Unterseeboot 534 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

German submarine U-534 was a Type IXC/40

German Type IX submarine

The Type IX U-boat was designed by Germany in 1935 and 1936 as a large ocean-going submarine for sustained operations far from the home support facilities. Type IX boats were briefly used for patrols off the eastern United States in an attempt to disrupt the stream of troops and supplies bound for...

U-boat

U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

of the German

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

Kriegsmarine

The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...

built for service during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. She was built in 1942 in Hamburg-Finkenwerder by Deutsche Werft AG

Deutsche Werft

Deutsche Werft was a German shipbuilding company, located in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded in 1918 on initiative by Albert Ballin and with Gutehoffnungshütte , Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft and Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Actien Gesellschaft as investors.During World War II...

. The U-boat is one of only four large German WWII submarines in preserved condition remaining in the world, the only other IXC boat being in Chicago. She was used mainly for training duties, and during her life sank no other ships. A Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

bomber sank her on 5 May 1945 some 20 kilometers northeast of the Danish island of Anholt

Anholt (Denmark)

Anholt is a Danish island in the Kattegat, midway between Jutland and Sweden, with 171 permanent residents as of 1 January 2010. It is seven miles long and about four miles wide at its widest and covers an area of 21,75 km². Anholt is part of Norddjurs municipality in Region Midtjylland...

. U-534 was salvaged in 1993 and since February 2009 has been on exhibition in Birkenhead

Birkenhead

Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...

as the U-boat Story.

Wartime history

After commissioning, U-534 was assigned to the 4th U-boat Flotilla for training purposes and weapon testing, including the new acoustic torpedo Zaunkoenig T-5

G7es torpedo

The G7es or Zaunkönig T-5 was a torpedo employed by German U-boats during World War II. It was known as the GNAT to the British.- Description :...

, until February 1944. Then she was reconfigured (main gun removed, flak added) and in April transferred to 2nd U-boat Flotilla. Her first war patrol was plagued by an oil leak and bad weather in the North Atlantic and all that was accomplished was collecting weather data. On the second patrol, from 25 August 1944 to 24 October 1944, the boat had to escape the Allied blockade of Lorient

Lorient

Lorient, or L'Orient, is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-History:At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis...

, and make it back to a friendly port. Again, no ships were sunk, but an attacking Vickers Wellington

Vickers Wellington

The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, R. K. Pierson. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being displaced as a...

bomber was shot down. U-534 then was transferred to 33rd U-boat Flotilla and put out of duty until 1 May 1945. On 5 May 1945, she was on her last wartime patrol, when the captain was notified about Admiral Dönitz

Karl Dönitz

Karl Dönitz was a German naval commander during World War II. He started his career in the German Navy during World War I. In 1918, while he was in command of , the submarine was sunk by British forces and Dönitz was taken prisoner...

' order to surrender.

Incidents leading to sinking

On 5 May 1945, for unknown reasons, the captain of U-534 ignored the order to surrender, issued to all U-boats by Admiral Dönitz, and set course for Norway instead. To this day, mystery still surrounds U-534s refusal to surrender; however, numerous theories exist. What seems to be established fact is that U-534 was sailing on the surface of the Kattegat

Kattegat

The Kattegat , or Kattegatt is a sea area bounded by the Jutland peninsula and the Straits islands of Denmark on the west and south, and the provinces of Västergötland, Scania, Halland and Bohuslän in Sweden on the east. The Baltic Sea drains into the Kattegat through the Øresund and the Danish...

, together with three other U-boats, when British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

Liberator aircraft

B-24 Liberator

The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and a small number of early models were sold under the name LB-30, for Land Bomber...

attacked. The crew managed to shoot one bomber down, and nine depth charge

Depth charge

A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon intended to destroy or cripple a target submarine by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a preselected depth in the ocean. Depth charges can be dropped by either surface ships, patrol aircraft, or from...

s from the bombing runs missed, but then the boat received a direct hit. U-534 began to take on water as a result of the damage to her aft section by the engine rooms, and sank north-east of Anholt

Anholt (Denmark)

. The shot-down B-24 must have come down nearby, but all crew on board the plane were lost.
U-534 had a crew of 52 men, all of whom escaped and 49 survived. Five were trapped in the torpedo room as she began to sink but escaped through the torpedo loading hatch once the boat had settled on the sea bed. One of these crewmen, 17-year old radio operator Josef Neudorfer, failed to breathe out as he was surfacing from depth and died from damage to his lungs. The other two deaths were caused by exposure.

