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In one of this year’s issues of the monthly magazine “OKRĘTY” [1(21) January 2013] I read the article by Mr Mirosław Skwiot entitled: “The submarine U 346 type VIIC” concerning the history of this vessel and hypotheses on the circumstances of its sinking. For a long time I believed that the identification of the submarine U 346 was carried out reliably and it never even crossed my mind that it could be otherwise. For years, the wreck was never referred to in the diving community as U 346. It was not until the information contained in Mr Skwiot’s article, and especially the sonographic images, that the seeds of doubt were planted in my mind.
On 01.05.2013, 04.05.2013 and 19.05.2013, acting under a diving permit issued by the Maritime Office in Gdynia for the period from 20 April 2013 to 20 May 2013, a Baltictech diving group composed of Tomasz Stachura, Daniel Pastwa, Łukasz Pastwa, Tomasz Trojanowicz, Krzysztof Wnorowski, Tomasz Zwara, Marcin Jeleń and Jacek Kapczuk performed a series of scheduled dives from the vessel M/Y Sztorm at a position known as “shallow U-Boot” or U 346.
During the dives photographic and video material was collected, which allowed the final identification of the wreck and made it necessary to change its incorrect name, so far functioning in official studies as U 346 to U 272. The final identification of the wreck on the basis of the above mentioned material and historical studies was made by Daniel Pastwa.
The individual pieces of evidence supporting the idea that the wreck hitherto known as U 346 is another German submarine, U 272, are presented below.
1. position of wreck.
U 272 (type VIIC, 8th Flotilla, commanded by Lieutenant Horst Hepp 1917-1944) was sunk on 12 November 1942 during a training cruise as a result of a collision with another German submarine: U 634 (type VIIC, 5th Flotilla, commanded by Captain Hans-Gunther Brosin 1916-1943) north of Hel, near the Swedes’ Mountain (in German documents the term “In der Ostsee bei Hela” is used).
At the time of the accident there were 41 crew members on board, including 11 missing from the original crew prior to this voyage, who were on tours of duty, training, hospital and on leave. This situation was exploited by the command by placing five mechanics on board Hepp’s ship to receive appropriate training.
In total, 29 crew members died as a result of the collision, 12 were rescued either by jumping from the sinking vessel into the water, or by evacuating themselves from the sunken ship after 9 hours using individual lifesaving apparatus (including the ship’s commander). The depth from which they were to escape was determined to be 36m.
As no other wreck of a German submarine at such a depth lies in the above-mentioned area, it must be assumed that the depth of the wreck was incorrectly stated in the incident report. They were taken from the surface by Kriegsmarine ships that came to the rescue.
The items containing numerical values of longitude and latitude given in the literature, which contain the alleged position of the sinking of the vessel, are wrong because they indicate a place in the Baltic Sea where the depth is 90 m, which is in clear contradiction with the accounts of witnesses (including the commander of the vessel) who escaped from the sunken vessel.
On the other hand, U 346 (type VIIC, 8th Flotilla, command Lt. Arno Leisten 1919-1943) was probably sunk as a result of a malfunction or sabotage during her dive on 20 September 1943 12 miles northeast of Hel (in German documents the term “In der Ostsee 12 Seemeilen nordostlich von Hela” is used). This is confirmed by witnesses’ accounts and also by the fact that it was in this area that the Kriegsmarine’s naval training ground was located, where, due to the depth of 90 metres and more, emergency dives were practised and various malfunctions that can happen to a submarine during a diving manoeuvre were simulated.
It seems that it was during such an exercise that the crew failed to take control of the vessel, which ended tragically. Thirty-seven crew members and five engineer-mechanics who were training that day were killed. Six people were saved (one full-time crew member – mtr. Alfred Winkler [he later served on U 978] and five cadets undergoing training on board U 346 that day), who, on the order of the ship’s commander, were on the pontoon and took photos of the submerging submarine for propaganda purposes.
Positions containing numerical values of longitude and latitude given in the literature, containing the alleged position of the sinking of the ship are wrong, because they indicate a place very far from the position where the wreck of the “shallow U-Boat” is located.
A kind of “nail in the coffin” of the theory that the wreck of the “shallow U-Boat” is the wreck of U 346, is the written oral account of the sailor (Matrosengefreiter) Hermann Frubrich published in Melanie Wiggins’ book “U-Boat Adventures. Firsthand Accounts from World War II”, an excerpt of which concerning U 346 I quote below:
“On September 20, 1943, U 845 sailed into the Baltic for manoeuvres, listening for the position of U 346, which had gone down during an exercise due to a mistake made during diving. Here is how Hermann Frubrich recalls those moments: We were supposed to go down to 80m. We searched at the bottom until the blows [with hands and objects] against the hull of the ship stopped. Only one sailor survived […]. The other 42 died.”
From the above description it is clear that there must be a depth of more than 80 m in the vicinity of the U 346 wreck, which is in clear contradiction to the depth of the “shallow U-Boat”.
2 Damage to the bow section of the ship which was to lead to the sinking of U 346.
There are theories that U 346 suffered damage to its bow section and bow thrusters in a collision with an unidentified object and sank as a result. This was allegedly confirmed by sonograms from the Maritime Office in 2012, which showed a gap of approximately 30×180 cm directly above the port bow thruster.
