German submarine U-156 (1941)

For other ships of the same name, see German submarine U-156.

German submarine U-156 (1941)
Conning tower emblem of U-156
Career (Germany)
Name:	U-156
Ordered:	25 September 1939
Builder:	AG Weser, Bremen
Yard number:	998
Laid down:	11 October 1940
Launched:	21 May 1941
Commissioned:	4 September 1941
Fate:	Sunk on 8 March 1943
General characteristics
Type:	Type IXC submarine
Displacement:	1,120 t (1,100 long tons) surfaced 1,232 t (1,213 long tons) submerged
Length:	76.8 m (252 ft 0 in) overall 58.7 m (192 ft 7 in) pressure hull
Beam:	6.8 m (22 ft 4 in) overall 4.4 m (14 ft 5 in) pressure hull
Height:	9.4 m (30 ft 10 in)
Draft:	4.7 m (15 ft 5 in)
Propulsion:	2 × MAN M9V40/46 supercharged 9-cylinder diesel engines, 4,000 hp (2,983 kW) 2 × SSW GU345/34 double-acting electric motors, 1,000 hp (746 kW)
Speed:	18.2 knots (33.7 km/h) surfaced 7.3 knots (13.5 km/h) submerged
Range:	24,880 nmi (46,080 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) surfaced 117 nmi (217 km) at 4 kn (7.4 km/h) submerged
Test depth:	230 m (750 ft)
Complement:	48 to 56
Armament:	6 × torpedo tubes (four bow, two stern) 22 × 55 cm (22 in) torpedoes 1 × 10.5 cm SK C/32 naval gun (110 rounds)

Service record
Part of:	Kriegsmarine 4th U-boat Flotilla (September 4–December 31, 1941) 2nd U-boat Flotilla (January 1, 1942–March 8, 1943)
Commanders:	Werner Hartenstein
Operations:	Five patrols
Victories:	20 ships sunk for a total of 97,504 gross register tons (GRT) Three ships damaged for a total of 18,811 GRT One warship damaged for a total of 1,190 tons

German submarine U-156 was a Type IXC U-boat of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine built for service during World War II. The keel for this boat was laid on 11 October 1940 at the AG Weser yard in Bremen, Germany as 'werk' 998. She was commissioned on 4 September 1941 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Werner Hartenstein (Knight's Cross) and took part in five patrols which included attacks on shipping and the refinery on the island of Aruba, as well as the sinking of the ocean liner Laconia west of Africa and torpedoing and damaging the American destroyer USS Blakeley'. The city of Plauen, Hartenstein's home city, adopted the submarine within the then popular sponsorship programme (Patenschaftsprogramm), organising gifts and holidays for the crew.

Service history

Built and commissioned in Bremen, the boat conducted her first patrol during which her crew trained from September 1941, at the end of which she arrived at her operations base in Lorient, France, in December 1941.

U-156 (foreground) and U-507 (background) on 15 September 1942

During her three operational patrols in 1942, U-156 sank 20 ships for a total of 97,504 gross register tons (GRT), three ships were damaged for a total of 18,811 GRT and one warship was damaged for a total of 1,190 tons. Matrosengefreiter (equivalent to Able Seaman or Leading Seaman) Heinrich Bussinger was killed when the deck gun he was manning exploded because the cap or tampion in the muzzle of the gun preventing water from entering the barrel was not removed before firing. This occurred at the beginning of the attack on the Lago Oil and Transport Company refinery in Aruba. It was this freak accident that saved what was then the world’s largest refinery. Gunnery Officer Dietrich von dem Borne lost his right leg in the explosion. He was taken below and the boat submerged and left the waters off the coast of Aruba. Von dem Borne was put ashore on the island of Martinique for medical treatment and survived the war.

Fate

During her fifth patrol, in which she sank no shipping and made no attacks, U-156 was attacked twice, during the second of which she was sunk east of the island of Barbados, in position 12°38′N 54°39′W, by depth charges dropped from a PBY Catalina (VP-53/P-1) on 8 March 1943. All 53 hands were lost.

Ships attacked

U-156 is credited with the sinking of 20 ships (including the motor boat Letitia Porter on board Koenjit), for a total of 97,504 GRT, further damaging three ships of 18,811 GRT and damaging one warship, the USS Blakeley, of 1,190 tons.

Raiding history

Date	Time	Name of Ship	Nationality	Tonnage	Fate and location
16 February 1942	08.01	Pedernales	Great Britain	4,317	damaged at 12°25′N 69°55′W
16 February 1942	08.03	Oranjestad	Great Britain	2,396	sunk at 12°25′N 69°55′W
16 February 1942	09.43	Arkansas	United States	6,452	damaged at 12°30′N 70°00′W
20 February 1942	11.31	Delplata	United States	5,127	sunk at 14°55′N 62°10′W
25 February 1942	02.19	La Carrière	Great Britain	5,685	sunk at 16°53′N 67°05′W
27 February 1942	10.35	Macgregor	Great Britain	2,498	sunk at 19°50′N 69°40′W
28 February 1942	11.17	Oregon	United States	7,017	sunk at 20°44′N 67°52′W
13 May 1942	03.58	Koenjit	Netherlands	4,551	sunk at 15°30′N 52°40′W
13 May 1942	03.58	Letitia Porter	Netherlands	15	sunk at 15°30′N 52°40′W
13 May 1942	22.05	City of Melbourne	Great Britain	6,630	sunk at 15°00′N 54°40′W
15 May 1942	02.54	Siljestad	Norway	4,301	sunk at 15°20′N 52°40′W
15 May 1942	20.59	Kupa	Yugoslavia	4,382	sunk at 14°50′N 52°20′W
17 May 1942	21.04	Barrdale	Great Britain	5,072	sunk at 15°15′N 52°27′W
18 May 1942	10.18	Quaker City	United States	4,961	sunk at 15°47′N 53°12′W
18 May 1942	18.52	San Eliseo	Great Britain	8,042	damaged at 15°30′N 54°16′W
21 May 1942	18.29	Presidente Trujillo	Dominican Republic	1,668	sunk at 14°38′N 61°11′W
25 May 1942	15.52	USS Blakeley	United States	1,190	damaged at 14°36′N 61°11′W
29 May 1942	01.03	Norman Prince	Great Britain	1,913	sunk at 14°40′N 62°15′W
1 June 1942	23.51	Alegrete	Brazil	5,970	sunk at 13°40′N 61°30′W
3 June 1942	09.26	Lillian	Great Britain	80	sunk at 12°25′N 59°30′W
24 June 1942	08.10	Willimantic	Great Britain	4,857	sunk at 25°55′N 51°58′W
27 August 1942	01.00	Clan Macwhirter	Great Britain	5,941	sunk at 35°45′N 18°45′W
12 September 1942	22.07	Laconia	Great Britain	19,695	sunk at 05°05′S 11°38′W
19 September 1942	15.46	Quebec City	Great Britain	4,745	sunk at 02°12′S 17°36′W

See also

• File:U-156 Dresden.jpg

  Iamges of U-156 on display at the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden.

• List of German U-boats

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Röll, Hans-Joachim (2011). Korvettenkapitän Werner Hartenstein: Mit U 156 auf Feindfahrt und der Fall "Laconia" (in German). Würzburg, Germany: Flechsig. ISBN 978-3-8035-0012-0.

External links

• U-156 at uboat.net
• U-156 at ubootwaffe.net
• [1] U-156 at U-bootarchiv (German)