German submarine U-91 was a Type VIIC U-boat

U-boat

U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

 of the German

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 Kriegsmarine

Kriegsmarine

The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...

 that saw service during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The U-boat completed six wartime patrols and sank one warship totalling , and damaged four for a total of .

The submarine was laid down on 12 November 1940 at the Flender Werke

Flender Werke

Flender Werke was a German shipbuilding company, located in Lübeck. It was founded in 1917 and was at a time one of the largest shipyards in Germany.During World War II, Flender Werke built 2 Type II and 40 Type VII U-boats for the Kriegsmarine....

 yard at Lübeck

Lübeck

The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...

, launched on 30 November 1941, and commissioned on 28 January 1942 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Heinz Walkerling. Command was transferred to Kptlt. Heinz Hungershausen on 20 April 1943.

After training with 5th U-boat Flotilla at Kiel

Kiel

Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

, U-91 was transferred to 9th U-boat Flotilla for front-line service on 1 September 1942.

Service history

On 15 September 1942 - thirty days into her first patrol – while heading from Kiel to Brest, U-91 attacked the destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

, protecting Convoy ON 127. U-91 fired two torpedoes at 02:05 and confirmed a hit. At 02:15, they again came across the damaged Ottawa, but mistook her for a different destroyer and fired a third torpedo, which destroyed the ship in an explosion, killing 114 of the 181 men aboard.

By 25 September, U-91 was in the mid-Atlantic, east of Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

. Early on 26 September, she fired upon the former civilian passenger liner New York, part of Convoy RB-1. Her large size was overestimated, and the vessel was destroyed after a single hit, killing all 54 crewmen and ten gunners stationed onboard.

On 17 March 1943, U-91 attacked Convoy HX-229. Two American vessels - Harry Luckenbach and Irénée Du Pont - were destroyed along with the British merchant ship Nariva. The Luckenbach was hit by two torpedoes after five were fired between 03:37 and 03:41. The Luckenbach sank in a mere three minutes, with seventy-one of the eighty men evacuating on lifeboats, though there were no reports of them being rescued. Nariva in the Irénée Du Pont had been damaged by earlier that very day. U-91 fired three torpedoes at 05:56: Two finishing off the Du Pont, and a third crippling the Nariva.

On 26 February 1944, thirty-three days into her sixth and final patrol, U-91 was attacked by the British frigates , and in the North Atlantic. The three ships dropped depth charges on the submarine, sinking her. Of her complement of 52, only 16 survived. Kptlt. Heinz Hungershausen was not one of them.

Patrols

#	Departure	Date	Arrival	Date	Length
1	Kiel Kiel Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...	15 Aug 1942	Brest	6 Oct 1942	53 days
2	Brest Brest, France Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...	1 Nov 1942	Brest	26 Dec 1942	56 days
3	Brest	11 Feb 1943	Lorient	29 Mar 1943	47 days
4	Lorient Lorient Lorient, or L'Orient, is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-History:At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis...	29 Apr 1943	Brest	7 Jun 1943	40 days
5	Brest	21 Sep 1943	Brest	22 Nov 1943	63 days
6	Brest	25 Jan 1944	Sunk	26 Feb 1944	33 days

External links

• U-91 at u-boot-archiv.de

See also

• List of German U-boats