German submarine U-365

U-Boat Infobox
type=VIIC
fieldpost number=
yard number=
order date=
keel=April 21, 1942
launch=March 9, 1943
commission=June 8, 1943
yard=Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft, Flensburg
U-Boat Patrol
startdate=Start Date
enddate=End Date
assigned unit=Assigned Unit
U-Boat Patrol
startdate=No Patrols
enddate=
assigned unit=5th FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=March 26, 1944
enddate=April 5, 1944
assigned unit=9th FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=April 8, 1944
enddate=April 24, 1944
assigned unit=9th FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=May 1 ,1944
enddate=May 21, 1944
assigned unit=9th FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=June 23, 1944
enddate=July 22, 1944
assigned unit=13th FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=August 5, 1944
enddate=August 25, 1944
assigned unit=13th FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=September 28, 1944
enddate=October 23, 1944
assigned unit=13th FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=October, 1944
enddate=November 11, 1944
assigned unit=13th FlotillaU-Boat Patrol
startdate=November 22, 1944
enddate=December 13, 1944
assigned unit=13th FlotillaU_Boat Command
startdate=June, 1943
enddate=November, 1944
name=Kptlt. Heimar Wedemeyer
U_Boat Command
startdate=November, 1943
enddate=December, 1944
name=Kptlt. Diether Todenhagen
U_Boat Sink
type=Type of Ship Sunk
total=Number of Ships Sunk
tonnage=Gross Registered Tonnage
U_Boat Sink
type=Commercial Vessels
total=1
tonnage=5,685
U_Boat Sink
type=Military Vessels
total=3
tonnage=2,300

Unterseeboot 365 (usually abbreviated to U-365) was a German submarine built during World War II. She served exclusively against the Arctic Convoys from Britain to Murmansk and Archangelsk, principally targeting the Soviet forces which greeted the convoys in the Barents Sea.

The boat was built in Flensburg in 1942 and 1943, "U-365" was a Type VIIC U-boat, with five torpedo tubes and a deck gun for smaller targets. She was captained by Kplt Heimar Wedemeyer, an efficient if slightly cautious officer, who worked his boat and crew up before being dispatched to the 9th Flotilla based at Bergen, Norway, from which she conducted her first three patrols.

War patrols

"U-365"'s early operations were in support of clandestine operations in the North Sea and Arctic Ocean, in the course of which she saw no action against allied shipping or positions. It wasn't until her fifth patrol, following a shift in patrol zones to the frozen seas around Novaya Zemlya and of flotilla to the 13th U-flotilla, that "U-365" experienced success. In this region, on the 12 August, the boat spotted a small Soviet convoy and in rapid order sank a 5,000-ton freighter and the two 600-ton minesweepers intended to protect it.

However, due to the remoteness of the "U-365"'s patrol zones, the cautiousness of her commander and the efficiency of allied submarine defences by the autumn of 1944, Wedemeyer was unable to score another victory for his boat in the next two patrols, and eventually was replaced by Kplt Diether Todenhagen, who had previously served on the enormously successful "U-48", and had a reputation as an aggressive submariner. This seemed deserved as on his first patrol, on the 6 December, he sank the tiny Soviet patrol ship "BO-2" in the Barents Sea. This was followed five days later with a determined attack on an Allied convoy in which the British destroyer HMS "Cassandra" was seriously damaged. However in orchestrating the attack the U-boat's position was revealed, and just two days later two Fairey Swordfish aircraft from 813 squadron flying from the escort carrier HMS "Campania" spotted the submarine and sank her near the Lofoten Islands with bombs. All 50 of the U-boat's crew perished in the wreck.

Raiding career

References

* Sharpe, Peter, "U-Boat Fact File", Midland Publishing, Great Britain: 1998. ISBN 1-85780-072-9.
* [http://www.uboat.net/boats/u365.htm U-boat.net webpage for "U-365"]

See Also: List of U-boats