Unterseeboot 534

Under angreb 5. maj 1945

U-534 er en ubåd bygget 1942 af Deutsche Werft i Hamborg-Finkenwerder til den tyske Kriegsmarine.

Trods Nazitysklands kapitulation ved slutningen af 2. verdenskrig forlod U-534 ubådsbasen i Kiel under kommando af kaptajnløjtnant Herbert Nollau med mellemstop København og destination Norge.

Nord for Anholt 5. maj 1945 blev U-534 imidlertid angrebet af 2 britiske RAF Liberator bombefly. Det lykkedes for ubådens skytte at skyde det ene fly ned, hvorimod det andet fly ramte ubåden med en dybvandsbombe, som detonerede ved ubådens underside.

Ubåden blev genfundet af 'Dynamit-Aage' næsten 50 år efter med bistand fra dykkerskibet Ternen på 65 meter vand omkring 8 km nord for den opgivne angrebsposition.

Karsten Ree, daværende ejer af Den Blå Avis, brugte 23 millioner kroner på at få ubåden hævet.

(c) Nigel Cox, CC BY-SA 2.0
U 534 på kajen i Wallasey ved Liverpool i 2007 før opskæring

Ubåden er nu museum ved Mersey-færgelejet i Liverpool-bydelen Birkenhead. [1]

Eksterne links

  1. ^ Approval for U-boat to resurface - BBC 22. oktober 2007

Litteratur

  • U-534. Nazi-Ubåden ved Anholt, af Steen Johannsen (1993). ISBN 8789155289
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Koordinater: 53°23′42″N 3°00′33″V / 53.3951°N 3.0093°V / 53.3951; -3.0093

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U 534 under attack 5 May 1945.jpg

The German U-boat U 534 a type IXC/40 submarine commanded by Kapitanleutnant Herbert Nollau, ploughs through the water attempting to evade the attack of a Consolidated Liberator "G" of 86 Squadron, RAF Coastal Command. U 534 was earlier attacked by another Liberator which it shot down with no survivors. The submarine was sunk east of Anholt Island, Denmark, after being attacked by Liberator "G" with a total of ten depth charges. This action, for which the captain, Warrant Officer J.D. Nicol, RAF, was awarded a DFC, occurred in a 24 hour period in which five German U-boats were sunk. U534's sinking resulted in three dead and 49 survivors from its crew. They were rescued by lifeboats from a lightship in the vicinity.

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-534's refusal to surrender. U 534 was raised in 1993 and is on display at Birkenhead, near Liverpool (UK).
Wallasey, Mortar Mill Quay and U-Boat U534 - geograph.org.uk - 474871.jpg
(c) Nigel Cox, CC BY-SA 2.0
Wallasey: Mortar Mill Quay & U-Boat U534 So, just how did a German U-Boat end up on a quay in Wallasey? Well, the submarine was discovered in August 1986 on the seabed in the Kattegat between Denmark and Sweden, having been sunk by depth charges from an RAF aircraft on 5 May 1945, just hours before the German surrender. It was thought that she may have been carrying a fortune in gold, being transported to Japan or South America in the last days of the Reich. Because all the crew escaped, the submarine was not construed as a war grave, and a wealthy Danish publisher, Karsten Rae, funded a recovery operation. On 23 August 1993 the submarine was raised, but nothing of monetary value was found. Rae decided that Merseyside would be the ideal permanent home for the submarine, given that it was the main destination port for Atlantic convoys during the Second World War. It subsequently became part of the Historic Warships collection until the Trust running the exhibition went into liquidation in January 2006. Since the previous photographs of the submarine were posted on this site the boat has been moved some 200 metres to the east along the dock at Mortar Mill Quay, as it was in the way of the redevelopment of the former corn warehouses. Its fate remains uncertain.