German submarine U-755
| Career (Nazi Germany) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | U-755 |
| Ordered: | 9 October 1939[1] |
| Builder: | Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven |
| Laid down: | 11 January 1940[1] |
| Launched: | 23 August 1941[1] |
| Commissioned: | 3 November 1941[1] |
| Status: | Destroyed on 28 May 1943[1] |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: |
769 tonnes (757 long tons) surfaced 871 t (857 long tons) submerged |
| Length: |
Overall: 67.10 m (220.1 ft) Pressure hull: 50.50 m (165.7 ft) |
| Beam: |
Overall: 6.20 m (20.3 ft) Pressure hull: 4.70 m (15.4 ft) |
| Draught: | 4.74 m (15.6 ft) |
| Propulsion: |
Surfaced: 3,200 hp Submerged: 750 hp |
| Speed: |
Surfaced: 17.7 kn (32.8 km/h; 20.4 mph) Submerged: 7.6 kn (14.1 km/h; 8.7 mph) |
| Range: |
Surfaced: 8,500 nmi (15,700 km; 9,800 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph) Submerged: 80 nmi (150 km; 92 mi) at 4 kn (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) |
| Test depth: | Calculated crush depth: 220 m (720 ft) |
| Armament: |
|
| Service record | |
|---|---|
| Part of: |
Kriegsmarine 1 Dec 1942 – 28 May 1943 |
| Commanders: |
Kptlt. Walter Göing[1] 3 Nov 1941 – 28 May 1943 |
| Operations: | 5 patrols[1] |
| Victories: | 3 ship sunk for a total of 3,902 gross register tons (GRT)[1] |
German submarine U-755 was a German Type VIIC submarine U-boat built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during World War II. Under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walter Göing U-755 served with 9th U-boat Flotilla in the Atlantic, and later with 29th U-boat Flotilla operated in the Mediterranean.[1]
Record
Work on U-755 began on 11 January 1940 at werk 138 of the Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven. She was commissioned on 3 November 1941, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walter Göing and trained with 5th U-Boat Flotilla until 31 July 1942.
Serving with 9th U-boat Flotilla, she served in two patrols. On 9 September 1942 – thirty-four days into her first patrol- U-755 sank her first ship. At 15.16 hours on 9 Sep 1942, she fired a spread of three torpedoes at the USS Muskeget, two hits were reported. Of the 121 onboard, all were killed. U-755 docked at Brest on 6 October, after sixty-four days at sea.
On 1 November, U-755 began travelling from Brest to La Spezia in Italy, after a further twenty-two days at sea.
On 1 December 1942, U-755 was transferred from 9th U-Boat Flotilla, to 29th U-Boat Flotilla. She began her twenty-five day long third voyage on 27 January 1943. She returned to La Spezia from Algeria on 20 February.
U-755 set out on her fourth patrol on 21 March, where she was to head to Morocco, and then head off to Toulon in Vichy France. At 02.07 hours on 26 March, U-755 fired three torpedoes at a convoy north of Ceuta and confirmed a hit in the bow of FFL Sergent Gouarne (P-43), which broke in two and sank in approximately ninety seconds, killing five of its nineteen-man complement. The U-boat attacked the same convoy with another spread of three torpedoes at 04.13 hours and reported a hit after 12 minutes, but this was probably an end-of-run detonation.
On 2 April, the French trawler Simon Duhamel II was spotted off Cape d´Alboran, some time after 06:00, after straggling from convoy TE-20 due to a problem with her engines. U-755 fired at the trawler at 06:24, with one confirmed hit to the midship. This hit caused an explosion that broke the vessel apart, sinking in a mere four minutes. Only one man of her fifty-three-man crew survived, being rescued two days later.
On 18 May, U-755 set sail from Toulon on her fifth, and last patrol. Two days in, she was attacked by the British submarine HMS Sickle, but the fired torpedoes missed.
Eight days in, at 06.26 hours, U-755 was attacked by a British Lockheed Hudson aircraft of No. 500 Squadron RAF, flown by pilot S/L H.G. Holmes, DFC, thirteen miles north of Alboran Island. The aircraft was hit in the port engine by AA fire during the first attack run, but dropped three depth charges. The Hudson then made two dive-bombing attacks and dropped first two and then one A/S bomb, one of them exploding just five yards off the port beam. The damaged engine then forced the pilot to return to base. Strafing had killed one crewman and wounded two others on U-755, which was forced to return to port due to heavy damages but was sunk in another air attack only 2 days later. Of her complement of forty, only nine crewmen survived, her commander was not one of them.
Sources
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