One plausible explanation for U-534s refusal to surrender lies in the discovery of three experimental T11 torpedo

T11 torpedo

The T11 was a torpedo developed for German U-boats during World War II. The torpedo was electric and had an effective range of 5,700 meters at a speed of 24 knots . This torpedo employed acoustic, passive homing to find its target after a straight run of 400 meters. This evolution of the G7es...

es found in the aft section of the vessel. Only 38 of this type were made, and they were unique in that they had acoustic homing systems which were developed as a countermeasure to the British Foxer

Foxer

Foxer, was the codename for a British built acoustic decoy, used to confuse German acoustic homing torpedoes like the G7es torpedo during the Second World War. A US version codenamed FXR was deployed in 1943. A Canadian version was also built called the CAT...

decoy system. While it's not known why U-534 was carrying such advanced weapons, it does offer a possible explanation for her captain's refusal to surrender.

The vessel's commander, Kapitänleutnant Herbert Nollau, committed suicide in 1968.

Salvage

U-534 lay on the sea bed for nearly 41 years until she was found in 1986 by the Danish wreckhunter Aage Jensen, nicknamed "Dynamite-Aage". With the help of the leader of the team The Businessman LARS SUNN PEDERSEN who first presented the idea to former building-magnate AXEL JUHL JØRGENSEN, who after some consideration pulled out in 1992. Shortly after LARS SUNN PEDERSEN presented the idea to Danish media millionaire Karsten Ree who then sponsored the raising of the submarine amid rumours of Nazi gold

Nazi gold

Nazi gold is the gold transferred by Nazi Germany to overseas banks during the Second World War. The regime executed a policy of looting the assets of its victims to finance the war, collecting the looted assets in central depositories. The occasional transfer of gold in return for currency took...

and intense media coverage. Hopes of gold treasure proved unfounded, however, as the ship contained nothing extraordinary.

Museum ship

Transported to Birkenhead

Birkenhead

Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, in 1996, the vessel formed part of the Warship Preservation Trust

Warship Preservation Trust

The Warship Preservation Trust was based in Birkenhead, Wirral, England and hosted Europe's largest collection of preserved warships.The collection was brought to Birkenhead in 2002 and was moored in the West Float of the Birkenhead docks complex....

's collection at Birkenhead Docks

Great Float

The Great Float, is a body of water on the Wirral Peninsula, England formed from the natural tidal inlet, the Wallasey Pool. It is split into two large docks, East Float and West Float, both part of the Birkenhead Docks complex. The docks run approximately inland from the River Mersey, dividing...

until the museum closed on 5 February 2006. On 27 June 2007, the Merseytravel

Merseytravel

Merseytravel Merseytravel Merseytravel (MPTE, or Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive, is the Passenger Transport Executive responsible for the coordination of public transport in the metropolitan county of Merseyside, England...

transit authority announced that it had acquired the submarine to display at the Woodside Ferry Terminal

Woodside, Merseyside

Woodside is a small riverside locality in Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England, situated almost opposite Liverpool Pier Head across the River Mersey.-History:...

.

For technical reasons and to facilitate economical transportation to its new site, the vessel was cut into five sections, two of which were subsequently re-joined. It is now displayed in sectioned form to allow visitors better visibility, but not entry into the U-Boat. Merseytravel said that preserving the hull intact would have created prohibitive transport costs. Engineers began a month-long operation to cut up U-534 using a diamond wire cutter on 6 February 2008. Beginning on 10 March 2008, the sections, each weighing up to 240 tonnes, were transported by floating crane over a number of days.

"The U-Boat Story" exhibition opened on 10 February 2009.

External links

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