The direct examination of the wreck and its exposed bow section does not confirm this theory, as there is not even the slightest trace of any damage which could have occurred as a result of hitting some object or the bottom. There is also no aforementioned crack in the sheathing. Therefore, the “damage” visible on the sonogram should be considered as artifacts.
According to the same theory, the bow thrusters were supposed to have been damaged. And as above, direct examination of the wreck reveals that the only visible rudder (the left bow depth rudder) protrudes about 20 cm above the level of the bottom sediment and there are no signs of damage on it.
the place where the gap in the fuselage was supposed to be
What is interesting, the rudder is set in the neutral position (characteristic for a ship sailing on the surface – just like U 272 at the moment of the collision with U 634 !), i.e. at the moment of the ship’s sinking, no actions were taken in order to carry out a diving manoeuvre (U 346 sank during such a manoeuvre !). The remaining rudders of the vessel are under a thick layer of bottom sediments and are inaccessible for visual inspection – including the ship’s stern at a stretch of about 10-12 m, which is completely under the bottom sediments.
The above findings lead to the only possible conclusion – the wreck lying in this location cannot be the German submarine U 346.
3. the presence of an 88 mm calibre gun on board.
Such a cannon, or more precisely its barrel protruding in 90% of its length from the bottom sediment, was found on the investigated wreck. The barrel is directed to the port side and slightly (about 10º) raised. According to the Kriegsmarine order of 27 April 1943 on all U-boats type VIIC the 88 mm calibre deck gun was to be dismantled, and on the newly commissioned ones it was not to be installed at all. The transition period was about 4 weeks due to the U-boats that were currently on combat patrols.
U 272 was commissioned on 07.10.1942 and sank on 12.11.1942. Consequently, she must have had an 88 mm deck gun, as the order to remove it had not yet been issued.
deck gun – calibre measurement
U 346 was commissioned on 07.06.1943, and sank on 20.09.1943. Therefore, already at the time of its incorporation the order to remove the deck gun was in force, so it could not have had one on board.
4. shape and type of kiosk.
By December 1942, all U-Boats built and newly re-incarnated had a basic kiosk type called Turm I (sometimes also Turm 0).
From June 1943, all U-Boats built to date were refitted, and newly commissioned U-Boats had an expanded type of kiosk called Turm IV. Orders issued by the Kriegsmarine made it clear that from August 1943, no U-Boat of type VIIC could go out on patrol without such a conversion of the kiosk. And there were no exceptions in this related to the theatre of operations of such a U-Boat.
U 272 was commissioned on 07.10.1942 and sank on 12.11.1942. It was therefore not included in any kiosk conversion programmes.
U 346 was put into service on 07.06.1943 and sank on 20.09.1943. As a result, it was covered by the conversion of the kiosk to Turm IV type.
aft end of kiosk covered with net
The direct examination of the wreck revealed a kiosk in the basic version – “short”, without additional platforms for anti-aircraft weapons, which undermines the theory that the wreck is U 346. This type of kiosk corresponds exactly to the model that was on U 272.
5. type of wooden deck.
The first decks had a characteristic arrangement of overflow holes “pretending” to be those previously used in metal decks. This was the so-called “slot” arrangement. The U-boats that were produced later in the war had a wooden deck in the so-called “stave” arrangement.
The change from a “slot” to a “stave” layout is documented in photographs of newly built submarines in late 1942. The first Type VIIC U-Boats with a “stave” deck layout appear from the early autumn of 1942. However, due to differences between the various shipyards, the transition to the “stave” deck layout may have occurred in some cases somewhat later than the autumn of 1942.
Interestingly, these changes were not retroactive, as was the case with other modifications, and did not include U-Boats built earlier, but only those that were newly inducted into service. U 272 was launched on 15.08.1942. and therefore had a slotted deck. U 346 was launched on 13.04.1943. therefore she had a deck in the “stave” arrangement.
6. arrangement of overflow holes located on the port side at the level of the kiosk.
These holes were present on U-boats in two types of arrangements – paired and unpaired. The so-called “early” U-boats (i.e. those produced until December 1942) had a paired arrangement of overflow holes, while the “late” ones had an unpaired arrangement.
unpaired overflow holes under the kiosk
The exceptions to this rule were the U-boats produced at the Bremer Vulkan-Vegesacker Werft in Vegesack (to which U 272 belonged), which not only had an unpaired overflow hole arrangement from the outset, but also had an additional four overflow holes, which U-boats from other shipyards (i.e., for example, from the shipyard Nordseewerke GmbH, Emden from which U 346 originated) did not have.
Direct examination of the wreck revealed overflow holes in an unpaired system. Additional holes could not be found due to the destruction of the light hull and a huge fishing trawl lying on the wreck.
Taking into account the previous points proving that the U-Boat wreck inspected belongs to the ‘early’ ones (produced before the end of 1942), the unpaired overflow holes under the kiosk support the idea that this is a ship from the Bremer Vulkan-Vegesacker Werft shipyard in Vegesack – i.e. U 272.
Final conclusions:
Taking into account all the above information, it should be concluded that the wreck lying at a depth of 48 metres in position: 54º37’38” N 18º50’40” E, so far described in official documents and studies as the wreck of the German submarine U 346, is another German submarine with the code name U 272.
The relevant identification materials (video and photos), together with the justification, were submitted to the Maritime Office in Gdynia in order to correctly assign an appropriate name to the wreck.
Below is a video of the identification of U 272:
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