U-156 1943
Marker: recorded wreck position (Second World War).
Key facts
| Name | U-156 | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1943 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Second World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | U-boat | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | War action | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | Nazi Germany | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | Kriegsmarine | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Conflict | Battle of the Atlantic, Battle of the Caribbean, Attack on Aruba | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Sea / ocean | North Atlantic Ocean | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Position | 12.6300, -54.6500 | Wikidata P793 significant event, coordinate qualifier (CC0) |
About the wreck
German submarine U-156 was a Type IXC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine built for service during World War II. The keel for this boat was laid on 11 October 1940 at the DeSchiMAG AG Weser yard in Bremen, Germany, as yard number 998. She was commissioned on 4 September 1941 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Werner Hartenstein (Knight of the Iron Cross). The city of Plauen, Hartenstein's home city, adopted the submarine within the then-popular sponsorship programme (Patenschaftsprogramm), organising gifts and holidays for the crew.
The U-boat took part in five patrols, which included attacks on shipping in which she sank 20 merchantmen, damaged another three merchantmen, and damaged the American destroyer USS Blakeley. On February 16th, 1942, her attacks on Aruba’s oil refineries, Lago Oil and Transport Company and Arend Petroleum Company, resulted in four fallen Dutch marines.
U-156 was the main participant in the Laconia incident in September 1942, during which she torpedoed and sank the troopship Laconia west of Africa.
Location
- Recorded position: 12.6300, -54.6500 (Wikidata P793 significant event, coordinate qualifier (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: North Atlantic Ocean
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article German submarine U-156 (1941) (revision 1378568233), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- U-572 1943 · 132 km
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All 704 wrecks of the Battle of the Atlantic →
Browse more: Open ocean wrecks · North Atlantic Ocean · Second World War