2nd patrols

No ships were sunk during the first patrol which lasted from 26 October to 9 December 1941. U-402 followed the Norwegian coast from Kiel before heading west towards the Atlantic. The submarine sailed into St. Nazaire in France, after 45 uneventful days.^[4]

On her second patrol, U-402 damaged the 12,000-ton troopship Llangibby Castle off the Bay of Biscay on 16 January 1942, but the troopship was able to make repairs in the Azores.^[5] U-402 returned to St. Nazaire on 11 February 1942.

3rd and 4th patrols

For her third sortie, U-402 headed for the US east coast, sinking a total of three ships, two of which were the 5,300 ton Soviet tanker Ashkhabad and her escort, the 1,000-ton converted yacht USS Cythera off Cape Hatteras on 2 May 1942.^[6] The U-boat had been unsuccessfully attacked by a US Navy PBY Catalina in mid-Atlantic on 29 April 1942.^[4]

The boat returned to the US eastern seaboard for her fourth patrol, but success eluded her. She returned to France, having been depth charged by patrol bombers off Cape Hatteras in mid-July and suffering a battery explosion.^[7] U-402 limped back to France, but this time to La Pallice, on 5 August 1942.

5th and 6th patrols

It was a different story on her fifth patrol; the boat attacked over 20,000 tons of shipping, including the torpedoing of five ships from convoy SC 107 which involved the sinking of the British 4,753 ton Empire Antelope on 2 November 1942^[8] and a sister, Empire Sunrise, a few hours earlier.

She also had plenty of success when she attacked seven ships from convoy SC 118 on her sixth patrol.

7th and 8th patrols

Her seventh outing saw her sinking two ships from convoy SC 129. Retribution was swift; one of the escorts, HMS Gentian depth charged and damaged the U-boat sufficiently to force her return to La Pallice on 26 May.^[9]

Her eighth and final patrol was marked with a paucity of targets and an ever increasing frequency of air attacks; one of which involved a Wellington of 612 Squadron, RAF on 8 September. U-402 was not hit, but the aircraft sustained enough damage to make a safe return to its base questionable.

Loss

U-402 had departed La Pallice on 4 September 1943. On the 13 October she was sunk by a Mark 24 FIDO Torpedo dropped by TBF Avenger aircraft from the escort carrier USS Card.^[10]

Summary of Raiding Career

Date	Ship Name	Nationality	Displacement	Fate[11]
16 May 1941	Llangibby Castle	United Kingdom	11,951	Damaged
13 April 1942	Empire Progress	United Kingdom	5,249	Sunk
30 April 1942	Ashkhabad	Soviet Union	5,284	Sunk
2 May 1942	USS Cythera	United States Navy	602	Sunk
2 November 1942	Dalcroy	United Kingdom	4,558	Sunk
2 November 1942	Empire Antelope	United Kingdom	4,945	Sunk
2 November 1942	Empire Leopard	United Kingdom	5,676	Sunk
2 November 1942	Empire Sunrise	United Kingdom	7,459	Damaged
2 November 1942	Rinos	Greece	4,649	Sunk
7 February 1942	Afrika	United Kingdom	8,597	Sunk
7 February 1942	Daghild	Norway	9,272	Damaged
7 February 1942	USS Henry R. Mallory	United States Navy	6,063	Sunk
7 February 1942	Kalliopi	United States	4,695	Sunk
7 February 1942	Robert E. Hopkins	United Kingdom	6,625	Sunk
7 February 1942	Toward	United Kingdom	1,571	Sunk
8 February 1942	Newton Ash	United Kingdom	1,571	Sunk
11 May 1943	Antigone	United Kingdom	4,545	Sunk
11 May 1943	Grado	Norway	3,082	Sunk

Notes

References

• Blair, Clay (1996). Hitler's U-Boat War - The Hunters 1939-1942. Random House. ISBN 0-394-58839-8. 
• Blair, Clay (1998). Hitler's U-Boat War The Hunted 1942-1945. Random House. ISBN 0-679-45742-9. 
• Lenton, H.T. (1976). German Warships of the Second World War. Arco Publishing Company. ISBN 0-668-04037-8. 
• Waters, John M. Jr., CAPT USCG (December 1966). Stay Tough. United States Naval Institute Proceedings.