German submarine U-472
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | U-472 |
| Ordered: | 20 January 1941 |
| Builder: | Deutsche Werke, Kiel |
| Yard number: | 303 |
| Laid down: | 15 November 1941 |
| Launched: | 6 March 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 26 May 1943 |
| Fate: | Sunk by a British aircraft and a British warship, southeast of Bear Island, March 1943[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 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 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] | |
|---|---|
| Part of: |
5th U-boat Flotilla (25 May–31 December 1943) 11th U-boat Flotilla (1 January–4 March 1944) |
| Commanders: |
Oblt.z.S. Freiherr Wolfgang Friedrich von Forstner (26 May 1943–4 March 1944) |
| Operations: | 24 February–4 March 1944 |
| Victories: | None |
German submarine U-472 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.
She carried out one patrol. She sank no ships.
She was sunk by a British aircraft and a British warship, southeast of Bear Island, in March 1943.[3][4]
Service history
The submarine was laid down on 15 November 1941 at the Deutsche Werke in Kiel as 'werk' 303, launched on 6 March 1943 and commissioned on 26 May under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Freiherr Wolfgang Friedrich von Forstner.
She served with the 5th U-boat Flotilla from 26 May 1943 for training and the 11th flotilla from 1 January 1944 for operations.
Patrol and loss
U-472's only patrol was preceded by short voyages from Kiel in Germany to Hammerfest then Narvik in Norway. Her only sortie began with her departure from Narvik on 24 February 1944. She sailed out into the Norwegian Sea, then northeast towards the Barents Sea. On 4 March, when southeast of Bear Island, she was attacked and sunk (one source says she might have been scuttled)[5] by gunfire and rockets from a Fairey Swordfish of 816 Naval Air Squadron FAA and the destroyer HMS Onslaught. The aircraft had come from HMS Chaser.
Twenty-three men died with U-472; there were thirty survivors.[5]
See also
- List of German U-boats
References
- Notes
- ↑ Kemp, Paul: U-Boats Destroyed - German Submarine Losses in the World Wars, 1997, Arms & Armour, ISBN 1-85409-515-3, pp. 173-174
- ↑ "The Type VIIC boat U-472 - German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net". www.uboat.net. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
- ↑ http://uboat.net/boats/u469/htm
- ↑ Kemp, pp. 173-174
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 http://uboat.net/boats/u472/htm
- Bibliography
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