German submarine U-180

Unterseeboot 180 or U-180 was a German Type IX D-1 U-boat or submarine used during World War II. Her keel was laid in February 1941 at AG Weser yard in Bremen, and she was launched in May 1942.

Type IX

The U-180 was used primarily in "spook" operations (i.e. spying) and was not meant to be a conventional attack submarine, as part of the 4. Unterseebootsflottille and 12. Unterseebootsflottille. With her torpedo tubes removed, she could transport up to 252 tonnes of freight.

Fate

She was reported sunk off the Bay of Biscay with 56 crew on 23 August 1944 while enroute to Japan. The official verdict is "sunk by a mine", however some experts speculate that schnorkel trouble may have been the cause.

Famous operation

Her most famous spook operation was to transfer the Indian leader Subhas Chandra Bose, to a Japanese submarine I-29, as part of his journey from Nazi Germany to Japan under Captain Werner Musenberg in April, 1943 in U-boat grid reference KR 5276, just east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

Bose boarded the submarine in Kiel. On this trip the submarine returned with two tonnes of gold in ingots and two Japanese technicians as payment from Japan for weapons technology.

During this trip, the U-180 was supplied by the U-462 submarine on the way to the exchange. She was supposed to be refueled by the U-463 on the way back, but U-463 was sunk by the British in May, 1943. On 19 June, she was refueled by the U-530.

Media

* The U-180 is the submarine carrying Nazi leader, Martin Bormann to South America in the Jack Higgins thriller, "Thunder Point".

External links

;German
* [http://www.uk-muenchen.de/berichte/erlebnisber_u180.htm www.uk-muenchen.de/berichte/erlebnisber_u180] ;English
* [http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dsz57kh_1d2nzm6 English translation]