German submarine U-592
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | U-592 |
| Ordered: | 16 January 1940 |
| Builder: | Blohm & Voss, Hamburg |
| Yard number: | 568 |
| Laid down: | 30 October 1940 |
| Launched: | 6 August 1941 |
| Commissioned: | 16 October 1941 |
| Fate: | Sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by British warships, 31 January 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 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: |
6th U-boat Flotilla (16 October 1941–1 February 1942) 6th U-boat Flotilla (1 February–30 June 1942) 11th U-boat Flotilla (1 July–28 February 1943) 6th U-boat Flotilla (1 March 1943–31 January 1944) |
| Commanders: |
Kptlt. Carl Borm (16 October 1941–24 July 1943) Oblt.z.S. Heinz Jaschke (2 September 1943–31 January 1944) |
| Operations: |
1st patrol: 3–23 March 1942 2nd patrol: 1 April–23 April 1942 3rd patrol: 17 July–14 August 1942 4th patrol: 10 September–28 September 1942 5th patrol: 7–12 October 1942 6th patrol: 9 November–15 December 1942 7th patrol: 9 March–18 April 1943 8th patrol: 29 May–14 July 1943 9th patrol: 25 September–25 November 1943 10th patrol: 10–31 January 1944 |
| Victories: | One ship sunk, 3,770 GRT |
German submarine U-592 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.
She carried out ten patrols, was a member of 16 wolfpacks and sank one ship of 3,770 GRT.
The boat was sunk by depth charges from British warships on 31 January 1944.
Service history
The submarine was laid down on 30 October 1940 at Blohm & Voss, Hamburg as 'werk' 568, launched on 20 August 1941 and commissioned on 16 October under the command of Kapitänleutnant Carl Borm.
She served with the 6th U-boat Flotilla from 16 October 1941 for training and stayed with that organization for operations from 1 February 1942. She was reassigned to the 11th flotilla on 1 July, then back to the 6th flotilla from 1 March 1943.
1st and 2nd patrols
U-592's first patrol was preceded by a short trip from Hamburg to the German-controlled island of Helgoland, (also known as Heligoland), in February 1942. The patrol itself commenced on 3 March. She steamed up the Norwegian side of the North Sea and arrived at Bergen on 23 March.
For her second foray, she covered the Norwegian and Barents Seas.
3rd patrol
Her third sortie was preceded by brief voyages from Bergen to Hamburg, then Kiel and back to Bergen. The patrol itself commenced with the boat's departure from the Norwegian port on 17 July 1942. She covered vast swathes of the Norwegian Sea before putting into Skjomenfjord, (south of Narvik), on 14 August.
4th patrol
U-592 covered the areas toward Spitsbergen (Svalbard) and Iceland.
5th patrol
The boat left Skjomenfjord on 7 October 1942. On the 14th, she scored her only success when she sank the Soviet ship Schlors with a mine off the western entrance to the Yugar Strait. This ship was being towed toward Belushja Bay when she sank in 11 m (36 ft) of water.
6th patrol
This patrol, in November and December 1942, was relatively uneventful. The boat moved from Narvik to Bergen in mid-December.
7th patrol
U-592 left Bergen on 9 March 1943, bound for the French Atlantic coast. Moving through the 'gap' between Iceland and the Faroe Islands, she entered the Atlantic Ocean and patrolled southeast of Greenland before entering St. Nazaire on 18 April.
8th and 9th patrols
These two sorties were also fairly trouble-free; between May and November 1943.
10th patrol and loss
The submarine had left St. Nazaire on 10 January 1944. On the 31st, she was sunk by depth charges from ships of the 2nd Support Group - HMS Starling, Wild Goose and Magpie, southwest of Ireland.
Forty-nine men died with U-592; there were no survivors.
Summary of Raiding Career
| Date | Name | Nationality | Tonnage (GRT) |
Fate[3] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 October 1942 | Shchors |  Soviet Union |
3,770 | Sunk (mine) |
References
- Notes
- ↑ Kemp, Paul: U-Boats Destroyed - German Submarine Losses in the World Wars, 1997, Arms & Armour, ISBN 1-85409-515-3, p. 166
- ↑ "The Type VIIC boat U-592 - German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net". www.uboat.net. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
- ↑ "U-592 successes". UBoat.net. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
- Bibliography
See also
- List of German U-boats
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