German submarine U-40 (1938)

IX A

M 19 297

AG Weser, Bremen

July 29, 1936

945

July 1, 1937

November 9, 1938

February 11, 1939

2 patrols

No

U 40 was a German U- boat of the type IX A, which was used in World War II by the Kriegsmarine.

History

The contract for the boat was awarded on 29 July 1936, the shipyard AG Weser in Bremen Deschimag. The keel was laid on July 1, 1937, the launching November 9, 1938, to the putting under Lieutenant Werner von Schmidt on 11 February 1939.

From the entry into service until its sinking on 13 October 1939, the boat was used as a front - or U- boat Flotilla " Hundius " in Kiel.

U 40 made ​​two patrols on which it sank no ships or damaged.

Use statistics

First patrol

The boat was launched on August 19, 1939 by 0 clock of Wilhelmshaven and on September 18, 1939 at 10:00 clock back there one. On this lasting 30 days and 6,513 nautical miles across and 312 nm under water long company in the North Atlantic west of Ireland and to the height of Gibraltar were no ships sunk or damaged.

Second patrol

The boat ran on October 10, 1939 by Wilhelmshaven and ran on 13 October 1939 on a mine and sank. On this three-day entrepreneurship development in the North Sea and the English Channel no ships were sunk or damaged.

Whereabouts

The last patrol saw before use on the Spanish and Portuguese coast. As the boat left Wilhelmshaven until late, Captain Lieutenant Barten opted for a short cut to his meeting place south-west of Ireland. This acronym was the English Channel, which had been heavily mined by the British Royal Navy in the previous months. As the boat until almost 3 ½ hours after high water trying to traverse, the mines were back to just below the water surface. U 40 was in such a mine and sank immediately. Of the 48 crew members managed nine, to save himself by an emergency exit hatch at the stern of the boat. With the help of their emergency equipment ( rebreather ) could get eight of them safely to the water surface; one died during surfacing. In the following hours, however, five of the men died of hypothermia. Just ten hours after the sinking of the three remaining sailors from HMS Boreas were recorded and entered into British captivity. This was done at the position 50 ° 42 'N, 0 ° 15' O50.70.25 in the marine grid square BF 3238th