U-106

U-106. It was a Type IXB submarine of the Kriegsmarine during the Second World War. Commissioned in the autumn of 1940 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Jürgen Oesten, the U-boat conducted eleven war patrols, operating primarily in the North Atlantic and venturing as far as the Gulf of Mexico. The submarine was responsible for sinking a significant tonnage of Allied shipping before being destroyed in the Bay of Biscay in 1943.

Service history

Following its commissioning into the 2nd U-boat Flotilla for training, U-106 was transferred to the 2nd U-boat Flotilla as a front boat in December 1940. Its first patrol began in January 1941, departing from Kiel and transiting through the North Sea into the Atlantic Ocean. The boat operated as part of wolfpacks such as West, Störtebecker, and Schlagetot, attacking convoys along the vital shipping lanes between North America and the United Kingdom. In the summer of 1942, under its second commander, Kapitänleutnant Hermann Rasch, it participated in Operation Drumbeat, the offensive against coastal traffic off the United States, and later patrolled the Caribbean Sea. Its final commander, Oberleutnant zur See Wolf-Dietrich Damerow, took over in early 1943 during the escalating Battle of the Atlantic.

Design and specifications

U-106 was a Type IXB submarine, a larger ocean-going design developed from the earlier Type IXA submarine. Built by AG Weser in Bremen, it had a surfaced displacement of 1,051 tonnes and 1,178 tonnes submerged. The boat was 76.50 meters long overall, with a beam of 6.76 meters and a draught of 4.70 meters. Its propulsion system consisted of two MAN M 9 V 40/46 supercharged four-stroke, nine-cylinder diesel engines for surface running and two Siemens-Schuckert electric motors for submerged travel, giving it a top speed of 18.2 knots on the surface and 7.3 knots underwater. Its armament included six torpedo tubes (four bow, two stern) and it carried twenty-two torpedoes, along with a 10.5 cm SK C/32 naval gun and anti-aircraft weaponry.

Summary of raiding career

Over the course of its career, U-106 sank twenty-two merchant ships for a total of 138,581 Gross Register Tons and damaged three others. Among its most notable engagements was the damaging of the British battleship HMS Malaya in March 1941, an attack that forced the capital ship to retire for repairs. Its victims included vessels from numerous Allied and neutral nations, such as the Dutch tanker *Elisabeth* and the American freighter *David McKelvy*. The boat's patrols took it from the frigid waters off Greenland to the tropical climes near Trinidad, targeting both independent sailers and large convoys.

Fate

On 2 August 1943, while returning to its base in occupied France, U-106 was attacked in the Bay of Biscay by a BOAC Consolidated PBY Catalina aircraft (piloted by Captain H. B. Martin) and a Royal Air Force Handley Page Halifax of No. 502 Squadron RAF. The coordinated aerial assault fatally damaged the submarine. The crew abandoned the sinking boat, and forty-five men were later rescued by Spanish fishing vessels and the German torpedo boat *T25*, but thirty-six sailors, including Commander Damerow, were lost.

Crew

The submarine had a standard complement of forty-eight officers and men. Its first commander was the highly decorated Jürgen Oesten, a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross who later commanded U-861. He was succeeded in May 1942 by Hermann Rasch, who commanded during several successful patrols in American waters. The final commander was Wolf-Dietrich Damerow, who led the boat on its last, fatal patrol. The crew, like those of all U-boats, faced extreme danger from Allied ASDIC, depth charges, and increasingly effective air patrols from commands like RAF Coastal Command.

Category:Type IXB submarines Category:U-boats commissioned in 1940 Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Bay of Biscay