German submarine U-556 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down on 2 January 1940 at the Blohm & Voss yard in Hamburg as yard number 532, launched on 7 December 1940, and commissioned on 6 February 1941 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Herbert Wohlfarth, who commanded her for her entire career that lasted less than five months. U-556 conducted only two patrols, sinking six ships totalling and damaging one other of 4,986 GRT, before she was sunk on 27 June 1941.
Design
German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. U-556 had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. She had a total length of , a pressure hull length of , a beam of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder supercharged diesel engines producing a total of for use while surfaced, two Brown, Boveri & Cie GG UB 720/8 double-acting electric motors producing a total of for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to .
The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of . When submerged, the boat could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at . U-556 was fitted with five torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and one at the stern), fourteen torpedoes, one SK C/35 naval gun, 220 rounds, and a C/30 anti-aircraft gun. The boat had a complement of between forty-four and sixty.
Service history
First patrol
U-556 sailed from Kiel for her first patrol on 1 May 1941. She headed out into the waters of the northern Atlantic, south of Greenland. She made her first kill on 6 May, sinking the 166 GRT Faroese fishing trawler Emanuel with her deck gun west of the Faroe Islands.
On 10 May she joined the wolfpack West attacking Convoy OB 318 south-east of Cape Farewell. Her first victim was the 4,986 GRT British merchant ship Aelybryn, hit by one of the torpedoes fired by the U-boat at 04:42. Badly damaged, but suffering only a single casualty, the ship was towed to Reykjavík by .
The convoy scattered, but at 07:52 U-556 torpedoed and sank the 4,861 GRT British merchant ship . Nine crew members and two gunners were later picked up by , but the master, 31 crewmen, and two gunners were lost.
The U-boat had her third success of the day at 20:37, sinking the 5,086 GRT Belgian merchant ship Gand. One crew member was lost and another wounded. The master, 38 crewmen and four gunners were rescued by .
Ten days later, on 20 May, the wolfpack attacked Convoy HX 126. Between 14:48 and 15:16 U-556 fired torpedoes at the convoy and sank two British merchant ships, the 4,974 GRT Darlington Court and the 5,995 GRT Cockaponset, and the 8,470 GRT tanker British Security. Loaded with 11,200 tons of benzine and kerosene, the tanker caught fire and burned for three days before sinking. There were no survivors from her crew of 53.
The sinking of Bismarck
On 26 May, while returning from patrol, low on fuel and having fired all her torpedoes, U-556 was ordered to reconnoitre the most recently reported position of the battleship .
U-556 and Bismarck had been neighbours in the ways at Blohm & Voss and their construction was completed at about the same time. (Bismarck was commissioned on 24 August 1940.) In January 1941, as U-556s commissioning ceremony approached, Wohlfarth wanted a band for the celebration, but could not afford to hire one. Kapitän Ernst Lindemann, commanding officer of Bismarck, lent him his ship's band.
right|thumb|Wohlfarth's Patenschaftsurkunde
As thanks, Wohlfarth drew up a humorous Patenschaftsurkunde ("Certificate of Sponsorship") promising that U-556 would protect Bismarck. A drawing shows Wohlfarth as the knight Parzival [Percival] (his nickname) on the deck of U-556 simultaneously bringing down planes with a sword and reaching underwater to stop a torpedo with his thumb. A second drawing then shows the submarine towing the battleship to safety. However, on 27 June, she was sunk south-west of Iceland, in position , by depth charges from the British s , and . Five of the crew were killed and 41 survived.
|-
|align="right"|6 May 1941
|align="left" |Emanuel
|align="left" |
|align="right"|166
|align="left" |Sunk
|-
|align="right"|10 May 1941
|align="left" |Aelbryn
|align="left" |
|align="right"|4,986
|align="left" |Damaged
|-
|align="right"|10 May 1941
|align="left" |Empire Caribou
|align="left" |
|align="right"|4,861
|align="left" |Sunk
|-
|align="right"|10 May 1941
|align="left" |Gand
|align="left" |
|align="right"|5,086
|align="left" |Sunk
|-
|align="right"|20 May 1941
|align="left" |British Security
|align="left" |
|align="right"|8,470
|align="left" |Sunk
|-
|align="right"|20 May 1941
|align="left" |
|align="left" |
|align="right"|5,995
|align="left" |Sunk
|-
|align="right"|20 May 1941
|align="left" |Darlington Court
|align="left" |
|align="right"|4,974
|align="left" |Sunk
|}
References
Bibliography
External links
- The Special Bond between the Bismarck and the U-556